Guru Somasundaram, Balu Varghese lead Charles Enterprises

In what seems to be an inspired casting choice, writer-director Subhash Lalitha Subrahmanian has enlisted Guru Somasundaram to play the spouse of the character played by Urvashi in his maiden feature titled Charles Enterprises.  

Lead by Balu Varghese, who plays the central character, the film also has Tamil actor Kalaiyarasan (Sarpatta Parambarai). Though set in Kochi, the film will have Tamil dialogues penned by Anand Kumaresan (Kakka Muttai). Guru's lines will be a blend of Malayalam and Tamil.

The shoot of Charles Enterprises is nearly complete. Subhash tells us the film has a "faith-based subject with fantasy elements."  As suggested by the poster, the story primarily revolves around a Ganesha idol, the characters of Balu Varghese, Kalaiyarasan, Urvashi, Guru, Abhija Sivakala and Manikandan Achari. Sujith Shankar and Bhanupriya are also part of the cast.

"The story takes place in a post-Covid time and is centred on the struggles of a youngster played by Balu," says Subhash, adding that the character has an eye condition that doesn't allow him to see properly at night. "Since he functions better when there is plenty of light, he spends his nightlife at home. We used a real person as a reference to develop this character. And the pandemic makes his situation worse because when his establishment is affected, people like him get the boot first."  

In the film, Urvashi plays the theist mother who has a thing for 'Telebrandic' faith.  Subhash wrote her as a character hailing from Palakkad who later moves to Kochi's Panampilly Nagar. "She is married off to a relative (Guru Somasundaram) who happens to be an atheist," adds Subhash. "This explains the eye defect of Balu's character. We learned from a doctor that these things happen. After the son's birth, the couple resides in two different places owing to the husband's nature, his filmmaking aspirations being a primary cause."

Abhija Sivakala and Manikandan Achari play two characters from Tamil Nadu who express interest in buying the Ganapathi idol belonging to Urvashi. What happens next? Well, let's wait for the film.

Subhash tells us that though usually such fable-like stories are placed in a rustic setting, he opted to transplant his to a metropolitan one instead. The filmmaker was first supposed to make another film with a cast featuring many faces that starred in Kammattipadam, but the pandemic forced him to cancel at the last minute.

Dr Ajith Joy bankrolls Charles Enterprises under the banner of Joy Movie Productions, with Pradeep Menon as co-producer. Swaroop Philip (Aravindanthe Athithikal) shot the film, with Achu Vijayan on the editing table.