The awesome threesome

Three friends who made a National award-winner

Stellar show: Mathukutty Xavier, winner of the best debut film director award.

It was a news story about a kitchen worker who got trapped in a walk-in freezer at a hotel for 13 hours in Atlanta that kindled an idea in Mathukutty Xavier for his debut film Helen .

When he speaks to The Hindu about the film, after winning the National Film Award for the best debut director, he always refers to ‘the three of us’, sharing the credit for everything with his co-writers Noble Babu Thomas and Alfred Kurian Joseph.

“Before venturing into cinema, I was working in the IT field, and in advertising before that. Though I tried writing scripts in my spare time, nothing was working out. So, I decided to quit and work on scripts. It was during this time that I met Alfred, who had studied with me right from nursery school, after a long time. Then Noble too joined us soon, and we somehow synced,” says Xavier.

Just like everyone who comes into the world of cinema with lofty dreams, the threesome also wanted to make a big film with major stars. They even began working on scripts with that aim, however nothing took off. The news story on the Atlanta woman made them think of something on a smaller scale, but something that anyone anywhere could relate to. With young actor Anna Ben too joining them to play the protagonist and Vineeth Sreenivasan offering to produce the film, they did not have to look back.

“We had two basic elements for the film—the woman who gets caught in the freezer in a chicken shop and the security in the mall who notices her always because she is the only one who smiles at him everyday. We knew that everyone could relate to this,” he says.

The film also won the National Film Award for the best make-up for Ranjith. The makers had discussed threadbare the kind of changes that would be visible in the skin of a human being caught inside a freezer after every passing hour. Ranjith managed to capture these changes in Helen, the setting in of paleness on the skin and how it later turns blue. For the entire crew too, the shooting process was somewhat of an ordeal, like the one Helen went through, as they had at times to be in minus 10 degrees to get the atmosphere right.

Xavier is set to work on yet another film with his co-writers, with Alfred turning a director this time. After this, he will be helming his second film as director.