Word Of Mouth

THE DIBAKAR INTERVIEW

2011-10-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

THE DIBAKAR INTERVIEW

An interview with filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee on the sets of his forthcoming film “Shanghai”. While all the questions and answers relating to “Shangai” will be out closer to the film’s release, here Dibakar speaks about his previous films, chasing stars, the craft of filmmaking and more.

Q: Do you always manage to make the film that you set out to make, or do pressures from the producer and the market finally work their way into your film?

DB: You see market is wavy kind of flag that’s waved in front of you; I generally don’t know what the market is. You see when the film is made, the biggest truth is at the point of making and selling a film, it is made for two markets, one is for the audience that will pay the ticket price and one is for the distributors and producers and exhibitors who will buy the film off you and exhibit it to people, so sometimes you have to keep the sensibilities of the people who are buying from you to sell it to the audience in mind but generally the way I survive is this that I have definitely a clear idea of what I am trying to do.

I am under no illusion that I am not selling any kind of happy utopian dream. Most of my films have something grey about them; most of my films have something which is positive and negative about them. So their is a certain amount of grayness involved in it, there are no heroes, there are no heroes abject heroes, abject villains, when you tell it like that to an audience, you know that it is not going to be all is well. You essentially understand that your audience basically slightly more interested in a typical romantic comedy or a nice melodrama about how our lives are the best that we can have. My audiences therefore are the kind of people that have time to think and yet be entertained.

Therefore the trick that I employ to my films is that I keep the budget as low as possible and within that budget with planning and with our own inventiveness, give the maximum production values as possible and keep your narrative, keep the subject, keep the treatment as engaging, as relating, as entertaining as possible because I want my films to be seen by as many people as possible. I don’t want to live in an ivory tower or in a bubble and think that I am creating some piece of inert art, no I am not. I want to earn money from my films which I have. So therefore what I say has to immediately relate to the ordinary Joe on the streets who sees those films. The rest is the luck of the film, which I can’t control so I don’t think about that. Fortunately its not that I impose upon myself, because of the way I have been brought up, or what ever it is, I haven’t had a very elitist kind of an upbringing or an existence. I know what the man on street thinks, how he speaks, I know the behaviour of people, the general common man of India so I relate to that and I make films about that and I hope that gets seen by the maximum number of people.

Q: How do you feel when films like “Singham”, “Ready” and “Bodyguard” set records at the box-office? Are you happy that there is an audience out there that is expanding, so a film can rake in so many crores at the end of the day, or are you disheartened about the sensibilities of the audience that you have to cater to?

DB: It’s like saying that when I am driving around my Innova and somebody passes by in a Porsche; do you feel happy or sad? I mean of course you wish that I could have that Porsche but to have that Porsche you will have to do something that you don’t want to do. So ultimately it becomes the same thing. The fact is that I would love to have my films earn 300 crores at the box office if I didn’t have to change my film. Till the time that I don’t want to change the way I make my films, I will wish for a 300 crores box office but I will be very happy with 30.

So I am very happy because that way I exercise the discipline on myself, make my films in a budget that always return a profit and that’s the way I have learnt to survive. So the kind of figures that you are talking about is the result of star power and stars. True, stars who bring in that kind of money at the box office exist because even now in India, cinema and the urge to watch cinema is not to go and see a story unfold in front of your eyes, its also to see a star, become a star and behave like a star and put up a starry spectacle in front of your eyes and that’s because most of our ordinary lives are so tough and so unbearable to be with that those 2-3hrs in an air conditioned cinema hall, Salman saves our lives, Aamir and Shahrukh save our lives so that life saving experience can only happen with a star. So if I ever find a film where the right star meets the right role and I am assured of a 100 crore plus box office, I will definitely go for it till that time I will go on making what I can and make a profit out of it.

Q: Do you also first go after saleable stars after you finish writing your script?

DB: Absolutely, otherwise how do you survive? When I cast Anupam kher for “Khosla Ka Ghosla”, he was not just a good actor, he was the character star. When I cast Abhay for “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye”, he was an upcoming face that people were interested in and I knew that Anurag and I were making “Oye Lucky” and “Dev D” together and we knew that one film will rub off on the other and something will come out of it. Whenever you make something that earns its commercial existence out of people’s interest in the central character, of course you will have to go for a star.

