Just before the release of his long-cherished debut feature Moonwalk, filmmaker Vinod A K speaks with quiet enthusiasm and thoughtful calmness. With over two decades of experience in advertising, he’s a man used to telling stories in thirty-second bursts. However, Moonwalk, which hits theatres tomorrow, is a full-length canvas that he paints with nostalgia, rhythm and youthful passion. “I hope it will be a joyful ride for everyone. It’s a film that both young people and older folks can relate to, so we expect it to have a universal appeal,” Vinod says, distilling the film’s essence into a single, hopeful sentence.
At first glance, Moonwalk might seem like a dance film because its trailers tease kinetic energy, music, and vibrant choreography. But Vinod insists it’s more than that. “Dance was their passion, but what drives the story is the life behind it, including the friendships and the romances that happened while they were chasing their dream,” he explains. As he describes it, “Moonwalk could be a musical drama or a coming-of-age film,” though he’s unsure how to classify it. Set in the 1980s, the film immerses audiences in a time before smartphones and social media. Vinod reflects on the era’s unique social fabric. “If you wanted to say something to a friend, you had to go to their house or meet them somewhere. Hardly anyone had phones or gadgets back then. It’s not that today’s generation lacks depth. With technology, connectivity has improved, but back then, we shared a special bond without any of that.” This sentiment shaped both the tone of the film and its visual texture. Vinod’s team scoured Trivandrum, where the story unfolds, seeking locations that retained the flavour of the past. “Today, wherever you look, you’ll see flex boards everywhere. But back then, most of the advertising was done through paintings on the walls of houses. Sometimes we’d finalise a location after a recce, but when we returned to shoot, we’d find that it had changed in a way that didn’t fit the film’s time period,” he recalls. Ultimately, the film’s key settings span Puthenthope, St Andrews, and Kazhakkoottam. “But today, Kazhakkoottam looks completely different, with the IT park and all those big buildings. So we ended up shooting in the rural areas of Neyyattinkara and Nemom to capture the right look and feel.”