Joju George to play a 75-year-old percussionist with Alzheimer’s in Jillam Peppare

In a space of just three years, State Award winner Joju George has already become a favourite of filmmakers to play the lead in performance-oriented movies in Mollywood and the actor has more than lived up to the confidence that the directors have placed on him. His upcoming movie Jillam Peppare, will once again see him playing a role that would challenge even the best of artistes.
Joju will be seen playing a chenda artiste in two phases of his character’s life. The film’s director Josh tells us, “We show two phases of Joju chettan’s character in the movie – from the ages of 35 to 40 and from 70 to 75. In the latter phase, he is an Alzheimer’s patient and while his memory is vague about everything else, the rhythm of chenda is still pristine. While not an anthology, the movie brings together four incidents that happen in four different places through chenda.”
The actor has already shot most of his portions for the movie and now has only four more days of shoot left. “It’s a realistic film and I believe it’s one of the best performances in Joju chettan’s career. We have seen Mohanlal sir brilliantly portray an Alzheimer’s patient in Thanmathra but Joju chettan has performed this role in a totally different way,” says the debutant filmmaker.

Elaborating on the title and the film’s central premise, Josh, who had worked as an assistant director to Major Ravi since Karmayodha, says, “When children play pooram, they do it in the tune, ‘Jillam peppare peppare… jillam peppare peppare’. The movie tells the story of percussionists. If you look at it, the artistes who play thayambaka are inside the temple, and singarimelam are outside. The chendas, kols and talam are all the same but still our society has found a way to even categorise sound. As far as singarimelam artistes are considered, they don’t enjoy the same fame or status in society as thayambaka artistes. And yet singarimelam is revolutionary in terms of its simplicity and how it can be enjoyed by any kind of listener. This movie is about percussionists, their love for sound and their lives.”
Apart from Joju, the movie also has Major Ravi, Shehin Siddique, singer Anju Brahmasmi, percussionist Attam Sarath and Raaga in pivotal roles. “Sheetal Shyam also plays a different character in the movie,” says Josh.
The movie was shot extensively in Thrissur. “We had wrapped up the first schedule of the movie four days before the lockdown, so all the crowd sequences were over by then. The film also features artistes from Thrissur’s Attam Kalasamithi and we have drawn from their experiences too. They are one of Kerala’s most popular percussion bands who play pancharimelam, singarimelam and thayambaka, but the reception they get for each of these are different. We have tried to address that in the movie as well,” the director concludes.