Passage to change

Apt casting: Jagathy Sreekumar has come up with a sterling performance in ‘Passenger.’

‘Passenger’ breezed into Mollywood quietly and now, it’s a storm. ‘Passenger’ has everything Mollywood needs to stand on its own two feet: a fresh story, fresh characters who are not in typecast roles, more or less credible situations, good editing and most of all, a realistic budget that keeps in mind the territory it caters to. Another essential element in this endeavour is the fiery passion of its creator.

The man behind ‘Passenger’ is Ranjit Shankar. Two weeks ago, one would have asked, Ranjit who? Today, he is busy thanking people who simply call up to tell him they liked his debut movie and narrating his experiences to interviewers. Ranjit, an IT professional, was not an avid movie buff, but later, he got interested, very seriously. The serials, ‘Nizhalukal’ and ‘American Dreams’ had his scripts and for ‘American Dreams,’ he won the Kerala State Award for the best screenplay.

‘Passenger’ evolved over five years. Ranjit was a passenger himself, so he got to know the train and the passengers well enough to pen characters based on his own experiences. The title, according to Ranjit means the traveller, the passenger train, and a person who passes information.

“Movies are a director’s medium and I knew I would need to direct my scripts myself if I need to make the kind of cinema I wanted to. I haven’t officially assisted any director but have been visiting various movie sets, watching other directors work and learning from them for the past three years,” Ranjit says.

Ranjit wrote a story and script and then started hunting for the apt actor, not the other way round as is done in Malayalam cinema: get the dates of a super star and then cobble up a story and script. It is a casting coup in ‘Passenger,’ for every character seems cut out for that role. Most notable is Jagathy Sreekumar’s role of a villain-minister. His portrayal of Thomas Chacko is a practical lesson for actors and directors: how their very personas should be masked to carry off the characters in a story, how mannerisms of the actor have no place in a movie.

“You can’t actually plan the cast and execute it. You can only wish these people did these roles. For ‘Passenger’ it fell perfectly into place. We actually got every person who was the first choice for every role. It was more luck than planning. It happens for some movies. It happened for ‘Passenger,’” says a happy Ranjit.

Producer S.C. Pillai gave him a free hand. “We tried to make a movie we wanted to see as audience,” he explains. This may well be what sets this film apart, and also the fact that it does not fall into any formula.

It’s a socio-political thriller without the burden of any preconceived baggage. For instance, when you think of Dilip, you think of a prankster-character, or a lover or a heavily made up type of character like Kunjikkoonen. Here he dons a high profile lawyer’s role and it’s a high profile lawyer that you see, not Dilip. Mamata plays a journalist. Sreenivasan in the pivotal role of a common man, Sathyanathan, who tries to help people in his own way and is truthful and optimistic, is not superhuman.

Issues like corruption, terrorism and harassment of women figure in the movie. There are no songs, but the movie manages to keep you riveted to the screen and interest never lags, as there are no unnecessary sub-plots or comic relief.

For this to happen a carefully worked out strong screenplay and intelligent editing (Ranjan Abraham) must happen. Cinematography (P. Sukumar) that projects the story and not the cinematographer helped.

“‘Passenger’ was made with Rs. 2 crore. The shooting schedule was 48 days but we made it in 38,” points out Ranjit, who is credited with the story, screenplay, dialogue and direction.

Balachandra Menon once created waves in Malayalam cinema doing all these himself. “Keeping the cost low is the one big way to make movies break even. The concept of superstardom has ruined the movie industry as also trade unionism. Producers must also make sure they have cash before a movie is made and have a streamlined infrastructure,” he says.

K.G. George who was part of the popular via media directors of the early Eighties like Bharathan and Padmarajan feels that apart from over budgeting, the ethos of the State is not reflected in most of our movies, which turns away audiences.

In the absence of good Malayalam films, audiences take refuge in other language movies. This leads movie makers to ape other language films which usually bombs. To break away from this vicious circle, a fresh approach is sorely needed and ‘Passenger’ is a good start.

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