The fact remains that whether the star matches your narrative and your character as you have designed it or are you designing your story around the star? That I refused to do currently, so therefore I meet every star available and every star available meets me and they meet every other director because its an ongoing principle in our industry, we meet each other, we ask each other, ok what are you doing, I like your work, can we work together, what suits us and therefore out of every 10 meetings only 1 converts because everybody is hearing different stories, a multiple choice of narratives and they are making their choices according to their careers. So the fact is that I will always go to stars and I will always go to character actors and I have always have new people introduced in my films as I have constantly done in all my films, “Khosla Ka Ghosla”, “Oye Lucky” and “LSD”, each gave actors to the industry who are now carving their own careers, basis their debuts, same way in Shanghai. So it’s a mix of everything and if you give me a star who matches my character and who fits the narrative as I have designed it, I’ll take him any day.

Q: Are you happy with the way your films have done commercially? Of your three films (Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, LSD) which is the one you are most happy with?

DB: To tell you truthfully, as far as how it’s done commercially, I’m reasonably ok. I couldn’t, you know... hope for more because for someone like me who had no film background and film experience, to come out and make a film like “Khosla Ka Ghosla” as your debut film and you know people all over the country liking it, and me going over and making another maverick kind of film like “Oye Lucky…” and then downscaling my budget to make something even more maverick like “Love Sex aur Dhokha” and it being appreciated and being very good commercial success again. I really think I can’t complain and I have been lucky.

As far as my own satisfaction with my own execution of my film, you know I mean... I am very reluctant to tell you this, but actually I hate them because what happens is, that a film happens over a period of a year, 12 months, 14 months and the moment it finishes you realize that you have grown in that one year. And the moment the film is released you can't do anything to it. You can't change it, you can't edit it, you can't improve it, it becomes inert. It becomes this piece of inert stone, you can't think about any change. You have grown in the meantime, you have left the film behind and when I see my own old films, all I see is mistakes. So I therefore generally don't have a very comfortable relationship with my earlier films because I’m slightly embarrassed to look at them, infact one of the reasons why I make my next film is because I’m slightly embarrassed with my last film. And in the next film I am trying improve and you know kind of set right the mistakes that I thought that I have committed in the last movie. This is truth because on the other day I was watching “Oye Lucky…” on a flight and couldn’t watch it, because I knew every cut that was going to come and I could see the mistakes and I just looked away from it. So I don't have a very comfortable relation with what I have done.

Q: How involved are you with your films’ technical aspects? You are known to be completely absorbed with your script, music and actors – the emotional content of your films, does the same apply to the technical side as well?

DB: Well, if you don't have technique, then you don't have anything, that’s what I believe, that’s my school of filmmaking. I don’t think its enough for a director to feel that emotions and then be at the set and feel that by some divine intervention what he feels is what he will be able to translate to the audience and the audience will feel that… that’s actually bullshit.... films don't get made that way. Without the knowhow and essentially a technical knowhow of which shot to take and how to take it and which piece of sound and which piece of music to put to which shot to get that emotion that you want the audience to feel. And translate what’s here to what's there, you need technique so as far I’m concerned that technique and emotion cannot be separated.

The tool by which you translate your emotion to the audience is technique. And the better your technique is the better you translate. All the greatest directors are the greatest technicians. Kubrick could actually tell each and every lens of each and every shot that he ever took in his life and he started shooting still pictures really early, by the time he got to making his 1st film he’d had a good understanding of optics and lenses. Unless and until you understand that, how will you understand where to put the camera and where to take the close-up from to have the most telling effect of the actors’ emotion? So I generally don’t believe that as a director you have to feel something and not have the technique. I think you must have the technique, I’m totally involved in everything that I do... having come up from the world of advertising and promo-making and all that, having edited, having painted my own set, having plotted each and every move of the camera, having choreographed this move or dance or whatever it is and learning from other people, filmmaking is a kind of school for me so I'm still learning. And I think there is no other way to get around it.

Q: There have been so many Hindi film teasers out recently, any that have caught your eye?

DB: Don 2, I saw it on a big screen and the music and the way Shahrukh's character enters, it was a nice kick, very interesting, and I liked that.

