Ace actress Archana, a two-time National Award winner, and Revathy, who shared screen space in the recent film Azhyatha Kolangal 2, a tribute to their mentor, the renowned late cinematographer/filmmaker Balu Mahendra, have expressed concern that good small films with quality content suffer without getting theatres for release.
MR Bharathy, a protégé of Balu Mahendra, has directed the movie. The film received critically acclaim from press and other media for its content. The original Azhiyatha Kolangal was a 1979 coming-of-age film directed, scripted and shot by Balu Mahendra.
At the thanksgiving meet of AK2, Archana, who bagged her first National Award through Balu's directorial Veedu, talked about the trouble AK2 faced for its release. “Though it has nothing to do with my mentor Balu Sir’s original, we took the name as a means to pay tribute to him. I got the idea to do that, and I shared it with my friends Bharathy and Revathy. The former developed the script. It was top Malayalam filmmaker/writer/cinematographer and multiple award winner Shaji N Karun, a close friend of Balu Sir, who triggered usto go ahead with the project.
The team worked with passion and verve to complete it. But, our painful period started post completion when we wanted to bring it to screens (shrugs). I heard there are about 400 small films lying in the cans waiting for release. It took almost 3-1/2 years for us to get proper theatres for AK2's release and today we are overwhelmed by the response we got for the film and we are thankful for that.”
Revathy, who echoed theseviews, said, “Though I come from Bharathyraja, Bharathan and Mahendran's schools, it was Balu Mahendra who discovered the director in me and motivated me to make films. That way he is also one of my gurus. Azhiyatha Kolangal 2 was a special film in my career.”
