Remaking Bharatan's classic Nidra

The remake of Bharathan's well-known film Nidra is set to hit the screens this Friday. The original came out more than three decades ago.

The new version is being directed by the legendary filmmaker's son, Siddharth Bharathan.

Nidra narrates the story of a newly married girl who has to face an extremely challenging situation when she realises that her husband is mentally unstable.

The earlier version of Nidra had Shanthi Krishna and Vijay Menon in the lead, while the new adaptation has Rima Kallingal and Siddharth Bharathan. The new version also marks the coming together of Siddharth and Jishnu Raghavan (son of veteran actor Raghavan), who started their acting careers together in Kamal's 2002 hit Nammal.

Nidra has been produced under the banner of Lucsam. The cinematographer is Sameer C Thahir and the music director is Jassie Gift.

The three lead characters talks about their experiences shooting for Nidra.

Besides directing and co-writing the film with Santhosh Aechikkanam, Siddharth Bharathan also plays the lead role in Nidra.

The film was announced some time back as Suhruthu, but "there were some technical reasons that caused the delay" Siddharth says.

He says that from all his father's films he chose to remake Nidra because it is relevant even today.

"If I have to remake a film, there should be something that I can convey through it. This story can happen even today, that too, during these times of mobile phones and Facebook. It has been set in a rural place like Chalakudy," he says.

Regarding the storyline, Siddharth explains that "in a way, it is the turbulent story of a mad man. The difference from films like Thakara is that he is not clinically mad. I am sure that people will be able to identify with Raju (Siddharth), his brother Viswan (Jishnu) and Aswathy (Rima)."

Rima Kalllingal is excited about her role in Nidra.

"I play Raju's better half. I am this village girl who gets married at a rather young age to her childhood sweetheart. She has heard about his illness, that he has been mentally disturbed after his mother's death. Now, she has to face the situation with virtually no support from anyone. It is a kind of a single-handed fight," she says.

She says the film is special as it is not like anything she has done before. "This girl is normal and is not sure what she is doing. She is not at all bold, unlike my usual roles. It is an intense love story, which I have never done in my career until now."

Jishnu Raghavan, who was launched along with Siddharth in Kamal's Nammal, agrees that "there is a lot of expectation as we team up again after a while."

He had taken a break from acting to concentrate on business and got really involved in it.

"Though my original plan was to balance business and acting, I got really busy with my responsibilities as the CEO of a company. I have done only Chakkaramuthu and Yugapurushan in between. Now I have decided to devote more time to acting," says Jishnu.

He is also doing a role in the forthcoming film, Ordinary. In Nidra, his character is more realistic when compared to Siddharth's, who lives in his own small world.