The Malayalam web series 4.5 Gang came out a few weeks ago. The show’s eclectic 25-tune soundtrack, composed by Varkey and Suraj Santosh, is out too. Even as 4.5 Gang was being readied for its streaming premiere, creator-director Krishand had a movie in the cinemas, Sangarsha Ghadana. And he has already completed his next film.
A restless, protean energy characterises Krishand’s projects, which include the experimental Aavasavyuham (2022) and the police procedural Purusha Pretham (2023). Both films are on Sony LIV, as is 4.5 Gang. The six-episode series carries forward Krishand’s penchant for playful storytelling and genre-bending.
4.5 Gang traces the exploits of five criminals in the fictional city Thiruvanchipuram (based on Trivandrum). The show also has a meta-narrative. The gang’s leader, Arikuttan (Sanju Sivram), has hired the writer Maithreyan (Jagadish) to embellish his biography. Thus, events are seen as they probably happened and as Maithreyan wants them to happen.
“As a student of cinema, you watch all kinds of genres and when you become a filmmaker, you want understand what it is you want to say within the genre,” Krishand told Scroll. “The material should have all the cliches but it should also break those cliches and have fun with them.”
The 39-year-old filmmaker trained as an engineer and later earned a degree in visual communications from the IDC School of Design at IIT Bombay. 4.5 Gang was developed from a script written in 2014, at a time when there was no scope for streaming platforms in India. Krishand spoke to Scroll about his intentions behind 4.5 Gang and why he is in such a hurry to release new films.
4.5 Gang is being called the Malayalam Gangs of Wasseypur. How does the comparison with Anurag Kashyap’s two-part film work for you?
Marketing has its own brains. Also, perhaps it’s because of the humour in the show. I guess the gangster material that used to come out in Malayalam didn’t have that much humour.
Some parts of Gangs of Wasseypur are really funny. It’s a great film. The show is silly at times. It’s not looking at crime as a problem but as part of a whole system.
I didn’t want the show to sound like Gangs of Wasseypur or Gangs of New York, which is why I didn’t put Gangs of Thiruvanchipuram as the title. But yes, memory indexes are easy for people – when you say “Gangs of Wasseypur in Malayalam”, suddenly people are interested.
The series looks at crime as an aceptable way of surviving and thriving. What inspired the concept?
I grew up in such spaces and knew a lot of people who were involved with petty crimes, lobbying for more business. They weren’t actually gangsters. They didn’t make a lot of money, and the businesses were short-lived.
In college, I used to create zombie and time travel materials. A professor told me to seek inspiration from my own surroundings, to look at Kerala itself, the works of Basheer and MT Vasudevan Nair. That’s when I actually started seriously reading Malayalam literature.
When I initially wrote the show, it looked like every other gangster material that had come out – stories with a singular pattern, in which the characters take to crime for respect and then money and then get sucked into it. What if the people who had been suffering had the chance to rewrite their stories – and with a bit of humour?
There is also a meta-narrative going on, about the crime genre itself.
The meta track is me questioning my own writing. After watching Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or reading If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, you start thinking about postmodern literature and deconstruction. You realise that it is not just empathy that is creating interest, but also the craft of breaking down the craft.
By the end of the episodes, it’s a little hard to believe whose version we have seen – is it Arikuttan’s or Maithreyan’s? Which of it happened and which didn’t? That is why every episode has a pulpy news title. Behind this are the five kids, their childhood, their small ecosystem that yields pulpy news for people like me.
I have used all the cards in my deck – meta-references, jumping between timelines, big claustrophobic fights, meaningless fights. Incidents that look scintillating from Arikuttan’s perspective look different from another person’s point of view. For that person, these are merely goons, cold-blooded gangsters who have killed others.
How did you work out the shifting tonality of the narrative with your actors, particularly Sanju Sivram and Jagadish?
Jagadish sir and Sanju have worked with me before. I have known Sanju for 10 years, and he has seen me with material that has never seen the light of the day. Perhaps years of communication has made Sanju trust me.
Jagadish sir is more playful. He is also a writer. He will add a little bit here and there to make it interesting, especially in the use of the Malayalam language. He is exactly from Maithreyan’s generation. Sometimes he will question my logic, and whoever has the more convincing argument wins.
You play the movie star Vikraman in the show. Was that always the idea?
The character is modelled on the Tamil movie star Vijay, who has a huge following in Trivandrum. The role was supposed to be played by an actor who is considered the Vijay of Malayalam cinema, but it got too complicated.
My associate suggested that I stand in for the actor until he was finalised. Eventually, I ended up playing Vikraman. I have previously played two small parts, one in my first film and the other in the form of photographs of Darshana’s dead husband in Purusha Pretham.
All things Malayalam are the rage, whether films or shows. What is your take?
I am glad that some of our films are working well across India. But these are not all of the films made here. We make 220 films, while the rest of India hears about only 20 films because of their viability. There are more beautiful, aesthetically great films being made, but most of them don’t have a business aspect and are never heard of. It’s kind of like when we talk about authors who may have written a lot of stuff but we only know of this one book and then we start judging the writer on that one thing.
However, this bias is working for us, since we are getting funding from people in Bombay. Things are a lot easier with studios in Bombay since, if you are a Malayali, you are considered a smart filmmaker.
What’s next?
I have finished another film, which is in post-production. It’s a cyber-punk comedy called Mastishka Maranam, which literally means Brain Death. But the English title is The Frankenbiting of Simon's Memories.
Frankenbiting is a concept I got from Tim Wu’s book Attention Merchants. It’s the process by which you take text or quotes from an interview or video and edit them in such a way that the original meaning changes. The film stars Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, who plays Althaf in 4.5 Gang, several actors from the series and Rajisha Vijayan.
I always need a project in hand when the previous project has come out. It keeps me at peace. It’s very tough to make films. So you make them when you get the chance.
That dopamine will die down some day, right? Before I reach my expiry date in terms of ideas, I want to put the maximum material out.
Also read:
‘4.5 Gang’ review: A colourful crime saga with memorable characters
