Ramesan was threading the last reel of a 1986 classic: Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (A Northern Ballad of Valor). He had chosen it deliberately. It was a film about chavettu pada —the art of lying and dying with honor. It was about the Vadakkan Pattukal (Northern Ballads) of the Mappila and Nair warriors, the pooram festivals, and the weight of a promise.