Q: Which was the last Hindi and English film that you saw that impressed you?

DB: Last impressive Hindi film was “Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara”, it’s extremely pretty candy floss and the three characters have to go either below the surface of the water or above the surface of atmosphere or braving the bulls to come up with their own catharsis and the coming of age experiences. But in spite of those rather big thematic set pieces, the film is amazingly heartfelt and in spite of all the glamour and the all plethora of good visuals and good life style and every thing, it was not artificial. You will really get engaged in the crossfire of these three friends, you know Hrithik’s character reminds me of a friend that I still have from my school days, who is a system analyst in New York. I mailed him in the other day, you know... another character reminds, I mean, Farhan's character reminds of myself, I always used to be the cynical buffoon in my group of friends, you know so its a very interesting look into the nature of friendship, and I thought that bit came out with extreme candor and with out any artificiality and that’s very difficult to achieve in the framework of a very typical Hindi commercial film with stars and extremely glamorous lighting and look and all that because a Hindi commercial film basically what its trying to do, is to sell a kind of Utopian life style to the Indian audience. It's very difficult to portray a real relationship according to me within the framework of that kind of necessity, and that “Zindagi…” did very very interestingly, very convincingly. While I was watching the film I was totally drawn in to the world of these three friends, that I think is very impressive, I told Zoya that.

My favorite foreign film has been “Gomorrah”, an independent Italian film which is made on the mafia, though they are not called mafia... the underworld of Central Italy and they are called Camorra. Its a very interesting look into how the underworld permeates every strata of society in that region of the world and I don't understand a word of Italian, I saw the whole film in subtitles but the treatment of the film and the way it brings those people alive, I thought I knew them, I could understand each and every bit of emotional change that those character in that film went through and it is a multi-character multi-strand film and I think the camera work the technique the invisibility of the director, and the camera and the making is par excellence. And I got really inspired and intimidated at the same time because I hope to be able to make films like that but I don’t think that I rate up to that kind of skills yet so that was a very inspiring film.

Kerala 2010

2011-01-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

Posting a few photographs from my trip to Kerala in December 2010, hope it inspires some of you to visit the lovely, picturesque state.

Tea plantations, Thekkady, Kerala

Tea time, Thekkady, Kerala

Birds at home, Thekkady, Kerala

Early Morning in Thekkady, Kerala

View from a boat, Thekkady, Kerala

Landscape, Thekkady, Kerala

Misty morning, Thekkady, Kerala

Disturbed symmetry, Thekkady, Kerala

Ripples & Reflections, Thekkady, Kerala

Still waters, Thekkady, Kerala

Blue waters, Kumarakom, Kerala

Sunset at Kumarakom, Kerala

View from a boat, Kumarakom, Kerala

Mani Ratnam shot, Kumarakom, Kerala

Ram Gopal Varma shot, Kumarakom Kerala

Dawn breaking over Kollam, Kerala

Fishermen pulling in the net, Kollam beach, Kerala

Fishermen with an early morning catch, Kollam, Kerala

The big catch, Kollam, Kerala

Fishy business, Kollam, Kerala

PARADISE CALLING

2010-03-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Here are 2 posters of my short film 'Paradise Calling'. For more information and details go to http://www.paradisecallingfilm.blogspot.com/

Malayalam Favourites

2009-04-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

This blog lists some of my favourite Malayalam films. I am starting with 9 of them and will keep adding on more. The films don’t appear in any particular order and this shouldn’t be taken as any kind of ‘best of’ list. The films mentioned are largely ‘middle-of-the–road’ entertainers, I haven’t even gone into the whole Adoor Gopalakrshnan, Shaji Karun, Aravindan tribe’s art house genre.
NOTE: Most of these films can be bought or ordered online at these sites:
Maebag, Moserbaer Home Video, Saina Videos, Harmony Videos

Unforunately many of them are not avaialable in the DVD format with subtitles.
If you've got a favourites list of your own or any comments to make do leave them in the comment box down below!

