“Eighteen is a magical number. That is when one comes of age legally and can vote. That is the age when there is an adrenalin rush in you and hormones do a tango in you. Pathinettam Padi, my first feature film, is about the magic of that age group. It is about a group of boys and their universe when peer groups are perhaps the most important thing in life. It is a world I have known and experienced,” says scenarist-actor Shanker Ramakrishnan. After 18 years in the Malayalam film industry and proving himself before and behind the camera, Shanker steps into the big league with a feature film made on a big canvas.
At his beautiful, leafy heritage home at Goureeshapattom, Shanker is busy tying the loose ends before he leaves for post-production work in Chennai. He says with a smile that the film was a long time in the making as he and August Cinemas, which has produced the movie, did not want to compromise on any front.
As the film with an impressive star cast featuring 65 newcomers and a galaxy of Mollywood stars in cameos reach theatres today, Shanker is more excited than anxious or nervous. “ Pathinettam Padi is about those surrealistic years of growing up. While it is about school, friends and friendship, sportsmanship, gangs and hanging out, it is not about romance blossoming in the corridors of school. In fact, though we are talking about schools, there are hardly any scenes inside classrooms,” he explains.
Shanker Ramakrishnan
There is a subaltern world in every school. And that is where a lot of the action happens. Gangs fight with each other, groups vie for dominance... parents and teachers usually are in the dark about this space that their child occupies, adds Shanker.
Pathinettam Padi is a tale that unfolds outside the classrooms, on playgrounds and stadiums and over rough and tumble games. The story goes back to an age when Thiruvananthapuram had several playgrounds that were filled with boys of different age groups playing different versions of cricket and football. “We might have gone to schools on two ends of the social spectrum but after school hours, we were boys out to have fun. No barriers could prevent us from hanging out together for hours together, in the process forging ties that have lasted many a crisis. That is the story I have narrated in my film,” says Shanker.
Squashing rumours about the theme being a clash between students of two kinds of schools, he says, on the contrary, it is about how boys, irrespective of their parents’ social standing or occupation, bond over games and similar interests.
Giving his best
Right from the call for auditions wherein 17,000 wannabe actors applied from all across Kerala, Shanker has spared no efforts to give the film his best shot. “We had asked for one-minute videos and to go through that we had a panel to watch each video and pick the best ones. Eventually, the number was whittled down to 65 and we organised a camp for all of them. Among the many stars who interacted with them were directors, actors, cinematographers and technicians,” he elaborates.
To train the newcomers for five action scenes, Shanker invited the best on the scene - Bangkok-based action choreographer Kecha Khamphakdee of the world famous Jaika Stunt Team. “He has worked in Troy , 300 and Baahubali 2. This was his first Malayalam film,” adds Shanker.
A trifle emotionally, Shanker says that the 65 actors, coming from all 14 districts of Kerala, will certainly prove to be a treasure trove of talent in the coming years who will do Malayalam cinema proud.
Before winding off, Shanker points out that all the attention and magnificent canvas was possible only because he had a producer like Shaji Nadeshan who trusted and shared his vision and story. “We know each other from the days of Urumi [which was scripted by Shanker] and I am lucky we share epic dreams; dreams that take time to translate on screen.”
The filmmaker signs off saying that since he grew up on huge entertainers starring the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, Mammootty and Mohanlal, “my first film will naturally have traces of that influence. Pathinettam Padi is an entertainer first and foremost.”
