W atching Rajeev Ravi’s Annayum Rasoolum was epiphany for debutant director Shahnavas K. Bavakutty, who was until then ‘just a film lover’. “I have no academic connection with films except that every Friday I’d watch and look forward to new releases, as would any film buff. That is until I watched Annayum Rasoolum . It opened my eyes to films, to filmmaking…it inspired me,” says Shahnavas. A politician, a CPI(M) councillor for 10 years in the Ponnani Municipality, films are an unlikely, happy U-turn. He makes his directorial debut with Kismath , which is set to hit theatres today. The film is produced by Rajeev Ravi’s Phase One Collective and distributed by Lal Jose’s LJ Films. And when Rajeev Ravi’s name is associated with a film, there are high expectations. The teaser and the songs have garnered praise and attention, especially from the fraternity. He attributes the response to the alchemy of a brilliant team of technicians. Curiosity whetted by Annayum Rasoolum , he made three short films – Blackboard , Eeran and Kanneru – which were screened at various film festivals and were received well, especially the much-feted Kanneru . Excerpts from a telephone interview.
A Rajeev Ravi film inspired you. Collective Phase One, with which he is involved, is also producing your first film.
After Annayum Rasoolum , I had been following Rajeev. I had spoken to him; there was a friendship of sorts. But when I finally met him in Kochi, it was to tell him the story of Kismath ; I had also shown him my short film, Kanneru . He heard the story and told me Collective Phase One would produce the film.
The trailer has created a buzz; a lot of people are looking forward to Friday.
I am apprehensive of the hype that the trailer and the song have created, it is scary. The trailer has gone viral and the response overwhelms me. I am not making any claims about the film; it is a straightforward love story. All I will or can promise is that it will resonate with everybody. The film maybe located in Ponnani, but it has universal appeal and can happen anywhere in the country or the world.
The tagline says ‘based on a true story’.
It is indeed based on a true incident that happened in Ponnani in 2011. I was at a police station and I saw this young couple, the boy, around 23 years old, and the girl around 28. All they wanted was to live together; this film is about how society, police and even their families reacted to that simple wish. It is about the ‘politics of love’.
‘Politics of love’…that is interesting.
Yes, it is politics. It was there in how the families and society ‘handled’ their love. The boy was Muslim and the girl Dalit. Everything I saw that happened around that incident, its there in the film.
The script is yours.
Yes, that was the biggest surprise for me in the whole process. ‘Shahnavas – the script writer’ surprised me. I approached a few script writers to develop the story into a screenplay. They all told me that since I narrated the story well I could write it and they’d collaborate. This went on for sometime and then one day I just sat down and wrote it in a week. There were no complications, I was writing about what I saw and also drew from my experience as a politician and from life.
You haven’t assisted anybody, you are a newcomer. In that sense you are free of any baggage or influences.
As Geethu Mohandas told me, it’s a good thing that I didn’t assist anybody. Like I said when it comes to cinema I am not ‘academic’, though I have watched many films. I am lucky to have learnt through my first film…I spent a year with it – thinking of nothing else.
Shane Nigam is a newcomer, Shruti is couple of films old…the lead pair is relatively new. What was the process of choosing the lead pair?
I had spoken to another actor for Shane’s role, but he told me to wait for sometime before making the film. I wasn’t willing to. And it is Rajeev who suggested Shane. The entire cast including Vinay Forrt, Sunil Sukhada, Alencier and others have done a great job. Not just the actors even the technicians – I was lucky to work with such a great team. I didn’t put any restrictions on my actors or technicians; I just let them do their jobs.
Lal Jose’s LJ Films will distribute the film. You have Rajeev Ravi and Lal Jose with you. How did the experience help?
Both directors belong to two different schools of filmmaking and I am fortunate to have benefited from both. Their creative inputs helped me. Lal Jose saw the first cut; he liked it and suggested some changes which I made and I realised it made the film better. Similarly Rajeev suggested tightening the film in order to make it crisper, needless to say it helped. Like I said, the film is the net result of teamwork by the ‘collective’.
