Tovino Thomas on Neelavelicham: The film is so much more than a horror movie because…

Ashiq Abu is all set to bring the magic of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer to the silver screen yet again, with the former’s upcoming film Neelavelicham. The period film, starring Tovino Thomas and Rima Kallingal, is based on Basheer’s short story of the same name. Recently, Tovino and Ashiq opened up about why Neelavelicham stands out from other horror films.

In conversation with Film Companion South, Tovino said “Talking about Neelavelicham, it does have jump scares, but more than that the emotion, not fear, that the protagonist feels towards the spirit makes it much more than a horror movie. There’s a lot going on in the film. There’s romance, and the soul of the film definitely lies in the backstory between the writer and the spirit. We did everything we can to do justice to the film in today’s atmosphere”.

Director Ashiq revealed that when it came to Bhargavi Nilayam, the 1964 film that was the first screen adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s short story Neelavelicham, the short story covered only the first half of the original film. Basheer himself had written the script and included more elements that would appeal to an audience when it came to a commercial film. Basheer had added the ‘investigation elements’, which were not present in the short story.

“When you read the script of Bhargavi Nilayam today, you can notice that Basheer packed so much, in terms of emotions, into the script at that time in a way that some of the biggest scriptwriters do today. If we had to box it into a particular genre, it would have to be something along the lines of romantic horror thriller. Basheer had even said that the story was based on a miraculous happening in his life”, said Ashiq.

Neelavelicham will be released in theatres on April 21, 2023.