Eccentric, audacious, humorous, experimental… One can keep on adding adjectives to any Krishand directorial. Be it his films such asVrithakrithyilulla Chathuram, Avasavyuham, Purushapretham, and Sangarsha Ghadana – The Art of Warfare or his new web series Sambhavavivaranam Nalara Sangham (The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang), right from the title to the story and narrative technique, he never ceases to surprise and make you laugh and think. The way he weaves in nuances to characters, situations, dialogues, art, music etc makes you wish if you could travel with him through the creative process.
But he makes it all sound simple, downplaying the adulation. When we catch up a few days after the release of The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang he confesses he had doubts about how it would be received, whether the audience would like it. “I was scared to read the reviews,” he says with a laugh.
A poster of Sambhavivaranam Nalara Sangham or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang
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In the six-episode gangster drama series that does not involve a crime syndicate, we see a group of ordinary guys who accidentally end up in a world of crime, building a shaky empire on petty crimes and rackets involving filching milk and controlling the local flower market.
Set in Thiruvanchipuram, it pivots washed out gangster Arun Kumar or Arikuttan (Sanju Sivaram) – called thus because he once stole rice from the school kitchen — who approaches a writer, Maithreyan (Jagadish), living in Maharashtra, to pen his biography. The other members in the gang are Althaf (Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju), Kanji (Sreenath Babu), Maniyan (Sambhu) and Moonga (Sachin Joseph), who is a little person making the ‘half’ of the group.
Filmmaker Krishand at work
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Krishand credits the genesis of the idea to his days at the Industrial Design Centre School of Design at IIT Bombay where he did his Masters. “I was always into stories about aliens, time loop etc. Once one of my teachers told me, ‘You are from Kerala and why are you not saying anything about the place you grew up? That would actually help your research because you will be doing that from your memory.’ So I read Basheer [Vaikom Mohammed Basheer], MT [MT Vasudevan Nair] and others. It struck me that I could tell the story of the place where I spent a major part of my childhood.”
That place is Thiruvananthapuram, where he was born and lived till he was 26. “There were many such small groups in the city who built their business on illegal dealings involving either milk or flowers. I started writing the story in 2015 for which I had interviewed a few people who were involved in these activities. My sister and her team helped me with collecting some data. Although I approached several platforms with the story, they were not ready for a series then. In 2020, Sony showed some interest after I pitched the idea along with Sanju and Sasi Kumar [editor of the series].”
Krishand adds that he rewrote some portions based on the platform’s feedback. “Avasavyuham was ready by then. By the time Sony agreed, the film had started getting awards [eight of them, including the National and State awards]. They acquired the movie and later gave green signal for the series.” He makes a special mention of Deepa Antony and Annu Chelekad Masilamani, part of SonyLIV’s creative team, who rooted for the series.
Sanju Sivaram and Sambhu in Sambhavivaranam Nalara Sangham or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang
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Decoding the structure of the series, Krishand stresses what he has always said – that he designs the content of his work. “I always want to try a new narrative trick or technique. In this case I didn’t want to narrate it in a single timeline. The thought was, if someone else wrote about Arikuttan, he would be the villain. But what if he writes his own story? Then everyone else is a villain. However, we don’t know if he is being honest because we know only his version. Which makes it an apt post-modern content!”
He adds, “I worked around an eco system – their family, parents’ occupation, their school… to show how the socio-political-cultural scenario made them who they are. There is an underlying sadness in the narrative as they are always on the run from people with power. They cannot lead a normal life.”
Why did he go with fictional names of places when the real names were so obvious? Like Thiruvanchipuram for Thiruvanananthapuram, Kamalakumari for Kanyakumari, Ilinjam for Vizhinjam, or Ponekkav for Bonacaud. “Some of the illegal activities shown in the series have actually taken place. Had we used real names it might not have gone down well with many people. So we played it safe; besides we had fun using fictional names.”
About the cast, he was particular about having not-so-familiar faces besides his regulars. “Sanju has been part of the project since its inception and became my choice for Arikkuttan. Sambhu had worked in my series Kraya Vikraya Prakriya and I knew that playing Maniyan would be easy for him. Niranj’s name was suggested by our DOP Vishnu Prabhakar who had worked with him earlier. He felt that Niranj’s talent has not been explored yet and I went with his instinct. I met Sreenath during Vrithakrithiyil Ulla Chathuram and felt that he would be perfect to play Kanji, a poor psycho! Sachin was cast by Sanup Padaveedan’s [lead in Sangharshaghadana] casting agency.”
Indrans in Sambhavivaranam Nalara Sangham or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang
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Over 150-plus actors were selected through casting process. As for the Thiruvananthapuram dialect, Krishand says that Sanju picked it up because he had worked in the city. Sambhu, meanwhile, stayed in the city for a few months to learn it. “My chief associate Nikhil who is from Thiruvananthapuram trained most of the actors to get the correct meter. I also pitched in. We had a list of words that could be used. And we did not use some usages and terms usually associated with Thiruvananthapuram. At the same time, I was not strict about sticking to the dialect and have overlooked some digressions.”
So how does his out-of-the box making style and thought process connect with the actors? “They trust me because of the preparation I make. I have a storyboard; usually I draw most of the scenes. They follow that and we finish the shoot on time,” he says, making it sound so simple.
What came handy was the pre-visualisation he did with Deepak Sivan. “We designed the sequences with animatics. Our stunt director Shravan Satya also did animatics for the fights. That is why the stunts look slick,” he explains.
The series scores big when it comes to the music with 25 tracks, composed by Varkey and Sooraj Santhosh. “Music is always integral to my script. I cannot imagine scenes without that. In this case, it was a collaboration which hit a sweet spot where we could give feedback to each other. They were unafraid and that contributed big time. I was particular about not sticking to a genre or soundscape. Also I didn’t want the songs to be predictable and that is why there are English tracks.”
Meanwhile, he continues to follow his dream of scoring music some day. “I am crazy on that front!” he laughs.
Sambhu and Sachin Joseph in Sambhavivaranam Nalara Sangham or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang
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SREERAG
While the colony scenes were shot on a set at Kothamangalam, the other locations were Kochi, Idukki, Ilaveezhapoonchira, Theni, Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai.
Darshana Rajendran in Sambhavivaranam Nalara Sangham or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang
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Reacting to criticism about the female characters being sidelined — Darshana Rajendran as the badass Ramani who takes on the 4.5 gang, Zarin Shihab as Pranitha, Maniyan’s lover, and Santhy Balachandran as Kingini, Arikuttan’s childhood love, he says, “If there is a sequel, their stories will be explored further. The script is almost ready. It depends on whether the OTT platform greenlights it or not. Even the lives of other members of the gang will be expanded,” he says.
Krishand adds that Santhy [currently in the limelight post the success of Lokah in which she was the co-scenarist] contributed a lot to her character, Kingini. “I had written her as someone who ditches Arikuttan. But during the making, she gave me the reason why she decided to get Arikuttan out of her life,” he says.
And what was the reason behind his cameo as Vikraman, the superstar, who is a key character in the series? “Out of necessity! The character was to be named after a popular Tamil actor but we did not get the rights to use the name. The team asked why can’t I do it and save all the trouble. Sony approved and we went ahead with that. Otherwise, I am not interested in acting at all.”
His forthcoming project is Masthishka Maranam (A Frankenbiting of Simon’s Memories), with Rajisha Vijayan, Divyaprabha, Niranj, Vishnu Agasthya etc. Meanwhile news is doing rounds that he is planning projects with Mohanlal and Mammootty.
The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang is streaming on SonyLIV