Nadodikattu (1987)
(The Wandering Wind)
Director: Sathyan Anthikad
Story/Script: Sreenivasan
Cast: Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Shobhana, Thilakan, KPAC Lalitha, Innocent

Synopsis: Roommates and close friends - Dasan (Mohanlal) & Vijayan (Sreenivasan) are small time peons who lose their jobs following an altercation with their company’s new Managing Director. The duo then get lured into a get rich quick scheme of cow rearing, but when they can no longer repay their bank loan, the two decide to escape to Dubai by boat! Gaffoorka (Mamukoya) a small time racketeer promises to take them to Dubai – and instead lands them in the waters of neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Dasan and Vijayan take some time to realize that they are actually in Madras and not Dubai. What follows is a hilarious mix up with a gang of smugglers who mistake the two for undercover CID officers. In the end after struggling with joblessness and dodging a notorious hired killer, the bumbling duo succeed in trapping the smugglers and actually get selected to the State Police team.

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My Take: The main characters of‘Nadokikattu’- Dasan and Vijayan became cult comic characters after the release of the film. Mohanlal and Sreenivasan reprised their roles as the bumbling CID officers in two more films ‘Pattanapravesham’ and ‘Akkare Akkare Akkare’. What really kept the series going was the unbeatable, natural and effortless chemistry between the two. Dasan played by Mohanlal always picks on Vijayan (Sreenivasan) for being less educated and not as good looking as him. Vijayan tries to unsuccessfully exert his authority at times but eventually alwasy ends up as the guy who has to do all the dirty work - getting groceries, cooking food and basically playing second fiddle when on a mission. There are talks of the adventures of Dasan and Vijayan continuing in animation with voices of Mohanlal and Sreenivasan... but theres nothing official on it yet.

Watch a hilarious scene from the film below. One of the rare times when Vijayan tries to sideline Dasan. In the scene Dasan is making polite conversation with his neighbours – the pretty Shobhana and her mother. Vijayan keeps interjecting their conversation by ordering Dasan to go into the kitchen and wash rice for lunch. An embarrassed Dasan tries to change the subject and later reprimands Vijayan for ordering him around in front of others.

Sandesham (1991)
(The Message)
Director: Sathyan Anthikad
Story/Script: Sreenivasan
Cast: Jayaram, Sreenivasan, Thilakan, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Mathu, Siddique

Synopsis: Raghavan Nair (Thilakan) retires as station master from a small town in Tamil Nadu and returns home to his family in Kerala. Having spent almost 40 years in government service he’s looking for a peaceful and relaxed ever after. Back home his two sons Prabhakaran (Sreenivasan) and Prakash (Jayaram) are arch rivals - being party workers owing loyalty to two opposing political parties. While Prabhakaran is a local party worker for the Republican Party of India (Communist leanings), Prakash is a proactive member of the Indian National Socialist Party (something like the Congress). Prabhakaran and Prakash squabble over everything from domestic political issues to international policies in Nicaragua and Poland and bring their ideologically diverse political opinions to the dinner table. At first their father is impressed with their passionate debates and knowledge of world affairs… but slowly he realizes that his sons do not take any responsibilities at home and are willingly exploited by their local leaders for the party’s benefit. Neither of them contribute to the family’s income and take their parents for granted. Things come to a head when Raghavan is arrested for unknowingly giving shelter to a wanted naxalite and both his sons don’t turn up to help him. Raghavan then takes it upon himself to bring his irresponsible sons back on track.

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My Take: Arguably one of Sathyan Anthikad’s best films, ‘Sandesham’ plays out at two levels – on the one hand it’s an engaging story entertainingly told and on the other it hits below the belt as a satire about the hollow ideological values our political parties and leaders claim they stand for. The film ably rests on the shoulders of it’s three main actors – Thilakan, Sreenivasan and Jayaram and the director confidently unfolds the story keeping the pace consistent, never once letting go off the main thread of the story which binds all the characters together. While Sandesham tickles your funny bone for most part of the film, the climax might just leave you teary eyed.
Like in most films by Anthikad – the character actors are splendid adding their own little ‘magic’ to the narrative. Innocent makes a short but memorable appearance as a North Indian Hindi speaking national leader Yashwant Sahay.
Watch a scene below – where INSP party leader Yashwant Sahay makes a stop over for lunch while on his election campaign. He demands ‘nariyal paani’ (coconut water), but none of the local Malayalam speaking party workers can figure out what exactly he wants, someone even suggests that since ‘nari’ means woman… the leader might be requesting for an escort!

