Alphonse Puthren. The name itself is novel. Just like Premam, the name of its director too grabbed eyeballs.
But come home to the Manjooran house here at Aluva Kalathil Lane, ‘Puthren’ (son) becomes father, and the son becomes Alphonse. Here, there is a ‘Puthri’ (daughter) too – Alphonse’s sister, Dr. Puthri Puthren.
Alphonse was baptized as Alphonse Joseph Paul. But when he was admitted to L.K.G in Ootty, his name was changed to Alphonse Puthren. Alphonse’s father’s name was Puthren Paul, and it was Alphonse’s grandfather, M.C. Paul, who gave this unique name to his son. Yes, there is a story behind that too!
Paul was working at a coffee house in Mumbai during the Second World War, and that is when the story begins. A guy named ‘Puthren’, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh used to work in the coffee shop where Paul worked. One day, he went to one of the ships to give coffee, and he was killed in a bomb blast there. Paul was deeply hurt by that incident. That is how Paul decided to name his next son ‘Puthren’.
As for ‘Puthren’, he decided to lovingly call his daughter ‘Puthri’. If his dad could call him ‘Puthren’, then why not call his own daughter ‘Puthri’?! This is what Puthren thought. Today, Puthri is a dentist and is settled in the U.K with her husband Raphy Paul.
The name Alphonse is the contribution of his mom Daisy who decided to name her son after Saint Alphonsa. Daisy, who had two lovely daughters, prayed for a son when she was pregnant for the third time.
Daisy was three months pregnant when she visited the famous Bharananganam Church to pray for a boy. As she pressed her head on the holy bed of the St. Alphonsa, a breeze passed by her. It seems the breeze told her that she was going to have a boy!
Alphonse was born on February 10, the same day when Saint Chavara was born. It is believed that Saint Chavara came in Saint Alphonse’s dream and cured her illness. Daisy found it a miracle that her son was also born on the same auspicious date. Alphonse has another sister named Mary. She lives with her husband Bejoy in Qatar.
The director of Premam has always been media shy. Unmoved by the brouhaha over his movie, this guy still takes a rickshaw to commute around. Even though he has done two blockbuster movies, Neram and Premam, his interviews have not come out much in the media. He also stays away from the promotions of the film. But the residents of Aluva are not surprised by this. That is how Alphonse is. He loves to travel in an auto than in an AC car!
Alphonse was obsessed about cinema from childhood. That is how he left to Chennai to pursue studies in digital film making. Alphonse has never assisted anyone, and yet took Neram that topped charts. He directed a music album named Yuvvh before Neram. Alphonse believes that the fate of a film is determined by its screenplay, rather than the story.
Due to their hard-core love for cinema, Alphonse and his family would go for movies every week. Daisy used to be a good critic and after watching a movie, she would imagine how the plot-line could have been changed for better.
During her school days, Daisy has won the first prize in a story writing competition held by a bunch of film-makers. But later, she left writing and ventured out to be a beautician. Apparently, Daisy is the first beauty parlour owner in Aluva. She had run a beauty parlour in Kochi also for some time. The first gent’s beauty parlour in Kochi was started by Alphonse's father, Puthren Paul. It was called ‘Gents Beauty Parlour’, and was located at Ammankovil Road. Puthren, who used to work at Premier Tyres in Aluva, had a parlour in TAS road at Aluva as well. Both Puthren and Daisy had completed their beautician course from Singapore.
Alphonse prefers English over Malayalam to write his script and screenplay. The reason being his fluency in the language of course, as he studied in Ootty from L.K.G to sixth standard. He completed his B.Sc in Computer Science from MES College in Marampally before leaving to Chennai for film studies. Most of his close friends from college are seen in his two films.
Alphonse, Nivin, and their bunch of friends used to visit ‘Gopu’s Sarbath Shop’ that was located near Aluva Palace. The shop is shown in ‘Premam’ -- the one where the guys come and ask for Kus Kus in order to cool their soda. It is shown as ‘Gopus Cool Bar’ in the film, and is located at the junction near actor Dileep’s house. Gopu, who runs the real shop, is shown as Unni, who runs the shop in the movie. But the shop shown in the movie is not real. It is a set that was put at Uliyannoor, a small village near Aluva.
After Premam became a hit, the number of youngsters who throng Gopu’s shop has risen. Their latest marketing technique is ‘Premam’ sarbath that is available in the shop, and for that, they have stuck a poster saying the same!
Alphonse, who strongly believes that a film is a director’s complete responsibility, does not let anyone interfere in it. Not even the producer! He is very strict at the film location. After completing his film studies from Chennai, he wrote the script and screenplay for Neram, and waited for seven long years for a producer.
Premam is undoubtedly Aluva’s own film. The pulse is felt not just in the song Aluva Puzhayude Theerathu. Many youngsters from Aluva have been part of this film. Nivin, Anend Chandran who is the cinematographer, Alphonse, Jude Anthany Joseph, who is also a director, Sabareesh Varma who has penned down the songs, Krishnachandran, Saraf and Siju who comes as Nivin’s friends on-screen, are some of the prominent Aluvites who were part of the movie.
Jude and Alphonse were classmates at Paravoor St. Aloysius High School. Sabareesh and Alphonse are friends from MES College. Nivin, Siju and Alphonse belong to the same church. The story and screenplay for Premam was done in a small house near U.C. College in Aluva. The main locations for the film were Uliyannoor and U.C College, and both were very close.
Most of the actors in the film are their friends from ‘Gopus Cool Bar Association’! In the film, Alphonse has added an incident that he has heard from his mother Daisy. But his mom came to know about this only after watching the movie. In the movie, Nivin’s house is shown as ‘Kalaparambath’, and that is for real. Alphonse’s mother Daisy also belongs to the same family. It is popularly called as Karumaloor Kalaparambath.