Padmarajan died at 45. Bharathan at 51. And now Sachy, director of Malayalam superhit Ayyappanum Koshiyum, at 48.
It might appear blasphemous to place Sachy, who wrote and directed Ayyappanum Koshiyum (AK), the most- talked-about Malayalam film of 2020, alongside the two legends of Malayalam cinema. Being a lawyer, he had an eye for gripping, unusual story threads which he plucked out from real-life events.
Sachy’s stories and characters — right from Chocolate — always stood out. And they never faded away, irrespective of the film’s box-office fortunes.
But Sachy, as a writer or a story-teller, was “criminally underrated”, according to the cognoscenti.
Everything changed, or rather, everything was to change after Ayyappanum Koshiyum became a talking point across the country, especially after its release on a streaming platform.
The two eponymous characters played by Biju Menon and Prithviraj wowed audiences, and remake rights were sold in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil followed by animated discussions on social media among movie lovers across different languages, on who would be the right actors to reprise the two towering roles. There were even Twitter polls, clearly indicating the frenzy or adulation.
When this writer called up Sachy during the last week of May and on June 1, he talked about a multitude of things, even beyond cinema.
Little did we know that it would turn out to be one of his last interviews.
The conversation mostly veered around the fascinating aspect of AK’s remakes — how two of his beloved characters in Kerala’s Attapadi would cross borders and play out in strikingly different geographies and landscapes.
How would Attapadi be replicated, say in Jalgaon or Theni?
As far as Hindi and Tamil were concerned, Sachy had his preferences, though he made it clear that the producers there are at total liberty to cast their preferred actors.
“In Hindi, I would have loved to see Nana Patekar reprise the role of Biju Menon. John Abraham (who bought the Hindi rights) can play Prithvi’s role. Even Abhishek Bachchan is a good option,” Sachy mused.
In Tamil, Sachy wanted Karthi to play Koshy, and for Ayyappan Nair, he had a surprise choice in R Parthiban.
“I am very keen to see the Tamil remake taking shape. Tamil has some fantastic actors and I received a flurry of calls -- including one from AR Murugadoss -- from the industry, appreciating the film. I did have a fruitful talk with Kathiresan (who bagged Tamil rights) about multiple aspects of the film. I felt Karthi would be a great choice as Koshy, and Parthiban could do justice as Ayyappan Nair. Parthiban is a really interesting actor and I have been following him for quite some time. As a person who created these characters, these are my preferred choices, but of course, the producers can and would decide the cast and crew keeping in mind the film’s financial viability. It’s purely up to them,” Sachy said.
Did he want to direct the remakes? “I would have loved to, but for the time factor. I have a few projects lined up in Malayalam, and when the world gets back to normalcy after the Covid-19 outbreak, we will roll them out.”
With a goldmine of stories at his disposal, Sachy was in a hurry to execute them and Prithviraj, he admitted, was one of his favourite actors, besides being a close friend. For Mohanlal too, Sachy had “something special brewing”.
“Prithviraj and I enjoy working together. I could discuss any subject with him and his eye for detail is something which amazed me. The best part is that he is not chained by his image or stardom. I have a few stories in my mind for him,” Sachy said.
Sachy wanted to offer Mohanlal “a role which he has never done”.
“Mohanlal has done possibly every role we can conceive and imagine. Even for AK, there was a proposal to cast Mohanlal as Ayyappan Nair soon after the scripting, but I felt his stardom would be a big hindrance. More than that, I was convinced that only Biju Menon could do full justice to the role and needless to say, he aced it. With Mohanlal, I don’t want to approach him with usual subjects, and I have a few threads in my mind. Let us see,” he said, wrapping up the conversation which lasted over 45 minutes.
We were to talk in the next two days – about politics and media -- for a longer interview, but that never happened. When prompted once or twice, his last WhatsApp message was: “I will call you.”
That call never came. It never will either.