There’s a short gasp of surprise. Gregory Jacob had expected to hear a man’s voice as this reporter called. That’s the name of his brother too. The name that is now familiar to a lot of people in Kerala - not just his, all the names in Gregory’s family. Vineeth Sreenivasan has put at the end of his movie Jacobinte Swargarajyam the photos and names of all the real life people that inspired this story, Gregory at the centre of it all.
It is a work day and Gregory has to switch between many calls while he tells his tale. But he is ever so patient. And yet, it’s like you know him already, if you have seen Vineeth’s film. Vineeth has made him George, a typical young man, below 25, taking life easily, without any kind of seriousness, till a crisis comes to the family. Nivin who had played George in the film transforms through the two hours into the man that Gregory, in real life, had to become. -
“My friendship with Vineeth, and Shaan Rahman (musician), goes back eight years,” Gregory says, in a long distance call. He is in Dubai, the same place that Vineeth and Shaan had met him all those years ago, when they went to shoot their music album Malayali.
It is a year or two later that Gregory’s problems began - a financial crisis that would shatter his family that lived in all comfort for years. “At first I wouldn’t discuss my problems much. But gradually, when we started talking about our families, I told them (Vineeth and Shaan) about it, and how I haven’t seen my dad for a long time.” Jacob had to go to Liberia on business, but he got stuck there. He couldn’t come back because of the case back in Dubai.
Neither could Gregory’s mother step out of their home. It was bad times like nothing else they have ever known. “Our problems were so big that I became a kind of encouragement tool for my friends who were dealing with everyday common problems like a bad boss or little pocket money. That’s the kind of problems one has in that kind of age.”
But when they spoke to Gregory, they felt better. “I would tell them, their brother may have a problem, but their family is still together. I haven’t seen my dad in five years.” And even now, as he says that, there is a little crack in Gregory’s voice. Vineeth had remarkably passed on this emotion to the big screen as Nivin becomes voiceless with emotion on a meeting with his dad played by Ranji Panicker.
“Vineeth had asked for suggestions for the film name. I was suggesting names like Georgeinte Swargarajyam and all, but then he said Jacobinte Swargarajyam. When he said that I had tears in my eyes; I broke down. I knew it was our story but I didn’t realise it was that personal. I hold my dad very close to my heart, look up to him a lot. I feel so much pride when I hear people talk about the good things he did.”
It was in Christmas 2013 that Gregory and family finally met Jacob, and the meeting happened in their hometown Tiruvalla. He clicked several photos with his dad and send happy pictures to his friends including Vineeth. Just as he used to call Vineeth or Shaan when he was stressed out in the past, and they’d then crack a joke or two. Four months later, Vineeth asked him if he could make a film out of Gregory’s life. “I told him to go ahead, for I see him on a different level.” He would go on and off for the shooting in Dubai but not much. He wanted to keep off and enjoy his surprise as he saw the film.
But Gregory has not yet seen the film! “I couldn’t come to Kerala yet. We are waiting for the Dubai release on May 4, and already bought some 40 tickets,” he laughs as easily as he cries. The real life ‘George’ is just as sweet, if not sweeter than his reel version.
