Memories, the upcoming Tamil thriller film, follows the story of a murder accused with short-term memory loss, the film’s lead actor Vetri told Silverscreen India on Monday.
Vetri, who rose to fame with his performances in 8 Thottakal (2017) and Jiivi (2019), plays a man who has lost his memory due to an incident and is also accused of murder charges. “Though I play a single role in this film, I appear in four different looks,” he says.
Memories also features Parvathy Arun, Dayyana Hameed, Ramesh Thilak, RNR Manohar, Hareesh Peradi, Sajil, Srikumar, and Salildas in pivotal roles.
The film’s teaser was released on Friday by director Pandiraj, music composer D Imman, and actor Rahman on social media.
Memories is written and directed by the director duo Syam and Praveen. Speaking to Silverscreen India, Praveen says they have adopted a non-linear narrative style for the film. “We developed a one-liner revolving around the idea of memory loss in 2017. We later reworked the script thrice with many new interesting inputs,” he adds.
Elaborating on the storyline, Praveen says the lead character played by Vetri has 17 hours to “find his past that he has forgotten. While many people, including his friends, tell him various stories from the past, the character is unable to believe anything and goes on a journey to find himself and the truth.”
Praveen adds that since Memories primarily deals with a medical condition like short-term memory loss, they consulted many psychiatrists as part of their research for the film.
The film was shot in Nagercoil and Thiruvananthapuram, and features a lot of outdoor sequences, Praveen tells us. “We shot some portions in a place called Bonacaud in Thiruvananthapuram, which is known as one of the haunted places in Kerala,” he adds.
The film’s shoot began in February 2020 but was suspended in the wake of Covid-19 after just 20 days of filming. Later, production was resumed with a minimal team during the unlock phase.
Syam and Praveen, who have previously assisted on a few Malayalam films, say they chose to make this film in Tamil as they believe the Tamil industry is more welcoming of such new ideas with young artists. “We have also seen Vetri’s previous performances and thought he would be the right fit for this character.”
Actor Vetri says the team hopes to release the film in theatres first, followed by an OTT release. However, nothing has been finalised yet due to the prevailing Covid-19 induced restrictions.
Vetri, who was last seen in the Tamil anthology film C/O Kaadhal, has several projects awaiting release, including Vanam, Jothi, and Theengirai.
In an earlier conversation with Silverscreen India, Vetri had also said he would be collaborating with debutant director Shyam Manoharan on an untitled thriller that happens over the course of a night. The film’s shooting is expected to begin once the lockdown restrictions are relaxed.
