Exclusive! Omar Lulu: Nalla Samayam is a stoner film that doesn’t take the dark route despite dealing with MDMA

Through his movies Happy Wedding, Oru Adaar Love and Chunkzzz, director Omar Lulu has managed to tap into a select set of audience that mainstream Malayalam cinema hasn’t in the past decade. The filmmaker will be hoping his latest movie, Nalla Samayam, also works wonders for him at the box office.

In an exclusive chat with OTTPlay, Omar says, “This is a bit different from the previous films I have done. It’s a fun stoner movie that has elements of a thriller. We do touch upon the usage of MDMA and that’s how it lends itself to the stoner genre. We didn’t try to take the dark route with the use of drugs in the film.”

The movie has Irshad in the lead along with a host of newcomers Meera Madhu, Nora Johan, Nandana Sahadevan, Gayathri Shankar and Suha. While majority of the stoner films in Malayalam has had a male-dominated cast, Nalla Samayam is at least subversive in that sense. “We have deliberately cast more women in this film. It’s also what forms its suspense,” says the director.

Omar, who was busy with the pre-production of Babu Antony’s Power Star during the lockdown, also says that Nalla Samayam was initially planned as an OTT release. “But by the time we had finished shooting, I thought it was better watched in theatres because it had that kind of vibe. It’s a movie that can be watched with a group of friends. Those sorts of films work better in theatres than on OTTs. We are targeting the youth audience as well as couples,” he explains.

The movie, which is rated A, was set to hit theatres on November 25. The movie has been postponed. Currently, Unni Mukundan’s Shefeekkinte Santosham, Priya Prakash Varrier and Sarjano Khalid’s 4 Years and Antony Varghese’s Aanaparambile World Cup will clash at the Kerala box office on the day.