KOZHIKODE: “What did you say? Beggars? May be we are poor...coolies...trolley pullers...but we are not beggars! You enjoy this status in life because of our sweat and blood! Let it be the last time...if you dare to say that word once more, I will pull out your bloody tongue!”
This thrilling dialogue by actor Jayan in the film ‘Angadi’, effectively conveying the angst of the educated unemployed youths of the state, established T Damodaran as a writer to reckon with in the Malayalam film industry.
With this film, Malayalis woke up to a different kind of cinematic experience from the 1980s - political thrillers featuring contemporary politics and social issues packed with long, high-punch dialogues.
In fact, Damodaran’s entry into films coincided with independent India’s disillusionment with politics and bureaucracy following the Emergency. His scripts effectively conveyed the angst of the general public against the establishment, the exhibitionism of the rich and political corruption. More importantly, he could perfectly blend these political and social issues with human emotions and family relations.
Noted director I V Sasi once commented that the 70mm was not enough to contain the sweep of Damodaran’s scripts. His ‘Ee Nadu’, perhaps the trendsetter of Malayalam political movies, encapsulated within its three hours of length almost all that had gone wrong in the state; hooch tragedies, souring Gulf dreams, campus violence and rampant corruption. Abundance of themes and characters had always characterised the most popular of Damodaran’s films like ‘Angadi’, ‘Adimakal Udamakal’, ‘1921’, ‘Ee Nadu’ and ‘Iniyenkilum.’ Damodaran’s scripts never revolved only around the top honchos of politics, or bureaucracy but focused on the emotions of the lower middle class people of the society. He spoke about politics through the issues of the common man. His most popular angry young man, Inspector Balram, was not a commissioner but a lowly sub-inspector in ‘Avanazhi’. His political heroes emerged from smoke-stained factories, paddyfields and stinking markets.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Damodaran’s real life was very much like the protagonists in these films. Says Panniyan Ravindran, CPI leader and one of Damodaran’s close friends, “the fiery dialogues in his scripts were in fact the very thoughts in his mind as well as the common people. That’s why people accepted his films. He could never tolerate somebody deviating from the Communist principles.” According to scriptwriter T A Rasaq, Damodaran was a beloved person who always spoke unpleasant truths.