Kireedam (1987)
(The Crown)
Director: Sibi Malayil
Story/Script: AK Lohithadas
Cast: Mohanlal, Thilakan, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Parvathi

Synopsis: Senior police constable Achudanan (Thilakan) dreams of retiring only after saluting his son Sethu (Mohanlal), who he hopes will take charge as a police inspector after successfully entering a course at the Police Training Academy. Sethu a shy, god-fearing young man is in complete awe of his father – a man of principles who hasn’t earned a single paisa through bribes. However their lives change forever after Achudanan slaps the son of local MLA for breaking the law; and when the upright tough cop refuses to apologize for his act, he is given a punishment transfer to Ramapuram, one of the most dreaded and notorious towns in Kerala.

One day while on duty Achudanan gets into a tussle with Keerikadan Jose, the most feared goon in Ramapuram; on seeing his father get beaten up Sethu intervenes and in the heat of the moment strikes a near fatal blow on Keerikadan Jose. With the gang in hospital, the town rejoices and makes Sethu an unwilling hero. Unwanted elements now begin to exert power on the locals by using Sethu’s name, unaware Sethu himself gets accidentally involved in a brawl at a bar. Soon Sethu’s family begins to believe that Sethu is regressing into a ‘goonda’ himself. His father now desperately just wants Sethu to enter the Police Academy so that he can leave all this behind him. After a few months, the injured Keerikadan Jose is now back on his feet and searching for Sethu, who goes into hiding out of fear. But soon tired of just hiding, a desperate Sethu confronts Keerikadan Jose and stabs him to death. When the police arrives, Sethu is like a man possessed - no policeman wants to go near him… finally constable Achudanan - Sethu’s father pleads with him to surrender. While in jail, a letter from the Police Academy arrives asking for a character certificate recommending Sethu’s name for police training. A heart broken Achudanan recommends that his son is not a ‘suitable’ candidate.

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My Take: Filmmaker Sibi Malayil and actor Mohanlal’s best collaboration, ’Kireedam’ absolutely grips you from beginning till end. At this point I must say that if asked to name the one single actor who I consider the best, and I mean it across the likes of De Niro, Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mohanlal and Naseeruddin Shah – I would name Thilakan. The man has to be seen to be believed – his face can convey a million emotions – an actor you can watch on mute and still make out what he is feeling. Coming back to the film, it begins on a light note exploring the father son relationship between Thilakan and Mohanlal and then the narrative keeps climbing… the graph of angst, anxiety and frustration keeps adding up till the end. I have yet to see a better onscreen portrayal of a father-son relationship, the way in which the dynamics of their relationship keeps changing with the circumstances is well constructed. Jagathy does an absolutely delightful cameo as Thilakan’s good for nothing son-in-law who lives off his relatives. ‘Kireedam’ was awfully remade in Hindi as ‘Gardish’ with Amrish Puri and Jackie Shroff, it completely lacked the conviction and soul of the original in all departments.

Watch the climax of the film below – where in a frustrated Mohanlal finally gathers enough courage to take on Keerikadan Jose at the local market place. When the police arrives on the scene Mohanlal repeatedly stabs Jose - catch the range of emotions that pass through Mohanlal’s face as his father pleads with him to drop the knife he is holding and surrender himself.

Dasharatham (1989)
Director: Sibi Malayil
Story/Script: AK Lohithadas
Cast: Mohanlal, Murali, Rekha, Karamana Janardanan Nair, Nedumudi Venu, KPAC Lalitha

Synopsis: Born into riches, Rajiv Menon (Mohanlal) is an alcoholic womanizer with absolutely no aim in life. With no parents to guide him and with the family business being run by a trusted manager Pillai (Karamana Janardanan Nair), Rajiv is free to waste his life and money on drinks and debauchery. A close friend Scariah (Nedumudi Venu) with his wife and children come over to stay at Rajiv’s palatial house for a week. Soon Rajiv gets attached to one of Scariah's children and decides that he wants to have a child of his own, but neither does he want to get married nor does he want to adopt a baby. Good friend, guide and philospher Dr. Hameed (Sukumaran) advises Rajiv to rent a womb. They come across a former football player Chandradas (Murali) who is in dire need of money for an operation, his wife Annie (Rekha) agrees to give birth to Rajiv’s child through artificial insemination. Both Charandas and Annie aren’t happy about the decision – it’s clearly a desperate solution to their financial needs.

