Scenarist Syam Pushkaran wrote a note to techie Mridul George in which he tells him that he hopes Mridul would bump into Saumya sometime. The allusion is to the character in Maheshinte Prathikaaram who ditches Mahesh, breaking his heart. The twist here is that Syam scripted the film and Mridul has written fan-fiction based on the film.
Mridul is all set to publish his collection of fan-fiction inspired by some of Malayalam’s iconic films, ‘Paathi Murinja Ticketukal.’
Wikipedia defines fan fiction (fan-fic) as fiction about characters or setting from an original work of fiction created by fans. Harry Potter fans, for instance, have fan-fic communities where fans write and share their works.
Mridul accidentally stumbled on to the term much after he ‘wrote’ his first story. It was way back in 2011 when he thought of Devasuram from Mundakkal Shekharan’s, the villain in the Ranjith film, perspective. The spark of inspiration came from MT Vasudevan Nair’s ‘Randamoozham’, Mahabharatha from Bheema’s point of view.
“I had just read the book, it was an entirely new concept. That gave me the idea and I wrote ‘Devasura Kathekku Oru Pinkurippu’, Mundakkal Shekharan is a famous villain. I was curious about what a villain’s thought process would be like. At the time, I didn’t even know there was a genre called fan fiction, I found out much later,” he says. The books he was reading at the time also influenced him. With each story, and as he matured as a writer, he evolved his own signature style.
Over the years he has written, on his blog, plenty of fan-fic and shared them on social media platforms. Peripheral characters, a dialogue, a character mentioned in passing, a suggestion from a friend, the possibilities of a situation or it could just be an irresistible urge... the seed of a story could come from anywhere. “It usually begins with a question, it is about filling gaps that one might wonder about after one has watched a film.”
Of the 9 stories in the collection, “some took time, others were effortless, depending on how much there was to tell.” Devasuram , Ennu Ninte Moideen , Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum , Ustad Hotel , Johny Walker are among the films that figure in the book, the rest Mridul wants to keep under wraps until the launch. There are stories where the character’s trajectory starts in one film and moves to another. Each is a new story with a new name.
“My stories are the result of great admiration and respect for the original creators.” The stories in the collection have been culled from a number of his writings. He has tried, at different times, to reach his stories to the creators and actors—Syam Pushkaran’s response was encouraging, actor Vinay Forrt gave his feedback.
Writing has always interested him and being able to type in Malayalam, he says, was the turning point that opened up a world of writing to him. He was part of an Orkut community ‘Thani Malayala Kootam’ which was very supportive of his initial foray into writing. “They guided me, taught me about readability and reach. I gained a lot of confidence thanks to them.”
With the growth of the social media, he realised there were takers for his writing and began exploring the medium more. Working with Infosys at the time, he regularly contributed to the in-house blog, which also helped his writing. Mridul posted his writings on Cinema Paradiso Club, a Facebook community of film lovers’ page. The feedback there also was very encouraging, “Cinema Paradiso Club (CPC) helped me a lot, many of my stories went viral on the page and thanks to the page. I had decided if I ever compile these into a collection, I would like to involve the community in some way.”
The software engineer currently works with Kakkanad-based IT company, Visual IQ; he is grateful to his employers, former and present, for encouraging his creative endeavours. Mridul has made a couple of short films, and acted in some too. He is set to make his big screen debut as co-writer for Luca , that will have Tovino Thomas in the lead role.
‘Paathi Murinja Ticketukal’, published by Papyrus Books, will be available (post release on February 18) online on indulekha.com, National Book Stall and Library Council stores.
