‘Anna’: The lost film behind the newly viral song ‘Yavana Kathayil’

Following the release of Girish AD’s ‘Bhoothakaalam Kudumba Unit’, a song from an unreleased Malayalam film has found a new audience online. The song ‘Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake’ from the shelved film ‘Anna’ has gone viral, leaving many curious about the movie it was originally recorded for.

So, what happened to ‘Anna’? The film’s story dates back to the early 1990s, when writer and novelist N Mohanan travelled through Idukki as part of a Sahitya Akademi camp for young people. Mohanan was the director of the camp and spent time in places including Thankamani, Rajakumari and Munnar.

The experience stayed with him even after he returned home. A story began to take shape, which he first narrated to his classmate and celebrated poet O N V Kurup. Impressed by it, O N V reportedly told Mohanan that the story was “as beautiful as a film” and suggested that he turn it into a screenplay rather than a novel or short story.

Mohanan wrote the screenplay, initially intending it for a filmmaker close to O N V. However, that director could not take the project forward. The script eventually reached filmmaker Joshiy. Joshiy already knew Mohanan as a respected literary figure who had retired as the Director of the Department of Culture. He later learnt that Mohanan was the son of renowned writer Lalithambika Antharjanam. When he finally read the screenplay, Joshiy was impressed and passed it on to his friend and lyricist Shibu Chakravarthy, who too was drawn to its poetic love story.

‘Anna’ centred on the love between Hari, a Brahmin youth serving as the Devikulam Sub-Collector, and Anna, a Christian girl. Aravind Swamy was initially cast as Hari, while Sridevi was chosen to play Anna.
The film also featured a musician who was the younger uncle of Hari’s character. Oottupulackal Unnikrishnan was chosen for the role. Anna learning music from him was an important part of the story, with the keerthanam ‘Mokshamugalatha’, featuring Unnikrishnan on screen with KJ Yesudas’s voice, planned as one of the film’s highlights.

Producer Balram, a native of Varkala and owner of Ambu Films, subsequently came on board. With music expected to play a major role in the film, Ouseppachan composed the score and eight songs written by Shibu Chakravarthy were recorded even before filming began.

One of those songs was ‘Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake’, which is now enjoying a fresh wave of attention decades later. Joshiy had ambitious plans for ‘Anna’. He wanted the film to be visually distinct from his earlier works, with Munnar serving as its principal location. He and cinematographer Jayanan Vincent travelled deep into the forests to scout locations and worked out how the sequences could be filmed in the challenging terrain.

But the project ran into scheduling problems. The dates of Aravind Swamy and Sridevi could not be matched, and the team eventually considered replacing Sridevi with Meena. Even after that, Aravind Swamy’s availability remained an issue, delaying the project further.

Meanwhile, Joshiy’s ‘Sainyam’ was taking shape. The film received the necessary permission from the Central Government to begin production, with Ambu Films joining Evershine as a production partner.

‘Anna’ was eventually shelved without filming a single scene. Its songs, however, survived. In 1995, Magna Sound released a cassette containing all eight songs recorded for the film, and the album became a major hit at the time.
The mystery surrounding ‘Anna’ deepened after Mohanan’s death in October 1999. His friends later began discussing the screenplay again and discovered that it was no longer easily traceable.

A well-known assistant director had taken the screenplay from Mohanan to read. When his friends went looking for it at the assistant director’s house, they learnt that he too had died in an accident a few months earlier.
His family promised to search for the script and hand it over if they found it. But the screenplay was never recovered. There is also a possibility that the assistant director may have passed it on to another filmmaker.

And that is where the story of ‘Anna’ stands today. A film that had a screenplay, a director, a cast, a producer, locations and even eight recorded songs never made it to the screen. Now, with ‘Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake’ going viral, the forgotten film has returned to public attention. The irony is that while one part of ‘Anna’ has found a new life through its music, the screenplay that started it all remains missing.