A Ranjith Sankar film rides on high expectations, it is invariably a story told in ways that provoke thought and self-examination. Which, according to Ranjith, is unintentional, “I tell a story that I would like to see.”
With his fifth film, Varsham , which has Mammootty in the lead, expectations soar. Mammootty plays Venu, “a representation of the Malayali today” – a man preoccupied with his life and his family – concerned about his and his family’s well-being. It revolves around certain events that happen in a family. “It is close to life, it has the flavours of life – there is hope, there is hopelessness, there is humour…” Ranjith says. A family film, it explores relationships and how they weather storms or crumble under pressure.
The seed for the story germinated after his debut film, Passenger (2009). It would have been his second film but “a film has to happen,” and the time to tell the story was now. The script, like all his films, is his and so is the screenplay. He says he started work on this film a couple of days after Punyalan Agarbathis was released. When Mammootty heard the story he was in, not just as actor but also as producer. Ranjith, incidentally, had approached Mammootty for Passenger , but the actor didn’t have the dates at the time and it was Mammootty who encouraged Ranjith to direct films.
Each of Ranjith’s films – Passenger, Arjunan Sakshi, Molly Aunty Rocks and Punyalan Agarbathis – show a man or woman battling the system or a system. So does Varsham follow the template? “It is not deliberate if there is such as an angle. With Passenger , for instance, I didn’t realise that when I was making. I was told about it after the film was made.”
Varsham also means rain and it is a powerful motif in the film and its many moods form a backdrop for the film. “The rain is as seen from Venu’s terrace; how he sees it at different points in time and what it means to him. It sets the mood of the film and is a reflection of the state of mind of the characters.”
Asha Sharath stars opposite Mammootty. Others in the cast include Mamta Mohandas, Govind Padmasoorya, T.G. Ravi, Sunil Sugadha, Sudheer Karamana, Sarayu, Irshad, Sajitha Madathil, Vinod Kovoor and others. “There are not too many new people in terms of actors, but the supporting characters will be seen in roles they haven’t been seen in before,” he adds. Mamta returns to the silver screen as Dr. Jayasree. “Hers is an important character in the film and the interactions between the doctor and Venu are vital to the story. I am grateful to her for making the time for this film.”
The music is by Bijibal, a Ranjith Sankar regular (except for Molly Aunty Rocks ). He is all praise for the music director for the work he has put in for the film’s two songs and the background score. “We spent almost a month on re-recording as the background score too had to convey the mood of the film – the rain and the music.” Cinematography is by Manoj Pillai. In what is possibly a first for a Malayalam film, a cherry on the icing for Ranjith was the film’s simultaneous worldwide release across countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
