It was Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven series that gave him his first brush with thrill. “The kids in the books have so much fun,” says Sriram Raghavan. Later, the short story anthologies presented by Alfred Hitchcock with macabre titles such as Stories that Go Bump in the Night, and, of course, James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie, American pulp fiction, cemented his love for the dark and delicious world of suspense.
Raghavan confesses being addicted to the thrill of vicariously living an adventure in your head, enjoying a terrifying experience, and thinking, ‘Thank God, it’s not happening to me.’ “The sheer thrill whilst watching Frenzy or Teesri Manzil on screen is something that has stayed with me, and I guess that’s what drives me to direct the films that I do,” he adds.
The filmmaker, who debuted with the genre-defining Ek Hasina Thi, has announced Ekkees, the biopic of late Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who was posthumously honoured with the Param Vir Chakra for sacrificing his life during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. While that film has been pushed by a few months because of the pandemic, the filmmaker is hoping to do a small film in between.
Ask him to pick one idea that had his own pulse pounding, and he admits to being overly critical of his own creative ideas. But of course, his unerring eye knows how to pick a winner. “When I read Vikas Swarup’s Q&A, I thought it would make for a wonderful contemporary Manmohan Desai kind of film. As luck would have it, the author had a book release function the next day in Mumbai and I rushed to meet him. But the rights had already been sold,” he says. Later in 2012, when he watched The Piano Tuner, Lady Luck was on his side and he was able to get the rights of the film. “The murder clean-up scene really excited me,” he says.
This love for thrillers often sees him at second-hand bookstores and raddi shops, browsing obscure books. And like any true-blue bookaholic, Raghavan too buys more books than he can read. “I love reading the back covers of books. Sometimes there’s something unique which will jump at you. Often the book may well disappoint but if the back cover has merit, there’s a possible story there,” says the filmmaker, whose 2019 feature, Andhadhun, bagged the National Award for Best Hindi Film and Best Screenplay.
“‘Whodunits’ can be a great read but very difficult to pull off in the movies; it becomes a guessing game, and hence doesn’t attract me much—though I have to say I absolutely loved Knives Out. Even Hitchcock made only one whodunit in his entire career. Suspense is all about anticipation. Often the audience knows more about the characters, and that creates superb tension. For example, in Hitchcock’s Notorious, Ingrid Bergman steals a key from her husband’s key ring and clasps it in her fist as he suddenly emerges from the bathroom. He looks at her and proceeds to kiss her hands, and you are filled with dread—‘Will he find out’ is what makes it thrilling to watch,” he says.
While ‘Howdunits’ are his game, Raghavan also knows that music is of paramount importance, especially for a suspense thriller. “Sound in films is mostly taken for granted but it’s as powerful a weapon as the camera. One can often create more impact by not having music in a scene. In Andhadhun, for example when a character with a gun is revealed in the bathroom, the lack of added background music makes the scene funnier and scarier. A waltz playing while the lovers clean up the murder is not what you’d usually expect, hence it works,” he explains, musing how the movies one sees as a kid get tattooed in the mind.
Besides, he shares a love for old Hindi songs with his editor, Pooja Ladha Surti, and these influences creep into his films. “We had a great time choosing Anil Dhawan songs for Andhadhun. I loved the title music of Johnny Mera Naam and wanted to do something similar for Johnny Gaddaar,” he smiles. Retro, pulp fiction and heart-stopping tension—we are waiting with bated breath for his next.