The gifted script-writer of the Malayalam film world, Sachi, is all set to strike again, this time alone, with his most awaited movie, “RUN BABY RUN”… He shares his thoughts and expectations about the film to the readers of kerala9.com… Read on…

•        The Malayalam film world is blessed with the successful team of script-writers Sachi and Sethu. ‘Run Baby Run’ will be your first independent venture. How do you remark this?

“I treat each film as my first film, whether it is or it’s not a new film, a new director, or a new actor. I don’t bother about the number of films I’ve done before. I have the same tension I had while doing my first film. And so I dedicate myself completely towards making the film a success.

I think the term ‘independent’ is inappropriate, because it gives a false meaning as if I am set free from some bondage. Sethu and me decided to do films and worked for it; I had my thoughts and ideas, while he had his. Even then it was done; because each of us was compromising to the other, over the subjects, situations and dialogues. But even after convincing ourselves we need to consider the director’s point of view also.  So it’s not about doing it independently. Doing it ‘separately’ will be fine. It’s just like the splitting of an amoeba. Two persons, who had equal contributions in all the previous movies, are now splitting equally to do two different movies separately.”

•        As it is heard, the character of Mohanlal, ‘Venu’, is a skilled cinematographer and a superb cameraman coming back to Kerala from Delhi with five years of experience there. ‘Chithram’, an evergreen hit of Malayalam and ‘Photographer’, a remarkable film which bagged many awards, are films in which Lalettan excelled as a cameraman. Casting Lalettan as ‘Venu’- was it intentional?

“Well, before getting into it, let me say one thing. There is a fundamental mistake in the concept of the so called ‘character’. See, ‘Venu’ is a cameraman. It’s not his character, but his occupation. The character includes his inborn traits, body language, style of talking, and many other elements. Only if the occupation of the character is inevitable for the narration of the story, it is to be discussed.

Now, speaking about the character, Venu is a person with totally unexpected reactions. He may act seriously in humorous situations, while at some other bombarding situations he acts very hilariously. After passing out the Pune film institute with a golden medal in his hand, he didn’t even think about going to the film world. It’s because he don’t like to shoot manipulated visuals. His ideology lies in shooting only the original videos. Being a cameraman, he shoots many incidents creating a very heavy social impact. But he is least bothered about the impacts produced, and is only concentrated in shooting the real and raw videos, in the same live rhythm of its happening. This is the characterization of Venu. Here ‘cameraman’ is just his occupation. So casting Mohanlal as ‘Venu’ was not according to the occupation of the character.

Mohanlal gave 5 or 10 times more than what we expect in performance by adapting to the story and situation suitably. This gives us confidence.”

•        That’s about the male lead role. What about casting Amala Paul as the female lead?

“Amala’s character ‘Renuka’ is having too many variations. She is the senior editor of a famous news channel. She is bold enough and at times she behaves like a man. Five years before she ignited a spark of rage with ‘Venu’. From that day onwards they are fighting. But it will be true if I say that at some instances we just feel that the character is having many soft feelings.

Now, regarding casting of Amala Paul; we were in search of a matured looking, yet fresh-in-casting heroine. We made sure that the heroine must not give any chance of prejudice about the character by the type of characters done by her. Soon we found out that, Amala Paul who hasn’t done any important roles in Malayalam yet, has got all these factors. So it was fixed and she has really done it well.”

•        We all see that Biju Menon has made his characters remarkable by his fabulous performance in many of his latest films. It is sure that he will keep up his graph in this film too. From your side, how do you speak about his character in this film?

“Biju Menon is doing a character which will be different from his latest roles. He was a chief operating officer of a great channel, who resigned the job to start a new channel. But the channel didn’t turn out as expected and he finds it difficult even to pay the salary to his staffs. He was a man of good ways and led an ethical life before starting the channel. Now he is forced to keep aside his ethics and begins to learn the practical tactics of a common man. He is the close friend of Venu, and being too close, he doesn’t hesitate to even fight with him. But he cares for Venu deep in his heart.

•        Well, the readers of kerala9.com are eager to know about the plot of the story. Will you mind elaborating?

This is the story of the relation of two people, better to say a man and a woman instead of ‘the hero and the heroine’, who became enemies due to a particular reason. Their disaccord has a very specific reason. You need to note that they became enemies before the beginning of this movie. At a certain junction of life these foes have to work together to handle a highly confidential case. This friction brings forth the story.

•        As you said earlier, Venu behaves ‘out of the way’ at sometimes just like a half crack man. Renuka also does things beyond the natural- she behaves as bold as a man at certain occasions. So, does the story relate to some wild odds?

