KV Anand is a closet Krzysztof Kieslowski fan and has adored the minimalist approach revolutionised by masters Satyajit Ray and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. However, Anand never gave in to minimalism, for every time he sits at the writing table, he hears voices that reflect the collective opinion of mass audience: “ Dai...pothum da.” He sheepishly admits that he’s an advocate of fast-paced narratives where there is no room for emotion and is quickly intercut with action scenes or songs. “It’s like cooking two-minute noodles. None of my shots are lengthy and I need to cater to an audience that is impatient today,” describes KV Anand, sitting at his office in Ranjith Road, Kotturpuram, about the nature of his screenplays.
Anand doesn’t believe in writing scripts for stars. He substantiates his claim by quoting his filmography, explaining how different each film has been. “Had I been thinking about scale, I wouldn’t have opted to make a Ko after a massive hit like Ayan ,” he says. Anand narrows in on an intriguing subject that has to be within the confines of mainstream cinema, before building the arcs of his characters. Real life incidents motivate him to draw ideas for his scripts. Much before he became a sought-after cinematographer in Kollywood, his experience as a press photographer came in handy while making movies such as Kana Kanden , Ayan and Ko . While on the way back after filming ‘Oru Koodai Sunlight’ song for Sivaji , he came across a magazine feature on conjoined twins, which eventually gave birth to Maattrraan. His upcoming biggie Kaappaan , too, he says, is based on incidents and anecdotes he collected as a part of research about the Special Protection Group (SPG) of the NSG. “I was fascinated by the stories and thought: ‘why not make a movie about them?’ These are people who provide proximate security to the PM and get paid to take a bullet,” he says, adding, “But what if there was a spy among them and what if he plots to assassinate the PM? This became the basis of the movie.”
Guardian angel
Kaappaan was destined to happen, says Anand who’s reuniting with his Ayan star Suriya for the third time. But his association with Suriya dates back to the time when the star was still in the making. He isn’t surprised about Suriya’s growth — from a shy actor in Nerukku Ner to becoming an earnest performer in movies like Kaakha Kaakha and Pithamagan . How much has Suriya evolved as an actor-star? “Suriya has become socially-conscious now,” he says, about how the actor is now insistent on being politically-correct, adding, “If there’s a dialogue that takes a dig at a woman, he’s hesitant to say it. There were scenes that made him uncomfortable and I had to convince him saying, ‘It’s not Suriya, the actor mouthing this, but the character’.”
The misleading teaser of Kaappaan neither shows Suriya as a saviour nor a villain. Was it intentional to keep the audience hooked? “Definitely. Teasers are meant to do that. You never know who’s the hero and who’s the bad guy.” Having worked in Khakee — touted as one of the best commercial films in Bollywood — Anand knows that multi-starrers are a rarity in Tamil cinema. He knows the stakes involved and is extremely “budget conscious”. “We shot an important sequence in London for three days, that cost us ₹15 lakh per day. When you’re spending so much on one schedule, you have to compensate it elsewhere,” he shrugs, suggesting that the budget was over ₹75 crore.
- Among his films with Suriya, Maattrraan had an interesting premise — about genetic modification — that was with muddled with a weak screenplay, agrees Anand. In retrospect, he doesn’t regret making it, but knows where he went wrong. “Suriya’s father wasn’t the villain in the original script,” he reveals, “It turned out to be a revenge plot and I didn’t want to make a clichéd film. The audience, however, couldn’t accept the climax, where the father looks at Suriya and says, ‘You’re my failed project’.”
Kaappaan ’s biggest selling point, apart from Suriya, is Malayalam superstar Mohanlal. Anand doesn’t intend on compromising his writing for a star, even if it’s someone of Mohanlal’s stature, who is fresh off Lucifer ’s success. “Whether a character is a hero or not is determined by his actions. In that sense, Jiiva’s character in Ko is the greatest of them all since he had the maturity to determine the fate of a Government.” Mohanlal, according to Anand, is a giver. No matter what the scene is, the superstar invariably gives two versions and allows the director to take the call. “Mohanlal listens to the director intently. When you watch his performance on the monitor, you may think: ‘Okay, what’s great about it?’ Only in the edit table will you realise how great he is.”
Unlike other films of his, Kaappaan seems to dwell on several socio-political issues, though Anand dismisses reports that it’s a political thriller. At script level, was there a pressure to be politically-right, given that Mohanlal plays the Prime Minister? “Not at all. Kaappaan is a fictional movie about a fictional Prime Minister. It might remind you of certain real incidents, but we have not targeted any political party,” he adds. The director had a tough time finding a replacement for Allu Sirish who backed out due to date issues. “Even tier-2 actors were not ready, fearing that they might get little to no importance. That’s how Arya came on board,” he says, “When I called Arya, he said, ‘Sir, I’m least concerned about the story. If you think I would do justice, then I’m game’.”
Rule of the thumb
There’s a dearth of screenwriters in Tamil cinema, agrees KV Anand who’s known for his frequent collaboration with writers Subha (D Suresh and AN Balakrishan). Kaappaan has him sharing the writing credits with writer Pattukottai Prabhakaran. Anand has never bought the idea of script-reading sessions and often finds himself locked in a room with his writer. “We spend hours writing the screenplay. So much so that we would be surrounded with crumpled paper balls. And the worst part? We wouldn’t have cracked a single scene,” laughs Anand, who reaffirms the notion that filmmakers need to be liberal while writing and shouldn’t worry about making “unintentional errors” — ones that can be refined later. He adds, “I learnt this quality from Shankar. You shouldn’t critique your work, especially when you’re writing. You have to accommodate ideas that are illogical, nonsensical and pompous at the same time. Let it flow...”
Every filmmaker, Anand says, follows a particular narrative style. Point out his fetish for flashbacks and he smiles wryly, before saying, “Flashback is a nice callback to reveal the suspense, no? I know it’s a storytelling cliché and I’m trying to change it.” It’s been more than a decade since KV Anand held the camera. He says he respects the cinematographer in him more than the director. “Shankar had called me for Enthiran as well as for 2.0 . But I was busy with Anegan at that time,” he says, adding, “I do miss KV Anand, the cinematographer...I don’t want him to die.”
