From Aadu to Alamara: Midhun Manuel Thomas

It was when his followers expecting a sequel of his debut directorial venture Aadu that Midhun Manuel Thomas came up with Sunny Wayne-starrer Ann Maria Kalippilanu. Now after a gap of six months, the director is gearing up to come up with a new directorial venture Alamara, that too with Sunny as the lead. Midhun opts to describe his new film as a marital satire. “This is a family-oriented film set against the backdrop of a marriage and incidents related to it. I can assure that it is a film which can be seen along with the whole family,” says Midhun about Alamara which is slated for release by mid March. Midhun, who is basically a writer, is donning the role of only director in Alamara.

“John Manthrical is the screenwriter of the film, while debutant Mahesh Gopal gives the story. In fact, it was through the Facebook group Cinema Paradiso Club that I got acquainted with Mahesh, who is a cinema pranthan.  It was during a discussion he told me the story of Alamara. When it comes to screenplay, normally, John and I write different drafts of screenplay and later make a new draft with interesting elements from both the copies. That was how we made Ann Maria Kalippilanu and yet another film, which is under discussion. But in the case of Alamara, when John completed his draft, I had not started writing my version. When I read his copy, I found it interesting and decided to look after just direction, unlike my earlier ventures,” he says.

According to him, Alamara is based on a true story. “Nowadays, there is a big growth in  the number of divorces. The saddest factor is that many of them opt for divorces for petty issues. Such incidents forced us to think about this film, adding a few fictional elements,” says Midhun. Though the film is eying family audiences, it is coming to theatres during examination time. “That is true. All these happened because of the theatre strike at the end of last year. Anyhow, the films which reached theatres last week are doing good business. That gives us confidence that if a movie is good, audience will accept it,” says the director. Quizzed about his Aadu 2, he says, “The story is ready and I will start working on the screenplay soon. The major characters from the first part will be retained whereas there will be a slight change in the technical side.”