Vairam, the story in pictures

Director M A Nishad's Malayalam film Vairam has a big star cast that includes Pasupathy, Suresh Gopi, Mukesh, Kalabhavan Mani, Jayasurya, Samvrutha Sunil, Dhanya and Meera Vasudev.

Scripted by Cherian Kalpakavady, Vairam is said to have been influenced by some real life incidents.

The director says that Vairam is a father's fight for justice after his daughter is brutally molested.

Pasupathy plays Sivarajan, a bank official, who works in a rural branch in Kerala. A Tamilian by birth, is married Devi (Meera Vasudev), a Malayali.

The couple has a daughter Vairamani (Dhanya), a grade 12 student. Being a close-knit family, Vairamani was particularly close to her dad.

She becomes a victim of certain cruel happenings. Sivarajan ventures on a journey to nab the culprits but soon learns that he has to take on some powerful and ruthless people.

Suresh Gopi plays a firebrand lawyer -- Ravi Varma -- who takes up the issue. Samvrutha is an investigative reporter, while Mukesh and Kalabhavan Mani play cops assigned for the investigation. Jayasurya plays Josekutty, the son of a rich landlord. 

Dhanya was noticed in Madhupal's Thalappavu.

Samvrutha says that she is playing an investigative journalist for the first time and that her character is that of a bold girl, trying to unearth the mysteries behind the tragedy.

Cherian Kalpakavady, who has scripted Vairam says that he believes in coming up with serious themes. He had scripted the recent films, Bharya Swantham Suhruthu and Banaras.

"What we see these days is that only comedies are being classified as entertainment. This happens even when Malayalis are eager to pose themselves as intellectuals and they are generally reluctant to go to the theatres to watch serious cinema. Vairam is discussing a highly significant social issue, the plight of a girl child in our society. Here, a doting father is finding it difficult to fight against affluent forces, after the tragedy that hits his family," says Cherian.

Pasupathy has earlier acted in a couple of Malayalam films like Big B, but this could be a role worth looking forward to.

Vairam is being produced by N Siva Rao under the banner Cinema NSR India. The cinematographer is Sanjeev Sankar. Lyrics by Girish Puthanchery have been composed by M Jayachandran.

It was the interest in doing socially relevant themes that prompted Nishad to do Vairam. His earlier films include Pakal, Nagaram and Ayudham.