“I am narrating the story of Marykutty who celebrates her first birthday when she turns 27. That is the day Mathukutty became Marykutty,” says Ranjith Sankar about his latest film Njan Marykutty , scheduled to reach theatres on June 14.
Ranjith and Jayasurya have teamed up in six of Ranjith’s oeuvre of ten films and each has delved into themes that veer off the beaten path. In Njan Marykutty , Ranjith and Jayasurya step into the world of transpeople and their mindscapes and their emotional and physical trauma.
Techie-turned-film director Ranjith comes up with films that reflect the times we live in — the beauty and the boorishness. Njan Marykutty , creating ripples in social media with its tantalising trailers that show actor Jayasurya looking pretty in a sari, falls in the same category.
Ranjith Sankar
“I have had this subject on my mind since the days of my movie Pretham . Pearle Maaney was one of the actors in the cast and her make-up was done by a renowned make-up artiste, who happens to be a transperson. Their friends used to drop in and I was intrigued by their lives and the difficult choices they had made. Most of them have had to pay a heavy price to live their lives as they wished to. And yet, they were happy and full of zest. However, since it is not an easy subject, I picked up the thread of a story and dropped it several times,” says Ranjith in a telephone conversation.
The director went on to direct Ramante Edenthottam and Punyalan Private Limited , the latter a sequel to Punyalan Aggarbattis . But a film on transpeople was always on his mind and he kept reading and talking to get a grip on the subject.
During a break abroad, he was pleasantly surprised to observe how transpeople were accepted in society without any kind of prejudice. “They were in different occupations and faced no discrimination. I met taxi drivers, hairdressers, highly qualified consultants… Some of them had families of their own. It was a revelation,” recalls the filmmaker.
He points out that in Kerala, the situation was very different till a few years ago. Many youngsters struggling to come to terms with their sexual orientation, which may not always have been in sync with their physical features, were forced to run away from home. Many of them were forced into prostitution and led desperate lives. However, gradually, especially in the metros, in spite of great difficulties, they began to create their own space and identity.
Stories of resilience
“Moreover, around that time, the government of Kerala was taking proactive steps to better their lives and we read about transpeople being employed in the Kochi metro and also about the big strides they were making in the fashion world. Kerala was changing and there was more acceptance, though transpeople still face a lot of obstacles to live in the mainstream. I felt the time was right to tell their story and their determination to find their own space in society,” explains Ranjith.
He rolled up his sleeves and got down to writing the script for the story of Mathukutty who wanted to become a woman. Shooting began in March in Muvattupuzha. Ranjith calls it his most challenging and most difficult project ever.
Jayasurya as Marykutty in ‘Njan Marykutty’
Mathukutty was born with the sexuality of a man but the psyche of a woman. Right from childhood, he was keen on dressing like a girl and playing with girls. His family tried to cure him of his ‘obsession’ by punishing him. Mathukutty, often teased at school, learns to hide his inclination and becomes a studious boy, doing extremely well in academics. After he qualifies as an MCA, he joins a huge IT group and that is when he learns that there are many more people like him who chose to change their sexuality to align it with their psyche. With his earning, he undergoes surgery to be reborn as Marykutty. Thus begins her story.
Challenging work
Keen to avoid the pitfalls evident in many previous films that portrayed transpeople, Jayasurya and Ranjith had several discussions to decide how Marykutty would speak, her body language, gait, dressing and so on. “Jayan had to shave twice, go through the long make-up and costuming... it was not easy. Even then, it was only after we had shot for three or four days that we gained clarity and then we had to go back and shoot them all over again. The movie was possible only because Jayan took on the production of the film under his banner, Dreams and Beyond,” says Ranjith.
Suraj Venjaramoodu as a District Collector, Joju George as a policeman, Aju Varghese as an RJ, Innocent and Jewel Mary are also in the cast of Njan Marykutty.
The director believes it was the bonding between Jayasurya and himself that has worked in favour of such a tough assignment. Come June 14, Marykutty herself will step into the limelight to tell her story.
