Sreenivasan – Aam Aadmi from Kerala
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‘Aam Aadmi’ is the focus of the present UPA administration in India. At least that’s how they spin it. In the Malayalam film industry, you had a man who imbibed this spirit a long time ago.
Sreenivasan, writer, director , actor and lately producer, is the person I am talking about. He has always portrayed a common man in his movies. He has always written and directed movies about them.
He has portrayed,
- how a person suffers from mental illness because of jealousy, jealous because his wife is fair and he is dark
- how a person breaks up his loving joint family due to pressures from his wife
- how a lazy grown man , with wife and kids, can undo his life because of his fear of taking any responsibilities
- how a communist worker who follows communism ideals blindly and has to pay a big price for it
- how a politically minded son forgets all about his responsibilities in his pursuit of a career in politics
Do all the things I listed above sound serious to you? You will be surprised to know all the movies above are well regarded comedies in Malayalam with amazing repeat value. Most of them also have their stories, screenplay and dialogues written by Sreenivasan.
Why Sreenivasan is popular?
Sreenivasan has a great sense of humour. I would define sense of humour as a person’s ability to laugh at himself before laughing at others. Sreenivasan excels in that. Before making fun of any situation or any person, I think he imagines himself to be in their position. That is the strength of his writing, his characters. He understands the mind set of a middle class person and is able to see humour in the situation.
In none of his movies (which he has directed or written) are the characters extravagantly rich. They seem to be school teachers, barbers, unemployed youths, and small business owners (with a clear definition of what business). All of them are characters that the audiences can identify with. And that’s precisely what happened, Sreenivasan is a well respected figure in the Malayalam film industry; he is respected not just by his peers but also by his audiences.
Sreenivasan as a story, script and screenplay writer
Sreenivasan has been going strong for the last 25-30 years in the Malayalam film industry. In this time, among his contemporaries were world renowned writer directors like Padmarajan, Bharathan, M.T.Vasudevan Nair. But amazingly, inspite of such wonderfully talented competition, Sreenivasan has been able to carve a niche for himself in the hearts and minds of Malayalam film audience.
In part it is due to the comedic nature of his writings and movies, though he has portrayed a lot of serious characters in movies from directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan , Aravindan , K.G.George etc, I don’t think he has ever written a character devoid of humour from himself or others.And in part due to the relevance of his movies, they may be comedies, but the audience can identify with each and every character in his movies. They may be like that or known somebody like that or vaguely heard of somebody like that.
As an example, I would like to present 4 synopsis(synposii?) of stories, screenplays or script that he has written. Check for yourself if you have known somebody like that, ( Please note all the title translations from malayalam are loose, may be off the mark, In case it is way too off, please let me know and i will be happy to change it)
Vellannagalude Naadu (Land of White Elephants):
A movie about socio-economic conditions of a small time civic contractor, played brilliantly as always by Mohanlal, the movie is a critique of an Indian bureaucracy, of how civil servants collude with private contractors to siphon money of various development schemes announced by the government. The movie, directed by Priyadarshan,(wondering how this has not been made into Hindi till now), had a host of characters, including a serious and honest Panchayat President portrayed by Sreenivasan who loses his life in the process, prompting Mohanlal’s character to become honest and bring the culprits to justice. The movie also had Shobana portraying a tehsildar.
The movie had a whole lot of comedic sequences , the most remembered might be the sequence where a road roller being pulled by an elephant goes out of control and rams into a house.
Sanmasilluvarke Samadhanam( People with goodness in their hearts are most satisfied) :
Remade into Hindi by Priyadarshan as ‘Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar’ starring Sunil Shetty and Mahima Chaudhary, the remake was a poor imitation of the original. I wonder how Priyadarshan thought that Sunil Shetty can match up to Mohanlal from any angle. The movie follows a down on luck landlord trying to evict long time tenants from his house in the city. A sweet movie made memorable by superb performances by the lead pair of Mohanlal and Karthika and supporting performances by KPAC Lalitha, Sreenivasan and Thilakan.
Veravelppu (Welcome on arrival):
A brilliant movie by Sreenivasan-Sathyan Anthikad combination the movie follows a gulf returned malayalee ( Mohanlal) and his attempts to start a business in Kerala in face of rampant trade unionism. The movie was/still is a chilling comment on the negative aspects of trade unionism in Kerala.
Thalayanmantram:
How many times have you heard this story? A family very happy together was broken up because the girl he married did not like anyone in the family.A wife (brilliant Urvashi) wants better life for herself and her family consisting of husband Sreenivasan and a daughter. She feels she is not appreciated in the joint family set up of Sreenivasan’s family with his brother (Jayaram) and brother’s wife(Parvati) being more appreciated. Slowly her plan seems to work and Sreenivasan’s character breaks up his joint family and tries to lead a better life elsewhere. The movie also serves as a commentary on consumerism when the now nuclear family spends a lot of money on buying fridge, tv and car and other luxury items and end up with high debts which lead them back into the arms of the joint family.
