Veteran filmmaker Siddique has gifted many unforgettable scenes and characters to the Malayalam cinema that would stay immortal in the hearts of the audiences. The Malayali audience patiently waited to watch Siddique's magic onscreen even when he forayed into Tamil and Bollywood.
Now, Siddique is back with Mohanlal starrer Big Brother. The director opens up about Big Brother and what makes it a unique cinematic experience.
“As an actor Mohanlal has two different kinds of images. Lal, as a larger than life character and then as a simpleton who leads a normal life. I have taken the first image as youngsters are waiting for someone like him. In their minds, Lal is someone who is beyond the ordinary. Action has been given prime importance in this movie,” says Siddique.
He says that as the Malayali audience has the chance to watch movies in other languages they expect such movies here as well. He added that the Malayali audience doesn’t care whether such commercial movies are adopted from a big industry or not. In movies like Valyettan, Chronic Bachelor and Hitler, a protective elder brother had been the central character. Siddique observes that all these characters were approached with an extremely emotional factor. “Big Brother too has such an emotional side. My hope in fact is in that feature. I believe all my films have such an aspect,” notes the film maker.
Siddique reveals that he has been planning to make a film with Mohanlal for the last 9 years. He says that his projects in other languages and lack of a suitable project for the screen icon are what delayed it.
“When Mohanlal is the hero, it is difficult to decide what shouldn’t be in the movie rather than what should be there. Where ever you look, you could find only Lal. Finally, I found ‘this’ Lal after making many changes. It was the story that attracted Lal in the first place. When I went to him with the screenplay, he told me that there are lots of action sequences in the movie. Naturally, when the character grew, such action sequences too had to be included. Lal too liked it. That is how Big Brother got materialized. Lal has changed and the audience too. So am I,” says Siddique.
“I don’t believe that the people would watch it if the old Lal is shown. Lal has changed with time. Our minds too have changed. Despite showing Lal as a commoner, Drishyam became a success because of the brilliant and extraordinary suspense in it. But, in other movies, the audience expects to see the thrilling Lal,” concludes Siddique.
