Tribute | Sachy enjoyed remarkable success as a scriptwriter and director

The filmmaker who passed away at the age of 48, had a knack for writing commercial scripts

Director Sachy with Prithviraj Sukumaran

Sachy, who died on Thursday at the age of 48 following complications arising out of hip-replacement surgery, was one of Malayalam cinema’s most successful scriptwriters of his generation. Both the films he directed were hits too.

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Malayalam director Sachy passes away

 

His film as a director,

Ayyappanum Koshiyum , was still running in theatres when the countrywide lockdown started in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The film he wrote before that,

Driving

License , had also hit the bull’s eye at the box office.

Sadly, his death came at a time when his career was peaking.

Sachy, clearly, had a knack for writing commercial cinema. Most of his films – whether he wrote on his own or in partnership with fellow-lawyer Sethu – were hits.

He knew what commercial cinema wanted. One of his strengths as a writer was that he could tell a tale without tiring the viewer at all.

Ayyappanum Koshiyum proves that.

The thriller starring Prthviraj and Biju Menon had run into more than three hours – that is too long by any standard – but he was able to his viewer glued to the seat till the end.

On the sets of ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’

That was also the case with Run Baby Run , the first film he had gone solo with as a scriptwriter. The thriller directed by Joshiy had Mohanlal and Amala Paul in the lead. His writing was just the foil the technically acute Joshiy needed to come up with an eminently watchable film.

It was with an enjoyable comedy though that Sachy made his debut, along with Sethu, in 2007. Chocolate had an interesting premise – the only man studying in a women’s college.

Prthiviraj had essayed that role. When Sachy made his directorial debut with Anarkali, in 2015, the actor played the hero once again.

Anarkali was a romance made against the fetching backdrop of Lakhsadweep. It was a hit.

In 13 years, he was part of 12 films. He was planning to direct another film before the pandemic’s outbreak. But its script was not going to be his though.

“The screenplay would be co-authored by G.R. Indugopan, whose short story the film is based on,” Sachy had told this writer over phone two months ago.

He had then spoken about Ayyappanum Koshiyum and how happy he was that song from the film, was used for a video by Kerala Police to show how to wash hands properly as precaution against COVID-19.

The song had gone viral and it was reported by global television channels like BBC, Fox News, Sky News and Russia Today . He had spoken at length about how he got the 60-year-old Nanjamma, a tribal singer from Attappadi, to sing it for his film.

Ayyappanum Koshyium also had made news recently when its Hindi remake rights were bought by Bollywood star John Abraham. The Tamil rights were bagged by producer Kathiresan.

Sachy could not live long enough to see how the rivals Ayyappan and Koshi spoke in Hindi or Tamil.