Manu Ravichandran: Prarambha is an affirmation that there is life even after love failure

Manu Ravichandran is all of three films old, gearing up for the release of his fourth. Yet Manu, the son of Kannada cinema’s Crazy Star V Ravichandran, has always been clear that he does not want to do larger-than-life commercial cinema. His choice of films has been driven by his desire to do content-oriented cinema, with the right mix of drama, emotions, love, comedy and action. While he did up the ‘commercial elements’ after his first two films (Saheba and Brihaspati) were panned, Manu has stood steadfast wth his decision to prioritise content.

His release this week, Prarambha, is one such film – one that he took up because he felt that that the story was true. The film, directed by Manu Kalyadi is about the aftermath of love failure and explores that life doesn’t end there. “Very often, youngsters think that the break-up of a love relationship is the end of the world and take extreme measures, including suicide or substance abuse. Prarambha is a film that exhorts that there’s life after a love failure too and reminds us that when we take drastic, irreversible decisions, we tend to forget everyone else in our lives, be it the parents who brought us up, siblings and friends who love us and so on and so forth. Don’t we owe it to them to move on in our lives and find a better tomorrow? All these elements in the narrative pushed me to take up this film,” says Manu, who is paired with newcomer Keerthy Kalakeri in the film, which releases in theatres on May 20.

Manu adds that the film will also take an intimate look at what transpires in a de-addiction centre. “Someone who is addicted to, say, cigarettes, cannot be asked to go cold turkey and give it all up at once. There is a process to it, wherein the quantity is reduced over time, but adjusting to that isn’t easy, and the addict is bound to feel angry and frustrated. At this point in his life, the hero meets four people at the de-addiction centre. How their stories, as to why they are at the centre, affects the hero add changes his perspective of life forms a major portion of the narrative,” says the actor, adding that the clincher for him was that the story of Prarambha had a bunch of real events in it.