It doesn’t get better than this for writer-director Nirmal Sahadev. Hey Jude , his debut film as a scenarist, is winning hearts at the box-office. Directed by Shyamaprasad and starring Nivin Pauly as the protagonist, it’s a light-hearted entertainer that tells the tale of a lovable youngster with Asperger Syndrome. At the same time, the slick teaser-trailer of Nirmal’s first film as director, Ranam – Detroit Crossing , has sent social media into overdrive. Starring Prithviraj at his gangsta best, the teaser of the film was released on YouTube over the weekend and has crossed 4.25 lakh views and counting.
“I’m so lucky to be a part of the Malayalam film industry. These are exciting times to be a filmmaker, an actor and a technician; the industry now offers rank newcomers like myself so much space to do all what we dream of doing. It’s become a space that embraces a Pulimurugan and a Hey Jude with equal fervour. It’s an industry that’s just realising its capabilities and I’m glad I’m in for the ride. What you are seeing on screen now are my dreams coming true,” gushes Nirmal, over the phone.
Based in Atlanta in the United States, the 30-year-old is a graduate of the New York Film Academy and is the executive producer of Brown Nation , an American comedy drama series that was picked up by Netflix. Nirmal’s entry into Mollywood, however, was as the chief associate director on the set of Shyamaprasad’s Ivide , which was set in Atlanta. “Not only did I get the opportunity to work with Shyamaprasad, who, by the way, has become my mentor, but I also struck up a rapport with Prithviraj and Nivin, the stars of the film, particularly Raju [Prithviraj]. We clicked on a personal level as well, with our shared love for cinema and books. Then, when the opportunity to make my script into a film presented itself, I simply stepped up to the task,” says Nirmal.
On his craft
Like many young go-getters these days, there is a refreshing self-assuredness in the way he talks about his craft and in the way he approaches his art.
“I always knew I would end up in cinema. It was not a revelation. When you have a goal in mind, you try and equip yourself with the right skills. I prepared myself by writing screenplays for fellow filmmakers, making short films and learning as much about cinema as possible. When you have cinema in you, it will happen to you but when it comes, you need to be ready with your skills, ready with the homework,” says the director, who is presently in Kochi where he is busy with the post-production of Ranam - Detroit Crossing and also celebrating the success of Hey Jude .
That Hey Jude is being accepted by critics and the audience alike heartens him, he says. “It was a tough film to write. It essentially deals with a serious subject that needed to be told in a funny way and therein lay the challenge. It’s about a non-conformist and the way he sees the world and the way the world sees people like him. It helped that there are many people like him, around us, who make our world so vivid. The key to the story was to make it empathic without being insensitive,” says the affable Nirmal. Dialogues for both films were written by his friend George Kanatt, based in New Jersey.
Action-packed
Meanwhile, writing and directing Ranam – Detroit Crossing , was a totally different ball game altogether, “as different from Hey Jude, as Dr Jekyll is to Mr. Hyde!” says Nirmal. Set in the mean streets of Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, Ranam is an ‘action drama’ inspired by VVT (Valvettithurai), a Sri Lankan Tamil gang that once upon a time ruled the streets of Toronto, before the authorities cracked down on their activities.
“Prithviraj plays a mechanic who moves to Detroit to take a second chance on life, only for his sordid past to catch up on him. As the tag line of the films states, he soon finds out that second chances are often costly. That said, it’s not an action drama per se but has a defined love story as well. In true film noir style, it’s got a femme fatale [played by Isha Talwar], a woman he wishes he hadn’t crossed. Also, Detroit itself is a city that is trying to revive itself from its violent history. So, the city is sort of a mirror to what the character goes through, for beneath all the viciousness, poverty and bleakness is a vibrant soul that yearns to be free,” says the director, taking a moment to thank Prithviraj. “Raju was invaluable to me during the making of Ranam because as someone who has been in the industry since age 17, first as an actor and then as a producer, he knew the ins and outs of the industry, and guided me through them.” Rahman also plays a major role in the film that’s up for release sometime in March-April.
