The ponies run, the girls are young
The odds are there to beat
You win a while and then it's done
Your little winning streak
The music of the legendary Leonard Cohen runs in the background of filmmaker Bhadran's new film’s motion poster. Titled Joothan, the film will mark the comeback of the director, who has stayed away from filmmaking for 14 years. Bhadran put out the motion poster on his Facebook page on Friday with the note: "35 years of my film career, you have become a burning candle where no storm can put off."
The poster reveals that actors Rima Kallingal, Soubin Shahir and Joju George will be playing the lead characters. Soubin and Joju have just won their state film awards this year for best actor (male) and best character actor (make) respectively.
Joothan’s poster shows the animated picture of a baby boy resting on the horns of a cow, among mostly grayed leaves and blue fish.
The last film Bhadran directed is Mohanlal's Udayon, which released in 2005. Mohanlal played the double role of 75-year-old Suranadu Kunju and his son Papoyi. Most of Bhadran's films had in its cast the two superstars Mohanlal or Mammootty who have been reigning Malayalam cinema for decades. The first film Bhadran directed is Ente Mohangal Poovaninju (1982), with Shankar and Menaka in the lead, and Mohanlal, then still a newcomer, having an important role to play. One of his most popular films is Spadikam, where Mohanlal plays a village rowdy Thomas Chacko, the wayward son of a tough Math teacher (played by Thilakan) who has been most unkind to him as a child. The film won appreciation for the portrayal of parents who wreck their children’s dreams by forcing their own dreams on the little ones. Bhadran has also portrayed the then uncommon theme of love between a younger man and an older woman in the movie Idanazhiyil Oru Kaalocha.
Some of his other noted films include Poomukhappadiyil Ninneyum Kaathu, Iyer the Great, Uncle Bun and Olympian Anthony Adam. Bhadran is also trained in music. He had assisted director Hariharan in 14 films before turning independent with Ente Mohangal Poovaninju in 1982.