Exclusive! Asif Ali’s Kooman is closer to Prithviraj’s Memories in terms of its genre and treatment: Jeethu Joseph

Asif Ali-starrer Kooman marks Jeethu Joseph’s first theatrical release in over three years. But what it has going for it, despite the lack of usual hype associated with a Jeethu directorial lately, is that the movie falls into the Drishyam filmmaker’s favourite genre – investigative thriller.

Ask him how different Kooman is from your previous investigative thrillers and Jeethu, in an exclusive chat with OTTPlay, tells us, “I haven’t done a lot of investigative thrillers. Detective purely dealt with investigation, while Memories was more of an investigative thriller. That way Kooman is closer to Memories as it pays a lot of importance to its protagonist. While Memories has an urban setting, Kooman’s story is told against the backdrop of a village.”

The protagonist in Kooman is a police constable, who is “rather ordinary” that even the villagers doubt he got selected in the force, says Jeethu. While Asif essays the role of the constable, Baburaj plays the circle inspector in the same station. “How someone with the intimidating physique of a police officer deals with a case as opposed to a constable who feels inferior and has an ego problem pushes the story of Kooman,” explains the director.

Also read: Exclusive! Asif Ali on working with Jeethu Joseph in Kooman: ‘Screenplays have been his source of confidence’ 

The trailer also hints that it’s the cop that is being stalked here. Is that the case? “That is one of the angles, but while talking about a thriller, there’s only so much you can reveal,” says the director.

Kooman marks the second time that Jeethu is working with scriptwriter KR Krishnakumar, who had also written his previous mystery thriller 12th Man, starring Mohanlal. Asif, in an earlier interview with us, had said that half the story was framed by Krishnakumar while Jeethu added the investigative elements into it.

On their process of working in this film, Jeethu says, “As a director, I also had ideas on how I want the story to move forward. We discussed that and we both took the good ideas that each of us brought to the table. In certain areas, there were differences in opinion and we took that for voting, by asking a select group of people which idea they preferred and went with the majority’s opinion. We don’t have inflated egos; I have known him even before I came into films. So, we are comfortable working with each other and we do what’s best for the movie.”

Also read: Exclusive! Jeethu Joseph: For Kooman, we needed a performer who could look ordinary and Asif Ali fit the bill 

Kooman, which also has Baiju, Hannah Reji Koshy and Renji Panicker, is set to hit theatres on November 4.