Sathyan Anthikkad’s ‘Makal’ is about the generation gap

Meera Jasmine, Jayaram and Devika Sanjay play the lead roles in the film

That Sathyan Anthikkad is an ace story-teller is well-known to viewers of Malayalam cinema. Filled with humour, with nuggets of information from everyday life and grounded in reality, Sathyan’s films have a special place in the heart of every Mollywood viewer. Many of his movies have become cult classics.

In an early morning phone call, Sathyan chats about his his latest film, Makal, starring Jayaram and Meera Jasmine in lead roles. He says it is a “family film” about a mother caught between a dearly-loved daughter and father who find it difficult to converse on the same wavelength. “Iqbal Kuttipuram and I had been discussing ideas for a film, when he suggested this story. As soon as I heard it, I knew I had found my next film,” says the veteran.

Sathyan has two sons but he says many of his friends have daughters and he has seen the scenes in Makal play out in many of their homes. “Trivial disagreements and different perspectives of father and daughter create problems between them. The film is about the daughter discovering the deep love of her father,” elaborates Sathyan.

The first name that came to his mind to play the teenaged daughter was Devika Sanjay. She had essayed a role in Sathyan’s Fahadh Faasil-starrer Njan Prakashan and had not acted after that.

He wanted to bring back Jayaram in a significant role in Malayalam cinema. The minute Sathyan mentioned the film, Jayaram was game. “The next step was to find a suitable person to play the mother. Many of the female leads today are youngsters who may not look the part of a teeenager’s mother. I wondered if Meera Jasmine, who had been missing from cinema for so long, would agree to essay the character,” narrates Sathyan.

He located her and asked her if she would be interested in the role. “Meera, a successful entrepreneur now, was on the lookout for a suitable role and so my lead characters were on board,” says Sathyan. Meera was told that her character was that of a mother of a teenager. She agreed wholeheartedly.

He points out he has this penchant for bringing back actors who were missing from cinema for some time. Both senior actor Sheela and Urvashi made their comeback to Malayalam cinema after a break via author-backed roles in Sathyan’s films.