“My movie is as simple and flavourful as a soda naranga vellam [fresh lime soda]!” Rajesh Nair, says with a laugh. His new movie Salt Mango Tree reaches theatres today. Rajesh says that there is nothing complicated or over the top about the movie that stars Biju Menon in the lead.
“It’s a simple story with incidents that the audience might be able to relate to. There is nostalgia and lots of humour,” says Rajesh. The film narrates the tale of Aravindan T. P. (Biju Menon), his wife, Priya (Tamil actress Lakshmi Chandramouli), and their son, Aswin a.k.a. Manu (Varkichan). Aravindan runs a medical shop and finds happiness in small things. But Priya is just the opposite. She has a temporary job as an accountant and is ambitious. She yearns for a better life, so that she can send her son to the best school in the city.
“Through their relationship we are also taking a dig at those people who have a fixation for the English language. There is a tendency to look down upon those who can’t communicate in English properly. That is the reason for the title as well [courtesy the Mohanlal-starrer Doore Doore Oru Koodu Koottam, in which he literally translates the breakfast dish uppumavu as ‘Salt Mango Tree’ ]. However, the film is not preachy,” says Rajesh.
The film, written by Vinod and Vinod (Vinod Vijayakumar and Vinod Jayakumaran), also talks about family relationships, especially about those parents who live in the suburbs and eagerly await the arrival of their children and grandchildren from the city. “It has a personal element as well, sprinkled with my childhood memories,” says Rajesh.
Talking about the cast, he mentions that the role was conceptualised with Biju in mind.
“In fact, I told him that if he was not doing it I would shelve the project. Aravindan’s character has some traits of Biju’s character and that makes him perfect for the role. As for casting Lakshmi, I wanted a theatre artiste for the role and she is an established theatre person. Also, I had certain specifications about how Priya should look, including her height and complexion and Lakshmi fitted the role perfectly. Varkichan is the revelation. He is the 204th young artiste we auditioned for the role and he is simply amazing,” Rajesh says.
Other artistes in the cast are Sudheer Karamana, Saiju Kurup, Suhasini, Indrans and Sarayu. This is Rajesh’s third movie, a completely different genre from his last movie Escape from Uganda , a thriller. “When you make a comedy, you enjoy making it and watching it. There is a lot of happiness on the set. But that doesn’t mean I will stick to this genre,” Rajesh says.
The film is produced by Roshan Chittoor, Abheesh V. P. and Shajoon Karyal and music is by debutant Hesham Abdul Wahab. Vishnu Sarma is the cinematographer.
