IDI fulfills Jayasurya's wish to play a mass role

Jayasurya is known for picking varied roles and seamlessly slipping into them; take for instance his characters in Cocktail, Apothecary and Lukka Chuppi. However, his upcoming movie

IDI

is special to him, he says, as it fulfilled 'a long-awaited wish'.

'It's the first time I am doing a full-length 'mass' character in a movie,' says the actor. 'I have played roles that got rousing receptions like Shaji Pappan in Aadu and Angoor Ravuthar in Iyobinte Pusthakam. But this role in IDI, Inspector Dawood Ibrahim, gave me the freedom to go all out in terms of how loud and stylish a character can be in a masala movie.'

Ask him if it is the recognition at the National Awards that has given him the liberty to pick such a role, and Jayasurya says, 'Never! The awards have nothing to do with the films I choose. I look forward to something special in each of my roles. A lot of actors have a mass cop role to their credit but I haven't had one yet in my career. That's why when the film's director Sajid Yahiya came up with this script, I immediately signed the movie.'
However, Jayasurya tells us the movie is not an all-out action thriller. 'It's actually a comedy,' explains the actor. 'Sajid has balanced the action, humour and also the stylised elements in the movie, which makes it different from previous potboilers in Malayalam.'

Incidentally, IDI is set to release on the same day as the horror-thriller Pretham, which has Jayasurya playing a mentalist. 'Both Inspector Dawood Ibrahim in IDI and John Don Bosco of Pretham are worlds apart in terms of how the directors have conceived them. My role as the mentalist required me to be subtle and restrained in terms of expressions and body language unlike the one in IDI,' says the actor. 'Both the characters helped me understand the process of acting better.'