Dileep-Gopika jodi returns

Dileep and Gopika played the lead pair earlier in films like Chanthupottu and Don.

Soon after Gopika left the film industry and Kerala to join her husband after marriage in Ireland. She left just when her last film Veruthe Oru Bharya created history at the box office. Now, she returns to face the camera again with Dileep. She plays Dileep's pregnant wife, Vimala.

Dileep plays a journalist in cinematographer-turned-director P Sukumar's Malayalam film Swa Le or Swantham Lekhakan. The film is based on scenarist Kalavoor Ravikumar's short story titled Deadline, published in the book Mohanlaline Enikkippol Bhayangara Pediyanu.

Sukumar, who is handling the camera besides directing and co-producing the film under the banner Color Factory, said, "It is a satirical pattern that we have used to narrate this story. Unni Madhavan (Dileep) is a reporter of a daily called 'Janachintha', with a medium circulation, in a small town. He is an idealistic person and devoted to his profession, but has to struggle hard to cope with the responsibilities in his own personal life. He lives in a modest house with his pregnant wife, but never finds enough time to spend with her."

Kalavoor Ravikumar, who has written scripts for several popular films like Ishtam, Nammal, Manju Poloru Penkutti and Hridayathil Sookshikkan among others, says that "the incidents being mentioned in the story happens almost a decade ago, before technology was not so developed and mobile phones hadn't become part of our lives like it is now."

Unni Madhavan and his wife Vimala married amidst protests from both their families. Unni's office is on one side of the river as they could not afford to live in the town. He had to swim back home across the river often late in the night, after his working schedules were over.

Vimala wants him to apply to some other major dailies for a better placement but he waits for the day when he would be approached by all major publications. The story takes a different turn when Unni goes to report about the condition of a seriously ill award-winning writer, Palazhi Sivasankara Pillai (Nedumudi Venu).

Dileep says that Swantham Lekhakan talks about the struggles of a journalist, who is working hard to keep his deadline. "There is always tremendous pressure from his job and he has to struggle hard. We have seen films in the past where journalists leading a kind of glamorous life, but here we are showing a more realistic picture. This man has to spend long hours at his job and rarely finds enough time to spend with his family."

Swantham Lekhakan will hit the theatres in October.