Neelavelicham trailer: Tovino Thomas, Rima Kallingal’s film hints at a potent reimagining of Bhargavi Nilayam

For fans of Aashiq Abu’s films, April 20 cannot come soon enough. The ace filmmaker’s latest venture Neelavelicham is a reimagining of the classic Malayalam movie Bhargavi Nilayam, which is also based on Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s story.

The makers of the upcoming movie finally released the trailer of the film and promises to be a treat for fans of the original as well as those awaiting Aashiq’s spin on the tale. The horror-drama, which is set to hit theatres as an Eid release on April 20, is packed to the brim with a talented cast comprising Tovino Thomas, Roshan Mathew, Rima Kallingal, Shine Tom Chacko, Abhiram Radhakrishnan and Chemban Vinod Jose.

Also read: Exclusive! Tovino Thomas: Being an ardent Vaikom Muhammed Basheer fan, it’s a blessing to work in Neelavelicham 

The trailer confirms that Tovino will be essaying the role that Madhu had in the original – of a writer inspired by Basheer himself, while Roshan and Rima play the characters of Sasikumar and Bhargavi in the movie. The latter two characters were portrayed by Prem Nazir and Vijaya Nirmala in the 1964 film, helmed by A Vincent.

Apart from the supernatural elements and being a romantic tragedy, the movie also has a thread of an investigation carried out by the writer who comes to stay in a haunted house and decides to bring out the truth of what transpired, with preternatural help.

Also read: Exclusive! Roshan Mathew: I’d never done anything like Neelavelicham before, I had to go with my gut instinct 

Set in the 1960s, the movie promises to be a visual treat and a theatrical experience based on what little we see in the trailer. In an earlier interview with OTTplay, Tovino was gung-ho about playing a character written by Basheer.

“As part of Neelavelicham, I revisisted as well as read a few more of his books, and my respect and admiration for him grew further,” said Tovino. “He’s a legend because he was a freedom fighter, he had travelled across Indian and a lot of countries including Africa and Middle East back in his days, and he had a lot of love for his fellow beings. He is someone we can all look at as a role model. His sarcasm is renowned and the language that he used for his writings connected with common people.”