Ambrose steps behind the camera with supernatural thriller “The Club”
Choreographer-turned-filmmaker Sanju Ambrose is making his directorial debut with a bilingual feature titled The Club, a suspenseful supernatural drama set to be produced by Madhu for Fox Movies. The production will roll cameras on August 20 in Alappuzha, Kerala, with additional schedules planned in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Coimbatore. Shot simultaneously in Tamil and Malayalam, the film aims to blend a folk-rooted mystery with a contemporary investigative edge.
A bilingual rooted in the South
By mounting the project in two languages from day one, the team is positioning The Club to speak directly to audiences across south India. The setting—lakeside Alappuzha and the bustling corridors of Karnataka’s major cities—promises a visual palette that shifts from haunting backwaters to urban intensity as the mystery deepens.
The crew behind the vision
Ambrose leads a seasoned technical team. Murali handles cinematography, shaping a look that can move from naturalistic village textures to moody, shadow-laden interiors. Rajeev Ravi is on board for music, an important choice for a story where rhythm and memory intertwine. Pintoaji oversees art direction, a crucial department for a film that requires convincing period touches, ritual spaces, and a “between-worlds” atmosphere without slipping into cliché.
New faces up front
The Club introduces Sajan in the male lead, paired with Meenakshi as the female lead. The cast also features Ajith and Dinesh in key roles. The combination of newcomers and familiar supporting players suggests a performance-forward approach that gives fresh faces room to carry the narrative while anchoring pivotal scenes with experienced hands.
Story: a dancer, a book, and a haunting truth
At the heart of the film is a dancer who becomes an unlikely investigator. According to Ambrose’s outline, the protagonist discovers a book that recounts the tragic past of a female dancer from a particular village. The account is chilling: a young man is said to have murdered the woman after she rejected his love.
Driven by empathy and curiosity—and perhaps a sense of kinship—the dancer travels to the village to separate rumor from reality. Locals speak in hushed tones about the victim’s restless spirit and a region that grows hostile after dark. As the dancer pushes beyond superstition, she uncovers a deeper layer: the woman’s spirit appears to be trapped in a supernatural realm, a liminal space between the world of the living and the dead, stalked by malevolent forces.
Ambrose frames the central question with a thriller’s urgency: can the dancer rescue the lost soul and bring truth to light, or will she herself be pulled into an even more sinister trap? The director describes the film as a journey from folklore to frightening possibility, where the stakes are emotional as much as they are otherworldly.
Themes: memory, agency, and the cost of obsession
Beyond its genre mechanics, The Club seems poised to explore the way communities carry trauma—and how stories can both preserve and distort the past. The dancer’s perspective offers a humane counterweight to the sensational, turning the investigation into a reflection on agency, consent, and the long shadow of gendered violence. By making a performer its investigator, the film also invites a conversation about how art remembers what society tries to forget.
Visual and musical language
With Murali’s camera and Rajeev Ravi’s score, expect a sensory approach: dense soundscapes that swell with percussion in ritual sequences, strings that stretch tension to breaking point, and quiet passages where the creak of an old door or the hiss of wind through palm fronds does most of the frightening. Pintoaji’s production design will likely lean on authentic textures—weathered wood, temple brass, faded saris, and boat jetties—to ground the supernatural in the tactile real.
Schedule and locations
The shoot begins in Alappuzha on August 20, a choice that instantly supplies atmosphere: canals that turn mirror-slick at dusk, narrow lanes lit by errant bulbs, and open water that can feel infinite at night. Subsequent schedules in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Coimbatore suggest narrative shifts—perhaps the search for records, interviews with key figures, or confrontations that move the story beyond village borders.
A debut shaped by choreography
Ambrose’s background as a choreographer hints at movement-driven storytelling: blocking that tells a story even before the dialogue lands; dance motifs that echo across timelines; a sense of rhythm in how the camera glides from witness to clue. In a plot centred on a dancer and a ghost bound by unfinished performance, that sensibility could become the film’s signature.
Why “The Club”?
The title is deliberately enigmatic. While the makers have kept its precise meaning under wraps, it likely points to an inner circle—of secrets, of guilt, or of guardians—whose decisions ripple outward. Whether it names a literal place or a covert alliance, the title’s ambiguity adds intrigue without giving the game away.
What to watch for
- Character-led suspense: A protagonist who acts, not merely reacts, gives the narrative momentum.
- Regional authenticity: Locations chosen for story logic rather than postcard scenery.
- Sound and silence: A score that knows when to thunder and when to vanish.
- Ethical spine: A mystery that treats its victim with dignity and its themes with care.
The road ahead
As The Club moves into production, the film arrives at a moment when audiences are embracing regional thrillers that respect intelligence and atmosphere. If Ambrose can balance folklore with fresh craft—and if the technical team’s promise translates to the screen—this debut could mark the arrival of a new voice in South Indian genre cinema.
The Club starts rolling in August, and with its mix of myth, mystery, and movement, it’s one to keep on the radar.