The syrupy sweet smell of jalebis being fried permeates the air. At the day’s location of Johny Antony’s Bhaiya Bhaiya , in a modest house at Nattakam, Kottayam, the ‘hit team’ of Kunchacko Boban and Biju Menon are busy watching a group of women making bright red and yellow jalebis.
“Babu a.k.a. Bengali Babu (Kunchacko) is a supplier of Bengali labourers, while Babu Ram Chatterjee (Biju Menon) is a Bengali, who has been living in Kerala from his childhood onwards. The two friends are as close as brothers and always stand up for each other. The story revolves around the two and picks up pace when some unprecedented events occur in their lives,” says Johny.
Innocent too has an important role in the movie – that of Chacko Contractor, Bengali Babu’s father. “It was Chacko Contractor who brought Babu Ram to Kerala, when he was 11 years old. From then on Babu has called Babu Ram ‘bhaiya’ (elder brother). However, when Babu Ram is admitted to school, he is enrolled in a lower grade than the much younger Babu. So, he too begins calling Babu as ‘bhaiya’. Hence, the title of the film,” says Kunchacko.
The actor is teaming up with Biju once again, after a series of hits such as Ordinary , Romans , Seniors and Mallu Singh . He is also thrilled to bits with the positive response he received for his latest release, How Old Are You , in which he plays the role of Manju Warrier’s husband. “It was nice to once again act with a heroine my age!” says the actor with a laugh.
The next shot requires Biju to face the camera. Kunchacko, meanwhile, spends time chatting to a couple of elderly women, who have come to meet him. As soon as the take is done Biju says: “My character can speak reasonably good Malayalam, but has some problems pronouncing certain words. It is heartening that Chackochan’s and my combination on screen has worked so well. More importantly, we are comfortable with each other as co-stars. We both realise that the audience has a certain level of expectations from our ‘pairing’. As such we decided to take things slow and were waiting for the right script. In between, we heard rumours that all was not well between us. We had a hearty laugh about that.”
Telugu heroine Nisha Aggarwal, younger sister of actress Kajal Aggarwal, is doing the role of Angel, the daughter of an ex-minister. Vinutha Lal plays Shanthi, a worker at a construction site. The cast also includes Suraj Venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Vijayaraghavan and Shammi Thilakan.
Bhaiya Bhaiya is being produced under the banner of Nobel Andre movies. Benny P. Nayarambalam is the scenarist. Vinod Illampilly wields the camera and Vidyasagar composes the music. Stills are by Ajith V. Sankar.
