The tagline of filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Angamaly Diaries says that it is a ‘hardcore local flick’.
“The story is essentially about the culture, attitude and food of Angamaly. I live in Chalakudy, which is quite near Angamaly and I know the place well. There is a line of sequencing that perhaps breaks the usual cinema format and it is a kind that I haven’t attempted before,” says filmmaker Lijo, director of Nayakan, City of God, Amen and Double Barrel .
Lijo Jose Pellissery
Actor Chemban Vinod Jose, who hails from Angamaly, is the scenarist. “I have been regarded as a natural actor and wanted my maiden script to have a realistic feel. A few of the characters live there even now and we have used some of their nicknames as well. The incidents shown in the film happened at various points of time but we have changed those a little to suit the story,” the actor says.
He had told the first 20 minutes of the story to Lijo and it was developed into a full-fledged script through discussions.
“There is a distinctive culture that connects the area starting from Angamaly to Koratty, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur and Kunnamkulam. There may be minute differences in the dialect or attitude but the similarity is quite amazing. For instance, most residents in this place tend to make light of grave matters,” says Lijo.
Newcomer Antony Varghese plays the protagonist, Vincent Pepe, and the film tracks his life from the age of 14 to 30 or so. The character has been used more as a tool and the story actually narrates the culture of the land, explains Lijo.
Almost the entire cast of Angamaly Diaries have been chosen from auditions conducted for the film.
“Although our film industry is comparatively large considering the number of films made each year, there is not much of an option while choosing actors. For me, it was thrilling to come out of the comfort zone and mould these raw talents to perform as per our requirements. We have also made them dub for their characters,” says Lijo.
Although Amen was also about the natives of a small village, the director is quick to point out that the two films are completely different. While Amen was a fictitious tale, Angamaly Diaries is close to reality.
His previous film, Double Barrel, was a wacky comedy that didn’t do well at the box office but Lijo says it had a narrative style that was different from what is usually seen in Malayalam cinema.
Angamaly Diaries has been produced by Vijay Babu under the banner of Friday Film House and will reach cinemas on March 3.
