Oops! She Just Did It! - An off-beat story and an all-woman technical crew mark Revathy’s first venture as director

Snow, lush green slopes, colourful costumes and love as gyrating bodies. Even as well-known filmmakers continue to prance up the path to popular mass-appeal, Revathy is singing her own tune. “It just happened,” she grins as she relates how the all-woman technical crew for her soon-to-be released directorial venture, Mitr, My Friend fell into place.
It all began when Priya Venkateshwaran, an assistant to Manirathnam related a story to hubby Suresh Menon. What started off as an interesting script blossomed into a feature film idea. With friends Prabha Koda and Usha Rao handling costumes and Fowzia Fathima directing photography, a team of women came into being. Sudha Kongara co-scripted, while Thamarai wrote the lyrics, Sudha handled the Sound Engineering and Bina took care of the editing. “The only person we actually looked for to complete the team was Bhavatharini,” says Revathy, “I was pretty confused whom to ask - then I heard that Bavatharini was bringing out her own albums.”
Mitr, My Friend talks about the middle-age angst faced by an Indian woman living in the US, who has chosen to remain a housewife. With her teenage daughter finding her feet in a world of her own and a husband busy with a career, the heroine’s life falls into a vaccuum. Interestingly, the story is also told from the point of view of a husband unable to handle his wife’s dilemma. “How they grow to become friends forms the crux of the story,” says Revathy, “Because marriage is also about friendship too.”
Inspired by the Hyderabad Blues genre, Mitr... takes on a whole new world hitherto untread upon in mainstream Indian filmdom. For one, the heroine is not the conventional pretty young thing(PYT), but an older mature woman, played by actress Shobana. “There is no scope for an older actress in our films. She is slotted either as a mother or a sister,” says Revathy, who is determined to find a market for her venture, “We are treading on new terrain.”
So much so that the one song that was recorded for Mitr... proved difficult to handle. “I could not film the song,” laughs Revathy who had no intention of creating on a song and dance routine, “I intend to use it as a background score as a part of the script.”
Revathy is optimistic about the film which has been made in English, Hindi and Tamil. “I feel a good film will always do well,” she states as she talks about her plans to release the English version in the US, Canada and India. “The Hindi version will be released in certain pockets and the Tamil one, in Tamilnadu, of course.”
A pucca storyline. No songs. Soul-searching script. No PYTs. An older heroine. Oops! Is this an off-beat film? Revathy shakes her head vigorously. “You can’t label me,” she says emphatically, “I am just a filmmaker.” And she just did it!