Malayalam film director Ravi is recreating the moments of the Rajiv Gandhi assasination on celluloid. His new film titled Mission 90 days with Mammootty in the lead, unfolds the struggles and triumphs of a military officer, who was anointed to trap the killers of the former Prime Minister.

Major (Retd) Ravi actually coped with the situation in the front seat as he was the team leader of the 1991 commando operation, which searched down Sivarasan, one of the main convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, and killed him. “This film is my humble effort to portray the stress which I overcame as a military officer during those days,” Ravi says.

It is interesting that he has used real names for the characters in the movie. But he asserted that there is nothing controversial in his film.“ I am not dealing with the political aspects behind Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. And no effort is there from my part to defame him. Hence why should I stay away from using the real names? A Chennai localite Sidharth who resembles Rajiv Gandhi is enacting the role,” says Ravi.

Mission 90 days is actually the third big-screen interpretation of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. It is expected to treat the theme very differently from its Tamil predecessors Kuttapathirikai and Kuppi .“My theme is different.

Here I am not mingling it with imagination as they did it in Kuttapathrikai. My film is definitely based on my own experiences. Mammootty’s character Major Sivaram is the exact imageof what I did years ago”, Ravi points out.

His maiden venture Keertichakra also enunciated his own experiences in the border. The film was a grand success and bagged prestigious awards.

The director says that he needs to bear the burden of over-expectation for his latest film: “I admit that expectations are very high because of the box-office victory and quality of Keertichakra.

So I have been doubly careful with this film. Mission 90 days also deals with commando operation, but I am treating the theme quite differently from Keertichakra. The only similarity is that this film also imparts a strong message of patriotism”.

The cast includes Lalu Alex, Kalabhavan Mani, Gopika, Sai kumar and Kiran Raj. Model-turned-actress Tulip Joshi plays the female lead. Thiru handles the camera and Jaison J Nair renders the film music. Produced by Sasi Ayyanchira, scripted and directed by Ravi, Mission 90-days is likely to hit theatres this July.