In the first look teaser of Theevandi, shows a train chugging along in a rustic background, followed by the movie title written with burning cigars appearing on screen. From the sneak peek, it is evident that the movie has something to do with smoking. Elaborating on it, Fellini T.P, director of Theevandi says, “It is a simple story about a chain smoker. Cigarette is an easily available drug. One quickly gets addicted to it too.” But, don’t think Theevandi is a dark movie, typical of films discussing drugs. Fellini and writer Vini have adopted a satirical treatment for the film starring Tovino Thomas. “It is a political satire,” says Fellini. “The politics angle came naturally to it. Through the movie, we are resonating things that are happening around us. We didn’t want to put our movie in the dark genre,” explains Fellini. The idea didn’t strike them at once. It took them six months to zero in on the subject.
“We had been discussing many concepts, and one day hit on this. We picked up smoking as it’s a subject that has not been discussed so far. Movies had been made on drunkards, but not on a chain smoker. We asked ourselves, ‘why not try this?’ Thus came the spark and Vini wrote it in a simple manner,” he recalls. He assures that there would be freshness in the film. Once the script was ready, Vini and Fellini started brainstorming about the lead actor and it eventually landed on Tovino, whom Fellini fondly calls Tovi. “I have known Tovi for some time. We discussed the story with him. He liked it and the project began.”
In Theevandi, Tovino sports a new look and character. Many real-life personas have given them cues to mould Tovino’s character — Bineesh Damodaran, an easy going guy from a village, who lives in the moment. “Tovi will appear in such a look for the first time,” says Fellini, a native of Kozhikode. An engineering graduate, he worked in a yet-to-be-released Hindi movie, assisted Shyamaprasad in Elektra and was the chief associate of Second Show, before starting his independent project. “I was interested in movies since school days. Though I did engineering, I knew I would end up here,” he smiles.
Like every beginner, he too had his share of struggles. “I had to wait three to four years to start my first independent project. It was difficult, but then things started falling into place,” he says. “Directing Theevandi was special for me. See, you are at the helm, controlling everything. It was easy as I had a good crew.”What does he expect? Smiling, he says, “Final stages of post production are going on. I hope Theevandi would turn out good. I am waiting for the release. Everything depends upon the first movie. I intend to stay here,” he concludes.
