‘Januvariyil’, the evergreen song from Prithviraj-starrer ‘Ayalum Njanum Thammil’ reminds you of why college memories are so special. The romantic exchanges and the thicker-than-blood friendships are recipes that add flavour to your life.
On the 10th anniversary of the song’s release, the former batch of medical students from Pushpagiri Medical College brought out the recreated version of the song. It is probably the first time that such an attempt was being made in Malayalam. The video, which was shared by the film director Lal Jose and actor Samvrutha Sunil, has garnered over one lakh views, so far. Music composer Ousepachan also lauded the students for the initiative.
According to Dr Lintu Rachel Kurivila, the song’s creative contributor, the idea to recreate the video originated when the students were in their third year. “One of my batchmates Dr Anjusha suggested that we do a project in the future that was connected with ‘Januvariyil’, especially since majority of ‘Ayalum Njanum Thammil’ was shot in our college in 2011. Each and every scene and shot from the movie and the song is special to us. When we reached our final year and were brainstorming for a programme as part of our graduation ceremony, we finalised we would recreate the song which was composed by Ousepachan and written by Vayalar Sharath Chandra Varma. We felt this was the perfect parting gift we could give our college.
According to Lintu and the entire crew, the song is dedicated to the entire crew of ‘Ayyalum Njanum Thammil’. “We were particular that we shot each and every scene perfectly. We planned this project for three months. There were a lot of challenges since all of us were in the middle of our house surgeancy and were doing different shifts,” added Lintu.
They zeroed in on five main actors who would reprise the original actors. While Nashin Najeeb played Prithviraj, Jeethu John reprised the role of Naren and Peter Simon played Siddarth Shiva. Reshmi Kadamala played Samrutha while Amrutha Lazar acted as Swasika. Dr Felix Johns played Prathap Pothen’s role. The rest of the scenes were enacted by different students at different times.
“It was an interesting journey overall. As we started shooting the various scenes, we met with a lot of people from our college who were part of the original shoot for the film. It was fun to hear their stories,” she added.
The video for the song was shot by Syam Ambadi, their senior while the song was directed by Arun Vijay. Sarath Geetha Lal is the editor while Anjith Perayam is the associate cameraman and Ananthu handled the drone camera. Amrutha Lazar is also the creative contributor to the song, which was bankrolled by Movie Monkey Productions.