“The different behaviors are just unique to each character just like our thump impression, retina, etc… Each person has his/her own such uniqueness.  ‘Like poles repel’- is the main notion which controls the story. ‘Does unlike poles attract?’ is the question which arises. This thought takes you to the story.

•        The movie is a comedy thriller, as it is known. Well how did you mix the ingredients of comedy with the spices of a thriller?

“First of all, this film is not a comedy thriller. There is a considerable difference between comedy and humor. Comedy can be anything. Any word can be made comedy by gestures or actions. In fact it is the direct opposite of tragedy. It means comedy is an exaggerated version of humor. But humor, according to me, is something hilarious happening naturally. In this film there is humor. I strongly say that this is not a comedy film on the grounds that there are no comedians casted in this film. Also there are no comedy characters in the film, like those which enters the main story-line just for doing comedy-numbers. It is the hero and the heroin who handles the comedy.  I think we must stop using the word comedy.

•        The title of the movie is quite different. The people have by now begun discussing about the catchiness of the title ‘Run Baby Run’. To my anxiety, will you give an idea regarding this name?

“‘Run Lola Run’, is a Hollywood film which set a new trend in the film world and most of the people has watched it. So many people asked whether my film is an inspiration from the hit Hollywood film. They asked me so because many films have been made based on this film in several languages. In 1996, a hit music album was released in England with the name ‘Run Baby Run’. There is a 2006 released Ghana film in the same name which grabbed more than thirty awards on various fields. The word ‘baby’ actually means a kid. A man calls his lady love ‘baby’ with more care and affection. But here they are enemies. Also there are situations in the film where they go running. Others believe they become lovers, but as they go on running their enmity also increases. There is also a rhyme in the title as you can see. The name fits as a movie title too and hence the name.

•        As the film says, the hero and the heroine are running. So I am sure that there will be dusty stunts and powerful action. Is that so?
  

“This film stands apart from the other films done by Joshey sir. We have planned to avoid all the dramatized cinematic stunts which you often see in the modern films. We have gone for the natural layman fight which sticks more closely to the reality.

•        What about the camera, and art direction?

“The camera is handled by R D Rajasekhar, the one who fetches the highest remuneration in South India. He joined us after doing ‘Billa-2’ in Tamil. He was the one who did Ghajini in Tamil.

The workload is more for this film, so two art-directors have worked in it. In my knowledge, this is the first time two art-directors work simultaneously in a Malayalam film. If one may wonder watching the film as it doesn’t show much importance in art direction, then that will be where the art-directors succeed. Because they have tried to keep the frames natural so that it doesn’t feel anything extra. The art-direction has been properly made in tune with the story.

•        Casting?

“Besides Biju Menon, the film includes Sai Kumar, Siddique, Vijaya Raghavan, Shammi Thilakan, and Krishna Kumar. Saikumar and Siddique play two important roles in this film. But I will now leave it sealed for the sake of a suspense factor…!

•        “I AM YOUR MAN”, written by Liyon Kohen and directed by M.Jayachandran was the last song sung by Mohanlal. Now it seems he is back with his vocal magic again?

“Yeah he did sing a song. Lalettan has by now sung more than 30 songs and I am damn sure that this song is 100 times far better than his other songs, because it’s that brilliant…! There is only a single song in this movie, and I strongly believe that this song is gonna be a great hit. Lalettan was really thrilled to hear the final output of the song, that he called the music director Ratheesh Vega that night itself to congratulate him. It is a melody song with a folk touch.

•         It’s the era of new generation films. Considerable changes are seen in the posters, trailers, titles, and also in the way of promotion, in every movie. What changes do you go for?

“At the release of a movie we hear the same dialogue from every corner- ‘this one is a totally different movie’. But I don’t have anything like that to say. It is the audience who decide whether the film is different or not. According to me, the most important factor in marketing a film is the film itself. So it doesn’t matter a bit what posters you exhibit, what visuals you choose for the promos, except that it creates a first day rush in the theatres. “If there is a fruit in it, it runs; If not, it won’t”- it’s that simple. Let it be the number one director, the number one cameraman, the number one writer, and the number one actor, but this is the truth. There are live clues in front of us about people printing ‘50 days-running successfully’ posters for films soon after a week of release. Only two days are required to judge whether a film is successful at the box-office. It’s just like deciding the gender of a newborn child. There is no question of doubting the decision afterwards, right…? The posters only serve the need of letting the people know about the decision, that’s all. This may sometimes turn out to be a happy announcement of the decision made by the people about the film and that marks the victory of that movie…!

Wish you a great success… Good Luck…!!!

Interview by : Vimal
Indian Webcasting Media
May 2, 2012