Cinematographer Jomon T John’s production ‘Thanneermathan Dinangal’ hits screens

With the release of ‘Thanneermathan Dinangal’, Girish AD realises a long cherished dream

Girish AD says of his directorial debut, Thanneermathan Dinangal, which he has co-written with Dinoy Paulose, “The film belongs to the coming-of-age genre, it is set in a school and the protagonist is in school. It pans the two years, Plus 1 & 2, in a boy’s (Mathew Thomas) life. Ours has a bit of comedy, some romance…it is a musical telling.” The film, with Vineeth Sreenivasan in a prominent role, released yesterday.

“We had written this story a while ago, before films located in schools were being made. And suddenly everybody was making such films,” jokes Girish. He had caught the eye of producers Shebin Backer, cinematographer Jomon T John and editor Shameer Mohammed for his short film Mukkuthi. Impressed they asked him if he would work with them on their production. “I hope people like the film, it has come out as I had visualised it and I hope it works,” Girish says.

The two songs, especially the catchy ‘Jaathikkathottam…’ has roused curiosity about the film. “The actors – especially Mathew and Anaswara Rajan – have done a very good job.” Picking Vineeth Sreenivasan, in the teacher’s role, Girish says it was Jomon’s idea. “We wanted someone who was a familiar the film couldn’t have all new faces. People wouldn’t be able to connect with it, and we thought of many people somehow no one gelled. That is when Jomon suggested Vineeth. He is a perfect fit; we didn’t have to think twice about it.”

This is not the 30-year-old electrical engineer’s first outing in films, he co-wrote the script for Allu Ramendran, a film he landed rather by chance. “The story was ready, the team needed somebody to write the script and that’s how Bilahari, the director, got in touch with me.” He was also part of Porattam.

By then he had made a handful of short films and some like Mukkuthi were received well online. When he was in Class IX, he remembers, he was very taken by films but education took over. After his education he joined Cinema Paradiso Club (CPC) and there he made friends with like-minded people which led him to making short films.

“Short films were a valuable experience for me. Making those prepared me for feature films. They are not really very different from each other – only that a feature film is a much larger canvas. It is more organised, there is more equipment and more people are involved and of course, finances are not a huge concern. It is not a headache,” he says.

He and Dinoy, with whom he co-wrote the script, are friends and have collaborated on short films before this. “This film was a shared dream – we just had the script, and the dream, nothing else. We didn’t even know if it would be made into a film.” Gireesh, who hails from Chalakudy, worked in Technopark and on contract with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). He intends to make films his full time career.

What next?

“Let this settle…there is no dearth of scripts with me that can be made into films.”

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