Exclusive! Mahesh Narayanan on Fahad Faasil's Sherlock: It’s our tribute to MT Vasudevan Nair as cinema lovers

Director Mahesh Narayanan and Fahadh Faasil’s latest collaboration is a special one. The duo, who had worked together in Take Off, CU Soon, Malik and Malayankunju, recently completed shooting for a segment titled Sherlock in the Netflix anthology based on MT Vasudevan Nair’s stories.

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, the filmmaker tells us, “It’s a tribute to the writer from filmmakers as well as cinema lovers, who grew up watching MT Vasudevan Nair sir’s films. His scripts are all available right now as they are published works. As filmmakers, we have this tendency to go back and read them as references.”

The anthology has nine featurettes helmed by “seniors directors as well as those from this generation”, says Mahesh. “They are all segments for which MT sir has written the screenplay. I am doing a short film called Sherlock and we had a good sitting, and I am really glad I could do something with a legendary writer like him. It will drop on the OTT platform really soon,” explains the filmmaker.

The yet-to-be-titled anthology also has short films that are directed by veteran filmmakers such as Priyadarshan, Santosh Sivan, Jayaraj, Ranjith and Shyamaprasad. Kammarasambhavam director Rathish Ambat and MT Vasudevan Nair’s daughter Ashwathy are also helming segments titled Kadalkattu and Vilpana, respectively, in the anthology that had wrapped up its principal photography last month with Mammootty and Ranjith’s Kadugannawa Oru Yathra.

Priyadarshan is the only director to have helmed two segments in the anthology – Shilalikhithangal with Biju Menon and Shanthi Krishna, and Olavum Theeravum with Mohanlal, Durga Krishna and Mammukkoya. In an earlier interview with us, Santosh Sivan, whose segment Abhayam Thedi Veendum has Siddique in the lead, said that the legendary writer had picked filmmakers who had previously not worked on his scripts to collaborate in the anthology.

Parvathy Thiruvothu, Asif Ali, Aparna Balamurali, Indrajith Sukumaran and Madhoo are also part of the anthology.