Mollywood brigade shines bright

Surabhi was far out of the ear shot when claps and whistles were heard loud in the air in Kerala at her national award win. The best actor was out there in Salalah for a stage show when Minnaminungu director Anil Thomas called her up over WhatsApp. “Like all of us, she too was taken by surprise. Somebody who came to know the news brought her congratulatory messages and a floral bouquet. She took it as a token of appreciation for her state award win. The person broke the news of the National Award and she was totally awed. Even on the penultimate day of the Award announcement she had asked me if our movie was anywhere in consideration. My answer was ‘I can’t predict’,” Anil says. As a director, Anil is fully contented for she has put in a one hundred and one percent for her role as a widowed, struggling, middle-aged mom who cares too much for her only daughter.

“I have produced the show Deal or No Deal in TV. I was actually seeing lives rolling past me. That gave me a spark to do a movie which tells the story of a struggling mother. Surabhi seemed ideal for the role and she was game for the project,” he adds. Surabhi had gone totally de-glam for the role and was with the team through thick and thin. “Our team had struggled a lot and we went through financial constraints to complete the project. My character does not even have a name. She is the one who raises her only daughter single-handedly. Once she grows old, she makes plans to migrate to a foreign country. The mother is pained at heart. Instead of becoming totally crestfallen, she is only doing the next best thing she can do for her daughter — building a safe shelter for that day in the future when she returns. It may or may not happen,” says Surabhi.

Still from Minnaminungu

Surabhi also had a real-life model before her — her hostel warden Meena. In an earlier interview to us, she has elaborated how, to be a woman in mid 40s, she has replicated her Meena Matron’s mannerisms, accent and way of life a lot. “I had to observe things from the perspective of a woman of that age,” she said. Minnaminungu was her first in a lead role since her first movie By The People. The movie is gearing up for a May release.

Sound Judgement
The Sound Designing department is still coming into its own in Mollywood, trying hard to break free of the shackles of invisibility and anonymity. Sound designer Jayadevan Chakkadeth, who won the National Award for the film Kaadu Pookkunna Neram, says that though sound is not accorded its due in Mollywood, this award is indeed a huge recognition. Jayadevan has already won two state awards for the same film and though the National award was unexpected, the director of KPN— Dr Biju had predicted that Jayadevan would be a winner. Turned out he was right. Jayadevan says, “Dr Biju has been saying all along that I might get a National Award for this film and even two days before the award announcement, he repeated it. It was Dr Biju who called me up and informed me of the award when I was taking a class in Bengaluru.”

Jayadevan designed the sound according to the demands of the script, visuals and narrative. Jayadevan says, “Dr Biju wanted realistic sounds for this film and the challenge before me was that it was shot in a forest and I had to reproduce the sounds of the forest like the rustling of the leaves, footfalls on broken twigs etc. As any sound designer knows, reproducing forest sounds is no easy task!” But Jayadevan succeeded in his attempt because he got a lot of applause for the sound wherever the film was exhibited. Now the National award is a bigger vindication of his talent.

Still from Kaadu Pookkunna Neram

‘Award, a Bonus’
While penning the screenplay of Maheshinte Prathikaram, all he wanted was a good reception of the film by audiences. Awards were nowhere in Syam Pushkaran’s agenda, and now, he is happy to have bagged the national award for his work in the film. “As we expected and wished, the film became popular when it hit the screens. In fact, that was our only wish. I would like to consider these awards as a bonus,” says the writer, who was earlier adjudged the best scriptwriter by Kerala State award jury too.

This year, six National awards have come to Kerala in the general category. Quizzed if he feels there is a massive change in Malayalam film industry, he says, “From earlier days itself, films of around three-four languages are being discussed in the national level and one among those was always Malayalam. So, I would like to say that this year also, Malayalam industry kept that consistency in bagging the National awards.” Maheshinte Prathikaram was his first independent film, though he started his career as a screen writer with Salt and Pepper along with Dileesh Nair.

Compiled by Meera Manu, Priya Sreekumar and Aravind K.S.