He is happily receiving the bouquets and brickbats. While some feel the comedy has fallen flat, others said they had a hearty laugh. Whatever it be, the final verdict for Radhakrishnan Mangalath is that he has tasted success
with his directorial debut ‘Sakudumbam Shyamala’.
“A few people said the comedy has gone overboard in some scenes. But Urvashi’s character is such that it has all shades of a caricature,” Radhakrishnan clarifies. In fact, he started working on the film (originally titled ‘Shyamala Vasudevan SSLC) through caricatures (made by Subhash, a friend who works for a film magazine). “I sent them through Kalaranjini chechi to her. She was more than happy to do the role. When I told her that the role would require some physical strain too, she had absolutely no problems.” And he even made use of SMS jokes for pre-publicity of the film.
Urvashi plays Shyamala, who is at war with her elder brother (Nedumudi Venu), the district collector, and her ultimate aims are to defeat him and also to get her son married to an NRI’s daughter. Chance has her joining politics and becoming the Revenue Minister. But to her dismay, her son marries against her wishes.
Radhakrishnan is among those serial directors who have shifted to big screen. The script is by Krishna Poojappura, who wrote for his serials, all comedies, too. ‘‘We get along well, personally and professionally. We both are particular that we should give clean entertainment for the audience. He was the one who gave me a good producer in Gopakumar.”
As everything fell into place, the shooting was over in 35 days and the film was ready for release on the 51st day. “Things got over so fast. Perhaps, my experience in serials helped,” he says. He would now like to do a film for the youth, again with Krishna Poojappura. Meanwhile, he has no qualms about returning to serials.
The inclination for the craft has got a lot to do with Poojappura where he lives. ‘‘This place is home to many big names in the industry. Like Mohanlal, Padmarajan, Priyadarshan, Sukumari, Jagathy Sreekumar, Padmini-Lalitha-Ragini trio, Poojappura Radhakrishnan, Poojappura Ravi...,’’ he says.
It was in film critic and director Vijayakrishnan that he found his guru. “I started off as a clap boy for his serial ‘Kathasamgamom’ aired by Doordarshan and by its 13th episode I had become his associate. In between, I did art direction too. My passion for drawing and painting came handy there,” he says.
He has done art direction for around 25 films and 200 serials. The films in the list are ‘Susanna’ (T V Chandran), ‘Oru Cheru Punchiri’ (M T Vasudevan Nair), ‘Karunam’ (Jayaraj), ‘De javu’ (Biju Viswanath) and ‘Mamma’ (Rajeev Nath), in addition to some commercial films.
By the time he took up direction, he had done enough homework. “Biju Viswanath taught me about art direction, Baiju Devaraj gave guidance in editing, Devanand was there to teach me about camera work and C R Chandran helped with sound recording. And, of course, there was Vijayakrishnan Sir with whom I went around learning the fine nuances of the craft.”
Before all that happened Radhakrishnan had such an important phase of his life, which, he believes, moulded him as a person. After completing his BCom from University College, he did a course in Automobile Engineering and got a job at Development Centre on Mental Retardation at Jagathy in Thiruvananthapuram. “From 1990-96, I taught automobile engineering to those mentally retarded children. I realised that of all the disabilities, mental retardation is the most painful one. The pains and troubles we complain about are nothing when compared to the condition of those children and the mental state of their parents,” he says, adding, “I am a little short of hearing and my friends have told me many times to use a hearing aid. But, having worked with those children, I felt this is no disability at all.”
He used to do light and sound shows for these children, taught them plays and became one with them, before resigning due to personal reasons.
“The experience has been so overwhelming that all the title songs of my serials have been dedicated to children.” Perhaps, that’s why the song ‘Kannum neetti varumo’ from ‘Sakudumbam Syamala’ picturised on the two child artists has come out so well.
It was Baiju Devaraj who encouraged him to do an independent work on the miniscreen.
“Tear-jerkers were ruling the roost and he asked me to experiment with humour. I started off with ‘Indumukhi Chandramathi’ and followed it up with comedy serials ‘Sathi Leelavathi’, ‘Koottukudumbam’, ‘Akkare Akkare Akkare’ and ‘Thiruda Thirudi’.
Radhakrishnan has the best critic and support in his wife Lathika, a school teacher. “She has clear-cut opinions on everything and that is the best thing about having her as my life partner.” Their sons Krishnanunni and Unnikrishnan make the family
complete.
athira@expressbuzz.com