Tuesday Sep 25 2007, Trivendrum

Nedumudi Venu: “I love all my characters equally well”

You had had your beginnings on the stageAnd there had been many of your generation who had had their beginnings on the stage.And cinema of those days too had much to do with the theatre.

What about Malayalam Cinema today? How close is it to the theatre now?

First of all, as you know, I had been associated with the theatre since about 1970-72 and I was very much active with people like Kavalam Narayana Panicker and all.As for today, theatre movements as was seen then are not there in Kerala.People don’t support or like experimental stuff on the stage and professional dramas too are not that much in demand.And hence it is natural for Cinema to get distanced from Theatre and theatre activities.But I won’t say that it is something that is negative in all respects.

Cinema and Theatre are two entirely different things.And by getting distanced from theatre, Cinema may perhaps be moving to what can be called pure, unadulterated cinema.Who knows? But one thing, the generation of today, in the whole as well as the new generation people in Cinema too, are getting distanced from life itself.And that’s not a desirable trait.Any artist, be it a director or an actor, has got to learn a lot from life, from experiences and from people around him.And when artists get distanced from life, it tells upon the totality of the works they produce.

So, are you cynical about the future of Malayalam Cinema?

No not at all.I just pointed out a flaw.Even today we are having good films, sensible offbeat ones as well as good, commercial ones.And technically also we are moving towards international standards.Maybe all this will ultimately do good for Malayalam Cinema, which will gradually evolve into something far far better from what it is today.I am not at all cynical.On the contrary I am rather optimistic.

But don’t you feel that people today don’t feel inclined to see and encourage offbeat and sensible films as they used to do earlier?

Even Thaniye, which you had scripted and in which you did the lead role, didn’t fare well at the box office.

How would you comment on that?

There had always been a kind of apathy towards offbeat films.
I won’t say that all offbeat films in the earlier days got a good run.Of course there were offbeat films that got an average run at the box office and then there were directors like Bharathan and Padmarajan and others who could churn out films that did well at the box office too and at the same time did have artistic merit too.And nowadays such films are not made.Bharathan and Padmarajan are no more and people like K.G.

George and Mohan, who used to do such films, are not that active.This is part of the change, a change that is seen in all facets of human life.We don’t care to see and encourage such sensible films.And in those days it was a section of the middle class who saw and liked such films.And that section perhaps doesn’t exist now.

Perhaps it was this very same thing that worked against Thaniye too.Anyhow since the film was made and since it did come out, I believe that Thaniye had served its purpose.You have also worked in Tamil and Hindi.

Kindly share with us your experiences working in Tamil and Hindi?

In Tamil I did Mogamul by Gnana Rajashekharan and two films by Shankar- Indian and Anniyan.I enjoyed working there too and as far as an actor is concerned, it is the same whether you act in Malayalam or Tamil