The Rajiv Gandhi assassination case had no particular Kerala connection except for Major A K Ravindran (retd) aka Major Ravi, who handled the NSG operations, and a few CBI sleuths who had served short stints in the state. But now, however, some Malayali names have been cropping up in discussions about the case.
Well, we are talking about its screen adaptation, ‘The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case’ web series directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. Two of the women leads in the drama, launched last month on Sony Liv are from Kerala — Gouri Padmakumar and Sruthy Vijayan.
While Gouri plays the petite-yet-steely standby LTTE assassin Shubha, Sruthy dons the role of the seemingly naïve, flower-in-braid, garland-in-hand Thanu, whom India still remembers as the LTTE suicide bomber who blew herself to pieces to assassinate former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Sruthy and Gouri, in fact, join a group of six Malayali actors in the cast of the web series, portraying prominent figures such as LTTE chief Veluppillai Prabhakaran (the role was played by Jyotish MG, an associate professor of acting at the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts), infamous one-eyed Sivarasan (Kochi-based Shafeeq Mustafa played this part), who masterminded the assassination, LTTE leader Trichy Saanthan (Akhil Kaimal essayed this role), to Haribabu (played by Vishnu G Warrier), the photographer killed in the blast that changed the socio-political scenes of both India and Sri Lanka. Neetu Chandra, who played Mridula, an LTTE sympathiser, is also from Kerala.
The assassination on May 21, 1991, remains one of India’s most sensational cases — a ‘near-perfect crime’, at least until providence intervened in the form of Haribabu’s camera, revealing to the world the killing that triggered a gripping 90-day CBI investigation.
Notably, the series is based on the book ‘Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassins’ by Anirudhya Mitra. The case had no parallel in India’s history, perhaps why its screen adaptation continues to grip audiences as the case did in 1991.
TNIE catches up with Gouri and Sruthy, who hail from Thrissur, to hear how they came to be part of ‘The Hunt’ and what the experience meant for them.
For Sruthy, who had already worked in several films, the role was layered enough to spark her artistic curiosity. What enticed her was the character whose naïvety was as natural as her fiery loyalty to her cause.
“The scene given to me for the audition was what Thanu tells the LTTE gang on the day before the assassination. The entire group has a ball — cooking and eating food that Thanu likes, dancing and singing. Then, she moves up to the open sky and tells her clan that from the next day, they can find her among the stars above. This she says with a smile, which may be a camouflage for her fears or a hidden pride in being of use to her cause. I liked her layers, which is why I took up the role,” says Sruthy.
A Bharatanatyam dancer who graduated from Kalakshetra, Sruthy is drawn to such roles and is determined to work in more of them. “Dance and acting are my passions, and I will not trade one for the other,” she says.
“Working with a director like Nagesh Kukunoor gave me a deeper perspective on acting. The role he gave me was structured so precisely. We were shown a real documentary of Thanu, who was laughing and dancing with her fellow LTTE mates. It was probably her innocence that was used as a camouflage. It gave me the perspective to dive deeper into roles. I read up on the LTTE, as the incident had happened when I was just three months old, so literature was the only way I could know more about it. But all the research and the approach of the director showed me how to portray life in my roles.”
Sruthy says that her artistic journey is still in its early stages. “Somehow, I am landing more roles in Telugu. There are some Malayalam projects too on the way,” says the actor, who debuted in Lijo Jose Pellissery’s ‘Angamaly Diaries’.
For Gouri, who is also a dancer, Shubha was a character that “silently spoke”. “I, too, had read up a lot on the LTTE and the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka. That gave me an insight into why Shubha was what she was — a mass of rock-hard resilience and grit who would not wince when her leader asked her to kill. But beneath her was a little girl whose sensitivity, albeit frozen, shows itself to people she can warm up to,” says the commerce graduate, who is also part of her mother and guru’s Kuchipudi productions.
Gouri says she explored the language of the role. “Sri Lankan Tamil has a tinkle to it, being close to pure Tamil (Sentamizh). For us Malayalis, it is easy, as Malayalam is close to Sentamizh. I really enjoyed it,” says the actor, who was trained at Anupam Kher’s acting school Actor Prepares.
She, too, feels the moment when Thanu looks up at the sky and speaks about becoming a star captures the mindset of LTTE suicide bombers. “Thanu believes there is pride in what she is doing, and it would make her a star. That is perhaps what drove most of the LTTE suicide bombers,” says Gouri.
“But even if I understand why people turn out to be what they are, I do not sympathise with the bloodshed any ideology or cause creates.”
Gouri says she is in pursuit of meaningful roles that help her explore herself the way The Hunt did. “The entire cast helped. The technical staff were north Indians, and they were in awe of us Malayali actors. Some even told me I looked like Nandita Das in Kannathil Muthamittal when I put on the military gear,” she laughs.
For both Sruthy and Gouri, ‘The Hunt’ was not just another assignment but a recreation of the LTTE world, the case as it happened, the way it was cracked, and the history it made. “We truly saw how every role is a journey into life and its umpteen shades,” they say.