Old Monk preview: All you need to know about MG Srinivas’ mythology-based love tale

When actor-director MG Srinivas announced a film called Old Monk, at first thought, everyone it had something to do with the popular liquor brand. But no! Srini, as the filmmaker is popularly known, used a direct reference from his tale and found Old Monk an apt title.

MG Srinivas’ claim to fame

A former radio jockey, Srini got into showbiz hoping to be an actor. After a couple of minor roles in Just Maath Maathalli and Chirru, he turned director with Topiwala, starring Real Star Upendra. His follow up to that was Srinivasa Kalyana, a film that he wrote, directed and acted in, and then did the first part of a proposed trilogy – Birbal Trilogy Case 1- Finding Vajramuni. Birbal was remade in Telugu as Thimmarasu: Assignment Veil. Old Monk is Srini’s fourth directorial.

Decoding Old Monk

The story of Old Monk has a mythological reference. “Old Monk stands for an ancient sage, ‘hale sanyasi’ and who is the oldest ‘sanyasi’ we know of? Narada Muni, right! He is the old monk referred to here,” says Srini.

The story of Old Monk, he adds, begins in devaloka, with Krishna, Rukmini and Narada. “Narada comes to meet Krishna and Rukmini and remembers it is her birthday and wishes her on the occasion, whereas Krishna would have forgotten. This becomes a bone of contention between them and Krishna, irked by the turn of events, curses Narada to a life on earth. A curse that can be broken only if he falls in love and the feeling is reciprocated, with the girl’s family also accepting him. To make matters difficult for Narada, in his humanly form, he is born into a family that abhors love. The film revolves around whether he can break his curse and return to devaloka,” explains the filmmaker.

Cast and crew of Old Monk

Old Monk pairs Srini with Aditi Prabhudeva, with whom he had acted in Ranganayaki earlier. The film also stars Sudev Nair, Sujay Shasty (who is a regular fixture in all of Srini’s films), S Narayan, Sihi Kahi Chandru, Dingri Nagaraj, Bengaluru Nagesh, and Rajesh, among others.

Srini’s film has music by Saurabh-Vaibhav, with Bharath Parashuram filing in as cinematographer and Deepu S Kumar as editor.

Release plans

The film was initially slated to release on February 11, but was pushed ahead to February 25, 2022. The February 25 weekend is rather film heavy now, with Prem’s Ek Love Ya, Ajith’s Valimai, and Pawan Kalyan’s Bheemla Nayak also in the fray.