Anjali Menon is not one to let fame get into her head. The filmmaker, who is on a dream run with a list of successful films in her kitty, right from her début award-winning film Manjadikkuru to the blockbuster hit Bangalore Days , says, “I cannot let a single film affect the rest of my work. It would be stupid of me to go off on a tangent just because my movie succeeded. I have to put just the same amount of work to my next work.”
The scriptwriter-cum-director is back after a three-year hiatus with Koode, a heart-warming story on relationships. “My son was two when I began shoot for Bangalore Days . I missed him like crazy throughout the shoot and decided not to take up any projects till he was five.” Koode has Prithviraj, Nazriya, Parvathy, director Ranjith and Mala Parvathi in key roles. Koode , says Anjali, who has scripted the film, is about finding one’s self, finding true love and finding one’s sensitive side. The story unfolds through Prithviraj, who plays Joshua, a migrant labourer. Nazriya plays his sister Jenny and Ranjith and Mala Parvathy, his parents, Aloshy and Lily.
Anjali admits she had Nazriya, who is back after a sabbatical, in mind, when she started penning the character Jenny. “Except for Jagathy Sreekumar in Happy Journey , I don’t think I have written a script with an actor in mind, although while writing the character of Jenny for Koode , I did start seeing bits of Nazriya in her. I narrated a brief on Jenny to Nazriya and when she said she loved it, I worked on it further by adding touches of her personality to Jenny.”
Prithviraj Sreekumaran and Nazriya Nazim in Koode
And that is how she builds the characters in her scripts. “I narrate the basic crux of a story to an actor and see if they are interested. If they are, I start imagining them in the role and start building them into the character. I think adding personal traits of an actor to the character help them connect to the role; they start getting into the skin of the character.”
None of her characters are based on one particular person, she says. “It’s a mishmash of various personalities I have met or known, along with a large dollop of my imagination. I think, as a writer, when you spend time with your characters, your characters start telling you what to do.”
Her scripts come from her daily experiences: while doing her groceries, on her morning runs, while driving her son to school... She takes note of things that strike her but she tries not to expand on it until and unless she is absolutely bursting from not writing about it.
“The flow is much better and the writing quicker when you are dying to place your thoughts on paper. And while I yearn for a quiet space to write, as a woman who has multiple responsibilities, it is not easy to lock myself up in a room or devote hours on end to a script. Writing, for me, is a very instinctive process. It’s like you grab a story idea that is floating in the air and like a conduit, the energy around you directs your thoughts on to paper,” says Anjali, who won a National award for best dialogue for the film Ustad Hotel .
A fan of Raghu Dixit and his works, Anjali jumped at a chance to work with him when a friend mentioned he had done the music for Raja Krishna Menon’s Chef . “I enjoy listening to Raghu’s songs but didn’t think he would be interested in composing tunes for the film. So, when my friend told me Raghu composed the music for Chef , I grabbed the nearest phone and called him up. I am glad I did. I love the energy in his music and his choice of instruments in the film.”
Anjali, who feels she has yet to grow as a scriptwriter and director, says she has several of her scripts she would like to turn to reel and so many scripts she wants to write. She is delighted that there is a rise in women in filmmaking and she loved Lipstick Under My Burka . “It’s a pleasure to watch these films as the tales and frames are refreshing.”
Anjali, who admits she still has butterflies during the release of each of her films, is looking forward to the release of Koode in July.
