'Detective Ujjwalan' And The Art Of Building A Malayalam Cinematic Universe With 'Village-Based Avengers'

The filming of Detective Ujjwalan was all set to begin in just a few days when one of the producers of Weekend Blockbusters — the production house which made superhits such as Bangalore Days, RDX and Minnal Murali —thought of an idea that could change the way Malayalam films were being designed.

Cedin Paul, the executive producer, had also green-lit an idea for what would later become Malayalam cinema’s first zombie film when he noticed that the timeline and the setting of all three of his films under production were similar. The directors of each of these films had not even met each other then, but Cedin felt there was scope to think bigger and integrate the three different worlds into one larger cinematic universe.

“Minnal Murali, Detective Ujjwalan and our zombie film titled Jambi were all set in small villages, and the three stories take place in the 90s, within a 30 km radius. Until then the plan was to think of all three as separate standalone films, but with the overlap, we began considering unifying them. It also made the process fresh and exciting," he remarks.

Plans were quickly redrawn, and the team convened a meeting to figure out the actual process of building a cinematic universe— a first for the industry. “Think of it as a map that we have created. Minnal Murali took place in a fictional village called Koorukkan Mool, while Detective Ujwalan takes place in neighbouring Plachikaavu, and my film Jambi is set in a third village that is just 10 kms away from both,” says writer-director George Kora, about the plan they’ve put in place.

Rahul, George Kora, Sophia Paul, Indraneel and Cedin

Apart from these three, we will also see the announcement of a fourth film this year, making it the final film of the first phase of the WCU (Weekend Cinematic Universe). “The fourth film will be set in another village next to these three,” he adds.

Detective Ujjwalan will be the second film in the universe, and it will release on May 23. “After Minnal Murali, we had toyed with the idea of continuing the series with sequels or spin-offs. We had even considered adding other superheroes to Minnal Murali’s world. But when Indraneel GK and Rahul G narrated the story of a series of murders taking place in a small, idyllic village, I felt the flavour resembled what we felt about the tone and texture of Minnal Murali. In other words, if Minnal Murali is like Flash, you can think of Detective Ujwalan as Batman!” explains Cedin.

The fact that all three films are rooted in a typically small-town Malayali milieu is what further attracted the team with the idea of a universe. Cedin says, “For the zombie film, it might not have been very easy for us to explain the zombie phenomenon by repurposing the trope of a science experiment gone wrong. Not only would it have been clichéd, but it would be harder for us to write a convincing origin story around such a theme. So George wrote a zombie story that originates like it’s a part of ancient Malayali folklore; we wanted the stories to be devoid of an overdose of technology.” 

On the sets of 'Detective Ujjwalan'

After this common ground was arrived at, the writers and directors of the different projects sat down to see how they could integrate elements into one another’s films. Easter eggs were written, characters were designed to switch between the different films, and other connections were made so that the trio of offerings looked lived-in and real. “The plots of all three are completely different,” says Indraneel GK, one of the directors of Detective Ujwalan. “But there are certain similarities between the tonal style of all the films, and one can even sense an overlap in the way the characters behave too."

It is also a cinematic universe in which all three films fall under different genres, each with its own visual style and colour palette. But instead of trying to make all of them “look” the same, the WCU team decided to make the connections subtle and inclusive. “Because we had all written our screenplays before we built the universe, it was easy to remain committed to each film and the original storylines,” says Rahul G, director of Detective Ujjwalan. “We thought of WCU as a collection of stories, one that could accommodate a superhero movie just as well as it could accommodate the story of a homegrown Sherlock Holmes. Each of our films is meant to work as standalone projects too.”

In the future, Cedin has even imagined the possibilities of a film that brings together the lead characters from all three projects in one. “Our version of a village-based Avengers,” as he calls it. “But if we want to work our way towards that, we have to make a series of films and characters the audience love,” Cedin says. “That’s how we build an organic fan base.” 

According to George, the time is also ripe for such a universe in Malayalam because the concept has become familiar to the layman. “This isn’t just because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or DC movies. With Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU from Tamil Nadu, we’ve got an idea that people love the concept of a unified universe and the possibilities it comes with.”

As for ground-rules, the different writers kept visiting the sets of each of their films to make sure they do not make any obvious mistakes. “So, actors who played certain characters in Minnal Murali cannot be cast in either of our films as other people,” explains Rahul. “Similarly, an Easter egg from our film should not in any way be a spoiler for the next film. It is about mutual respect at the end of the day; like a team, we all want the films to do well as a group for the universe to do well too.”