At first Annie just wants to get over with the 9 month pregnancy period, handover the baby and move on with life. The usually rash and immature Rajiv is now a changed man, reading up books on pregnancy, child birth and making sure that Annie stays in an atmosphere that is cheerful, beautiful and is taken care of by nurses, provided with the best diet and so on to ensure the birth of a healthy and happy baby. He is completely taken up by the thought of having a child, the thought of finally having someone he can call his own. But by the time of the child’s birth Annie gets emotionally attached to the life that’s taking shape in her womb and refuses to part with the baby. How the two ultimately resolve their conflicting interests forms the climax of the film.

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My Take: Another touching story from the Sibi Malayil -
AK Lohithadas - Mohanlal team. I saw ‘Dasharatham’ again recently and it still left a deep impact. Viewers may find the pacing a tad slow today, but that’s usually how most of Sibi Malayil’s films unfolded in those days. Mohanlal again does a brilliant act as the spoilt, brash playboy who turns into an obsessive father to be. The scenes where he raves, rants, begs, repeatedly requests for the custody of his son are really heart breaking. For it’s time (1989) the whole concept of a hero going in for ‘artificial insemination’ would have been shocking to the audience. The film probably got an ‘Adults Only’ certificate for this.
Which brings me to a scene in the first half where the doctor hands Mohanlal a small container and asks him to collect his semen – Mohanlal’s sheepish and embarrassed look as he heads to a room to ‘do the deed’ is to die for. Unfortunately that bit hasn’t been uploaded by anyone as yet, but take a look at the scene below (with brief subtitles) where Rajeev/Mohanlal asks his good friend Scariah/Nedumudi Venu (whose little son he has grown attached to) if he can adopt his son. Scariah politely refuses saying that it’s something that no father would do, their conversation ends with Scariah telling Rajeev that he wouldn’t understand emotional connections since he doesn’t know what relationships are.

Sasneham (1990)
(With Love)
Director: Sathyan Anthikad
Story/Script: AK Lohithadas
Cast: Balachandra Menon, Shobhana, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha, Oduvil Unnikrishnan

Synopsis: Thomas Kurien (Balachandra Menon) and Sarasvati (Shobhana) are primary school teachers; they are also an unusual couple for the rather conservative Malayali society. Thomas is a Christian is married to Sarasvati – a Hindu Brahmin, their families have cut off all ties with them after their love marriage. Thomas and Sarasvati live happily, adjusting to each others beliefs, likes and dislikes. When Sarasvati gets pregnant, the word spreads and both their families are now eager to re-establish ties with them to welcome the newborn into the family. Sarasvati’s loud and domineering maternal aunt Meenakshi Ammal (Sukumari) comes to stay with them and so does Thomas’ mother Eliyamma and elder sister Rosy. Both sides of the family now try to establish their authority and religious identity over the couple and their house. When Meenakshi Ammal hangs pictures of Hindu gods in a room and starts saying her prayers, Eliyamma and Rosy retaliate by singing Christian hymns aloud in the adjoining room. Soon after this, Thomas’ family starts cooking non-vegetarian food in the kitchen without Sarasvati’s family’s consent. A series of such incidents slowly begins to create friction between the couple. Thomas’ father convinces him to baptize the new born and bring the child up as a Christian. After constant fights and irreconcilable differences– Sarasvati leaves home. In the end love triumphs over petty religious differences; the couple reunites after learning from their mistakes and decide to politely keep their respective families at a distance.

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My Take: One of the most delightful romantic comedies I’ve seen, ‘Sasneham’ starts where most romantic films end – after the marriage of the lead pair. There is great chemistry between Balachandra Menon and Shobhana – as the couple who sort of stumbles through and copes with their unusual love marriage. Balachandra Menon’s character especially is a complex one as he transforms from the open minded, rebellious loving husband to the chauvinist, egoist male once their families clash. Again it’s the completely realistic setting and dynamics of relationships that make this film accessible and endearing. Like in all Anthikad’s films the character actors here – Sankaradi as the couple’s landlord, Innocent as the wise brother-in-law, Philomina as the fussy gluttonous house maid – add so much more life to the narrative. Unfortunately Sasneham is not available on VCD or DVD under any label and so you won’t find many film clips online either. I luckily managed to get a VHS of the film transferred to VCD, so a rare print of the film lives with me!
You can watch a song from the film below, which again is a VHS transfer, hence the bad video quality. ‘Sasneham’ does come on the Malayalam channel Asianet, if anyone does want to catch it.

