Despite having made himself a household name in the Malayalam film industry by wearing many hats at the same time — that of an actor, scenarist, director, singer, editor, producer, distributor and more — Balachandran Menon avers that he sees himself primarily as a “writer”. “I feel like an emperor only when I’m writing,” he emphasises.
It was this love for words and his wish to “preserve his experiences” that impelled him to pen in 2013 Ithiri Neram Othiri Karyam , a collection of “honest confessions” about all the 36 movies he has written and directed (while also playing other roles in some of them) so far. The filmmaker opens up to FridayReview on the book’s English translation, Start Action: Musings Of A Movie Maker , which was brought out recently, and his trips down memory lane during the writing of its original. (The translation was done by Indulekshmi and Bhavana Dilip.)
“I may have crossed three-fourths of my life and I felt it would be worth jotting down my life in movies spanning decades. This also comes as an echo of my journalistic interest, as I actually started my life in movies as a film journalist in Chennai way back in the 70s,” says Menon.
Without any formal training in movie-making or experience in assisting films, he dived into filmmaking solely on account of his “deep passion.” “However, through my interactions and friendships with some of the veterans, I learnt the practical lessons of filmmaking and that has always stood me in good stead,” says Menon.
Dedicating a chapter each to each of his movies in the chronological order, from Uthradaraathri in 1978 to the upcoming Ennalum Sharath , the retrospective tell-all is replete with quotes and notes from eminent personalities, which serve as prologues to Menon’s anecdotes about a film in question. Explaining that the structuring of the book was his own preference, Menon says approaching appropriate persons for the prologues and collating and organising the responses were probably more arduous than writing the book itself. However, he says the endeavour was not without a reason.
“I believe there should be a witness to every act in this world. So when I write about a film, when I speak volumes about it, I felt there should also be a witness to attest to its credentials, and this is especially for the conviction of future generations. I was also adamant that such an opinion should come from a credible, noteworthy source and I tried to choose the right people (for the prologues) accordingly, someone either directly linked to the movie in question or related to its theme or at least someone who can authoritatively speak about it. I gave them the carte blanche to write the good, the bad and the ugly,” explains the filmmaker.
Actors Ambika, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Salim Kumar, Nedumudi Venu, parliamentarian and author Sashi Tharoor, song critic T.P. Sasthamangalam, sound designer Resul Pookutty, lyricist Poovachal Khadar, magician Gopinath Muthukad, former athlete P.T. Usha, sculptor Kanayi Kunjiraman and cultural activist Soorya Krishnamoorthy are some of the contributors, with a special word of praise at the beginning of the book from veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, late actor Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair, writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair, late lyricist O.N.V Kurup and playback singer K.J. Yesudas.
The original book took about three months to be finished and Menon says writing it was probably “the most exhilarating experience of my life so far”, comparing the thrill he felt of embarking on the project to that of “starting a hunt or a chase.” He also admits that he had to go deep into the recesses of his memories and hence the narration is “slightly emotional and sentimental.”
“For example, when I was writing about my experiences during the making of Uthradaraathri , it was like diving into the sea of memories to pick up what’s hidden there. The places, the people, the treasured moments…it was not easy…some of those people are no more today. These memories did not troupe in in any chronological order but rather came as a disorganised mélange. But I felt the frisson of gluing back together the broken shards of a glass bangle to almost to its beautiful organic unity and that’s what I enjoyed the most,” says Menon, quipping that he felt he would probably want to make a movie just on the experience of writing the book.
On the other hand, Menon says, at one point of time, he was worried if he would be able to even finish the book at all. “When I started off, I couldn’t predict how much time I would need, because, of course, I couldn’t stop at one film or two. I had to cover my entire oeuvre. It was like looking at a big river and feeling doubtful about crossing it. I was chasing my own shadows into the past,” he recalls.
The filmmaker, however, admits that the passage of time may have robbed him of some of the memories though he tried to include as much details as he could while writing the original. The English translation of the book includes an extra chapter, Njan Samvidhaanan Cheyyum , as the eponymous movie was not conceptualised at the time the original book came out.
Menon’s next, Ennalum Sharath , a campus story revolving around a girl, is slated to be released on July 6.
