There’s a scene in Parava when the boys (Ichappi and Haseeb) find out that their pigeons have been stolen. They personify heartbreak in it. “We lived the roles, we were not acting!” says Govind V Pai (Haseeb) as Amal Shah (Irshad aka Ichappi) nods in agreement. That scene was one which, they say, they felt intensely, the loss wasn’t pretend. Both look different from how they did in the film, for starters their hair tamed and short. Lot else has changed too.
Life as they knew has changed, “but we are still the same, but you know...” says Govind, again. Amal, quieter of the two, listens, occasionally nodding his head; he is a young man of very few words. The response to the film is way beyond their imaginings, way bigger, “we never thought it would be this huge! Everybody wants a selfie with us,” Govind goes on. In Alappuzha after a screening excited movie-goers tried to drag them on to motorcycles. They haven’t had the time to go to school post-release, but their friends and classmates have seen the film and ‘loved it’.
The pair breathed life into the characters, living their roles guided by their ‘Soubikka’. Neither of them has prior acting experience, actor/director Soubin Shahir literally chose them off the streets in Mattancherry, where the film is set.
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According to Amal, he was returning from a wedding, doing a little stunt on his bicycle, “that’s when Soubikka (Soubin) saw me, and asked if I’d act in his film. I told him sure if my family allowed me to. My family was ok, he met them and it was okay. It was during the summer vacation of Class X.” Now a Plus 2 student, he lives in Mattancherry with his family, his father is no more. Like Ichappi, Amal also has 16-odd pigeons, and plans to participate in pigeon-racing tournament next year.
Govind’s meeting with Soubin wasn’t as heroic, he says sheepishly. The actor was at Govind’s mother’s tea stall when he saw the teenager. “I fell from my bicycle, in front of him that’s when he saw me. He asked my mother if I could act.” The class X student also lives in Mattancherry, with his mother. Both boys knew Soubin, having seen his films but the chance to act was out of the blue. They met each other on set.
“Soubikka told us not to worry about the acting part, that he’d help us. We had the lines with us and he would tell us to react as we normally would, rather than act.” They prepared for around six months, getting familiar with the pigeons specially brought from Tamil Nadu and acting lessons. Despite Amal’s familiarity with pigeons, he and Govind, had lessons in working out the nuances of pigeon racing/rearing with ample help from Soubin.
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“He is like a father to us, that’s how he treats us,” adds Amal. His phone buzzes constantly. “Soubikka gifted both of us mobile phones.” Of acting with Dulquer Salman, “I didn’t have any scenes with him, but Amal had a couple of scenes. But I will meet him,” Govind says a tad ruefully. “Everybody on the sets were like our elder brothers!”
Films were never part of their plans, ever. Amal’s other interest is adventure sport, he hopes to train as a diver and if not acting he would like to make a career in adventure sports. But now films are a very real possibility and there are bound to be more opportunities, “We don’t mind making this our profession,” Govind says, and Amal agrees.