One night, three characters, hardly 13 minutes — that’s all Ranthal is about. The setting is the dingy house of a prostitute, where two visitors — a thief and a cop in pursuit — arrive. The woman, Ambily, shelters the thief and is about to serve him dinner when the cop arrives. He scornfully gazes at her crying baby and orders her to serve dinner. He finishes it all, leaving her hungry and proceeds to make out with her on the bed as the thief hides under the cot. Then comes the moment the cop reveals that there’s a price on the thief’s head. Tense moments follow…
Released three days ago, Ranthal, featuring Balaji Sarma, Krishnan Balakrishnan and Sadhika Venugopal, has earned around three lakh views and hundreds of responses. Actors Jayaram, Aju Varghese, Mia George, Honey Rose and Neeraj Madhav have shared the short film on their social media accounts too. The director, Sujith Govindan, can’t be happier. “Many people told me that they felt like reading a touching short story. Our whole team is honoured by the comments,” he says. Scripted by Arun A.R. and Ajay Rahul, the short film has its cinematography handled by Sujith’s friend Faiz Siddique and the soothing BGM is composed by Jayhari P.S. “All of us are bonded by the common dream – of landing in the world of feature films one day. This is my first directorial that I planned to feature in my profile and I am glad that people loved it,” says the Kozhikode native.
A still from Ranthal
Recalling how they found the perfect cast, Sujith says, “When Arun and Ajay narrated the story, the first face that popped up in my mind as the cop was Balaji’s. Krishnan was recommended by a friend and Sadhika was a last-minute discovery after another actress backed out of the project. All of them performed excellently and made us all proud.” The shooting happened over one-and-a-half rainy nights, but the film doesn’t give away the climate. Much to one’s surprise, Sujith says that the whole house was a set. He and 11 of his friends have together formed a production house OMA to fund feature films and they are hunting for the right script. “Meanwhile, we are working on ours too. We hope to make our big screen debut soon,” he concludes.
