With quite a few blockbusters, including Drishyam, the first Malayalam film to hit the ₹50 crore mark, to his credit, director Jeethu Joseph has an impressive oeuvre. If Drishyam had Mohanlal in the lead, Jeethu is now ready with Aadhi, which launches Pranav Mohanlal as a hero in tinsel town.
The excitement is palpable and the filmmaker says though he is aware of the nerve-wracking anticipation, he does not want to think about it. Aadhi , releasing today, has Pranav playing a youngster adept in parkour (a training discipline).
Jeethu Joseph
In an interview with FridayReview , Jeethu talks about Pranav, Aadhi and about his Bollywood project, which he will direct next.
How do you react to comparisons between Pranav and his father, Mohanlal?
It’s ridiculous and totally unfair to make such comparisons. Even when the first teaser had come out, discussions had started about the comeback of ‘Mohanlal of yore’. Pranav and Mohanlal are two different individuals with their own physical and emotional make-up. Pranav has an acting style of his own and it is to be seen how the audience accepts it.
You have directed Mohanlal in Drishyam and Pranav in Aadhi . What do you have to say about them as actors?
Actually, there is a certain similarity in their demeanour and their approach to acting. There is a certain ease with which they handle a task. Of course, it took some time for Pranav to get on track, which is quite natural for a beginner. Initially, he was tense while going for retakes but he was fine when others in the unit helped him. Both the father and the son are down-to-earth and professional. Pranav has just started his career as an actor and we have seen how people in the industry change once they achieve success and fame. I have known Pranav for quite a while now and I feel he will remain grounded. He is a perfectionist and is sincere in his work.
Jeethu Joseph and Pranav on the sets of Aadhi
Pranav has worked as your assistant in Life of Josutty and Papanasam . Did that help during the making of Aadhi ?
More than me, I think it has helped him. He is shy and prefers to stay away from the limelight. Since he knew most of those working on the sets, he was comfortable working with them as a team.
What is Aadhi about?
The whole story will be revealed if I go beyond four or five lines. All I can say [now] is that it’s a situation. A youth with many dreams faces a predicament and the movie is about his efforts to work his way out of it even as the other characters try to help him. Though there are three main female characters, there are no heroines. It is well-known that Pranav is into parkour but Aadhi is not an action movie.
How did the idea of using parkour happen?
The storyline was there in my mind, right from my college days. But the youngster in that plot was a cross-country runner. By the time this project came together, parkour had become quite popular.
What was your experience while filming the parkour sequences?
The toughest part was to find the right locations. We had a team of experts, some of whom were from France, where this training discipline originated. One of them has actually acted in a movie with David Belle, considered to be the founder of parkour. Luckily, Pranav had taken some basic parkour lessons during his school days and he went for further training in Thailand after the project was announced. He is quite athletic and has done almost all the action sequences himself.
Your films, such as Detective , Memories , Drishyam and Oozham , have dealt with crime and were suspense dramas. Is Aadhi on similar lines?
(Smiles) I believe in keeping the curiosity of the viewers alive. Some gimmicks have to be used in any story to generate thrills.
Oozham , your last film as a director, and Lakshyam , which you scripted and co-produced, were not big successes at the box-office. What went wrong?
After Drishyam , I didn’t want to do another thriller. So I got a script written by someone else [Rajesh Varma] and directed Life of Josutty . In Oozham , I was focussed on the presentation. The story probably lacked emotional depth and that didn’t appeal to all.
In the case of Lakshyam, the suspense was over by interval and the next half was all about the tension faced by the lead characters. But then if you are looking for big box-office collections, you have to follow a certain formula. The releasing time of the film also worked against it.
Your forthcoming projects?
I start a Hindi film in April with Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor in the lead. There is another project with Mohanlal. I am also working on another story, a fun film with a group of youngsters, possibly fresh faces.
