Thiruvananthapuram
The rib-tickling helter skelter that propels Padayottam forward in its comedy of errors springs from a single incident: Pinku getting roughed up. His bumbling bosom buddies rope in a gangster (Biju Menon) and embark on a ludicrous, fight-to-the-death odyssey with the sole objective of avenging a bruised Pinku, who waits for the dope on his assailant while recuperating in a hospital. As Pinku, Basil Joseph is unbeatable, both with his performance and dialogue delivery, in the gangster comedy that makes maximum use of the rustic Thiruvananthapuram dialect.
That the techie-turned-actor-director is not new to the capital city is clear from his act. He did Electrical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum and worked with Infosys in Technopark. The 28-year-old says the seven-odd years he spent in the city helped him get into the skin of the character and nail his dialogues like a local. “The makers (of Padayottam ) wanted to go beyond a caricature of the Thiruvananthapuram dialect and capture its little nuances. Much of the credit goes to the writers, Arun (A.R) and Ajai (Rahul) in compiling some colloquial words that are probably used only in this part of the State,” says Basil over phone from Thalassery where he's currently busy with the shooting of Kakshi: Amminipilla , directed by newbie Dinjith Ayyathan with Asif Ali in the lead.
Even as he lets on details about the scripting, Basil’s unmistakable snicker that peppers some of Padayottam ’s laugh-out-loud moments inevitably crops up. After all, Pinku may not be a far cry from Basil, he admits with self-deprecating humour. “After watching Padayottam , some of my kith and kin, in fact, made fun of me, saying my character's mannerisms more or less take after mine in real life. That suppressed giggle you just asked me about, well, (actor) Neeraj (Madhav) calls it ‘the minion laugh’,” he says, referring to the cute little yellow creatures from the Despicable Me franchise.
Basil Joseph
A native of Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad, Basil entered the business of film-making through a clutch of successful short films during his CET days, before landing a chance to assist Vineeth Sreenivasan in Thira in 2013. Two years later, Basil had Vineeth in the lead in his directorial début, Kunjiramayanam . His sports comedy, Godha , starring Tovino Thomas and Punjabi-born Wamiqa Gabbi in the lead about a female wrestler throwing her hat in the ring in a conservative village in Kerala won plaudits last year.
Basil says the leap from Wayanad to the capital city during his impressionable years had been considerable and a tweak in the manner of speech was a way of integrating into the new world.
“But already we, who were new to the city, had the dialect in our minds, thanks to many Priyadarshan films, like Boeing Boeing . So there’s always a likeability factor for the Thiruvananthapuram dialect. The college exposure only helped fine-tune it. Say, for instance, now I sometimes say dey dey enthiredey …,” he reels off, not one bit sounding like ‘an outsider.’
Basil’s scenes in Padayottam were completely shot in the city, mainly at the General Hospital and Chenkalchoola and the director says he now has several friends in the colony. “To be frank, I got to know more about the capital city and its people in two weeks during the shoot than in the seven years before, as this stint had been more rooted,” he says, punctuated by another of that smothered laugh, a la Pinku.
In Kakshi: Amminipilla , Basil plays Pilakkal Shamsu, a lawyer by day and a Mappilapaattu singer by dusk. He’s also working on his next directorial venture that will see Biju Menon as his main man. A rom-com with “elements of fantasy”, it will be written by National Award-winning scenarist Sajeev Pazhoor.
For now, Basil is basking in his run of good luck.
