Their eyes had a glint, and their laughter a ring that only long years of friendship and fond memories of college days bring. When five former students of Maharaja’s College joined hands to make a film, it was not just another step forward in their creative pursuit, but also a celebration of nearly two decades of camaraderie.
Amal Neerad, Anwar Rasheed, Aashiq Abu and Sameer Thahir have made their mark as filmmakers and into their league walks in Shyju Khalid, who has established his stamp as a cinematographer.
What these friends are offering is a “five-film anthology” titled 5 Sundarikal .
As Amal Neerad told mediapersons at the centenary hall of Maharaja’s College on Tuesday, the film is a tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema. Unlike Bombay Talkies , a collection of four films by directors Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar, the five segments of 5 Sundarikal are not linked by a common thread. “The only link that these films have is that they are love stories,” said Amal Neerad. The films also do not have a common setting as did Kerala Café , a collection of 10 short films coordinated by filmmaker Ranjith.
Another highlight of the film is that three directors, who are also cinematographers, are cranking the camera for their friends. Amal Neerad will position himself behind the viewfinder for Anwar Rasheed’s film, Shyju Khalid for Sameer Thahir’s and Rajeev Ravi, another alumnus of the college, for Aashiq Abu’s.
Shyju Khalid, who has worked for films such as Traffic and Salt and Pepper , will don the director’s cap for the first time. “My courage came from the fact that I was working with my friends,” he said.
The film will also mark the debut of two new cinematographers – Alby and Ranadive. Also making a debut is music director Yakzan Gary Pereira. Other music directors working in the film are Gopi Sundar, Bijibal and Prasanth Pillai.
The stories for the films have been taken from the works of M. Mukundan, Unni R., Shyam Pushkaran, Abhilash Kumar, Hashir Muhammed, Muneer Ali and Sidharth Bharathan. The cast is led by Fahad Fazil, Dulquer Salman, Biju Menon, Nivin Pauly, Kavya Madhavan, Jayasurya, Isha Sharvani, Honey Rose, Vinayakan, Tini Tom and Rimi Tomy.
The film, produced under the banner of Amal Neerad Productions, will hit the screens by mid-June. Incidentally, Maharaja’s College is neither a character nor the setting in any of the five films.
