Senthil Krishna to play the lead in a dark thriller titled Udumbu

Director Kannan Thamarakkulam, who had helmed movies such as Aadupuliyattam, Achayans and Pattabhiraman, is currently working on his next titled Udumbu.

On the movie, the director tells us, “It’s a dark thriller, a genre that isn’t much attempted in Malayalam cinema. More than violence, the movie will be gritty and have elements dealing with dons, gangsters and thugs.”

The team has already started filming and has completed about 10 days of shoot. “Senthil Krishna plays the lead character while Alencier Ley Lopez, Hareesh Peradi, Dharmajan Bolgatty and a new artiste named Sajil essay the other important characters. It’s a movie that demands strong performances and hence the casting of these talented actors,” says Kannan, adding that debutante Angelina plays the female lead in the movie that has Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram as its main locations.

Ask him if it was a movie planned during the pandemic lockdown and he says, “Udumbu’s scriptwriters Aneesh Sahadevan, Sreejith Sasidharan and I had announced another film titled Quarry before the pandemic. But that is a film made on a big canvas with large crowds and locations involving quarries. It’s not feasible to shoot that with the pandemic restrictions. That’s when they pitched this subject and we decided to go ahead with it first.”

Kannan, meanwhile, was also gearing up for the release of

Maradu

357 when the lockdown was announced in March. On its status, he says, “That again is a big film and we have worked hard on the technical aspects of it, including the sound design. So, we want it to be experienced in theatres. Right now, we are hearing that theatres might reopen in January, but if that is again extended to say April, then we might approach OTTs next month.”