P Padmarajan, filmmaker, author and scenarist, continue to inspire all those in love with the magic of cinema. He had charted out unexplored territories on celluloid and had given a fresh and timeless visual experience through his stories, frames, characters et al. Humans of Someone, the indie English film that will be premiered at the 23rd edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Malayalam Cinema Today section, has Padmarajan written all over it, albeit in a unique way.
Directed by Sumesh Lal, who gave a new direction for independent music in Kerala, Humans of Someone is about an individual who “gets obsessed” with Padmarajan. The auteur’s films become one with the protagonist’s life in such a way that he decides to film the situations, with the help of his girlfriend Sarah. “He encounters several characters from Padmarajan’s movies, whose stories have ended in the respective films. But here we look at what happened later in their lives. He meets six of them, some of them peripheral characters, at crucial junctures of his life. He talks through these characters,” explains Sumesh.
Nitin Nath and Sudipto Balav in ‘Humans of Someone’
Among the major characters he meet are Shobana’s Gowri/Maya from Innale , Suhasini’s Alice from Koodevide , and Asokan’s Rishi from Thoovanathumbikal . Then there are characters who had very little screenspace in their films – Elizabeth, the younger sister of Shari’s Sofia in Namukku Paarkkaan Munthirithoppukal , Major Uncle played by Jagathy NK Achary in Deshadanikkili Karayarilla and Jagathy Sreekumar’s guide in Season .
Sumesh says that he arrived at the subject after several discussions with Nitin Nath, who has written the story, screenplay and dialogues and also plays the protagonist.
Sumesh Lal
“Padmarajan’s works have been a huge influence on both of us. In fact, it is difficult for me to choose my favourite among his works. This narrative evolved through continuous discussions. The main aspect is that the film is not an adaptation. It is an original story set in the premise of Padmarajan’s storytelling universe. We chose to do it in English because that’s how the protagonist is fashioned to think. We also wanted to give it a global appeal,” he says.
He adds that the film symbolises more than his passion for Padmarajan’s movies. “I always wanted to make a feature film and found Padmarajan as a great medium to do that. I discussed several stories with Sumesh and while many of them died down within one or two weeks, this story kept opening itself up and that’s how it started rolling,” Nitin says.
On his choice of characters, Nitin says that he wanted to create a believable universe.
Character study
“Some people asked me why I didn’t take characters from Peruvazhiyambalam or Njan Gandharvan . You can’t merge the world of these two films! It is a subjective film and the biggest challenge was not to let my personal judgement come in the way of what a character would naturally do in a particular situation,” he says.
So, which was the first character he took up? “Perhaps, Elizabeth in Namukku Paarkkaan…. It was compelling for me to know how she would react to what happened to her sister and how her father would react to it,” Nitin says.
As for playing the lead, Nitin says that Sumesh talked him into doing it. “He was like, ‘So you are going to do it, right?’ May be, it was a logical choice because I knew the characters and situations,” he says.
The film has been in the making for the last three years or so. “There were budget constraints. We experimented with sound design and so had to redo certain scenes. Being a debut venture we wanted to give the best,” Sumesh says.
An Aum-i Artistes Production, it has background score by Govind Vasantha. Vipinchandran has done the cinematography.
Watch the movie on December 10 (Kalabhavan, 6.15 pm), December 11 (New, 2.45 pm) and December 12 (Kripa, 12 pm)
In the cast
Mohiniyattam danseuse Methil Devika makes her acting debut by playing Sobhana’s role in Innale. Anchor Dhanya Varma essays Suhasini’s character in Koodevide . Sudipto Balav, the villain in 2 Harihar Nagar , is the guide (Jagathy Sreekumar) from Season . Other debutants are model Ida Yoana (Elizabeth in Namukku Paarkkaan Munthirithoppukal ), Ayaz Salim (Asokan in Thoovanathumbikal ) and Mathai Fenn (Major Uncle in Deshadanakkili Karayarilla ). Madonna Sebastian plays Sarah, the protagonist’s girlfriend. Anchor Meghana Nair also is in the cast.
Fact file
* Sumesh Lal has been instrumental in promoting home-grown music bands through Rosebowl and Kappa TV. Nitin Nath quit his job with an e-commerce company to work in films.
* The movie was shot in Kovalam, Munnar and Chikmagalur, the original locations of Season, Innale and Namukku Paarkkaan Munthirithoppukal respectively.
