O Baby director Ranjan Pramod: Legendary directors asked me how did I dare to write Meesa Madhavan without a story

Ranjan Pramod’s latest directorial O Baby, which has Dileesh Pothan, has already won critical acclaim

Ranjan Pramod and a still from Meesa Madhavan

Director-scriptwriter Ranjan Pramod’s latest directorial O Baby, which hit theatres last week, is already hailed as one of the better Malayalam movies to come out this year. The film, which has Dileesh Pothan and a host of newcomers in pivotal roles, presents its brilliant content with tinges of commercial elements.

The filmmaker, in an exclusive chat with OTTplay, tells us that right from his first script, he has tried to ensure that he inculcated elements that appealed to masses while also pushing the envelope in terms of creating “a new cinematic language”.

O Baby further cements this. “I have always tried to experiment with my movies, from Randam Bhavam onwards. When movies become hits, people call them trendsetters,” he says, adding that the greatest example would be Meesa Madhavan, which was “an experimental commercial film”.

Also read: O.Baby review: Dileesh Pothan-starrer is a thoroughly engaging drama-thriller about social oppression, subservience

Ask him why he considers the screenplay of Meesa Madhavan, which was the highest-grossing Malayalam movie of 2002, experimental and he sayd, “After Meesa Madhavan’s post production was over, its editor (Ranjan Abraham) had opined, ‘If the movie also had a good story, it would be a superhit’. That’s because Meesa Madhavan had treated its story differently from the movies before it.”

Also read: O Baby director Ranjan Pramod: Be it Meesa Madhavan or Naran, I have always tried to experiment in commercial films

He also cites the comments of superhit filmmaker-scriptwriter combo of Thampi Kannanthanam and Dennis Joseph, before the movie’s release. “They were sitting on either side of me, while we were watching the movie at a film festival. Both of them asked me, ‘How did I have the courage to write a screenplay without a story?’ So, the common consensus before the movie’s release was that it didn’t have a story. Even now, if you look back, you can’t properly narrate the story of Meesa Madhavan, but it’s a screenplay that took a different approach to treating its story and because of that it was an experimental film.”

The director also explains that while he does try to experiment as much as possible, the box office success of his movies is important to him. “Most of the makers of experimental films expect appreciation only from the discerning audience, which is limited. But the acid test for me is the box office. When I try to present a new cinematic language, it’s the masses that have to tell me that it’s a success; not the evolved audience which is just a cluster,” he concludes.

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