Jeethu Joseph writes a London office rom-com for Vimal and Shriya Saran

Jeethu Joseph is not a name you expect on a romantic comedy. The Drishyam director’s story credit on Sandakkari is the first surprise about the film; the second is the setting, a software company in London where Shriya Saran runs the floor and Vimal is one of the people working on it. R. Madhesh, who wrote the screenplay and dialogue and directs, pitches the two as opposite poles, boss and employee, and the film as the running fight between them. The title translates roughly as the quarrelsome one, and it belongs to her.

The person paying for that fight is Sathyan, cast as the colleague who lands between the two of them in every argument and is meant to carry a good share of the comedy. Around the three leads the film has assembled an older bench: Prabhu in a character role, K.R. Vijaya back after a long gap, and Punnagai Poo Gheetha, who also produces the film, in a substantial part. Crane Manohar handles a comic track, and the cast runs on through Rekha of Kadalora Kavithaigal, Dev Gill, the Magadheera villain, Uma Padmanabhan and Mahanadhi Shankar.

For Vimal it is a return to the register that made his name. Kalavani and Vaagai Sooda Vaa were rural comedies with a romance at the centre, and his recent run has leaned harder into drama, Vadam and Paramasivan Fathima among them. A corporate rom-com in London, opposite a heroine whose Tamil credits go back to Sivaji, is a different pitch altogether. Madhesh’s own filmography, Aai and Maayavi in it, is built on broad commercial comedy, so the pairing with Joseph’s story is the unusual part of the package rather than the director’s.

Amrish composes, Gurudev shoots, Dinesh Ponraj edits and Ayyappan handles art direction, with Kanal Kannan on the stunts and Habib on choreography. The team is calling it a family rom-com and says it reaches theatres soon, with no date attached yet.