Anyone who has watched director K M Kamal's 2012 suspense drama 'ID' would know what it means to wait for his next outing. The Hindi movie, starring national award-winning actress Geetanjali Thapa, was a hilariously absorbing realistic movie.
Kamal's second movie 'Pada' is releasing on March 10 and his only answer to why he took so long is 'everything has its own time.'
Starring Kunchacko Boban, Vinayakan, Joju George and Dileesh Pothan in the lead, the movie is expected to enthuse moviegoers as well as strike a chord with the downtrodden and the underprivileged masses.
The main attraction of the film is the ensemble cast, which includes Prakash Raj, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Indrans, Salim Kumar, Jagadish, T G Ravi, Unnimaya Prasad, Savithri Sreedharan, V K Sreeraman, Shine Tom Chacko, Gopalan Adat, Sudheer Karamana, Dasan Kongad, Kani Kusruti, James Elia, Sajitha Madathil, Gopal, Kottayam Ramesh, Shankar Ramakrishnan, among others.
"Though most of the actors were fixed in the course of the making of the film, actor Vinayakan was there in my mind as one of the main characters from the outset," Kamal says.
"It's a poignant narrative with a carefully tracked screenplay. No matter what the outcome is, the storyline will surely rock the senses and touch the hearts," Kamal says.
Has the coronavirus affected the making adversely? Yes it has, he says, "But I took advantage of the lockdown for completing a couple of movie scripts.”
Kamal is casting Joju George in the lead for his next, which is also a story based on a true incident.
As to what the most laborious part of making 'Pada' was, Kamal says it was undoubtedly the research. "It took more than a year for the research as it is based on true events that took place in the nineties. I had travelled extensively to meet people related to the incident to collect the details."
Produced by Mukesh R Mehta, A V Anoop and C V Sarathi, the film has noted cinematographer Sameer Thahir cranking the camera. While Shan Mohammed is the editor Vishnu Vijay composes the background score and the songs penned by Vinu Kidachulan. The costumes are designed by Stephy Xaviour and the make-up is by RG Wayanadan.
Conceived on a moderate range, the movie, as it moved towards completion, turned into a big-budget film in terms of production scale, cast and canvas. "There are more than 1500 junior artists and executing the crowd scenes was tough. However, everything has come out well," says Kamal.
The film was shot in and around Palakkad and Thrissur in four schedules that ran over 50 days from July 2019. The movie was completed in December last year.
