Six years ago Kunchacko Boban stated in an interview that he envied his peers Jayasurya, Indrajith and Prithviraj for being able to avoid being stereotyped in their films. He was on a hiatus at the time making the odd-film once a year. And when he returned to films fulltime he embraced versatility with a vengeance. He shed the chocolate hero label and became everything from a Godman and bus conductor to a milkman and a postman and over the years has become one of Malayalam cinema’s commercially bankable actors.
That versatility created a comfort zone, which he says he wants to move out of with his new film, Chirakodinja Kinavukal .
“The film is a spoof, an experiment which mocks almost every known cliché in Malayalam cinema. The script is intelligent; it is bound to provide food for thought even after the audience leaves the theatre,” he says.
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He believes it is commercially viable, “but it is the audience which will decide. We have tried to do something different and I for one enjoyed the experience.” The film is due for release on May 1.
The film takes off from where the Mammootty-Sreenivasan starrer
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Kunchacko appears in more than one look or ‘get-up’ in the film – as tailor, a West-Asia returnee and a United Kingdom-based non resident Indian. “Scenarists Sanjay-Bobby and producer Listin Stephen asked me to listen to a narration of the script and I liked what I heard. It is the first time that I appear in a double role and both very different from each other.” Santhosh Vishwanathan is the director of the film and the script is by Praveen S.
Listening to him talk about the film, it’s amply clear that he enjoyed its filming, “relishing the challenge.” The promos of the film show Kunchacko in some of the ‘looks’. In one he is pencil moustachioed and dressed in bright shirts and cheerful 70s colours, while in another he sports a pot-belly, a thick moustache, a full wig and bell bottoms too. Not one to shy away from changing his look, he has, however, rarely resorted to extreme changes.
“But with this film I have gone all out – wig, beard, coloured contact lens, pot belly and moustache…the works. Even the dialects these guys speak are different. And the change of look does not look like a costume party or a fancy dress. The make-up has been done very professionally.” The make-over was so drastic that when he got ready for a shot junior artistes failed to recognise him! “One of them, unable to understand what the fuss around me was, asked me if I was a Hindi actor,” he says. Often more than an hour went into getting ready and another hour to get the make-up off.
“ The film is a spoof, an experiment which mocks almost every known cliché in Malayalam cinema. ”
This is the first time that he has been paired opposite Rima Kallingal, who plays the role of 19-year-old Sumathi, the daughter of a woodcutter. The others in the cast apart from Sreenivasan include Manoj K. Jayan, Mamukoya, Lalu Alex, Joy Mathew, Kalaranjini, Jacob Gregory, Srinda and Mohan Raj (the actor who essayed Keerikkadan Jose in Kireedom ). The film has been produced by Magic Frames.
His other projects include Madhuranaranga , Ordinary 2 , in which he will appear opposite Parvathy, the late actor Ratheesh’s daughter, and Jamuna Pyari .