Whatever your personal take on the story may be, you couldn’t deny that these things happen and many families have broken up due to these kinds of ego hassles. A well made movie with brilliant performances by every one but most notably Urvashi as the wife aspiring for a better future and Sreenivasan as the hen pecked husband.
A common thread in all these movies is, all the characters are common middle class people. The movie tends to put them in extraordinary situations and makes them react to the situations as humanly as possible. For example, in Vellannagalude Naadu , Mohanlal’s character being a practical person knows that bribing and flattering civil servants can get his bills passed. In ‘Sanmasilluvarku Samadham’ the landlord chances upon an old friend who is now a police inspector and tries selfishly use him to try and intimidate the stubborn tenants. In ‘Veravellupu’, Mohanlal’s character is easily misled by others, especially his family whom he supported by toiling the gulf.Imagine yourself in each of the characters above, I bet that you would also respond in the same way as the characters in the movie did.
Sreenivsan as a director:
Sreenivasan has directed only 2 movies. All these movies have been successful at the box office and are still remembered for unique messages in each of the movies
Vadakanokiya Yanthram (Machine that looks north (Compass)):
Sreenivasan’s directorial debut, the movie starred himself and Parvati. The movie starts off with Sreenivasan’s character writing a letter to a agony aunt/uncle column complaining that the girl he is going to marry is much fairer than him and what should he do to make his skin color fair.
This inferiority complex even after marriage sees Sreenivasan’s character going from bad to worse mentally, he loses all logic in his ever consuming jealousy and ends up alienating his family and wife.He finally goes to a psychiatrist and gets proper treatment.This must be probably one of the few mainstream movies in India to treat mental illness with the maturity they deserve.
A thread of movie is common day occurance, you wouldn’t have to look far to find a husband jealous of his wife in your daily life. Do all them lead to such situations as depicted in the movie, probably not, but then the movie acts as a cautionary tale on how it can end up.
Chintavristhaya Shyamala (Shyamala, who does not have any worries)
Sreenivasan’s character a school teacher who has a wife ‘Shyamala’ and 2 kids has been on a long leave from the school that he teaches in. He is a drifter who does not like any kind of responsibility and wants to achieve big things in life without knowing his limitations. At the start of the movie he absconds from his house to direct a commercial without understanding the basics of directing. The central character of the movie is his long suffering wife ‘Shyamala’ who runs the house with the help of Sreenivasan’s parents. After each of his escapades, lasting maximum of 3 days, he comes back with a set of excuses and tries to lead a normal life for a period of time before the itch to abscond starts again. After each of the escapade, Shyamala forgives her husband. At last he absconds for good, tries to become a swami by joining an ashram. Shymala gives up all hopes of his returning and tries and succeeds in becoming the bread winner of the house.
The movie ends with Sreenivasan’s character being thrown out of the ashram by the swami-in-charge for neglecting his family duties and his returning to his home to realise that everything runs smoothly in his absence and that unless he mends his ways he is in danger of losing out on everything that he has.
A lazy man, how familiar are you with one, I know I am, because I am one. The movie shows the dangers of abdicating ones responsibility to oneself, towards one’s family and to the society at large.
Why am I writing about Sreenivasan
Whenever people talk about malaylam cinema they talk about offbeat/artistic movies by Aravindan , Adoor Gopalakrishnan, they don’t talk a lot of the mainstream commercial movies expect for a few names like Padmarajan, a respected writer director who made some memorable movies in his short life. They talk about Mohanlal and Mammooty , brilliant actors, who have portrayed myriad of characters written by Sreenivasan. They talk about movies which have won awards, still do every year at the national awards, which may/may not be good.
They don’t talk about Sreenivasan. They don’t talk about the range of movies that he has done. They don’t talk about the characters he has written or directed which are still in the minds of the Malayalam cinema audiences. Sreenivasan made his mainstream career keeping within the parameters that define mainstream cinema. He wrote/directed successful movies which are still remembered for their humour and message. Malayalam cinema audience knows what to expect from a Sreenivasan movie, for them it is enough that it was written by Sreenivasan.
I am writing this because I believe Sreenivasan is a great talent who is one of the very few in India who can do writing, directing and acting with equal ease. Unfortunately he is unknown outside Kerala. His work might be known to Hindi cinema audiences through butchered scenes in Priyadarshan remake factory movies. I hope my writing this compels you to see a Sreenivasan movie next time you hear his name, or see him while changing channels. You may not understand the language, but I am sure you will understand the gist.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hey, good post man…Sreenivasan truly is one of the most brilliant artists around. I have seen all of the movies mentioned here, and they truly are classics. As opposed to Hindi cinema, late 80s and early 90s were golden years for Malayalam cinema. I know old people will scoff at me and will say that Prem Nazir, Madhu and Ummar era was the best, but I think this cinema was second to none. Very good post.
