Aashiq Abu's Neelavelicham gives a modern twist to the classic Anuraga Madhuchashakam from Bhargavi Nilayam

The audience got the first glimpse of director Aashiq Abu’s version of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer’s Neelavelicham through its first track Anuraga Madhuchashakam, which was released by the cast and crew of the film on social media on Wednesday.

The new version of the classic song, which was rendered by S Janaki and composed by MS Baburaj, has KS Chitra’s vocals and has both Bijibal and Rex Vijayan in charge of the music arrangement. The visuals of the track are also vibrant and the music get a contemporary treatment, with the tempo higher than the classic version. 

The song has Rima Kallingal dancing to Sreejith Dancity's choreography as part of a stage show, while Roshan Mathew's character plays the veena as Shine Tom and Abhiram are part of the audience, amazed by the performamce.

The film, which is an adaptation of Basheer’s eponymous novel that also served as the base for the 1964 horror film Bhargavi Nilayam, has Rima as the female protagonist with Tovino Thomas, Roshan Mathew and Shine Tom Chacko essaying the male leads. The film wrapped up its shoot last year and is scheduled to hit theatres soon.

In an earlier interview with us, Aashiq said, “It’s not a contemporary retelling. It’s set in the 1960s and is based on Basheer’s text, but it will be our version of it.” Tovino also expressed his delight to be part of a story written by the renowed writer.

Tovino and Aashiq had previously collaborated in hits such as Mayaanadhi and Virus. He said the biggest challenge while doing the movie was the language and how it had to be simplified for today’s audience to relate to it.

“While attempting a period film like this, the biggest challenge was that it has to connect with the new-age audience but we can’t use today's Malayalam. At the same time, when we use the old Malayalam, it shouldn’t sound odd to today’s viewers. That’s the task that Aashiq Abu the director and Hrishikesh Bhaskaran the scriptwriter had to crack for the film,” he said.

Roshan, who also essays a pivotal role in Neelavelicham, too stressed that the team has used the language taken from “Basheerian literature” to ensure to “tell the story as honestly as possible”.