Vishnuvardhan talks fast, almost in a frenzy, and his hands move all over the lunch table. He’s not surprised when I point out how animated he is. “You should have seen how shocked Ajith was during my narration of Arrambam ,” he says. “I used the entire room to narrate the film. I may not be great with words, but I can paint quite a picture with my acting.”
Films, he believes, reflect the personality of the filmmaker. He thinks he is two people in one — one who is mad, impulsive and happy-go-lucky, and the other, who is intense, brooding and angry. The first person, you usually see in the roles that Arya plays in his films — think of Arinthum Ariyamalum , Pattiyal , the first half of Sarvam , and even Arrambam to a large extent. “The second part of me, I usually give to Ajith.”
Vishnuvardhan doesn’t like to be called a director who only makes stylish, sophisticated films. “I don’t know if I can be categorised so. I simply believe in making films I have fun doing, no matter what kind,” he says. About his upcoming Yatchan — another multi-starrer — he says, “ Erangi adichirukken .” He means that it is more rooted than any of his previous films.
The idea came when writers Subha (with whom he had collaborated on Arrambam ) asked him if they could use his name in a short story they were writing. “I loved their idea: it is about two people swapping lives at one point. I suggested immediately that we do a film about it.”
While the idea isn’t in itself particularly novel, he explains that the way they do it is. As “writing a book is completely different from writing a screenplay”, Subha and Vishnuvardhan met every day for weeks to flesh out the concept. “We spent at least a couple of hours each day. Some days, we never even got around to discussing Yatchan . But it’s all right. You can’t force these conversations. Sreekar (Prasad) also helped.” Some of the changes he made to their short story, published in Ananda Vikatan, included tweaking of the spoken language. “In a short story, dialogues can be quite formal and structured. We made them casual and error-prone.” It was during Arrambam that Vishnuvardhan realised how important it was for him to work with people like Subha. “I’m a rather narrow storyteller. They broaden my perspective. My problem is even when I’m wrong, I am so confidently wrong. Subha, thankfully, see through it.”
Yatchan is an action-comedy. “I think it’s more humorous than Arinthum Ariyamalum , which I consider to be my lightest film till date. It also has the rawness of Pattiyal .” Pattiyal , incidentally, wasn’t well-received. “So was Sarvam , but it’s all right. I don’t like to dwell on these things. If I did, I couldn’t do justice to future films as iyakkunar .” Interestingly, ‘Yatchan ’ means ‘puppeteer’, or as Vishnuvardhan says, “ Iyakkubavan .”
It is the first time that Vishnuvardhan is directing his brother, Kreshna, who along with Arya, forms the main cast. He has watched all of Kreshna’s films and believes he has managed to get the best out of him in Yatchan . “He’s my brother, and so, more than anybody else, I know what he is capable of. He looks more real, more charming in this. I also made him use lesser make-up.” Brother or otherwise, Vishnu was his usual crack-the-whip self on the sets. “I made Kreshna put away his phone; the same for Jammy (Arya).” He disagrees that there is additional pressure because of his brother. “I cast him not because he’s my brother, but because he fit the part. That’s why it has taken me so long to make a film with him.” Yatchan makes one person the happiest. “My mum,” he says. “‘You make films with so many people; why not him?’ she has always asked. Well, now, her wish is fulfilled.”