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Hey , thanks for that. Yeah, i do think that was the golden period of malayalam movies and Sreenivasan played a great part in that.
The kind of subjects they tackled in that time has not been covered anywhere since then..
- Dhiraj
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hey i think u havent mentioned “sandhesham”, one of his best…Those were the glorious days of malayalam cinema. still love watching his movies and laugh like hell eventhough u know wats gonna happen next.The iconic characters of dasan and vijayn in Nadodikattu and Pattana pravesham ,no words to describe those movies..
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The only reason i didn’t talk about Sandesham in this post is because i talked about earlier here http://passionforcinema.com/political-satire-and-indian-movies/
And i think Nadodikattu deserves a post of its own ..
Thanks
Dhiraj
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Oh God… am so happy someone wrote about this exceptionally talented guy! He is one of the under-rated uner-appreciated gems of the Indian movie industry! Love him! Didnt he also write for Mazahyethum Munpe? Not to mention Udayananu Tharam etc. All are my favourite movies!
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Thanks ..
I am not sure about Mazhayethum Munpe.. but wikipedia says it was.. that was a mature love story again the kind not seen these days.
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Kudos for writing the article, great to know that Srinivasan is appreciated outside of Kerala as well
Just one thing, the translation for Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (might need other Malayalalees to back me up on this) would probably be “Shyamala who is deep in thought”
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Hi Naren,
Thanks.
Though malayalam is my mothertongue i can’t read and write in mallu..
all the translations are pretty loose and i had no clue what the translation of ‘Thalayanmantram’ would be.
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great to see someone talk about him…sreenivasan is a great talent!
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Srinivas is under-rated even among the watchers of Malayalam cinema. Maybe because, in all his movies, he always plays the role of a sidekick. Hence, the audience sub-consciously give him a ‘sidey’ treatment. Many movies like Ponmutta Iddanataraav, Paavam Paavam Rajkumaran(written by him) wouldn’t have been as effective if somebody else played his characters.
Chintavristhaya Shyamala is said to be remade in Hindi movie called SRK starring Vinay Pathak. While the intent is good, I doubt if it’ll have a good run in the Hindi avatar.
And I hope ull write on Nadodikattu. Will have fun in reading and discussing it.
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Hi Sudhir,
I had read about ‘SRK’ long back, i think wasn’t the real SRK supposed to do a cameo or something.
Vinay Pathak seems to be nice choice. Lets see how the movie turns out to be.
Thanks
Dhiraj
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I am a huge fan of Sreeni. He’s a pure genuis. I don’t think anyone can hold a candle to him when it comes to socio-political satire genre (and I am talking in world cinema, not just malayalam or Indian cinema). Definitely one of world’s greatest screen writers of all time, unknown to most of the world because he happens to write for Malayalam.
As many keep saying, the golden period of malayalam cinema (80s to mid 90s) happened mainly because of four writing stalwarts – MT, Lohitadas, Padmarajan and Sreenivasan. What sets sreeni apart from the other three is his humour. While MT and Lohi portrayed powerful drama, and Pappettan was a proponent of the surreal and romance, Sreeni through his humour attracted audience across all age groups and sections of society. Both the artistically inclined intellectual type as well as “Paisa Vasool Comedy” audience flocked to his movies. Watching his movies in the theatre, we all laughed non stop. But later on he will make you think about the movie, and then you realize that the joke was on you and the society you live in. If you peel of the outer layers of comedy, you will find an intense critic of the ills of our society like corruption, general apathy and hypocrisy.
And by the way, Mr. RemakeDarshan owes much of his success to this guy. Many don’t know that most of Priyadarshan’s early movies (circa 80 – 85) were ghost scripted by Sreeni and hence not credited to him. Dhiraj, remake of Vellanakalude Nadu is currently underway (Priyadarshan – Akshay Kumar).
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Hi Rahul,
Thanks.
Yes, you are right. It was very satisfying to see his movies for all classes of society i think.
Yeah, Priyadarshan could not leave that movie alone. I wonder how effectively can it be translated into a North Indian setting.
- Dhiraj
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The name of the movie is Khatta Meetha which he is adapting…Wondering what is De Dhana Dhan inspired from..
