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Gautham Vasudev Menon. He’s a filmmaker.
As a film critic, very rarely do you get to know what went behind the scenes of a film.
In this case of Yennai Arindhal, the new Ajith film in town and simply the best thing he has ever done since Kandukondain Kandukondain, I knew the circumstances under which it was put together.
It’s a larger than life story itself.
Hence, it’s important to expressly state that this is not a review of the film. It’s a recap of how it was made.
I remember contacting Gautham Menon to direct an ambitious segment of X which Thiagarajan Kumararaja of Aaranya Kaandam had written (but couldn’t direct himself back then because of his commitments) because we knew only he could do full justice to material that was so dark and twisted, yet mainstream and funny.
We knew Gautham wouldn’t refuse it because he’s a fan of Kumararaja’s work. And not only did he agree to do it even before reading it, he was super excited about the script that he decided to mount it big even if it meant spending from his own pocket (we had a very small limited budget given the experimental nature of the film).
He put his team on the job to scout for locations and prep the film and all was on course until the film he was shooting for – the Suriya starrer Dhruva Natchatiram – ran into rough weather on Day 1.
Ultimately, Gautham and Suriya parted ways because of creative differences. Suriya had started shoot straight after the commercial success of Singham 2 and as Gautham feared, the sensibility disconnect between them had widened. Gautham, by then, had spent considerable time, energy and money on that project – a spy thriller – that even Amitabh Bachchan was excited to be part of. Once it got shelved, Gautham found himself in legal trouble with the financers. Worse, Suriya had gone out to state on record that he wasn’t happy with the scripts. Gautham had pitched not one but three scripts to Suriya over the last 18 months – none of which the star was fully convinced about.
Gautham felt more hurt than disappointed because the reports stated that he hadn’t “completed” the script on time.
Instead of going to the media with his side of the story, he went straight to Suriya and talked it out. They were friends at the end of the day. They patched up and being the gentleman he is, Suriya gracefully volunteered to bail him out at least financially to the extent he could. (Suriya, ironically, went on to start a film without a script with Lingusamy to make up for lost time.)
That’s when Ajith gave Gautham Menon an audience to pitch something. Gautham wrote something yet again, straight from scratch. Meanwhile, X was getting delayed and we were getting increasingly annoyed with Gautham for pushing it instead of just refusing to do it.
But he had problems of his own. He hadn’t done a film in almost two years and his last quick film sank at the box office. Simbu came forward to bail him out. He started shooting that film even as the script for the Ajith film was being written on the side.
Understanding that he had too much on his plate, we asked Nalan Kumarasamy who made Soodhu Kavvum who was closest to Kumararaja in sensibility to direct our climax. (We didn’t even imagine how this was the best thing to happen to the film back then because Nalan shot it with the kind of budget, generosity, commitment and passion I have rarely seen people capable of).
Gautham made a common friend reach out to me to explain what he was going through. He had switched off from the world because he had to make this work. He was taking the biggest gamble of his career. He had hit rock bottom. This was the lowest most point. The most depressing stage of his life. He had to prove a point. That he was still relevant. His style was relevant. That he still had it in him to deliver a commercial hit without resorting to the theatrics of star-based cinema.
I bumped into Gautham a few months later in the middle of a schedule break and he said it was a dream to work with Ajith. Even when he wanted to add fan-pleasing elements, Ajith would remind him that he was doing a film with Gautham because he wanted to do his kind of cinema.
I moved to Bombay.
The Suriya film Anjaan released and bombed. But Lingusamy jokes are still in circulation. I lost touch with Gautham and was pleasantly surprised to see Kumararaja and Shridhar Raghavan credited with Additional Screenplay. In fact, I was super thrilled to see that a filmmaker had actually taken screenwriting seriously enough to consult professionals he respected.
I watched the film last night.
Yes, it was three hours long, overdone with voiceovers and childish supers, inconsistent in tone, trying too hard… Yet, I was surprised by his conviction to do HIS kind of cinema.
His women were still empowered, independent, strong, modern and the kinds who took the initiative rather than be objects of the hero’s affection. His cinema still had a liberal dose of English and restraint. His villains were still a seriously dangerous threat. His leading men were still a picture of grace and dignity. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they lose. They are fallible. They cry, introspect, fall and rise. They inspired and spoke with great passion about things they loved. They loved their fathers and were trying hard to be good men. They respected women. And accepted them for who they were. They kept it real.
They were also him. Gautham Vasudev Menon. The filmmaker gave them his haircut. His style of urban casuals. His kada. He was living through his hero. In every film.
This is the kind of stuff you would earlier find only in Mani Ratnam films.
Even today, 80 per cent of Tamil films made are hero-worshipping star vehicles where the heroine is just a mere prop. Even the other 20 per cent of Tamil films offer very little roles for women.
Ajith, like Vijay, is the kind of star who has been happy catering to his young fan base (vociferous teenagers with no sense of identity or self respect except that of being a Thala fan, going by their DPs and lack of language).
Even filmmakers who have tried to present him differently have only tried to cater to this fan boy base. Which is why Yennai Arindhal is a huge departure for Ajith (the villain screams more punch lines than the dignified hero who rarely steps out of character to say something clever or over-smart).
This was a coming of age film for the star coming so late in his career. A star had grown into an actor. And given the director and his sensibility due respect.
Guess what? The box office isn’t really protesting.
He won doing what he believed doing. His old friend lost doing what he believed doing. This is a movie in itself.
The filmmaker emerged a hero. One star lost. And another became an actor.
