Any reference to Shahjahan or Pareekutty, there is the immediate association of all-transcending love, the kind that lives on becoming the stuff of lore. So, when a movie calls itself Shahjahanum Pareekuttiyum , a combination of both immortal lovers, it’s bound to arouse curiosity. “No, no…it is about love, but nothing like their kind. It is about what love is to two opportunists,” says director Boban Samuel over phone from Chennai. Pareekutty, for the uninitiated, was immortalised by thespian Madhu in the film, based on Thakazhi’s Chemmeen .
It has been two years since Boban’s last film, the Jayasurya-starrer Happy Journey . “The gap happened because I was working on a film for Seven Arts, with Dileep. Three-four months into the project it had to be abandoned. Now we are working on another script with Dileep. Work will start after this film,” says Boban.
His 2013 film, the Kunchacko-Biju Menon starrer Romans , a caper about two on-the-run thieves, raked in the moolah at the box office. He once again teams up with scriptwriter Y.V Rajesh, who scripted Romans , which was also a two-hero project.
Kunchacko Boban and Jayasurya team up in Shahjahanum Pareekuttiyum , after the recent School Bus . The film is female-centric; the action revolves around Amala Paul’s character, Jia, and the two men, Prince (Jayasurya) and Pranav (Kunchacko). Boban says he wanted an actor of Amala’s stature to play the female lead. “These two guys were part of Jia’s life. They both come back into her life at the same time but many things have changed for her. The film is what ensues,” he says. The romantic comedy is a very today kind of story. “It’s not the mad, passionate kind of love. Both of the guys stand to gain in the end; it’s a necessity-driven love, if you may.”
The film has been shot in Wagamon, Pollachi and Kochi, among other places.
The director promises plenty of situational humour, the result of the two chasing the heroine, trying to win her love. “It’s an out-and-out entertainer; there is comedy but there is an element of suspense as well, which is introduced in the beginning itself. I make no claims that it is an extraordinary thread. In fact, it is common but we have treated it differently. It almost spoofs the ‘conventional’ happily ever after endings. Or rather, it challenges conventional endings.”
The question of the name comes up and Boban says it is drawn from a dialogue mouthed by Suraj Venjaramoodu in the film. “He says, ‘when it comes to love, if one is Shahjahan then the other is Pareekutty.’”
Music is by Gopi Sunder and Nadir Shah. Nadir Shah has written, composed and sung a song with Afzal, too. Anishlal has cranked the camera for the film which has been produced by Ashiq Usman. The others in the cast include Suraj Venjaramoodu, Aju Varghese and Lena.
