Director Basil Joseph and actor Tovino Thomas peeled again among the deepest layers of their newest film Minnal Murali throughout a prolonged dialogue with The Indian Express senior movie critic Shubhra Gupta. The Netflix movie has discovered favour with audiences internationally and actually demolished the language barrier.
The duo addressed how the topic of psychological sickness, the social stigma that surrounds it and ignorance about psychological well being within the society shaped the core narrative of Minnal Murali, which got here out on the OTT platform on December 24 final yr.
Even although there are precedents about how society’s indifference turns unusual individuals into supervillains in Hollywood superhero motion pictures, Basil’s inspiration for it, nonetheless, was homegrown, identical to his superhero character, Minnal Murali.
“There is a movie called Thaniyavarthanam (1987), in which the hero’s uncle is mentally ill. And society thinks that the hero has inherited the illness of his uncle. And he’s treated like an outcast. But, eventually, he will turn out to be someone like… (Shibu). Shibu’s mother has an issue of mental illness and society thinks he might have inherited it. So they treat him like an outcast. Even when he’s asked to marry a girl, the girl’s brother refuses his proposal citing his mother’s mental illness,” Basil stated.
A nonetheless from Minnal Murali. (Photo: Netflix)
Basil defined that Sibhu’s anger didn’t stem from an sickness however from the ache brought on by years of mistreatment and humiliation.
“At the beginning of the movie when Sibhu says that he lost his wallet, the police officer surprisingly asks, ‘even you have a wallet?’ As if he’s someone who was not supposed to have a wallet. And the tea shop owner slaps on the back of Sibhu’s head. After years of being mistreated by people, he becomes a loner and loses confidence in himself. But, with his superpower, he becomes more confident. He starts to comb his hair, cut his nails. Sibhu is not doing what he’s doing because he’s mentally ill. He acts that way because he’s treated like a mad person,” he added.
Tovino Thomas additionally revealed that in the first place, he wished to play Sibhu’s character as he thought it had a really sturdy emotional core. But, he let go of his need, after Basil informed him that he had plans to show Minnal Murali right into a franchise. “I asked Basil if I could play Sibhu. And when the villain role is getting all the praise, I am so proud that my judgment was right,” he added.
And Tovino believes that whereas Sibhu shouldn’t be innately evil, there are extra villainous characters within the film who go scot-free.
“I think he’s (Sibhu) not the villain of the movie until some point. I think the people around Sibhu are more villainous than him, including the guy who sets Sibhu’s house on fire. Whatever Sibhu is doing, he is doing out of his loss. He’s not doing it just to hurt people. He has been treated like sh**t since his childhood and that’s why he’s giving back to those people. But, a lot of innocent people come under Sibhu’s attack and that’s why Jaison had to intervene and do all these things. So I don’t consider him as an ugly villain we see in other movies,” he defined.
Basil prompt that whereas nobody can justify Sibhu happening a killing spree, the viewers must also concentrate on the explanations that prompted Sibhu’s actions
“Sibhu’s actions can’t be justified and at the same time, the actions of people around Sibhu also can’t be justified. They make a villain out of Sibhu and then judge him. I don’t think that’s fair,” added Tovino.
