Interview | Malayalam filmmaker Vinod AK : ‘Moonwalk’ is inspired by several real-life stories

Vinod AK's directorial debut, Moonwalk, is a nostalgic journey back to the '80s breakdance era with real-life stories

For Vinod AK, his directorial debut, Moonwalk, is a trip down memory lane to an era when a generation was addicted to breakdance, Michael Jackson and, of course, the moonwalk. Vinod has packed it all in this slice-of-life narrative about a bunch of young men in the late ‘80s, who fell in love with the dance style and weaved their world around it even as they navigated the ups and downs of their personal lives.

The ad filmmaker’s journey to Moonwalk can be attributed to his student days in Thiruvananthapuram. “We were fans of the disco trend and loved watching the likes of Kamal Haasan and Mithun Chakraborthy grooving. But when we were introduced to breakdance, you can’t imagine the kick we got from the moves, the music, the steps and the style. I was wonder struck when I first saw it live on stage. A group of us friends used to go for all such programmes and some of us got on stage as well.”

He mentions some of the famous breakdance teams of the time in Thiruvananthapuram such as Footloosers, Spindles and Boomers. “We were in awe of their hair, costumes, and attitude. But as years passed by, most of these teams were disbanded.”

He had not planned to make a film on this subject. “I had other stories with me and had almost reached the production stages of a project, but had to drop it. That was when I thought of a movie on the breakdancing community,” he says.

The major impetus being a documentary on the breakdancing community that he had conceptualised. “We had covered dancers from across Kerala with Jomith Johny, who is in my team, tracking down several veterans.”

The documentary could not be released, Vinod says, as it was too long and there were some copyright issues as well. “That’s when we realised that there was enough content for a feature film. We flexed the draft and came up with a script,” says Vinod, who co-wrote it with Mathew Varghis and Sunil Gopalakrishnan, who have been working with him on his ad films.

Vinod admits that Moonwalk is inspired by several real-life stories. “It is a compilation of what happened in the lives of multiple dancers. But we have tweaked those true events because some of these stories are heartbreaking,” he says.