Three years ago, two young men came to the city of Kochi to learn the art of filmmaking. Rojin Philip came from Thiruavananthapuram and Shanil Muhammed from Kannur. They met another young man called Rahul from Kochi. The three discussed their stories as they sipped tea at a shop outside the Cochin Media School.
One day, Shanil began narrating the story of a child petrified of mathematics. He thought it could make a great short film. But Rahul felt that it would make a greater feature film. Together, the three friends worked on the project for three years. While waiting for it to become a reality, they finished two other short films, one directed by Rojin with Shanil as associate called 'One Rupee Tip', and another that Shanil directed and Rojin associated, called 'Radio'. For both short films, Rahul composed the music. They then took out the old script again, the one that became the film 'Philip And he Monkey Pen'.
Rahul showed to his sister Remya Nambeesan, who narrated the story to Sanjay of the scriptwriting duo Sanjay-Bobby,“ reveals Shanil. He loved it and became a sort of godfather to the young men. A chance meeting with producer Vijay Babu and 'Monkey Pen' moved a step forward. Vijay brought in producer Sandra Thomas and in two days, they signed them a cheque to do the film. After three years of toil, everything fell into place in a matter of days. “Through Sanjay sir, we met Jayasurya. As soon as he heard the story, he agreed to do it," says Rojin.
Finding child actors was the next step. Through auditions, they found all the actors except the lead character -that of Ryan Philip. At first, when Sandra referred little Sanoop -brother of actor Sanusha -the director duo thought he didn't suit the character. But he attended the workshops and in his expressions and attractive smile, they found their Ryan. “It is also the first film Innocent uncle is acting after 11 months (after treatment for cancer). And then there was Mukesh. After a shot with him, we saw Harihar Nagar on TV. And we thought, that's the movie we all loved to watch, and now he's here with us."
Little Sanoop surprised all with his effortless dialogues, after playing on the sets. “There was a dialogue where he talks angrily about his maths teacher. He was really sleepy then. But when he said his lines in one go without a retake, we were left wondering if he was in fact cursing us instead of the teacher, for waking him up. He was that good!" On a parting note, Shanil revealed, “The biggest challenge as well as enjoyment was working with children."
