Mahesh Narayanan – Malayalam film director of ‘Take Off’ fame

Mahesh Narayanan is a successful film director, editor and screenwriter associated with Malayalam cinema. He is best known for his debut film, ‘Take Off’. He also directed films – C U Soon and Malik. Before his debut film as a director, he edited many memorable films like Beautiful, Ennu Ninte Moideen, How Old Are You, Traffic, Makaramanju, Mumbai Police, B.Tech, Nayattu, Traffic, Kanyaka Talkies, Viswaroopam etc, and also wrote the script of Mili. Take Off bagged him numerous honours including Special Jury at the 48th International Film Festival of India and Special Mention at National film awards. Mahesh received Kerala state film award 2018 for the Best Debut Director too.

Mahesh Narayanan joined film industry as an editor

Mahesh Narayanan was born in capital city of Kerala. He completed his education in Thiruvananthapuram itself, and later joined film editing course at M.G.R. Government Film and Television Training Institute in Tamil Nadu. During his early years in Thiruvananthapuram, many film societies and film festivals drew him close to cinema, and many people working in the film industry. Cinematographers – Rajeev Ravi and Madhu Neelakandan, and editor B. Ajith Kumar were among those who suggested him to join editing course.

Initially he worked on documentaries, short films etc, and his first break to films was award-winning Ratrimazha in 2007. After working in industry for 10 years as a film editor he directed his first movie, Take Off in 2017. The movie starring Parvathy, Kunchacko Boban and Fahadh Faasil accumulated numerous state awards and international film awards. Now he is one of the leading directors of Malayalam cinema.

Mahesh Narayanan – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Apart from Malayalam, he has edited a few Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films.

2. He scripted Rajesh Pillai’s Mili, and also completed his incomplete Bollywood work, Traffic, after his demise. Rajesh always supported him to write scripts.

3. He shot his second film C U Soon using an iPhone during 2020 lockdown and most of the scenes were shot at Faasil’s flat. Movie was screened under the category of screen-life at the 42nd Moscow International Film Festival

4. India’s first computer screen film, C U Soon was released on OTT platform and received positive reviews.

5. Till 2022, he directed only three films, and all movies starred Fahadh Faasil.

6. Idea of his movie Malik was in his mind for last 10 years or so, while he was a busy editor. As a newcomer director, he was not confident enough to do that movie that time, and for many reasons, movie got delayed for a decade.