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@Dhirajr- quite an interesting post on one of the most wonderful personalities of Malayalam cinema.A superb all rounder as you’ve really pointed out, Sreeni is a wonderful writer,director and actor.I can keep talking about him without getting tired
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BTW Vellannagulude Naadu is now being remade by Priyan himself as Khatta Meeta with Akshay Kumar and Trisha.Off late most of Sreenivasn’s works are being remade/butchered in Hindi including the recent Billu Barber and Shortkut-Con is On
The Dasan-Vijayan series ( Mohanlal-Sreenivasan ) seen in Nadodikattu,Pattanapravesham & Akkare Akkare Akkare has been wonderful.Looking forward to their next version tentatively titled -Dasanum Vijayanum.In recent times some of Sreeni’s movies like
Katha Parayumbol,Arabikatha,Passenger & even Makante Achan have done well at the box office,they may not be the best in terms of content but certainly show that Sreeni’s reach to the audience is intact.
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Sethu, Except for Katha Parayumbol, the other three are not scripted by Sreeni, so he is not responsible for their content eventhough all are watchable. Arabikatha and Passsenger were good ones. Katha Parayumbol was also not that great compared to Sreeni’s past achievements.
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Rahul I’m aware of it, mentioned the same more from an actor’s point thats why I mentioned that his reach to the audience is still intact.
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Hi Sethumadhavan,
Thanks.
Oh so there goes another beloved movie into the remake factory.
I am not sure about the new installment of the Dasan-Vijayan series.. won’t they be little too old for that… but here’s hoping they do it.. because it is always a treat to watch both of them on the screen together.
- Dhiraj
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Wow, the Dasan-Vijayan series has a fourth version planned? I have lost count of how many times I’ve watched the first three & still ended up laughing the same way. Great news. Anyway, I’m sure these will make their way onto Hindi screens too before long.
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Thank you for educating us, non-Malayali cinephiles about Sreenivasan. Loved the premises of each of the movies you described. Would love to get my hands on subtitled versions of these. Actually, these stories remind me a lot of the work of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Amol Palekar in the 70′s, and Italian Neorealism of the 50′s and 60′s, both of which I absolutely adore.
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Hey Arsenik,
Thanks for your comments. You are right in the observation that they are closer to Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies where in the movies are set in and around the family.
Glad to know that you might be interested in watching a movie by him.. i checked out Moser Baer’s website but they don’t say if the movie is subtitled or not.
- Dhiraj
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brilliant post…eventhough comparison is not fair BalachandraMenon also showed lot of potential in his early movies,but then lost it some where..
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Hi Sharath,
I must confess, i really didn’t think of Balachandra Menon while writing this.
Primary reason being that his work never effected me like Sreenivasan’s did. Having said that, you are right his earlier movies really were very good.
Thanks
Dhiraj
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Dil khush kar diya yaar, Dhiraj.
I’m amazed how his movies switch so effortlessly from comic to serious sequences & back again.
The guy is brilliant!
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Wonderful post…For my pleasure he is the only actor who could have me in guffaws apart from Innocent in earlier days…His comic timing and humour is unmatched..Someone rightly mentioned that a seperate post should be started on Nadodikattu(i am still laughing even thinking about it) or Vijay-Das series…..
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To me, This man can be coined as the “V.M.Basheer” of Malayalam Cinema. His films are raw, straight to the point and extremely thought provoking with an underlined humour in it. You can see it umpteen times ans still not get bored by them! (again like basheer’s novels)
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Pardon my ignorance. I dont know V. M. Basheer but if he is half as good as Sree’ettan, maybe I should make an effort.
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kic- well hmm V.M.Basheer- i.e Vaikom Muhammed Basheer is one of the most respected literary figures in Kerala.If you need to check him out cinematically- watch Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Mathilukal based on V.M.Basheer’s novel of the same name.Mammootty is brilliant in it.
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jus read any one of his novels and you will get to know his sense of literature. A true revolutionary!
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Thanks, guys. That’s why I dont know of him. I dont read Malayalam too well – would take me ages to get through one book!
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Absolutely brilliant post…! Sreenivasan is the omnipresent effervescence in Malayalam cinema who
(1) brilliantly brightened yesteryear’s comi-sensible-reality cinema (some of the best of that genre is well explained in your post and malayalees still continue to enjoy many of them times and again) and
(2) is still brilliantly facilitating, in one way or other, many a refreshing cinematic attempts of the current times. No wonder when we pick many of the contemporary(say 2000′s) interesting work in malayalam cinema; Sreeni has his presence in them either as a script writer, facilitator – (read Ranjith Shankar’s blog to know how Sreeni helped ‘Passenger’ see the light of the day) or very simply as an extremely apt and articulate actor donning those markable characters (eg. Arabikkatha, Udayananu Thaaram etc as cases in example).
To quote one of those ad campaigns… For contemporary meaningful malayalam cinema – ‘Sreeni thanne aanu thaaram’ (meaning ‘Sreeni itself is the star’)…
Cheers, and keep those articles coming…
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