Chitram (1988)
(The Picture)
Director: Priyadarshan
Story/Script: Sreenivasan, Priyadarshan
Cast: Mohanlal, Renjini, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Sukumari

Synopsis: The headstrong and impulsive Kalyani (Renjini) stays with her uncle Kaimal (Nedumudi Venu) in Kochi and wants to get married to her boyfriend, but her US based father threatens to cut off all ties with her. Kalyani's boyfriend ditches her at the marriage registrar’s office, but unaware her father has now done a turnaround and is returning to Kerala to bless his daughter and the man she has chosen for herself. Not wanting to shock her father who is a heart patient Kalyani doesn’t want to let him know that her boyfriend has ditched her. Her uncle comes up with the plan of having someone ‘act’ as her husband till her father’s visit is over. Enter Vishnu (Mohanlal) who desperately needs some money immediately – he reluctantly agrees to act as Kalyani’s husband for a few days. Kalyani and Vishnu begin on the wrong foot and make lives completely miserable for each other, even while keeping up the façade of being a ‘happily married couple’ for the rest of the world to see. Predictably they fall in love, but Vishnu has a past which comes to haunt him and the lives of the people he has now grown close to.

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My Take: One of the first comedies that really got me hooked to Malayalam films, 'Chitram' was for a long time the most successful Malayalam film ever. Reportedly made within a budget of 27 lakhs – ‘Chitram’ ran continuously for over a year at several theatres in Kerala. The film had one of those really rare narratives which made viewers both laugh and cry without trying too hard. The clever screenplay is laden with trademark Priyadarshan comic gags but it’s the twist in the end which comes as a complete surprise. ‘Chitram’ was remade by K Bapaiah in Hindi as ‘Pyar Hua Chori Chori’ with Mithun Chakravarthy and Gautami (yikes!)… going by the title and cast you can well imagine how that one turned out. Surprisingly despite being such a cult film down south, you still can’t get a DVD of ‘Chitram’ in India, though VCDs of the film are available, I had to get a DVD for myself all the way from the US through a friend. Watch the interesting clip (with subtitles) below from the film, where Vishnu and Kalyani pretending to be husband and wife have to partake in some inane tribal rituals in their hometown – both of them try to give eachother grief while at it. Also in the clip Vishnu tries to outsmart Kalyani and her Kaimal uncle by directly taking money from his ‘father in law’ under some pretext, but is unable to get away. I love the way Mohanlal and Nedumudi Venu try to out do each other without letting their ‘husband-on-hire' arrangement out in this particular scene.

Innale (1989)

(Yesterday)

Director: P Padmarajan

Story/Script: Vasanthi, P Padmarajan
Cast: Shobhana, Jayaram, Suresh Gopi, Srividya, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha

Synopsis: Maya (Shobhana) is the lone survivor of a bus accident in a remote town in Kerala. When she regains consciousness at the local hospital, Maya realizes that she has completely lost her memory. Dr Sandhya (Srividya) and her son Sharath (Jayaram) who run the hospital take it upon themselves to take care of Maya till someone comes to claim her. Maya is anxious and desperate to find out about her past, but as months pass, Sharath and Maya fall in love and both of them hope that nobody turns up looking for her. At first Dr Sandhya is against her son’s relationship with Maya – she believes that they should get serious about each other only after they know everything about Maya’s past life. However when Dr Sandhya realizes that she can’t stop the couple from meeting each other she agrees to bless them. Just after Maya and Sharath get engaged, Dr Sandhya receives a call from Mumbai from Narendran (Suresh Gopi) who is searching for his missing wife Gauri; Narendran believes that the young woman who survived the accident could be his wife. Narendran leaves for Kerala to identify his wife, meanwhile Sharath is having sleepless nights…is Maya really Narendran’s missing wife? Narendran meets Sharath and they proceed to Maya’s house to identify her… what happens next forms the climax of the film.

