“We open so many doors in our life for various reasons. But, sometimes, that one door that you open can completely change the course of your life. That is what happens to John Paul. He opens a door that takes him to a completely alien terrain, a road that zig-zags to his past and his future and alters his life,” says Chandrahasan, director of John Paul Vaathil Thurakkunnu , releasing today.
John meets someone who has a score to settle and that pulls him into a terrifying chase where one wrong step could mean the end of the game. The edge-of-the-seat narrative is filled with twists and turns as the director promises to take viewers on a rollercoaster ride through hills and vales, through revenge and remorse, through trepidation and terror. Inspired by a short story of Punathil Kunhabdulla, the first script was written by the director in 1992. “It has been revised and rewritten several times since then. But now, I felt, was the right time to tell the story of two lives that get entangled when one is forced to do something against his wishes. The script has been inspired by several incidents in my life and my friends’ lives,” explains the director who shows no sign of any pre-release tension. This is a man who knows his work and his art.
Once it was whittled down to 57 scenes, the director was ready to show the script to actors and well-wishers. He took his time with the casting and only when he felt that he had got what he wanted did he begin the shoot. “I wanted to cast Vineeth in the lead role. But, to his credit, he said honestly that he felt someone else would be better in the role and suggested Deepak’s name. I knew I had found John Paul the minute I saw him. But Manoj Maathen took some time and it was only during the rehearsals that I was able to finalise on Sudip Joshy as the best person to play the character,” recounts the director.
He asserts that though he would not call JPVT an action thriller, some of the best action scenes ever seen in Malayalam cinema were canned for the film. “I am lucky that my actors did not suffer any injuries during a scene that was shot in a market with buffaloes,” he adds.
He talks about the meticulous rehearsals to get the actors to live their roles, the painstaking location hunts, the dedication and patience to get the best of technical support and the close attention to detail. He also talks about how certain scenes were reshot to draw the best from the actors, how certain dialogues had to be rendered again and again to get the right pitch and how, through it all, he was adamant that he would not release the film until he was confident he had done it. Chandrahasan is a perfectionist and he wanted only the best for this labour of love that he had nurtured for so long in his heart.
Getting nostalgic about his tryst with cinema, he says that he learnt all about movies from thespian Madhu and the studio he founded, Uma Studios. “It was Madhu who made me an actor in Mini and so this film was begun with a shot of his. When I made the multi-starrer Prateeksha , I was 23. Three decades later, JPVT has all that I have learnt since then.” The fact that the film is reaching the silver screen shows how confident he is of his work.
“ JPVT is my swan song as a director. I might write but not direct a film. The film’s fate at the box office is irrelevant to me because I have no regrets about the way it has been made. I believe that this film can alter the way Malayalam cinema is made and marketed. I have also honed a gifted set of actors and some fine technicians,” says Chandrahasan before he signs off.
But not before he shows a message from Mohanlal: ‘The actors done [a] good [job]’.
Great expectations
“I have heard so much about Prateeksha , which featured Sukumaran and Soman, but have never seen the film. My father must have been the youngest director to pull off a feat like that. I have seen scenes from the movie, when the songs, composed by Salil Choudhary, were telecast in ‘Chitrahaar’ on Doordarshan. I have often imagined my father as a director. Now, more than 30 years later, I have got the opportunity to work with him,” says Geetika Chandrahasan Sudip, associate director, JPVT .
