Emcy Joseph made a significant mark with his directorial debut, Vikruthi (2019), a well-crafted drama that earned Suraj Venjaramoodu a State award for his performance. Though Emcy showed much promise as a filmmaker, it has taken another six years for him to return with his second film, Meesha. The gap, though frustrating, was not planned, says the director. "I had announced a film titled Ennittu Avasanam in 2020 with Arjun Ashokan, Anna Ben, and Madhubala, but we had to postpone it due to the second wave of the pandemic. A lockdown was announced just days before we were planning to commence shooting. I lost nearly 2.5 years with that," reflects the filmmaker, before quickly adding that not all hope is lost regarding the project. "I'll definitely try to revive it, but I'm not sure if I can bring back the same cast. It's a female-oriented action film with a shade of dark humour. It's a unique idea, but right now, the focus is on Meesha. It took me another 2.5 years to develop it from scratch."

Scheduled to hit screens on August 1, Meesha is a thriller starring Tamil actor Kathir, Hakim Shahjahan, and Shine Tom Chacko in major roles. Tracing the origins of the film, Emcy, who also scripted it, recalls being inspired by two real-life incidents. "Of course, I can't reveal them now, but these two incidents ignited the spark." Interestingly, Vikruthi was also based on a real incident where a speech-impaired man sleeping on a metro train was mistaken to be drunk and subject to cyberbullying. "My writing process works like that. I derive my inspiration from real-life incidents, around which I build the rest of the storyline. The end product might be entirely different from the original incident, but I always need something believable to start with."

Apart from the fact that both Vikruthi and Meesha are based on real incidents, Emcy says, there is another similarity between the two films — scope for performance. "Now that I've made two films, I'm realising that my strength perhaps lies in extracting intense performances. I got the best out of Soubin and Suraj in Vikruthi. It's a trip that I wanted to experience again, which pushed me to handpick an ensemble of strong performers for Meesha. Since the script also had prominence for all the characters, I didn't want to take the risk of casting lesser-known faces. I went with proven actors, who could lend gravitas to the characters." Apart from Kathir, Hakim and Shine, the film also has Sudhi Koppa, Jeo Baby, and Shrikant Murali in key roles. "All of them are fine talents, especially someone like Sudhi, whose potential Malayalam cinema has yet to use properly. Jeo chettan is probably the surprise package as the audience is yet to judge him as an actor."

Meesha marks the Malayalam debut of Kathir, familiar to the Malayali audiences after his performances in Pariyerum Perumal and the web series, Suzhal. Shedding light on Kathir's character in Meesha, Emcy says, "It is a character with a Tamil background. When we decided to cast someone from Tamil, we didn't have to look beyond Kathir, primarily because he's one of the few artists from Tamil whose performance meter matched the usual standards of Malayalam cinema. He could perform effectively without being too loud, conveying emotions subtly through minimal expressions."

Kathir, according to the director, is also a keen follower of Malayalam cinema and was excited about the prospect of debuting in the industry. "I think he was offered a few Malayalam projects before, but was waiting for the right opportunity. He got excited when approached as he felt the character had multiple shades and space to perform."

Emcy calls Meesha an "action-oriented suspense drama with a Shakespearan touch to it." The Shakespearan touch, he says, happened organically as the writing progressed. "The film is primarily about male bonding and its multiple shades, but as I dug deeper, I identified some themes that Shakespeare used to master. Like any other creator who idolised him, I also wanted to attempt them and see how it goes."

Elaborating more, Emcy adds, "We have two sets of men, one from a semi-urban space and the other from the forest fringes. Through them, we try to explore greyer areas of male friendships. Friendship is a confused word today. People whom you meet daily at work, the gym, or social media are mates, not friends. Friends are those with whom you have an emotional connection, and you might have only 5 or 10 such people in your life. There will be all kinds of emotions between them—joy, displeasure, ego, possessiveness, competition... We're trying to tell the story of such an emotionally bound group of men."

Though he has been away from the industry for a while, Emcy is aware of the shift in the audience's sensibilities today and their reluctance to visit theatres. Emphasising that Meesha demands a theatrical experience, the director says, "With a lot of portions set in the wild, it will offer you an immersive experience. We have created such an atmosphere where you can feel the eeriness of the wild. We ventured deep into the forests, even in places where humans have never set foot before. It was very challenging to shoot in such terrain, but the film demanded such efforts, as we have tried to liken certain friendships and the associated masculinity with the wild."