“The heroes of my earlier two films came out of swanky cars, clad in designer suits. But the hero in ‘Anwar' wears casual clothes and travels mostly in auto-rickshaws.
“What I what to point out is that this is much more of a realistic film; a fictionalised account of certain relevant contemporary issues,” says Amal Neerad at the location of ‘Anwar' on the premises of the Treasury office building, close to Maharaja's College in Kochi.
After ‘Big B' with Mammootty and ‘Sagar Alias Jacky: Reloaded' with Mohanlal, Amal teams up with Prithviraj for this film.
“The story is about a well-educated Muslim youth from Kochi who gets caught up in fundamentalist activities as a result of certain adverse incidents that happen to him. To him, his actions may be justified but there are no heroes or villains in the exact terms of commercial cinema in ‘Anwar.' And in the end the question may just be about certain rights or wrongs,” explains Amal, as he watches the canned sequences on the monitor.
Issue-based film
Prakash Raj plays Stalin Manimaran, a powerful officer in the anti-terrorism squad.
Mamta Mohandas plays Aysha, a chemical engineer who unwittingly gets caught up in certain issues.
Prithviraj says that ‘Anwar' is probably the most experimental and issue-based commercial film that he has ever done. “‘Anwar' is an adrenaline-pumping action film that has been fantastically written and shot.
“And because the film is broadly based on terrorism, it is not just action scenes throughout. The life of an educated youngster becomes entangled in certain issues and his life changes completely. Soon he becomes both the problem and the solution,” says the actor.
The scenes for the day involve some drama outside a courtroom and the set is a hub of activity.
Police jeeps and vans, and actors dressed as lawyers and cops, and mediapersons armed with microphones and cameras, line up for the shot as Amal doles out instructions.
Meanwhile, actor-director Lal and actor Salim Kumar, who are also part of the cast, chat with Prithviraj as they wait for their scenes to begin.
Lal, who plays Babukka – a ‘Gulf' returnee, says that facing the camera was never easy for him during his initial days as an actor. But nowadays, he finds it quite easy to get into the shoes of the character after putting on the grease paint.
‘Anwar' is being produced by Raj Zacharias under the banner of Celebs and Red Carpet. It will hit theatres in July. Cinematographer is Satheesh Kurup. Songs have been composed by Gopi Sundar and stills are by Paul Bathery.
