Trivandrum days

Priyadarshan is the quintessential city boy who has made it to the super league with his brand of filmmaking

Y can take a man out of Thiruvananthapuram but you cannot take Thiruvananthapuram out of a man. Film director Priyadarshan is the best example – the city has a special place in his life and career. In the city for a personal visit, the director who has put his money where his mouth is, rewinds to his ‘ Trivandrum days' when he and his friends, including Mohanlal, dreamed big in technicolour. With no filmi background, financial godfather or blue chip technical qualifications to back him up, Priyadarshan relied on his passion for cinema, talent and gut instinct to make it to the credits of some of the biggest blockbusters in Malayalam and then in Bollywood too.

Names of friends who influenced him dominate the conversation as he recalls how each of them contributed to the making of the big-time director who remains fiercely attached to that charmed circle.

Thanking his father, P.S. Nair, a librarian and theatre enthusiast, for putting him in the Malayalam medium in Government Model School, Priyadarsan, says that decision helped him acquire a large group of friends and also ensured that he spoke, read and wrote excellent Malayalam.

Voracious reader

“Titans in the fields of culture and academia were constant visitors to my house in Thycaud. Growing around with books, authors and theatre persons made me a voracious reader.''

The fan of comics who still treasures his “complete collection of Asterix comics” says with a smile: “Each strip in a comic is like a storyboard. There are tight close-ups, wide angles, long shoots, dialogues, colour schemes…In fact, I learnt a lot about framing a shot from those comics of Phantom, Mandrake, Mickey Mouse…”

Cut to his college days in Mahatma Gandhi College, Government Arts College and then University College.

“My friends introduced me to books, music, the best of films, English and Hindi, and kept my hopes flying high every time it hit a low.”

His ambition of becoming a cricketer was felled by an injury to his left eye but the ardent fan still dreams of an IPL team from Kerala.

He recalls how producer Suresh Kumar's house at Uppalam Road and the Indian Coffee House canteen next to University College were their favourite hangouts. “Those were also years of struggle.”

He becomes a tad sentimental when he recalls how Suresh's mother, Sharada, always had a smile for the youngsters who used to gather on the terrace of her house. “I remember her blessing me when I invited her for the premiere of my first film, Poochakkorru Mukkuthi. On the other hand, my mother is a tough woman. She was aghast when she saw that I had used the verbal battles between my father and her in the film that had Sukumari and Nedumudi Venu playing a happily married middle-aged couple who could not stop bickering,” he reminisces, laughing loudly.

Riotous comedies

But wasn't it a risk to debut with a riotous comedy in the days when Malayalam cinema was all about existential angst? “No, no” he says. “We had this gang of friends who used to hang out in front of the Secretariat from around 7 p.m. to 8.45 p.m. All had a terrific sense of humour – it could be categorised as sadistic humour, sharp verbal exchanges, sarcasm, wit, visual humour…Those were days of fun and romance. So I merrily tapped into that and it clicked with an audience longing for a break from all that angst on our screens.” He cleverly used the colloquial, laidback slang of the city in films that vaguely reminded one of Wodehouse's world of joyous confusion and batty relatives. While the critics gnashed their teeth for his penchant for making remakes peppered with slapstick comedy, Priyadarsan had the last laugh as his films raked in the moolah.

Along with him came a batch of talented, hungry, wannabe celebrities who all went on to etch their names on the silver screen as stars, singers, filmmakers and in-demand technicians.

“I can't take credit for that. It was their luck that all of us happened to be there at the right time,” he insists.

His oeuvre of early comedies such as Odarathu Ammava Aal ariyaam, Boeing Boeing Boeing, Mazhapeyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu and his latter-day hits such as Kilukkam have become sought-after collectors' items.

But the master of comedy says his next projects are going to be an animation film with Toons, then Bum Bum Bole, and a film on honour killing, starring Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu.

“After I, supposedly the black sheep of the family, won the national award (for Kancheevaram), my father told me he could not have asked for more as I had got a national award and my sister is now ‘Dr.' Madhumathi.”

But he emphaises that he felt he had arrived when Kancheevaram was premiered at Tagore Theatre. “I had seen so many films there during my student days. I felt proud when ‘Kancheevaram' was screened there.” And now The Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences wants the screenplay of De Dana Dan for their archives. “What more could a man ask for?”

Married to former actor Lizzie, he says they do not want to dream for their children Siddarth and Kalyani (Chandu and Ammu), who are studying in Singapore where they have a house. “We want them to have their own horizons to explore.”

SARASWATHY NAGARAJAN