Basil Joseph floored us with his debut flick Kunjiramayanam and it looks like he’s about to do it again his new film Godha too, another rustic tale, this time set in the world of traditional wrestling. The film, starring a strapping Tovino Thomas and Punjabi actor Wamiqa Gabbi in the lead, is all set to hit theatres on May 19.
Basil calls it a ‘musical sports comedy’ and it is set in godhas (wrestling rings), primarily in Kerala and Punjab. It deals with Indian or gatta ghusthi, an indigenous style of wrestling, which was was once popular in Kerala. It was last seen in Mollywood in its full glory in 80s movies like Padmarajan’s Oridathoru Phayalvaan and Sibi Malayil’s Mutharam Kunnu P.O.
Gatta ghusthi was huge in Kerala, until about the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly in and around Kochi, Kollam and Manacaud in Thiruvananthapuram.
Tovino Thomas in Godha
“The wrestlers of yore, called phayalvans , were as popular and as famous as movie stars; wrestlers like ‘Kerala Gama’ Manacaud Narayana Pillai arguably, Kerala’s best wrestler in those times, T.J. ‘Minnal’ George so-called because he could grapple at the speed of lightning, ‘Electric’ Mammad to name a few. There used to be regular contests, with contractors bringing in phayalvans from across the country to compete against the biggest and best wrestlers of Kerala. While the sport’s popularity had taken a beating here in the Kerala, gatta ghushti and freestyle wrestling is of late seeing something of a resurgence, particularly after Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik won Olympic medals and the Phogat sisters started storming the bastion. Also, for sometime now, wrestling’s been one of the favoured avenues that people take to get grace marks in exams to qualify for the police, the military and such,” says Basil.
The story and screenplay is by Rakesh Mantodi, director Vineeth Sreenivasan’s cousin. “Rakesh told me about this storyline he had in mind back when we were both working on Thira , which he wrote and I was an assistant director on. Mind you, this was way before Bollywood wrestling films Sultan and Dangal had even been announced. Godha , however, is not like the Bollywood films. Rakesh’s idea was intriguing and we got working on it even before Kunjiramayanam happened,” adds the director.
Basil Joseph, director of Godha
Godha is essentially the tale of a place called Kannadikkal, where wrestling is the favoured sport. “It’s a place where disputes and issues are often heated up or resolved by some one or the other throwing down the gauntlet. Others take up the fight as a challenge,” explains the techie-turned-filmmaker, who shot to fame with viral short films like Priyamvadha Katharayano? and Oru Thundu Padam . Basil seems to have a liking for rustic tales. Kunjiramayanam too was the tale of a border village, the fictitious Desham. “Kannadikkal is a bit closer to suburbia and is more realistic. In fact, there’s a reference to Desham in Godha as the last stop on the bus that passes through Kannadikkal. My liking for rustic storylines perhaps stems from growing up in Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad. My characters have shades of my family, relatives and the people of my home town,” he says.
Ranji Panicker as Captain in Godha
Renji Panicker is Captain Phayalvan in Godha , possibly the greatest wrestler in Kannadikkal. “He is modelled on a real-life person, ‘The Great Gama,’ once the most renowned wrestlers in the country. We struck gold with Renji sir because in his college days he was the University wrestling champion and because in real-life he is into fitness. He’s put all that experience to the role of the beefy, tough boss of an akhara (training centres),” explains Basil. Tovino plays Anjaneya Das, Captain’s son. “I wanted Tovino to be well-built but not brawny,” says Basil. Wamiqa, meanwhile, dons the role of Aditi Singh, a female wrestler. “I imagined Aditi as a spunky go-getter. I happened to see Wamiqa in Tamil film Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam. Then, I checked out her Instagram feed and there was our heroine,” says Basil.
As they quickly found out though, Godha was not an easy movie to make and the cast and crew had to wrestle with certain challenges. First and foremost they had to understand the sport of wrestling.
“We watched dozens of online videos and went to Minnal Asan’s akhara in Kochi to watch first-hand how wrestlers train and how they make the moves. Then we had to figure out how to make it cinematically appealing because gatta ghusthi is all about a series of locks and grapples. There’s no sound apart from the occasional grunt and maybe the sound of a bone breaking or two!” says Basil.
Then there was the matter of getting the moves right. “We wanted it to be as authentic as possible. However, very few stuntmen in the industry know this form of wrestling and we didn’t have the budget of the Bollywood films to employ a research team. Thankfully, we found stuntman ‘Stunner’ Sam, whose father was once a phayalvan. We also brought in the septuagenarian Minnal Asan, who now runs a wrestling centre in Fort Kochi and is team principal of Cochin Grapplers, as a stunt consultant. Together we came up with the moves,” explains the director.
After that the actors had to be trained in the sport. Minnal Asan stepped in to train Tovino and the actor who plays his opponent in the film, while Wamiqa underwent a month-long training session at an akhara in Amritsar.
Vishu Sarma cranks the camera for Godha , while Shaan Rahman has composed 13 songs for the film. “We believe Godha will be a turning point for our careers. For Tovino and Wamiqa as well. See you in the godha!” says Basil, as he signs off.
