Director Lal Jose’s latest flick Vikramadithyan has proven talents both in front of and behind the camera. But a comparatively new face, a burglar who jumps the wall in the very first shot, has stolen the hearts of moviegoers. Even those who watched Kamal’s Nadan last year might have failed to recognise this face then. The role was modelled on Ochira Velukkutty, who attained fame donning female characters in an era when women were banished from public places. The actor’s sterling act had created ripples that has now turned into waves with Kunjunni, the charming thief in Vikramadithyan that is running to packed houses.
In fact, Santhosh Keezhatoor’s tryst with the stage began, though accidentally, when he was hardly 10 years old. One of his cousins was an actor with the famed Sanghachethana in Kannur and Santhosh too was selected to the drama troupe after completing his Plus Two. “‘Sakhaavu’ was my first play there and after a performance in Kanyakumari, I knew theatre was my calling,” he says.
Thus began a journey in earnest and he continued his studies in between trips with his drama troupe. After his stint with Sanghachethana, he switched to amateur theatre and dabbled in drama workshops, children’s theatre, and everything concerning the stage. Santhosh always wanted to learn direction from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. It was during those days that he struck a friendship with cinematographer-director Rajeev Ravi, who had come to Kannur for a docu-fiction film. Through him, Santhosh was offered a role as Prithviraj’s brother in the Lohithadas movie, Chakram. The movie did not do well at the box-office and the actor went back to theatre. “I did not wait for films then. Theatre was my life…I made it a point to keep myself engaged, be it through film festivals, making short-films, or designing lighting for the stage,” he says.
For a while, Santhosh worked in West Asia, too. “But after three months, I took the flight back home, buying myself a VHS player!,” Santhosh says.
In 2006, he was adjudged the best theatre actor by the State government for the drama Kottayathu Thampuran , a production of Aksharakala, Thiruvananthapuram. He also won the best actor award at the State television awards, 2009, for Aadimadhyaantham -fame Sherry’s short film, The Return. All this while, Santhosh assisted film-maker T.V. Chandran in four of his films.
“When I take up something, I do not think about the ultimate fame or money it may bring. I am thrilled about the journey, more than the destination.” Santhosh’s stint with Mallika Sarabhai’s Darpana Academy for Performing Arts in Ahmedabad happened thus. “Chandran sir’s son Yadavan Chandran took me to Darpana. I worked there as an actor and lighting designer, and we performed across the country and abroad,” he says. “It was a fruitful time, but I came back to Kerala for I have always felt that this is my turf,” he adds.
Santhosh has just completed a trip all over Kerala with Last Rehearsal, a drama he directed for Chithra Theatres, Kannur. It was staged at 10 places as part of a project of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi that provides assistance for staging select plays across the State. Amongst it all, phone calls and Facebook messages, congratulating him for the superb performance in Vikramadithyan , kept pouring in. “I am overwhelmed by the response,” he says. “I was not the first choice for the role. It was director-producer Ratheesh Ambat who had shown him my photograph and I was told to meet the director in person. Lal Jose told me to reduce my weight and come back. Kunjunni was a character dear to every one even before I joined the sets. So when I finally bagged the role, their love for Kunjunni inspired me a lot,” Sathosh says.
Though no new roles have come his way as yet, the industry and film lovers are thrilled about this new character-actor. So, will he continue loving theatre even after he makes it big in the tinsel town? “Why should I leave theatre? If you look at world cinema being screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala, all those actors are theatre artistes too. Even in Bollywood, our ace actors find time for the stage. Of course, cinema is a big canvas, but theatre is also a powerful medium. We should promote it,” Santhosh signs off.