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My Take: For me ‘Innale’ was like a romantic thriller, I saw the film when I was in high school and somehow I felt that for the first time I was watching a film that really intrigued me, I constantly kept wanting to know what would happen next. Even though there have been films which are more or less similar in storyline (‘Henna’ for e.g.) ‘Innale’ taught me how the ‘telling’ of a story makes all the difference. The part where Narendran is introduced and the audience realizes that Maya is already married came with a sledgehammer impact when I first saw the film. And from then it’s a continuous race to find out if Maya finally remembers her past. The late director P Padmarajan also a novelist is considered one of the greatest storytellers in Malayalam cinema. Infact ‘Innale’ is actually a short story by Tamil writer P Vasanthi and was adapted to the screen by Padmarajan.
Jayaram and Shobhana are perfect in their roles, especially Shobhana since going by the script – the heroine doesn’t seem to have an active role in the narrative…but you really leave ‘Innale’ mostly with images of Shobhana in mind. Suresh Gopi who plays Narendran is one of Malayalam cinema’s popular ‘action’ heroes… and is also not considered an accomplished actor. But given the climax he has the toughest role in the film. Given a choice (though Suresh Gopi did a competent job of it) I would’ve rather seen another actor do the role.
Watch a song from the film below – this comes when Maya is recuperating in the hospital and grows closer to Dr Sandhya and her son Sharath. Maya’s fears and the security she receives from the Dr Sandhya and her son is visually brought out in the song.

Oru Minnaminunginte Nurungu Vettam (1987)

(The Glow of a Firefly)

Director: Bharathan

Story/Script: John Paul

Cast: Nedumudi Venu, Sharada, Parvathi, Devan

Synopsis: Ravunni Nair Master (Nedumudi Venu) and Saraswati Teacher (Sharada) are an odd couple. While the 65 year old Ravunni has retired for over 5 years, Saraswati is now 60 and has just retired from her post as a primary school teacher at the local government school. Having married late (well into their 40s), they don’t have any children and spend most of their time in each other’s company.
An old family friend turns up and requests the couple to allow his daughter Maya (Parvathi) to stay with them while she attends the local college in their area. Maya’s mother is no more and her father is an arrogant womanizer who doesn’t much care for her, she inevitably grows close to her new guardians and the three become like a small family. For the childless Ravunni and Saraswati – Maya fills a deep emotional void, she is like a daughter they never had. One day, a young man Ravi (Devan) turns up to ask for Parvathi’s hand in marriage, Ravi and Maya have known each other for some time and since he is soon going off to the US soon, they want to get married at the earliest. Convinced that Ravi is indeed the right man for Maya, Ravunni and Saraswathi help them get married, and after a week’s time Ravi leaves for the US alone, since it will still be a while before Maya’s passport and visa comes through.
Meanwhile Maya gets pregnant, Ravunni and Saraswathi are overjoyed by the news, both of them have no knowledge of bringing up children but are completely involved in supporting Maya’s pregnancy in every way that they can. On hearing about his wife’s pregnancy, Ravi too returns from the US for a few days in time for the delivery. Maya has a caesarian and delivers a baby boy, but due to complications she doesn’t survive the operation. Ravunni and Saraswathi volunteer to bring up Maya and Ravi’s child, while Ravi returns to the US.
As time flies by, the child is now an inextricable part of the old couple’s lives, their day begins and ends around the little boy. His little pranks, games and conversations are what bring joy to their isolated lives. 5 years later Ravunni receives a letter from the US, it’s Ravi – he is returning to Kerala for a few days and wants to take his son back with him. Heartbroken Ravunni and Saraswathi try to reason out as to why the child should continue to stay with them, but they realize that they cannot argue with the child’s father who has complete rights over him. Ravi finally arrives to take his child back to the US, Ravunni and Saraswathi cannot bear to see their little one being taken away and lock themselves up in a room. The little boy realizes that he is being taken away from his ‘grandparents’ and cries for them as he is put into a taxi. The child’s helpless cries bring the old couple out of their room, they rush out only to see the back of the taxi receding away.