Following the release of Girish AD’s Bhoothakaalam Kudumba Unit, the song Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake from the unreleased Malayalam film Anna has found a new audience online. The renewed interest has also brought back the story of a film that had a screenplay, star cast, producer and even a complete soundtrack, but was never filmed.
The story of Anna began in the early 1990s, when writer and novelist N Mohanan travelled through Idukki during a Sahitya Akademi camp for young people. Inspired by the places he visited, including Thankamani, Rajakumari and Munnar, Mohanan developed a story and narrated it to his classmate, celebrated poet O N V Kurup. Impressed by the idea, O N V suggested that Mohanan turn it into a screenplay.
The script eventually reached filmmaker Joshiy through lyricist Shibu Chakravarthy. Joshiy was impressed by the poetic love story, which centred on Hari, a Brahmin youth serving as the Devikulam Sub-Collector, and Anna, a Christian girl. Aravind Swamy was cast as Hari and Sridevi was initially chosen for Anna. Musician Oottupulackal Unnikrishnan was also part of the cast, playing Hari’s younger uncle and Anna’s music teacher.
With producer Balram of Ambu Films coming on board, Ouseppachan composed the music and all eight songs written by Shibu Chakravarthy were recorded before filming began. One of them was Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake, the song that has now returned to the spotlight decades later.
As Gold 101.3FM, UAE’s No. 1 radio station, continues to bring listeners stories from the world of entertainment and culture, the renewed interest in Yavana Kathayil offers a glimpse into one of Malayalam cinema’s intriguing lost projects. Joshiy had planned an ambitious visual treatment for Anna, with Munnar as the main location, and even travelled through difficult forest terrain with cinematographer Jayanan Vincent to scout locations.
However, the project was ultimately derailed by scheduling issues. Aravind Swamy and Sridevi’s dates could not be aligned, and the team later considered Meena for Anna. Aravind Swamy’s availability continued to pose a problem, while Joshiy’s Sainyam was also moving forward. Anna was eventually shelved without a single scene being shot.
Its music, however, survived. Magna Sound released a cassette containing all eight songs in 1995, and the album became a major hit. The fate of the screenplay was far more mysterious. After Mohanan died in 1999, his friends tried to trace the script and learnt that it had been taken by an assistant director to read. By then, the assistant director had also died in an accident. Although his family promised to look for the screenplay, it was never recovered, raising the possibility that it may have passed into the hands of another filmmaker.
Today, Anna remains a rare unfinished chapter of Malayalam cinema—a film that had a story, director, actors, producer, locations and eight recorded songs, but never reached production. While its screenplay remains lost, Yavana Kathayil Ninnu Vanna Idayakanyake has given the forgotten project an unexpected second life, bringing Anna back into public conversation more than three decades after it was conceived.
