Lives of two friends

wo friends with stardust in their eyes travel from Kerala to Chennai, the Mecca of filmmaking in the Seventies. Varshangalkku Shesham, written and directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan, trails the two as they travel from Kozhikode to Chennai, hoping to make a mark in cinema. Reaching theatres on April 11, the film is about their struggle and success as they follow their heart.

Varshangalkku Shesham zooms into Kodambakkam through the lives of Venu and Murali, essayed by Dhyan Sreenivasan and Pranav Mohanlal respectively. “Murali motivates Venu to go to Chennai. Covering five decades, the film throws light on cinema by charting the lives of the two,” says Vineeth.

Since Vineeth’s father, actorwriterdirector Sreenivasan, had made the same journey from Kerala in the Seventies, the question follows whether it is based on his tryst with cinema.

“Not completely. I have listened to his stories about his early life in Chennai and also the experiences of many of his contemporaries. During my school days, I used to be an ardent reader of popular Malayalam film magazines such as

Nana, Vellinakshatram and

Chithrabhumi which carried articles and interviews of those working in cinema. Most of the news on cinema was shared only through these magazines; those stories were the inspirations,” says Vineeth.

He recollects how during stage shows, actors like Mukesh and the late Innocent used to regale the team with stories of life in Chennai and cinema. Vineeth was able to get a ringside view of filmmaking and the action while Sreenivasan was shooting for Priyadarshan’s Chandralekha, starring Sreenivasan and

Mohanlal.

“Before I became a resident of Chennai, it was a place that had always fascinated me. I had stayed

Tfor short periods in Kodambakkam, Ashok Nagar and so on… I believe that

Varshangalkku Shesham has captured that mood of tinsel town in the seventies and eighties.” Although there have been Malayalam movies that focused on the working of the Southern film industry, Vineeth maintains

Varshangalkku Shesham will be a new experience. “Many of the movies were based on a certain period or incident. Mine covers 50 years, starting from the early seventies onwards. So much has changed since then — actors, filmmaking, film industry, viewers…

Varshangalkku Shesham attempts to showcase that arc of time, the mood and the style of working.” Starring many of the actors he worked with in his previous film,

Hridayam, Varshangalkku Shesham has a huge star cast.

Nivin Pauly, Aju Varghese, Basil Joseph, Pranav Mohanlal, Neeraj Madhav, Dhyan Sreenivasan, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Neeta Pillai, Arjun Lal and Vineeth are among them. Music director Shaan Rahman makes his debut as an actor in the film. “There are others who do some role shifting in the movie.”

Vineeth says that it was serendipity that made Varshangalkku Shesham a reality. “When we made Hridayam, many of its actors — except Kalyani and Darshana Rajendran — were starting their film careers. But the cast of Varshangalkku Shesham has busy actors juggling shooting dates with multiple filmmakers. It was a wonderful coincidence that we were able to bring them together.”

Reunion on screen

Vineeth points out that he is reuniting with Nivin Pauly eight years after Jacobinte Swargarajyam; Basil was an associate director in Vineeth's film