Two weeks after its release, The Pet Detective is still drawing families and children into theatres, and that is exactly the kind of response that the first-time director Praneesh Vijayan expected. “The film is getting a good response, mainly from families and children. In fact, it is the response from the children that has surprised me.” For a filmmaker whose story thrives on colour, pace, and gags, nothing feels more genuine than children’s unadulterated laughter.
The Pet Detective’s origin wasn’t in a writers’ room but in a real incident. When Sharaf U Dheen’s friend lost a dog in Kochi, the missing poster travelled through WhatsApp groups, and by night, the pet was found. That simple event made Sharaf and Praneesh wonder what would happen if someone lost a pet in a place without a support system. “Sharaf and I were working on another project when the pandemic hit and everything stopped,” recalls Praneesh. “It was quite big, so when it fell through, we were left doing nothing.” Out of that pause came this smaller idea, which grew through several drafts. When co-writer Jai Vishnu joined, it began to take clearer shape. They brought in prominent names like Anend C Chandran for cinematography, Abhinav Sunder Nayak for editing, and Rajesh Murugesan for music. Along the way, Sharaf decided to produce the film himself. “It meant we did not have to convince anyone else,” says Praneesh.
A significant number of viewers see echoes of CID Moosa and Vettam in The Pet Detective. “It was not an influence as such,” he says, adding, “Even though it has elements of a detective story, we did not want it to become one. We wanted the treatment to be full-on entertainment.” Initially set in a small neighbourhood as a confusion comedy, the film later expanded in scale while keeping its comic energy intact. That approach guided the visual design, too. “Anend was the one who suggested the colour palette,” says Praneesh. The beiges, browns and soft yellows lend a faint Mexican flavour, helping the story feel slightly detached from realism. “Since this world wasn’t grounded in reality, we wanted the visuals to create a sense of fantasy,” he says.
The amusement park climax, now the film’s most talked-about portion, was there from the initial drafts. “We were aiming for slapstick, a totally no-brainer action comedy,” says Praneesh, who also designed the villains as people with a mix of humour and mild menace. The story’s quirk also comes from its odd MacGuffin, a set of smuggled Platinum Arowana fish. “We had decided that the smuggled object needed to be unusual,” says Praneesh, who had to pull off a heist during the making of the film. "Since Platinum Arowana was too costly, we used the Silver Arowana. While, it is also fairly expensive, it is also common in Kerala aquariums. We had to buy many fishes because they grow quickly, and we had to take care of continuity,” he recalls.
At the centre of the story is Sharaf U Dheen as the rookie detective Tony Jose Alula, a role built around his effortless comic rhythm. Praneesh shares that their connection goes back years: both hail from Aluva, and he knew Sharaf even before entering cinema. Having worked together earlier on Happy Wedding, where Praneesh was the co-writer, he had already witnessed Sharaf’s sharp sense of timing. “We know the strengths and weaknesses of the actors we work with. The story unfolds through his character, and he has to carry the entire film. The idea was that people should watch and enjoy one person’s performance,” says the filmmaker, who also saw Sharaf showcase another facet of his versatility. “His action scenes really surprised me. That was a new experience,” says Praneesh, who had Kantara: Chapter 1 action director Mahesh Mathew work on The Pet Detective's stunts. “Despite working on both films around the same time, he synced with our tone easily,” he says.
Since the film was designed as a family entertainer rather than a serious investigation drama, Anupama Parameswaran's Kaikeyi was written to blend naturally into that space. “In fact, she was the first person I narrated the story to after Sharaf, and she agreed right away,” he recalls. Vinay Forrt’s police officer provided a counterpoint to Sharaf’s detective. Any echoes of Jagathy’s role in CID Moosa, Praneesh insists, were unintentional. “There was no direct influence when I was writing,” he says. “The principle was simple: a detective on one side, a police officer on the other, and Vinay was the perfect fit.”
If there’s one recurring criticism, it’s about the film’s relentless pace, and Praneesh admits that it was intentional. “We say a lot in the film, and our focus was on how children would respond. We didn’t want to bore them. They need things to move quickly, so we adopted that rhythm. We decided the overall pacing should match the pace of the climax,” says Praneesh, who reveals that they weren't sure if their brand of humour would connect with the kids.
The audience reactions proved otherwise. “People started laughing right from the first scene where Sharaf’s character enters the office,” says Praneesh with a genuine sense of surprise. “Once they catch the rhythm, everything feels funnier.” Interestingly, Praneesh says that if they had known audiences would take to the film like Platinum Arowana to water, he would have reworked the pacing. “The original climax ran for ten minutes, but we trimmed it to six. Looking back, if we had known audiences would respond this way, we might have kept the ten-minute version.”
The Pet Detective thrives on its own delightful absurdity, sprinting past adult logic with gleeful abandon, a quality that makes it a hit among a large section of the audience. “If I get a feeling that something will make me laugh, it usually works,” says Praneesh, an IT engineer-turned-filmmaker with no friends or mentors in the industry. “I don’t have any godfathers or industry ties, and I've not assisted anyone,” he admits. But those early collaborations with the likes of Sharaf, Rajesh, and sound designer Vishnu Govind evolved into lasting creative partnerships. What began as amateur experiments has now grown into a feature film filling theatres with laughter, an achievement Praneesh counts as the most satisfying form of success.
