The story, Akhil Sathyan was sure, would not be confined to the familiar territories of Kerala. It would spread to Mumbai, to Goa, to the trains along the way. That and his documentary making experience was going to make people look beyond the ‘feel-good’ genre that his first film as a director would be categorised as, he knew. When Paachuvum Albuthavilakkum finally came out after three years of hard work, that’s just what happened – people did look beyond the genre that Akhil’s famous father, filmmaker Sathyan Anthikad, is known for. They saw a well-made film, and a fresh and unique treatment of a not-so-unusual theme.
“That is one reason I took it away from naadu (homeland). But I knew my last name would anyway bring the ‘feel-good’ label,” Akhil says, laughing. That, he admits, is one interest he and his brother Anoop share with their father – the genre that made moving stories out of little moments that could happen inside a home. No big action, no heavy dialogues, no slow motions.
“But,” he adds, “that is all we have in common. How each of us makes our films is entirely different.”
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You could see that in Paachu, even as the film begins nonchalantly, without hurry, as a young man bikes through the streets of Mumbai at dawn and flings newspapers across fences. Fahadh Faasil, the lead actor, appears on-screen without the fuss of toes-to-face shots or unfitting loud music.
“The original idea was to do a film with Nivin Pauly. We had thought of a family subject, involving a father and son. But we decided that it had to be fresher than that. I looked for locations outside Kerala. Having spent a lot of time in Mumbai for ad shoots, I knew the lives of middle-class Malayalis living there, their commutes in the local train, and things like that,” Akhil says.
He set the lead character – Paachu – in Mumbai, with an Ayurveda pharmacy. Akhil then thought of an issue that Paachu would face. “It could be during a train journey from naadu to Mumbai. One character would go missing. There should be a female character, let’s make it an elderly female character. And that is how the thread developed,” Akhil says.
You can sense the storyteller in him as he narrates this. That is also how Fahadh got pulled into the movie. Akhil knew Fahadh from working with him in Njan Prakashan and Oru Indian Pranayakadha, both directed by Sathyan Anthikad. Akhil was an Assistant Director (AD) in both. “I was telling him the story as a friend, to hear what he thought of it. But I could see the interest in his eyes. A good actor like that easily absorbs the story, you can sense that in them. When I finished, he asked if we could do the film together if Nivin did not mind.”
Akhil with Fahadh
Nivin was busy at the time and he didn’t mind, Akhil said. So shooting for Paachu began in pre-COVID-19 times. And then of course COVID struck and everyone had to take long breaks. When it was time to resume shooting, Fahadh had back-to-back films in OTT and other languages – Pushpa and Vikram among them. Gradually though, the shooting resumed.
The script was rewritten when Fahadh joined in place of Nivin. “The character was to be a little chubby, a food-lover. But when Fahadh came on board, Paachu became a thin man. So I rewrote those bits, but still kept the food scenes. You can see Paachu with food in most of the scenes,” Akhil says.
For other actors, he made some curious choices. The elderly female character he mentioned was played by a non-actor, Viji Venkatesh. An author and a professional who has been working in cancer care for decades, Mumbai-based Viji did not even speak Malayalam properly. “We taught her. It was sync sound, so she had to learn. I did try to get an actor on board for the role. But the character was of a 71-year-old woman who was healthy, who could speak Hindi, English, and Malayalam. It was casting director Gayathri Smitha who discovered Viji.”
Akhil also decided to add a little boy in the train sequence because he found that Fahadh did humour well in combo scenes. Throughout the movie, Fahadh was paired with one or the other character for the spontaneous humour that kept pouring out of their conversations – Althaf Salim, Mukesh, Viji, the little boy called Avyukth, and the young female lead Anjana Jayaprakash.
From the sets: Fahadh, Mukesh, Innocent in car, Akhil outside
In the cast was also senior actor Innocent, playing one of his last roles. He died of COVID-19 related complications in March. Akhil says he had been very close to Innocent uncle, off-screen more than on film sets. Innocent had featured in every one of Sathyan Anthikad’s films.
Too many developments happened while Paachu got ready. In those three years, Akhil became a father, his crew members went through marriages and divorces and remarriages, he says. You can see how humour must have easily flowed from his pen. Yes, pen, most likely. For the one lesson that he carried from his dad is in keeping things old-fashioned, especially when it came to not wasting film. “Dad would shoot only what is necessary, like they did in the days of film cameras. Before digital days. I follow that principle.”
Sathyan Anthikad did watch the film and then did something he had not in the 37 years of Akhil’s life. He gave him a handshake. “That is his approval,” Akhil says happily.
More approval is coming from the audience for Paachu after a slow pick-up. And Akhil, who has waited for 12 years after leaving his software job for a break in cinema, is already working on his next – the story of a female Sherlock Holmes. That one is all about mystery, he says, not even divulging who will play the role. Smart man, Akhil.