The party never ends

Lal Jose’s Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal, with Dileep in the lead, narrates the sequence of events that follow a bachelor party.

A working still from Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal

Aby has a wide smile on his face as he sits down for a drink. At the location of Lal Jose's Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal , at the basement of a plush hotel at Kakkanadu, a fantasy sequence is being canned. The shot ends with a close-up of Aby’s face. Dileep, who plays Aby, an ad filmmaker, then rehearses his lines for the next shot with all the enthusiasm of a newbie.

“After a failed romance, Aby has remained a bachelor. His family has been on the lookout for suitable girls for sometime now and finally he agrees to tie the knot. Seven days before the wedding, he hosts a bachelor party. The events that follow are what the film is about. It is a fun thriller and there is some suspense that can’t be revealed right now,” says Lal Jose.

The sequence that is being shot here follows a conversation that Aby has with his parents after they urge him to get married. “He dreams that his house has become the headquarters of a marriage bureau. The only place where he can find solace is in a bar! He imagines that the stewards there are angels! These are part of a sequence of funny moments in the film,” he adds.

Lal Jose is teaming up with Dileep for the seventh time. “This character will present Dileep in a style, which is quite unlike any of his recent movies,” says the director, whose last release

Pullippulikalum Aattinkuttiyum set the cash registers ringing but was panned by the critics.

The director is also teaming up with scenarist James Albert for the first time after the hit Classmates . “After all the appreciation that we received for Classmates , we wanted the script of Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal to be a well knit one. It was written with Dileep in mind,” says James.

Dileep, who is on a high after the box office success of

Sringaravelan , says: “Aby is one character for which the director, not the actor, is in control. It is being conceived as per the director’s perceptions.”

Lal Jose agrees. “This script is pretty complicated and the toughest job is to make it simple for the viewer to digest. Here the craft needs more precision.”

Rima Kallingal plays Sini, Aby’s former flame, who is now married to a techie, Alex (Murali Gopi). There is another heroine as well, who has not yet been cast. Harisree Asokan, Tini Tom, Sekhar Menon and Arun play Dileep’s friends.

Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal is being produced under the banner of Small Town Cinema. Pradeesh Varma is the cinematographer and Prashanth Pillai is the music director. Stills are by Sinat Savier.