Even in a movie like Memories, which is a mystery thriller, you can easily see the family relationship as the backbone of the movie. Linta, Jeethu’s wife, was the costume designer for Memories and their daughter Catherine often came on the sets. When you see the strength of their relationship, you automatically feel drawn and this helped the entire cast and crew feel like one big family. Creating that kind of a connection between actors is no mean task and you have to give credit to Jeethu for that. I believe this is what helped him recreate the success in Drishyam as well.
When I was offered a supporting role in Memories, I had no idea about its importance. It turned out to be one of the first prominent roles of my career. Once on the sets, Jeethu explained the entire script to me. He could have just given me my dialogues and asked me to deliver them like many other directors do, but understanding what is expected of them and where the story is heading, helps actors perform better. At a time when there are so many director-actors, Jeethu’s advantage lies in his not being an actor. He explains a scene and lets the actors explore the emotion on their own.
We are at a juncture where if the film attempts to create suspicion and diversion by portraying someone as a suspect, then the audience immediately assumes that he is not the culprit. Instead Jeethu prefers to narrate his stories in a plain and simple manner in Memories so that there is no forced attention being drawn to any incident or character.
Since we knew the story of Memories, all of us were obsessed with this notion of mysteriousness and were trying to add to it in our own way. There was this scene where Prithviraj asks me ‘Why did Christ die?’ and I reply ‘For the sins of others’. The scene was intended to draw attention to me being a possible suspect. So I delivered the dialogue with some added bass and in a bloodcurdling tone and Jeethu immediately mocked me with ‘I don’t think we need that much mysteriousness! It’s like saying ‘I’m the culprit’. I believe what makes him great is his ability to have fun and is patient enough to take as many retakes as required to get the perfect shot. He is a great director who lets you explore your potentials to the maximum.
As told to Shreejaya Nair
The story so far
- Jeethu made his directorial debut with Detective in 2007, but the movie failed to make an impact at the box office despite good reviews
- His big break came with the 2012 Dileep starrer My Boss which was a comedy entertainer
- Of the five films he has directed, he has scripted four of them and was the co-writer of Mummy and Me with Sanjay Boban
- Jeethu Joseph has a penchant for thrillers which he attributes to the authors he grew up reading like Agatha Christie and believes that filmmaking is all about storytelling
- He is currently writing a script for Ansar Khan. The director has three projects in the pipeline — one with Indrajith which is expected to go on the floors soon and two others with Prithviraj, one of which is scheduled to be shot in August 2014
