Scripting a reel wonder: Sajeev Pazhoor

Sajeev Pazhoor is in seventh heaven after hearing the news of winning the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Screenplay. He won the award for writing the script for the hit movie Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum. This Malayalam film has received exceptional reviews and the award surprised none. Not even the man himself. “I knew this script will do well and even though I was not expecting any awards, I was sure that I have done something worthy of getting good recognition,” he says. 

Thondimuthal..., with Sajeev's wonderful and quirky story about a thief who swallows a gold chain, has been one of the most successful films last year. The Fahadh Faasil-starrer is directed by Dileesh Pothan. Sajeev says the story, which was actually written by him with an intention of directing it himself, was later on given to Dileesh. “I wrote the screenplay and wanted to direct it myself. But due to some matters, later, we decided to go on with Dileesh directing it. Syam, who wrote the dialogues also, did a great job. I would like to thank both Dileesh and Syam for their contributions. Each and every character did dialogue modulations by their own will and it really worked well.”

The story was written as a bilingual one. When he completed the story, Sajeev had written it for Tamil also. He wanted to make his story really rooted in reality and from the casting to the last shot of the film, Dileesh did a great job to make it look a real story. “Dileesh is very wise and for all to get the flow of the film, he decided to start the scenes in the chronological order,” he adds.