KOCHI: Mollywood culls out a watchable thriller only once in a blue moon, with mostly Mammootty or Suresh Gopi playing the archetypal cop. For a change of the scene B Unnikrishnan comes with ‘The Thriller’, which the filmmaker guarantees, will be a spine-chilling treat for those who relish high voltage action and suspense. Thrillers are rare in Malayalam if you exclude the CBI series and a couple of others, says the filmmaker who has ‘The Tiger’, another neat investigative tale to his credit.
The murder mystery has Prithviraj on the lead in his freshly minted cop avatar playing Niranjan IPS, the Deputy Commissioner of Police. “Though Prithvi has played police officers earlier those films were more emotional dramas than investigative thrillers,” says Unnikrishnan. He also has it that the film does not belong to the brigade of action thrillers that are just gadgets, gizmos and gimmicks. “The Thriller has Prithvi closely focusing on a murder mystery with absolutely no digressions,” he says.
Unnikrishnan, who has proved his mettle through a string of outstanding short films, always goes for a narrative style that appeals to the masses of the big screen. “My first production-directorial venture was a 22-minute video film titled ‘Antharangal’ that went to many festivals and received many awards, including the state award. ‘Annum Mazhayayirunnu’, another telefilm I did for Amrita TV has the record of bagging maximum number of state awards. My philosophy in film-making is very simple. When you make a film according to your artistic instincts and penchant it should be with your money. When other people invest in your film you cannot lowball the commercial element. When a producer approaches me he expects me to make a commercial hit.”
Unnikrishnan doesn’t believe in categorising cinema into air-tight compartments that create an unpleasant dichotomy. “There is this binary of good and bad cinema based on the assumption that the films that do not address the mainstream are superior. I don’t believe in that definition and have a strong feeling that many of the so called off-beat films are politically more dangerous than the ‘crap commercials’.” Unnikrishnan says he enjoys making all kinds of films and rather than trying to fit in to the existing paradigm of good cinema filmmakers should try to break it. “Making an absolute crowd-puller is no cakewalk and you cannot just brush aside a filmmaker who is capable of creating such mass hysteria. I believe there is nothing scornful about such films and their makers.”
Though his ‘Madambi’ hit the box-office jackpot, ‘Pramani’, his next major venture, received a lukewarm response. “There was a rift in communication. The satirical version of the panchayat politics I tried to spotlight through the film couldn’t reach the audience in a proper way. The sensibility of the audience has undergone a sea change during recent times. There are a few people who said they greatly enjoyed ‘Pramani’, but the majority felt otherwise,” he says.
Almost all his big screen ventures feature Mollywood biggies but Unnikrishnan says his next film will be a different take. “It focuses on a man and a woman and this time there will be no stars. The screenplay is by Anjali Menon and the film is expected to go on the floors by January.”