Jayasurya announced the pre-production of his next project, days after his latest film, ‘Sunny‘, released directly for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Titled, ‘Kathanar: The Wild Sorcerer 3D’, the pre-production announcement was made by both the aforementioned film lead and its director, Rojin Thomas. The ambitious project was first announced more than 18 months ago, but pre-production was stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the production house is ready to take the project forward and we expect the film to release by mid-to-late 2022.
Kadamattathu Kathanar has had a few big screen and small screen outings so far. But the films and the TV series do not hold up that well nowadays – with the main reason being cringingly bad CGI. But now, with a budget of Rs. 75 crores being provided by the production company, Gokulam films, this ambitious film is going to be made by virtual production – which is similar to how the recently released live-action films, ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘The Lion King’ were shot. Kathanar is expected to be a two-part film.
So what is the film about? Kathanar is short for Kadamattathu Kathanar, who is a very (in)famous figure in Malayalam folklore. Kathanar is said to be a Syrian priest who was, once, in charge of the Kadamattom church – one of the oldest churches in Kerala. He was said to have possessed supernatural powers who used it for the good of the common people. If the stories are to be believed, he used sorcery to defeat/exorcise evil spirits and other supernatural beings. So the virtual production is going to necessary (and not just for the sake of it) for depicting the supernatural elements onscreen.
With the way things are going, we wouldn’t be surprised if Kathanar gets classified as a Malayalam Superhero film. Malayalam folklore has many crazy origin stories regarding the priest – so it will be interesting to see the direction the filmmakers will take, to make the film.
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