Poetry on reel

Balyakalasakhi, Pramod Payyannur’s debut feature film, with Mammootty and Isha Talwar in the lead, is a lyrical attempt to narrate the story on the screen.

Mammootty and Isha Talwar in a still from Pramod Payyannur's Balyaskahi.

From the time it got published seven decades ago in 1944, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s novel

Balyakalasakhi has enamoured generations of readers of Malayalam. The intriguing tale of love and longing still remains an all time classic in the language. And finally, Basheer’s masterpiece which bears a strong tinge of his own life experiences, is coming alive on celluloid. Pramod Payyannur, a familiar name in theatre and the small screen, is making his debut on the big screen with the film adaptation by the same name.

Mammootty plays a double role, that of Majeed, the protagonist, and his father while Isha Talwar plays Suhara, Majeed’s sweetheart. Meena plays the character of Majeed’s mother. The dialect used in the novel has been retained in the film. And interestingly, Mammootty could effortlessly meet the expectations as, in real life, he hails from a nearby village, where the plot unfolds. The director narrates the story through the reconstruction of history and politics. And in doing so, he travels back in time and the freedom struggle come into the picture rather vividly.

On being quizzed about the inspiration to choose Kolkata as the location of the film, when the author Vaikom Muhammed Basheer has not referred to any specific city in the novel, Pramod says that Kolkata is perhaps the only Indian metro that still retains its old world charm and that it perfectly matched the setting of the film’s backdrop. Besides, Basheer is believed to have written Balyakalasakhi during his brief stay at a house in Lower Chitpur Road in Kolkata, he explains.

A radiant and heady combination of music adds to the film’s appeal as poetry has remained the mainstay of lyrics in

Balyakalasakhi .

The film has a star-studded cast. Apart from Mammootty, Isha Talwar, and Meena, actors Seema Biswas, Tanusri Ghosh, Sunil Sukhada, Sasikumar, Mamukoya, Priyam Shaikh and Kavita Nair play important roles. As many as 40 theatre actors from both Kerala and Kolkata also appear in the film.

Balyakalasakhi is being produced by M.B.Muhsin and Sajeeb Hashim under the banner of Livinart Film Factory and is being released by Red Cinema and Achapu Films. Hari Nair has wielded the camera while Bijibal has composed the background score.