When Malayalam cinema's favourite villains are increasingly getting in touch with the ‘fun' side of their screen lives, it seems to have discovered a new face to brutishness in Kishore, the baddie in M. Padmakumar's ‘Thiruvambady Thampan'. His brilliant portrayal of a ruthless Madurai politician in the film is earning much applause.
With his piercing stare, controlled histrionics and unnerving presence, Kishore brings to Malayalam cinema his unique brand of villainy—subtle, cold and brutal. His debut in Mollywood has turned out to be more than what he expected, he says. “You can never predict how you are going to be accepted. But the response I have been receiving is great.” Reviewers are lavishing praise on him, some even recommending the film “just for Kishore”. But the actor attributes it all to team work. “Cinema is a group activity. Every body needs to contribute in their best possible way at the right time,” he says. “That is all I have done.”
The film tells the story of a father (Jagathy Sreekumar) and son (Jayaram), who are elephant traders hailing from a big Christian family in Thrissur. A chunk of the narrative dwells on the enmity between them and Shaktivel (Kishore), an MLA and landlord in Madurai. “Malayalam is a tough language to understand, forget master,” he says, but playing a Tamilian from Madurai, language was not a problem. Kishore dubbed for himself.
Right from Selvam in ‘Polladhavan' (his debut in Tamil), Kishore has created a rather different image for himself as a classy villain. Director Suseendran's ‘Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu' (Tamil), one of the few positive roles he has portrayed, as the coach of a Kabbadi team, too, won him much appreciation. His portrayal of Veerapan in A.M.R Ramesh's much-looked forward to projects ‘Attahasa' in Kannada and ‘Vana Yuddham' in Tamil has already created a flutter in the industry circles and among cinema enthusiasts. The film, a biopic on the forest brigand, is awaiting release.
In real life, however, Kishore is the exact opposite of his screen persona. He is gentle, soft-spoken and extremely down-to-earth. “I wanted to become a fashion designer,” says the 37-year-old actor, who was teaching Kannada at a college in Bangalore. His debut in cinema happened with ‘Kanti' (Kannada) in 2004, which also won him the Karnataka State Award for the ‘Best Supporting Actor'.
Kishore says he has a few offers from Malayalam, none of which he has committed to. Currently he is shooting for director Krish's ‘Krishnam Vande Jagadguru' and Jeevan Reddy's ‘Dalam' in Telugu, in which he plays the lead. He is playing the lead in G.N.R. Kumaravel's ‘Haridas' in Tamil, opposite Sneha.
