Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:22 PM IST
'Violence is everywhere, even within you'
Last Updated : 22 May 2010 01:12:29 PM IST
Sasikumar (Pic: ENS)
He easily disappoints you if you look for the shades of the angry and anguished ‘Parama’ in him. Cool and composed, director-actor Sasikumar breaks into a hearty smile when you mention his landmark directorial debut ‘Subramaniapuram’. He switches to fluid and unapologetic Tamil, giving you a glimpse of his tour in tinselville, and you are more than impressed with his confident take on cinema.“I was obsessed with cinema from childhood. I was not smitten by the glitterati, but the whole process involved in film making. It was during my school days that I found out that the director is the man in charge of the whole thing, controlling the stars and all and I instantly decided my future,” he says.Tamil cinema is a strange world with two entirely different cinematic sensibilities - extreme commercialism and fierce experimentation. But the filmmaker who made a mark with his first film says that you cannot confine the idea of cinema into stereotyped caskets.“All genres of cinema should be entertained. The expanse is very broad and free,” he says. Sasikumar says he produced the film overruling the possibilities of a box office debacle as he didn’t want any compromises with his craft. “It was a period drama set in the 80s featuring a batch of new faces in the cast and crew. When I started my script I knew what I wanted in my film.“At first I had no plans to act in it. My decision to play Parama was taken only a while before the filming started.” Sasikumar who multitasked as the director, script-writer, actor and producer for the film says recreating the 80s was the most difficult part while making ‘Subramaniapuram’.“I completed the script within a short span of time. But the pre-production turned out to be a frantic affair because we had to collect authentic stuff from the past. Detailing is an important aspect in period films. It started with collecting wedding albums and events covered on VHS cassettes. Then we graduated into exploring shops, logos, products and the costumes used during that time.“We bought that two-seated bus and Lambretta classic scooter. It was after a tiring search that we found the street that you saw in the film.”Quiz him on the knottiest part in filmmaking and he comes out with an unusual answer. “There are risks involved in the roles of a producer, director and actor. Nothing is a cakewalk.” After ‘Subramaniapuram’ he produced ‘Pasanga’, a film which skillfully captures the world of children. “In the Tamil movie industry there are hardly any movies made for children and that was precisely why I decided to produce ‘Pasanga’. I turned down the offer to act in it because that will cause a shift in focus. From a children’s film it will be branded as a Sasikumar film,” he says.The gory and gritty details and the over-powering ambience of violence that envelop the film are deliberate, says the director.“Violence in ‘Subramaniapuram’ is drastically different from what you have seen all these years. Normally it’s a sickening background score coupled with heavy bloodshed, reckless firing of guns and countless stabbings. In my film it’s just one stab.” But the raw simplicity with which violence is treated in the film makes it all the more feral and the filmmaker says he has no qualms about it. “You appreciate foreign films soaked in violence and when a vernacular film does the same you attack it. Violence is everywhere, even within you. I will continue to make more films that deal with such themes and will stop only when I'm convinced that violence no more exists in our country.” Sasikumar says that you cannot make an impact with a simple hunky-dory tale as you need to shock the audience to shake them.“The film is not an attempt to generalise the rural Tamil Nadu as an abode of aggression and anarchy. I just wanted to show there is a darker side too, the existence of an ‘iruttu vaasal'. The film conspicuously shows the aftermath of the trade of terror. I have met many people who left the criminal route after watching the film,” he says.Sasikumar’s latest project is an unnamed film produced by actor Vikram.In the normal course its cast would involve the director and producer, but Sasikumar is one filmmaker who hardly goes by conventions. “There is no Vikram or Sasikumar in the film. It’s just a bunch of new faces,” he says with a big grin.
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