Pisharody can't keep calm

Ramesh Pisharody keeps pushing the envelope. The journey from behind a stand-up comic’s mic, through the small screen’s rib-tickling scenes, has taken him to the bylanes of the silver screen and landed him on the high road of filmmaking. At each stop point, he starts afresh, rediscovers his self and propels himself to attain greater heights. The news came on Vijayadashami day that Pisharody is directing. The multi-lead movie Panchavarnathatha has Jayaram and Kunchacko Boban, with Anusree as lady lead.  He came with his long-time on-screen buddy, Dharmajan Bolgatty, to offer on his Facebook page a sneak-peek of his movie.

What would otherwise have been just another Sunday morning was rewarding for Pishu (as he is fondly called in the fun-filled show Badai Bungalow). The hunt was on to find locations to let his Panchavarnathatha spread its wings. The voyage through Palai and Thodupuzha locales got interrupted midway by a call. Showing no remorse, he happily picked the call and exchanged conversational pleasantries. A clichéd question becomes a necessity here. Won’t he be making a comedy movie? The reply comes laced in his effortless wisecrack. “If fighting is for Jackie Chan’s movie, comedy is there in mine.” Pisharody is stands out in his own way. On further quizzing, he makes no tall claims. Had he been dreaming of direction for long? “The script in my mind was first discussed with Nadirshah. ‘Why don’t you do it?’ was his reply. I have been behind the script for a year,” he explains. 

He single-handedly deals with the departments of direction and dialogues, while Hari P. Nair co-scripts the movie. The teaser teases in many ways. In the first outing itself, Pisharody is making a daring experimentation of sorts. The short video introduces the characters before and behind the camera. His maiden venture is bankrolled by actor-turned-producer Maniyanpillai Raju. Unless told, it’s hard to recognise the person from the sketch of a bald-headed, pot-bellied, middle-aged man holding a caged parrot as Jayaram!   Jayaram, who has recently been found sporting different looks on the big screen, is in for a never-seen-before get up in this film. When he comes on screen as a pet-shop owner, Kunchacko would appear in the role of an MLA. The era where most Malayalam movies come dedicated to regional and dialectal tastes, Pisharody’s won’t be one such. “The story happens in an imaginary place with no regional flavour to identify with. As in the title, bird life is significant in the script,” says he.

And what more? The laugh riot has Salim Kumar to lead from the forefront and Nadirshah presenting the opening song. Music has a great importance in the film and veterans are drafted in for the job. M. Jayachandran sets three songs to tune and Ouseppachan designs the background score. Once the locations are fixed, the movie would go on floors in January, 2018. What was the rationale behind picking this ensemble cast? “Each actor was decided for the roles based on how well they fit for it and how good they are at executing the task,” he reasons. Pisharody, seen handling a feel-good role in the recent hit Ramante Eden Thottam and Achayans, has a couple of other projects to complete before he gets fully into direction. He has roles in Dhyan Sreenivasan’s movie Sachin and the Kunchacko Boban starrer Kuttanadan Marpappa. He would be playing the brother to Angamaly Diaries fame Anna Rajan aka Lichi in Sachin. All said, his fans may now want to hear one more thing. Would he go missing from the once-in-a-week staple banter? “Badai Bungalow won’t get disrupted. Episodes would be shot before my movie starts,” he assures. And viewers can also wait and watch how the Pisharody-Dharmajan chemistry works this time in a different on-off screen equation.