'Madhubaanakadai' promo album has 5000 stills

'Madhubaanakadai (wine shop), a comedy film shot using the latest technology, is being given the final touches. The making of this flick has aroused great interest in the craft of film-making. It is an example of how technology revolution has come as a blessing to budding film-makers.

A single wine shop (apparently run by TASMAC) has been taken up as a sample for depicting the regular boozers who unwittingly reveal their real characters in a state of inebriation. The film captures most ironic, sardonic and sarcasting situations involving them.

Though comedy the high point in the film, the story is spiked with romance taking the drama to dizzying heights. It is a difficult plot ingenuously handled by tech savvy director Kamala Kannan. He has brought his team from the Coimbatore Cinema Club to give the final touches to his first film. He has picked up tipplers hanging around the wine shop and portrayed them in the film. The round-the-clock goings-on in and around the liquor shop_from the time it closes at 10 p.m. and till it again closes at 10 p.m the next day_are captured alive.

Karthivel and Dhyana make the film peppy with their romantic interludes in the backdrop of the babblings of the spirited regulars.

Drinking is no longer a hush-hush activity in Tamil Nadu where prohibition is not being enforced in order to check the growing illicit arrack industry and to prevent hooch deaths. TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Ltd) has opened its own shops with government patronage. There are around 7000 'wine' shops all over the State and they bring in more revenue than the entertainment sector.

The 'Madhubaanam' unit comprises new entrants aspiring to excel in the craft of filmmaking using that extra edge and extra space provided by the digitization technology. Director Kamala Kannan has in his team Ayyapan (screenplay and dialogues), Ved Shankar Sugavan (music), N.D. Rajkumar (lyrics), S. Bhaskaran (camera) and Sudhi Sasidhar (editing). Montage Media Productions is the producer.

Apart from Karthivel and Dhyana, others in the cast are Arvind Annamalai and 'Poo' Ramu. Lyricist N.D. Rajkumar also plays an important role. There is no hero as such, and the wine shop itself is the hero.

Kamala Kannan says this is the first time in Tamil cinema an entire film has been shot at a single location (a TASMAC wine shop).

The film has been completed and is being given the final touches. Efforts are being made to release it by the end of this month.

A new and novel concept has been adopted to produce a promo album. It has 4,500 stills out of 20,000 the unit has shot. This concept is the first of sorts in Indian cinema, according to Kamala Kannan.

Speaking about the technology revolution and its benefits, Kamala Kannan says he picked up wine shop regulars, recorded their expressions and projected it on a big screen to help the actors emote better. And, the director can instantly edit the scenes and see the outcome. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Madhubaanakadai