When Unni Mukundan calls Jai Ganesh ‘a gem’, his best film yet,he does not say it lightly. “You don’t normally get films that change you as an individual. This film transformed me personally and professionally,” says the actor over the phone. Jai Ganesh, directed by Ranjith Sankar hit theatres today.
Essaying the wheelchair-bound hero Ganesh Gangadharan opened Unni’s eyes to the lives the disabled lead in “cities engineered for the abled. Somehow, we don’t ‘see’ the disabled people among us. This is not a random film. It changed me as a man.” The thriller gave him a new perspective on life. “Those of us who are not dealing with these physical challenges complain about the slightest thing that does not go our way. And then we have disabled people fighting for the basics.”
He did not want to showcase a ‘crippled hero’ for the sake of it and Ranjith Sankar assured him it would not be so. “The representation would be such that it would give the audience, especially the disabled, goosebumps. For me it was a role, but think of it from the perspective of, the reality of someone who has to spend his entire life in a wheelchair.” Ganesh is a hero, a man with agency over his narrative who does not seek sympathy. “And don’t we all like heroes? This film is not intended to garner sympathy but to show that they are also heroes.”
It has been a year-and-a-half since his biggest hit, Malikapuram, was released. Its unprecedented success opened his eyes to a section of the audience partial to ‘family-friendly films’. “Malikapuram had the support of family audiences, the kind that likes kid- friendly films. And when Ranjith came to me with this story, I loved it!” He is confident it will click with his niche audience.
Unni’s next projects
In fact, he liked it so much that he came on board as a producer. Ranjith Sankar’s Dreams N Beyond and Unni Mukundan Films are the producers. Unni is also the distributor of the film. He grew so close to the project that he felt, while the film was being edited, that a ‘part of my life’ was being cut away.
“We reworked the draft (of the script) 28 or 29 times till it achieved its current form. For me to have read all those times would give one an idea of how motivated I would have had to be. I wanted to understand the character’s dynamic. The interactions with Ranjith led me to gain an appreciation for him as a writer as well,” he adds.
One of the reasons Ranjith picked him was because “I looked the part, because of my upper body strength — my shoulders and my arms, to look the part of someone who uses a wheelchair who constantly has to hoist himself in and out of it and rely on their upper body for any kind of movement.”
Ironically, he was picked for one of things that he is known for — his physique. He was defined by it for the longest time because when he made his debut in the 2010s, he was among a handful of Malayalam actors who maintained their physique.
Manoeuvring the wheelchair was not a challenge physically, but the realisation of the hardships that disabled people suffer took a toll. The physical and mental challenges of essaying the character segued. “I am a physically active person who works out, but after 10 days in the wheelchair, with no physical activity, I gained five kilograms. It (disability) takes its toll in many other ways.”
Jai Ganesh hit theatres with two massive, anticipated movies — Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Varshangalkku Shesham and Jithu Madhavan’s Fahadh Faasil-starrer Aavesham. Unni is unperturbed. He is confident that the film will get its share of audiences, especially the family audience which is his strongest fan base post Malikapuram. The film is about two children who make their way to Sabarimala, with Unni essaying a Civil Police Officer Ayyappadas, who they mistake to be the deity Ayyappan.
He understands the expectations riding the film, since this is his first theatre release after Malikapuram. “That was a good Friday!” he says referring to the film’s success. It was more than that, it was his first massive hit that catapulted him into audience’s hearts and set the cash registers ringing. The film also got him flak from some quarters, which he says, hit him hard.
Unni goes on, “Why doesn’t anybody talk about KL 10 Patthu? A film located in Malappuram, in which I essayed a character named Ahmed. Nobody seems to want to discuss that film. Even after one-and-half years I am waiting for that one person to tell me what in Malikapuram offended people. Which was the scene or dialogue that caused the reaction…?”
Jai Ganesh is playing in theatres.
