'Kannur Squad': A tale of resilience and redemption for the Rajan brothers

Soon after the first show of ‘Kannur Squad’ was over, Rony quietly sobbed on his brother Roby’s shoulder. For the brothers, it was a moment they had been waiting for. A sort of payback time! Once upon a time, it was cinema that had put them in dire straits. Now they were all set to restore their faith in the magic of movies! 

As far as Rony was concerned they had been working on this project for years. He along with Muhammad Shahi had co-written the film. Rony also essayed one of the key characters in the squad. Along with Jose (Azeez Nedumangad) and Shafi (Sabareesh), his Jayan was part of the 'Kannur Squad' headed by Mammootty’s ASI George Martin. And most importantly, this was Roby Raj’s directorial debut! The film was inspired by a feature called Kannur Squad that came in Manorama weekly.

Rony has been in the industry for the last 15 years. Very often people are more familiar with his onscreen characters ('Anandam’s' Chacko Mashu, 'Helen’s' Jayashankar, and '2018’s' Kurukkan Cletus). But with 'Kannur Squad', he had finally managed to carve an identity of his own.

And it is only after the stupendous success of 'Kannur Squad' that a shocking truth was revealed about the brother's past connection with the film industry. They hail from a family who were in dire straits when their father ventured into movie production.

It was their father, CT Rajan, who produced the 1989 film, 'Mahayanam', directed by Joshiy. Unfortunately, the film written by AK Lohitadas headlining Mammootty and Seema, despite being a critical success bombed at the box office, putting the Rajan family in dire financial loss. It was produced under the banner of Honey Productions, a name they thought would give their first child if it was a daughter.

They were forced to sell their house and also the house they were building and migrate to Palghat. They managed to survive thanks to Rony’s mom’s govt job. Rajan, who owned Thavoos Theatre in Kunnamkulam was mad about movies. But his first production’s failure broke his spirit and he never ventured into production ever again. Since he didn’t want his sons to be in films, he made sure the eldest took medicine and the youngest studied engineering. Rony used to pursue acting after his practice. It was when Rony realized that he wasn’t going anywhere by balancing the two that he quit his job and focused full-time on acting.

“After engineering Roby used to work at Soho. But then he quit that and finished a cinematography course at Rajiv Menon’s Mindscreen Academy. He started as an assistant cinematographer in 'Mangal Pandey' and lived in Mumbai. Once when I visited his Mumbai home, I realised that he was struggling to stay afloat in that tiny apartment. So I took him with me and made him join cinematographer Jomon’s team. He did the second unit camera for ‘Charlie.’ His first independent work was in Mammootty's 'Puthiya Niyamam' directed by AK Sajan. And later did ‘Captain,’ ‘Vellam’, ‘John Luther’, ‘The Great Father’ and ‘Love Action Drama’,” recalls Rony.

For the brothers, 'Kannur Squad' was the result of a four-year-old long hard work. And today, it is running successfully in theatres. The first thing Rony did after watching the FDFS was call his dad— “Dad, we have done it! We brought back the cinema you always dreamed of.”