It's mid-morning on a Sunday. Suraj Venjaramoodu is standing at the outdoor restaurant of the Cochin Gymkhana, wearing a black wig, a reddish kurta and black trousers.
It is the location of Happy Husbands in which Jayaram, Indrajith and Jayasurya play the lead.
“It is similar to the Hindi film, No Entry,” says Indrajith, who has come to see his fellow actors performing. His own shoot is scheduled a few days later. In Scene No 17, Shot 11, Suraj plays a reporter who gets the facts wrong and is beaten up often. Two youngsters, played by Karthik Prasad and Pramod Kumar, are angered by one of his inaccurate reports and have come to confront him.
As they come near, Suraj sticks his face out and Karthik, on cue, gives him a slap.
“Cut,” shouts the director, Saji Surendran.
Immediately, Suraj rushes to the monitor to watch the scene. His makeup man hovers nearby, gently touching his hair, to make sure everything is in place. But the comedian is oblivious as he intently watches the scene. A few unit hands laugh when Suraj gets slapped. When you watch it in real life, the slap does not look funny at all, but on screen it has a magically comic effect.
“Good,” says Suraj and gets up. A waiter proffers a glass of lime juice which he drinks in one gulp.
He then staggers out to the narrow bridge which connects the restaurant to the lawn.
A group of youngsters ask to take a photograph with him. Suraj nods and expands his already expanded chest. It looks like the bulge in his chest comes from a bulge in his ego. Suraj is a star on the ascendant and it’s making him heady. Soon he is called for the next shot, a scene with Jayasurya, who plays a photographer. Jayasurya looks at a report which Suraj has written and lets out a snort as he points out errors.
After the shot is canned Indrajith, Sooraj, Jayasurya and director Saji sit around for some banter. Jayasurya mimics a woman’s voice so perfectly that the others laugh aloud, especially Saji.
The director is in a happy mood as his debut film, Ivar Vivahitharayal with Jayasurya in the lead, has completed a hundred days.
The unit accountant is peeling out several fifty-rupee notes from a bundle to pay a young man whose cabs were used. As the youngster is about to take the money, a crow drops its morning ablutions on his right arm.
“Chee, Chee,” he says, and rushes towards a tap to clean himself. A slight smile is playing on the accountant’s face.
A group of waiters sit around on plastic chairs under a tree. One of them says, “The only truly talented people in the industry are Mohanlal, Mammooty, Dileep and Nedumudi Venu. Among the women, who is there to match Manju Warrier?” “Urvashi,” says another.
“Okay, maybe, but I still feel Manju has the better range,” says the first waiter.
As Suraj comes before the camera, Indrajith watches intently on the monitor. When somebody asks him about his family, Indrajith says, “A beautiful daughter was born to me in June. We have named her Nakshatra.” Suraj’s take is over and the cameras and lights are moved to another side of the restaurant for a different scene.
When you watch a shoot, you experience a mix of excitement and ennui. It is fun when the shoot is going on, but extremely boring when nothing is happening. But it is clearly an addictive profession. No wonder few actors ever retire. And star comedian Suraj Venjaramoodu is set to go a long way, bloated ego or not.
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