You’d expect the makers of quirky comedies such as Oram Po (2007) and Va: Quarter Cutting (2010) to benefit greatly from the coming of age of the Tamil audience one has witnessed since 2011. Even as films such as Soodhu Kavvum and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom packed full houses across the State, we expected the duo to return, with another eccentric outlandish comedy. Now, after almost seven years, they’re back, but it’s not with a comedy. “We’re not very driven or motivated,” jokes Gayathri, explaining the long break. “I still don’t know what we did in at least two of those seven years.”
Ideas kept coming to them and so continued the writing process. “But there’s always that one thing with each idea that makes life difficult,” says Pushkar. “We need to crack that. If we don’t, we abort the idea.”
Two films per genre
Making another comedy, though, was off the table. The duo has a self-imposed rule to work on a maximum of two films in each genre. After two comedies, the break also meant searching for another genre. “We had an idea for a sci-fi film,” remembers Pushkar. “But that film could only have been made after a certain number of films established the genre here. We didn’t want to make a sci-fi that just explained the basics.”
They were also sure that they wanted their next to deal with harder emotions ‘like hatred, anger or pain’, where the characters’ motivations were ‘emotion-based’. It led to Vikram Vedha , a film they believe will question the idea of good and evil. “The idea of good itself has become passé,” feels Pushkar. “A majority of our films present characters as either black or white.” “Even our anti-heroes,” adds Gayathri, “are essentially good people. Like Robin Hood, or the gangster with a heart of gold. That’s what we wanted to break.”
In essence, Vikram Vedha is a film where the audience is always unsure of who to root for. “There’s no antagonist. We want people to be rooting for both Vikram and Vedha.”
That’s why the casting became so important. Not only should the two be played by equally liked stars, but they also had to be equally talented performers. “Both Vijay Sethupathi and Madhavan came on-board easily,” says Pushkar. “We were sure we wanted Vijay to play Vedha and Maddy to play Vikram. But we never imagined their acting styles would contribute to their characters.”
The duo see Vijay Sethupathi as a ‘rhythm-based actor’. “He approaches a role instinctively and needs to get into rhythm for his performance to start flowing,” feels Gayathri. “Maddy, on the other hand, is more cerebral and prepared. His acting is closer to method and a lot of thought goes into it.”
It all fell into place. “It’s exactly how Vedha and Vikram approach their lives too.”
Identicals attract
But this chalk and cheese characteristic isn’t something that can be extended to Pushkar and Gayathri. There’s wasn’t the case of ‘opposites attract’. Having met each other during their first year at Loyola, they’ve always shared the same interests and tastes. “We watch the same shows and films. We read the same books. We have the same friends and we’re together 24 hours,” says Gayathri.
And that’s perhaps why it’s so unclear where their creative collaboration ends and their marriage begins. “Our work is our marriage. We don’t divide work. Everything needs to be organic, exciting us equally. That’s why we take so long to write. We’re our own gatekeepers,” says Pushkar.
Attributing their successful collaboration to their ‘non-dramatic and non-confrontational’ nature or just plain ‘dumb luck’, the couple is glad that they met so early and grew up together as people. Have they ever thought of making separate films?
“But why should we?” they ask loudly in unison. It’s not even a question in their case.
