It is again ‘son rise’ in Malayalam cinema! If Pranav Mohanalal made his debut last month, this month, it is the turn of Shravan, son of Mukesh and Saritha, to make his debut in cinema with Rajesh Nair’s Kalyanam. “Kalyanam is a marriage of comedy and romance,” says the director about his film after his previous one, Salt Mango Tree, dished out a tangy treat to viewers. “This is about a romance that began at the age of five for Sharat, enacted by Shravan. A laidback guy, his only aim in life is to woo his girl, Shari, and win her for keeps. Varsha Bollamma plays Shari. In this day of communication glut, there is no dearth of means to convey his feelings to his girl. Yet, he is hesitant and that is how the story unfolds. By the way, the tale is set in the nineties,” explains Rajesh. On the lookout for new faces for this story of young love, Rajesh happened to hear that Mukesh’s son was all set to follow in his parents’ footsteps. So Shravan became Sharat while Rajesh found his heroine from dubsmash videos of which Varsha is quite a star. The girl from Coorg had no issues about the language as her mother is a Malayali. “I call it a clichéd love story, which is also our tag line,” chips in Rajesh. Till a few decades ago, a couple would struggle to meet each other, talk to one another or even express their feelings. It was an age of stolen glances, hidden messages, wayside meetings and so on. “I wonder how many love stories died an early death because the concerned people could not talk about it to each other,” muses Rajesh who quips that he chose his partner himself. However, today every youngster has hundreds of methods to reach across to his/her love. “But that does not mean every one is finding it easy to communicate with their partners. That nervousness and apprehension have still not changed,” laughs Rajesh. Shravan, says Rajesh, was Sharat and he points out that there was nothing surprising in that considering that “acting is in his genes”. When acting with his father, Mukesh, Sharat was able to hold his own despite his initial nervousness, says Rajesh. He says while Salt Mango Tree was a sugar-coated pill for viewers, this is a “full-length comedy” about two families and their children. He hastens to add that though the film is not preachy and makes no claims to have a message or anything of that sort for viewers, there is an underlying thread that makes it clear why parents should support and guide their children as they assume new responsibilities and begin new chapters in their lives. Mukesh acts as Shari’s father and Sreenivasan and Parvathy act as the parents of Sharat. Rajesh insists that even the parents are not the usual screen parents. “Parvathy chechi and her husband are so in love with each other that he leaves his job in West Asia to be with her. He indulges her so much that he happily does all the work in the house while she bosses him around,” he narrates. Standout role According to the filmmaker, Parvathy’s character is a standout role for the actor who has been evolving with every role of hers. He can’t stop gushing about her act as Sharat’s mother and how she stepped into the character so well. Salt Mango Tree had some memorable lines that still make the rounds of comedy clips aired on television. Will Kalyanam also have such sparklers to liven up the proceedings? “Of course. Dialogues have been written by Govind Vijayan, Summesh Madhu and Rajesh Radhakrishnan. So you can expect plenty of funny one-liners and dialogues,” says Rajesh. Binendran Menon is the cinematographer and debutant Prakash Alex is the composer of all the five songs and background score of Kalyanam.

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