Senior actor Mohan, who won the hearts of movie buffs through his roles in noted movies like Nellu and Chattakari, is back.
After donning several roles and producing nearly 17 movies in a film career spanning over three decades, he turns director with ‘Gramam’ scheduled for release on Friday.
Mohan, who now prefers to be called Mohan Sharma, has also penned the story, script and dialogue of the movie portraying the social scenario in a village in Palakkad between 1938 and 1948.
“Gramam maps the life of a Brahmin community in Palakkad caught between various issues in a patriarchal set-up inside the family and the matriarchal society outside. Palakkad was then a melting pot of various traditions.
The movie delves into social injustice prevailing in those times including incidents like child marriage,” he said.
The movie had already won critical acclaim thanks to the national awards it won for Sukumari (Best Supporting Actress) and Best Costume (Indrans Jayan), and Kerala State Award for Best Story and Best Classical singer for Mohan and Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna respectively. The film stars Nishaan, Samvrutha, Nedumudi Venu, Sukumari, Mohan Sharma, Y. G. Mahendraa, Nalini and Fathima Babu in important roles. Madhu Ambat cranks the camera.
Mohan said that Gramam need not be viewed as an off-beat movie, as he firmly believes that the movie is ‘commercial’ in every sense. Made at a budget of nearly Rs. 1.7 crore, the movie will be released in 17 centres across the State.
“I have put all my savings of the last 30 years for producing Gramam,” he said.
Mohan said that he was active in the film industry even though he took a break from acting after playing similar roles in various movies. “As president of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce in the period 2002-2003, I could convince the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that the selection process of the Dada Saheb Phalke award had several shortcomings. Only people from the Hindi film industry were selected for the award earlier. It has now changed and people from South Indian film industry have started winning the award,” he said.
