Anand Menon, the lead of last year's viral short film, Magneto, is making his directorial debut this year with a full-length Malayalam feature that is set for release this Friday. Titled Gauthamante Radham, the film, scripted by Anand himself, has Neeraj Madhav and Punya Elizabeth (Thobama fame) playing the two main leads.
But the film’s main highlight is its third character — a car, which, according to Anand, is actually its main character. However, unlike the last car-based Malayalam film, The Car, starring Jayaram, Gauthamante Radham will be a relatively light-hearted affair.
“The car is not the villain in our film. It’s more of a cute, positive character. We have made a family-friendly entertainer that revolves around this car. But it’s not exactly a fantasy film either. There is ample amount of humour in the story,” says Anand, who also happens to be a film editor.
Elaborating more on this, Anand tells us the film is about the amusing situations that follow the introduction of a small car to a home. We got the first glimpse of the vehicle in the film’s music video, Uyire, sung by Sid Sriram.
In addition to Neeraj, Gauthamante Radham also features Renji Panicker and Basil Joseph (also the creative director). On casting Neeraj, Anand says, “Neeraj was our first choice for the hero because when I first visualised his character, it was his face that immediately came to mind. It’s a relatable, boy-next-door character. We wanted someone who could carry off a cute and mature image at the same time. Also, Neeraj happens to be a very good actor. He hasn’t been utilised in the right way yet. We have only seen one sphere of him until now, but he has the potential to do more. I felt there were some new things he could do in our film.”
Gauthamante Radham has been shot mostly in Ernakulam, with a few portions in Munnar and Rameshwaram. KG Anilkumar has bankrolled the film, which has been shot by Vishnu Sarma and edited by Appu N Bhattathiri. Ankit Menon has composed the music to Vinayak Sasikumar’s lyrics. Dhundu Ranjeev (Lilli) is the production designer.