Actors Harikrishnan and Sheela are set to join for the first time in debut director Justin Prabu's Vembu. The makers of the film launched the first-look poster on Friday. The poster suggests that the film will deal with the emotional bond and strains in a marriage, a theme which director Justin confirms. "Vembu explores marital relationships within a rural Krishnagiri setting. Furthermore, the film views family bonds through the female perspective. Sheela plays a young woman who doesn't see marriage as an obstacle to her ambitions. Instead, she believes both can be balanced. Her father, reflecting traditional values, educates her and wants to marry her off. She finds an ally in her husband. However, tragedy strikes the family; the film explores whether the family survives the misfortune and if she continues to pursue her calling. Vembu is an emotional family drama with a very human approach to the story," Justin says.
Calling Harikrishnan and Sheela the perfect picks for the lead roles, Justin says, "I wrote Vembu keeping the two in mind. Both of them are intense performers. I required actors who could process and express complex emotions with the narration taking drastic emotional turns."
Justin says he deliberately wanted not to make a 'safe-bet commercial film' as his debut feature. "Vembu wasn't simply my first script that was approved. I had penned two or three action and comedy scripts. I had made an award-winning short film for Behindwoods titled Kuppaikkaaran, which also won an international award. That's when I realised I had the potential to work on such serious stories too. That was how and why Vembu became my first film," he says.
Filmed in a single schedule, the shoot for Vembu was completed last year. "I planned a single schedule of 25 days in Krishnagiri. We began filming in the first week of September last year and wrapped in the first week of October. We are planning to bring the film to theatres this May," he says.
Produced by Golden Shures and S Vijaya Lakshmi under Manjal Cinemas, Vembu's technical crew includes cinematographer A Kumaran, music composer Manikandan Murali, editor KJ Venkat Ramanan, and art director Gopi Kaurnanithi.