Whenever he has played the antagonist on screen, he has aced it. Vineeth laughs at this observation. “I think so... like in Manathe Vellitheru, Mazhavillu, Bavuttiyude Namathil ...,” he smiles. The actor has nailed it again in Rajiv Menon’s Sarvam Thaala Mayam ( STM ), as an insecure, frustrated and mean Mani Iyer, a passionate musician and dedicated disciple of mridangam artiste Palakkad Vembu Iyer (a brilliant Nedumudi Venu) who can’t stand the growth of an aspiring musician, Peter Jackson (GV Prakash).
In a career spanning over three decades, Vineeth has worked with the best of Malayalam cinema in some path-breaking movies. He has proved his credentials as an accomplished classical dancer as well and has won the State film award for best choreography for Kambhoji (2016). Edited excerpts from an interview:
Being Mani
“It still puzzles me why Rajiv ettan [Rajiv Menon] thought of me for the role. I haven’t done any Tamil film for the last eight years and I don’t think he is that familiar with my body of work in Malayalam. Still, he had faith in me. That is the vision of a director, something I have found in directors such as Hariharan sir, Bharathan sir and Ranji ettan [director Ranjith]. If Mani has clicked, that’s because of the way the director has conceptualised the character and guided me,” Vineeth says.
Vineeth in a still from Sarva Thaala Mayam
Vineeth fondly remembers that their first meeting to discuss the role turned out to be his audition. “I did this intense scene where I have a confrontation with my guru. And then he made me do all my scenes, including one in the climax, which we didn’t shoot! In that sequence, Mani realises his mistake and breaks down before Peter. It was so overwhelming that I cried for real during the audition,” Vineeth says.
The team
Rajiv, an art and music connoisseur himself, was particular about having actors who are more than familiar with classical arts in the cast. In addition to GV, Aparna Balamurali, Nedumudi Venu and Vineeth, the film features musicians such as mridangam artiste Sumesh Narayanan and vocalists Sikkil Gurucharan, Sreenivas, Unnikrishnan, Karthik and Bombay Jayashri. Also, since the mridangam is integral to the storyline, Rajiv ensured that the artistes were trained to play the instrument. GV trained with Umayalpuram Sivaraman for a month.
“He wanted me to get the fingering technique correct and so I took lessons from Shakthivel Muruganandham, who plays the mridangam in my dance programmes. I also trained for the sequence where Mani attempts to set a record with a marathon mridangam concert. That scene was later edited out,” Vineeth adds.
Shooting in sync “was exciting and challenging”, while sharing screen space with Nedumudi Venu was another highlight for him. “I first worked with Venu chettan in Oridathu . Since then, each film with him has been a learning experience,” he says.
At home
Vineeth admits that he has no complaints about not getting enough offers in Malayalam. “When you look at the commercial element, you need a saleable star, which I am not. This has a lot to do with me being a classical dancer. They think I am too refined to be cast in macho roles and I perfectly understand that. But dance training is something that makes you refined and graceful. And you can’t call that effeminate,” he says.
However, he is happy that the films he has done has earned him goodwill. “I have never done anything for the sake of just doing it. I have balanced cinema and dance. Of course, there have been instances when I had to let go of good roles because I had a dance performance abroad. Also, I had to cut down on my film assignments while pursuing my masters,” he adds.
Malayalam cinema today
“New films in Malayalam are extremely realistic and there are some amazing performers. I am an ardent fan of Fahadh [Faasil]. I have known him since he was a kid. He used to come to the sets of Manathe Vellitheru with Pachikka [director Faasil]. Acting is in his genes because Pachikka himself is a terrific actor,” he recollects.
He hopes he would get to work with the current crop of filmmakers. Talking about his “cool dad” act in Jenuse Mohamed’s 100 Days of Love , Vineeth says he enjoyed it. “I was not sure about pulling it off — my look, playing father to Nithya Menen, the romance et al . While the new generation liked it, my friends and contemporaries couldn’t digest it!” Vineeth was last seen in Panthu and Madhaveeyam .
As for exploring other facets of cinema, Vineeth says he doesn’t want to direct or produce. “You can do direction only when you have that conviction, like what Prithvi [Prithviraj] has. My current focus is dance and, definitely, good cinema.”
IN STEP
Vineeth started attending workshops of Padma Subrahmanyam since 1993. Ten years later, he became her regular student. He regularly performs with her in her productions. “My daughter, Avanthi, has been her student for the last seven years. She will have her arangettam in June. I haven’t learnt the basics in detail from Padukka (Padma) and it is Avanthi who teaches me those things now!” laughs Vineeth. He plans to take forward the legacy of his guru and is currently working on a few dance productions.
MALE DANCERS
Vineeth observes that a male dancer has to be trained in the proper way to retain the masculine aspects of Indian dance. “There are some extremely talented and academically trained male dancers, that too youngsters, such as Parshwanath Upadhye, Vaibhav Arekar and Christopher Guruswamy. In fact, at the Music Academy, it was the male dancers who stole the show,” he says. He adds that his project for his masters course was on the misconception that “men become effeminate because of Bharatanatyam training. That happens due to certain gender identity issues and not because of the dance.”
