Mohanlal signs up with Kumar Shahani

Three-time national award winner Mohanlal has signed up with director Kumar Shahani to work in a Hindi-Malayalam film.

The Malayalam superstar will play the lead in the film, based on a Malayalam short story, Sarpam, by M Govindan.

Shahani said the spirituality in Mohanlal's eyes compelled him to sign on the actor.

However, he admitted he is yet to see Vaanaprastham, in which Mohanlal played a Kathakali artiste; it won the award for best film this year.

Sarpam will be shot in Malayalam and dubbed into Hindi later. It is being produced by a couple of cinema-loving groups under their newly-floated venture, Cinematograph Kerala, with public participation.

Abdul Razaq, a businessman from Kozhikode, took the first share by investing Rs 100,000 in the venture on Friday.

Shooting will commence next August -- when Shahani feels Kerala brims with the golden light of nature. He said he is very particular about light and natural sounds for his films.

Though he is yet to read the book, Shahani admitted that Govindan narrated the story to him. He is thrilled at the idea of making a film based on a serpent. "Look at a serpent, every bit of the body is moving as the emotions and characteristics of man change from one to another," he says.

It was his belief for a dialogue between cultures that brought Shahani to Kerala after his last production, Bhavantharana, based on the Odissi maestro, Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra.

UNI