A look back at the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown period are certain to bring back painful memories to many. Thousands of deaths were reported every day, and the global economy crumbled like never before. People were confined to their homes, masks were made mandatory, and social distancing was the need of the hour.
In Kerala, the government enforced strict precautionary measures and ensured only essential commodities were available in the market. It was a tough period for many, particularly the state’s beloved alcoholics, who found themselves running from pillar to post to get a gulp. It was too harsh a curb for a state like Kerala, which boasts the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the country. Soon there was an influx of illicit liquor from other states while many resorted to home-brewing their drink.
Inspired by these incidents, debutant director Nithin CC Aloor aka CC and his writer Sujoy Mohanraj conceived Corona Dhavan, a fun entertainer about drunkards and their desperation during the lockdown days. As the film hits screens today, the director, with over a decade’s experience in the industry, is thrilled to bits.
“I started out by assisting Thomson (K Thomas) chettan in Karyasthan, and since then, I’ve worked with many leading filmmakers like Joshiy, Vysakh, and Haneef Adeni. But no matter how experienced you are, there’s nothing like your first independent film”, says an excited CC, adding that this was not the film he planned to debut with. “In the last six years, I’ve been trying to get various subjects materialised. But for some reason, things never fell in place. In Malayalam, they say, getting married and owning a house happen only at the right time. I guess doing a movie is also like that.”
Going back to the lockdown days, CC remembers it as a “dreadful phase where people, irrespective of being rich or poor, had to endure the same struggles.” This was also the time when several strangely funny incidents came to light. “If you remember, there were numerous viral videos of people getting picked up by the police for stepping out of their homes unnecessarily and getting chased by surveillance drones. I shared some of these hilarious videos with Sujoy and asked him if he could come up with something interesting.
Within three days, he narrated a base idea with a superb opening and ending. I was impressed with the structure, which is crucial because you can’t just stitch together viral videos and make a film. Audience should feel some sort of an emotional connect, and I felt Sujoy had it covered.” A full-fledged screenplay was developed in the next few months, and as CC was hopeful of getting the project greenlit, disaster struck once again in the form of the second wave. To rejuvenate his dying spirits, he turned to content creation in YouTube and launched a food vlogging channel named, Thrissur Foodie Guddies.
“During the first lockdown, I noticed the massive reach for YouTubers and decided to try a hand in it. Since I was already working in cinema, I was confident of putting out some quality content on cooking. We did around 70 videos, but sambavam paali (laughs). We couldn’t get the desired reach because by then, the vlogging trend was waning. It got revived recently with the introduction of shorts,” points out CC.
Like content creation, cinema also has the question of relevance, but CC says he was never bothered about this subject getting outdated. Citing 2018’s success as an example, the director says, “It’s been five years since the devastating floods, but the film released this year, and became a huge success—because people could relate to what they saw on screen. Likewise, the Covid era and its memories will always stay fresh. Though it was a distressing period for many, we didn’t want to explore that layer. We wanted to focus only on the lighter side of it, which I’m sure people will be able to relate to even after several years.”
Corona Dhavan has Lukman and Sreenath Bhasi playing the lead roles, while a host of other character actors also star in it. About the casting, CC says he roped in actors who resembled his villagers as the film was inspired from his real life and the people he saw around. “I wanted my characters to look real and familiar. That’s how I got all my actors, including Lukman, (Sreenath) Bhasi, and Johnny (Antony) chettan.” When asked about the allegations on new-gen actors being uncooperative on sets, CC clarifies, “I never faced any such hurdles. We planned 33 days of shoot, but it went on for 35 days only because of unexpected rain and Lukman’s injury during filming. Otherwise, they were all very professional and supportive.”
With the successful completion of shoot and post-production works, the makers were all set for release in May. But there was one final hurdle left—censoring. And it turned out to be too big a hurdle. CC and his team were shocked when the CBFC officials wanted them to change the title and remove the word ‘Jawan’ from the entire film. “We were left scratching our heads, but they explained that we cannot name any liquor brands in films as it would inadvertently end up promoting them. They wanted us to replace ‘Jawan’ because it’s a popular liquor brand in Kerala.
Such legal issues didn’t cross our minds because we’ve had films like Johnny Walker and Honeybee made before. But we later learnt that it’s a law that got introduced only recently. We didn’t want to fight the law and decided to change the title to Corona Dhavan,” recalls CC of the painstaking process of re-dubbing the portions with any mention of ‘Jawan’ and working on new publicity designs. The director, though, is hopeful that all the pain is worth it. “Nothing like your first film,” he reiterates.