He has been panned by critics for his signature slapstick comedy. Many wonder why he keeps working with the same crew again and again and others are puzzled about why he doesn’t try his hand at serious subjects. But Saji Surendran is sure of what the audience wants and needs. The city-based director is ready to roll out more humour with She Taxi .
“Don’t expect anything intellectual out of this movie. This is for the vacation crowd. It is a road movie, laced with lots of humour.” Saji sounds matter-of-fact about the movie that has Anoop Menon and Kavya Madhavan in the lead. A week before its release he is in Chennai giving finishing touches, when we catch up with him.
The filmmaker who struck gold in Mollywood with Ivar Vivahitharayaal and Happy Husbands has managed to keep himself firmly rooted in an industry that has witnessed significant changes over the last few years. Though his movies such as Four Friends, Kunjaliyan and Husbands in Goa didn’t do wonders at the box office, Saji came out a winner with Angry Babies in Love , in spite of the fact that it reached theatres after a lot of delay. “Luckily, we got Lal Jose Films on board to distribute it. When the movie was released, Bangalore Days and How Old Are You? were running to packed houses. Moreover, summer vacation was over, the rains had set in and the FIFA World Cup was on too,” Saji says with a laugh.
And he expects She Taxi too will win the audience’s hearts. The story is about Devayani (Kavya) who becomes the breadwinner of the family after the death of her father. She decides to be a taxi driver like him. “What is special about the taxi is that it was the same vehicle in which the President of India travelled when he came to Kerala for a visit. So she keeps a photograph of the President with her father in the vehicle and that’s how she manages to woo prospective passengers. Life takes an unexpected turn when her taxi is hired by three women, played by Sheelu Abraham, Krishnaprabha and Ansiba, who want to shoot a documentary about a monastery. Meanwhile, the characters played by Anoop Menon, Tini Tom, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Noby are in huge debt and are on the run. They all meet up in a forest and interesting incidents that follow makes the narrative,” says Saji.
It is his first movie with Kavya. “I needed someone who could pull off the character of a village belle with élan. Kavya had been on a break for over a year when I approached her with the script. She was very excited about the project and polished her driving skills for the role,” Saji says.
Meanwhile, he promises some surprises as well. “I have a gut feeling that audience is going to love the characters played by K.B. Ganesh Kumar and Tini Tom. Ganesh plays a featherbrained police officer ‘Singham’ Sivan; he is named so because he is a huge fan of the character played by Suriya in the Tamil blockbuster Singham . He even has Singham’s signature moustache. Tini is equally dim-witted and he too has got a new look in the film,” Saji says. Marathi/Hindi actor Rajveer, hero of Smita Thackeray’s Kaisay Kahein , plays the villain.
Another highlight of the movie is that it has been shot at the Tibetan monastery in Kushalnagar, near Coorg. It is the second largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet. “It was a great experience working in the midst of a sea of monks and students. Anoop [Menon] had explored the place during one of his road trips and that’s how we zeroed in on it. The shooting was a new experience for the monks as well. Another exciting part was working in Shimla in snow, Saji adds.
The songs composed by Bijibal has already become popular.
One of the songs ‘Vezhaambal’ is written by Anoop. “The song is special in that we had never planned such a number at all. While in Shimla, we stopped at many places just to capture the beauty of the snow-clad landscape with Anoop and Kavya in the shots. When we edited those shots, we all felt that a song would be apt for the same. Anoop wrote the lyrics, Bijibal composed it in just a day and Vijay Yesudas has sung it,” he says.
In the crew are Saji’s favourites such as Krishna Poojappura (script), Anil Nair (camera), Sujith (art direction), Prasanna master (choreography), and Rajakrishnan (sound recording).
So when is he trying his hand in genres other than comedy?
“Very soon. I am planning to do a love story based on a work by P.F. Mathews and hope to cast one of the young actors. It will be different from the usual love stories you’ve seen on screen. Lyricist Shibu Chakravarthy has also narrated a story which I want to direct,” he says.
Meanwhile, post She Taxi , he dabbles in comedy again with Anoop Menon in Puluvan Mathayi and Dileep in Thambichan in Thailand .
