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| Edited By: Yogesh Pawar |Source: DNA |Updated: Feb 10, 2019, 06:40 AM IST
Nearly two decades since Rajiv Menon's Jane Austen adaptation, his Sarvam Thaala Mayam (STM) has opened to both critical and popular acclaim. Yogesh Pawar caught up with the filmmaker to discuss the socio-politics of his latest, it's music and more...
I'd felt STM may work with A-centres but the ecstatic response all over is beyond anything I imagined. I'm overwhelmed. I knew audiences would react to the hero. But here they're reacting to his guru's much older character. In a sense, it has brought back hope you can write a film about a 70-year-old and hold audiences. It also underlines how you don't have to only make films about love for 18-20-year-olds.
The guru is not some 2D character. S/he is invested in the disciple. It can mean being harsh. I've seen it happen with my widowed-at-37 mom. Her guru would really lash out, making her cry if she wasn't giving it her best. I'm bringing that to my writing.
Yes. Its been that long since Kandukondein Kandukondein. As I made ad films and documentaries I was polishing this one. Its taken a lot of effort. I'd wake up to find my pillow wet with tears as I carried these scenes in me.
I was witness to a beautiful relationship between cricketer Anil Kumble and a boy suffering from muscular dystrophy. Moved, I wrote Spin – a small film about a cricketer and a spastic boy. But I couldn't find backing. I also shot with wrestler Sushil Kumar (long before he made it big nationally) for a film on him but to no avail.
In an interview, Hari]i said his father wanted him to be a wrestler but he ended up learning the flute. His father was devastated when he learned this just before his train took him to a government job with AIR Bhubaneshwar to be a flautist. I built a script around a wrestler father with two sons interested in performing arts. I even met Aamir Khan. Nothing came of it. I saw some of my scenes/dialogues in Dangal later. It was, of course, a better film due to the gender angle.
I wasn't out on the street. I had ad films and business going but my creative side wasn't finding an outlet. I even tried working on a film on Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi and wrote 18 drafts only to find it stuck in a legal case.
I was in Thanjavur shooting my documentary Overtones with Padma Vibhushan Umayalpuram Kasiviswanatha Sivaraman when he called out for Johnson. Since he was carrying a screwdriver, wire and pliers, I assumed he was an electrician. Later at the concert, he was sitting close to the maestro. I wondered why? Weeks later at a Chennai concert too he was sitting close. I then found Johnson was his mridangam maker! That set me off. When I met Johnson he spoke of playing earlier at local temples/festivals. “All I dream of is to see my son play,” he said. This maker-practitioner stratification stayed with me.
True. Both caste and religion. Look around the world of Carnatic music and its ecosystem. It seems difficult for a non-Brahmin to enter. But STM is as much about meritocracy as caste. Look at Ilaiyaraja or an A R Rahman or others who've reached where they have despite this system.
Some people have beef, some don't and some want to kill the former, thankfully not in South India. There is no way a mridangam can be made without cow skin by the Christian Dalits. And this is played even in temples. Also, it has to be a cow which has just given birth because the skin is stretched. I wasn't going to shy from making this point.
I wanted him as he plays the mridangam. But he was reclusive. I flew down to his Kerala home. He agreed when he heard the story and wanted to do a scene right there. He wanted to believe in himself after being laid up due to illness. He seemed latched on to not only my writing but also to its layers. Others too had a point to prove. GV (Prakash Kumar) had had a string of flops, Vineeth was forgotten and Aparna was working with an ensemble cast and had to stand out.
Not at all. For a year I enrolled him with Vidwan Umayalpuram. But given his own commitments as a music director (“Shreya Ghoshal is in town. I'm recording”) he'd bunk and I'd be after his life. Given his 10th grade training in piano, his musicality was bang on. He finally got the fingering right on the beat. I remember Umayalpuram calling to say he's ready to shoot. 'Don't expect him to play an entire concert though!' I was warned. (Laughs)
When discussing the script with GV, he told me it needs a heavyweight. “Either talk to maama (Prakash is A R Rahman's nephew) or go to Ilaiyaraja,” he told me. I had no money to pay an international maestro of Rahman's callibre. But he's a friend. So I called him about my “really small film.” When we met I played my 1/2 hour documentary and then told him the story. He kept asking, “And then?” more fired about the film than me. He said, “This is an important film and needs to be made. Don't think about my fees. Just do it!” I've not given him a single paisa. He's getting paid from the collections.
It took a lot of to and fro. And he always factored in my suggestions. While the Irish-Scottish beat is a foil for the mass dance number Peter Beat Yettu, since both of us are great fans of LataJi's Tu Jahaan and Lag Ja Gale he has used a feel of both these ragas in Maya Mayam . Rahman made an old hand at retro guitar create beds of guitar chords he used to give the song a different feel. For the song Eppo varumoo/ Enga kaalam/ Eppo varum I was trying to again suggest something but A R told me he will crack it and you see how he's been able to marry such a strong political message with a catchy tune and beat.
For this , Rahman tried all kinds of percussion, finally settling for base drums giving it almost a church-choir feel. And when we travelled all over the country to shoot with musicians we'd record them to our track which GV helped with since he's a musician. Rahman added this to the track making it sound global. So it's not only a visual journey but also an aural one.
I had an old composition from the 18th Century as an inspiration but I wanted something more specific and arrived at the first line Varalama Un Arugil / Peralama Un Arulai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkuDTgoR6E8 (Can I come to your doorstep?/ I beseech your blessings) Lyricist Madhan Karky built on it.
I put my 30-year-friendship with Rahman on line with: “I've a tune for this.” He went: “What?” He'd already thought of something but asked me to sing and asked his assistant Srini to come record it. He then made me sing again, recording on his phone, leaning forward and adding scat beats. When STM was edited and ready and the tracklist was to go to the Jio he insisted composition credits for me. Later when the contract came he again insisted on royalties for this song for me. In an industry replete with examples of people stealing others' work he's the opposite.
The moment I told Bombay Jayashree the story she said yes to her cameo. Given the film's message about inclusion, I was keen to have my other dear friend vocalist T M Krishna (who is very vocal about exclusion) in the film. But it didn't work out. So we got vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan to play the part instead. P Unnikrishnan and Karthik too agreed to be part of the project, playing themselves.
Will it work? I'm happy audiences here like it. I'm not interested in serving pasta to the drought-hit in Latur. I want to give audiences in India what works for them and in the process learn and grow. Not to say I don't like anything in Bollywood. Recently I liked Raazi a lot. I also like some of Anurag Kashyap's work. One senses a churn.
I'm writing a social thriller. I can't write about NRI romances. Remember I'm the guy who writes about a hairstylist who falls in love with a nun, failed assistant directors struggling to get married, a decapitated army major falling in love with a woman half his age. I like fractured characters with human follies.
