Anjali Menon is back after a long hiatus. She had last directed the Malayalam movie Bangalore Days, which was a big hit. Released in 2014, the film had an ensemble star cast that included Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Dulquer Salmaan, Fahadh Faasil, Isha Talwar, Parvathy and Nithya Menen.
The film was not only a commercial success but also went on to win several awards, including three Kerala State Film Awards – Best Actor and Best Actress awards for Nivin Pauly and Nazriya Nazim respectively, and Best Screenplay for Anjali Menon.
On her long break and upcoming film Koode, she recently told Manoramaonline in an interview, “My son had just turned two when I did Bangalore Days. So after the movie got over, I had to spend some time with him. Meanwhile, I had begun to write the screenplay for the movie which was to be directed by actor Prathap Pothen. But I stopped midway when I lost the interest in collaborating with him. Producer M Renjith who was supposed to finance that movie, however, offered to do a movie with me. That is how I began writing Koode one and a half years ago.”
Apart from Anjali being back in the director’s robes for Koode, what has shot up the expectation levels for the film is that it will mark actor Nazriya’s comeback to movies after four years. The star cast of Koode also includes Prithviraj and Parvathy. With Anjali Menon coming up with an impressive script that deals with the emotional bond between a brother and sister, Nazriya reportedly decided to don the greasepaint again.
Before going ahead with the shooting, Anjali Menon ensured that the entire cast and crew attended a 10-day camp in Ooty to understand the film and the roles each one had to play. She revealed that the camp was successfully spearheaded by theatre artist Vinu Francis.
(Content provided by Digital Native)