Fahadh Faasil: If Malayankunju’s first half was a comedy, it would have still worked

Fahadh Faasil’s Malayankunju, which released in theatres a month ago, was lauded more for its script than its stellar performance spearheaded by the actor. The Vikram star had so much trust in how Mahesh Narayanan has conceived and written its protagonist Anikuttan that in a recent interview, he revealed that the movie would have worked irrespective of the genre of the first half.

The first half of the Sajimon Prabhakar directorial in the final cut was presented in a sombre mood shuttling between the flashback of a personal tragedy in Anikuttan’s life, his relationship with his father, the reason for his estrangement with his sister and his current recluse behaviour that almost makes him an anti-social. The latter half of the movie, however, is a survival thriller – that revolves around Anikuttan being trapped 40 feet under after a landslide with only a newborn’s cry to give him a semblance of hope.

Fahadh, in an interview with Film Companion, said that he believes that Malayankunju would have worked even if it was a comedy. “For a long time, I was telling Mahesh that, ‘What if Anikuttan was funny?’ So, it depends on the choices that you actually end up making. So, I strongly believe the narrative of Malayankunju would have remained the same regardless of how the first half was,” he said.

The actor in an earlier interview with OTTplay had said Malayankunju was also one of the toughest characters he has played as his character had so many layers. “Once we began work on the latter half, that’s when we started facing the challenges. From the interval onwards, it’s a one-actor narrative. So, there aren't any dialogues between characters,” he said.

Also read: Exclusive! Fahadh Faasil: Malayankunju is the toughest film I have done, we had to crouch, crawl to shoot it 

The movie, which also has Rajisha Vijayan, Jaffer Idukki and Indrans, is set to release on Amazon Prime Video on August 11.