Taking the Write Decisions

Actress Urvashi, during a recent roundtable hosted by film critic Baradwaj Rangan, mentioned something that is unusual for actors.  Usually, we hear actors talk about their co-stars or their directors.  It is much rarer for an actress to talk about an important but underrecognized part of a film's creative team – the writer.  Many old-timers bemoan the lack of dedicated story and dialogue writers in the present-day scenario.  Urvashi mentioned Visu as her favorite writer.  There are two other writers who are unfortunately not with us anymore.  But whose pen combined with Urvashi’s panache to result in some truly memorable films.  They are Crazy Mohan and N Prasanna Kumar.

In all likelihood, you have heard of the former but not the latter.  Crazy Mohan, the genius comedy writer, worked with Urvashi on three films – Michael Madana Kamarajan (MMKR), MagaLir Mattum and Panchathanthiram.  While her part in the last film was a minor one, the first two are widely regarded as comic classics.  Urvashi was in sublime form in those two films.  

As a lot of writers and directors like to say, “comedy is serious business.”  We tend to take comedy creators and actors for granted.  But a lot of effort goes into making the jokes work.  For instance, the “Naeka?  Noaka?  Naekum noakuma?” scene in MMKR would have fallen flat, if not for the perfect timing of the two actors.  Mohan, the master of puns, came up with one of the cutest puns on the word, "cook."  The way Urvashi bashfully says, “Graamam-um cooka? NeengaLum cook-u” (not to mention Kamal’s innocent laughter!) brought to life Mohan’s impishness.  In a TV interview, Kamal and Mohan mentioned rehearsing ahead of the shooting to make the best use of the location, its props (like the bureau) and to get the timing of the jokes right.  All those efforts clearly showed on screen, for MMKR is one of the most beloved comedy classics of thamizh cinema.

MagaLir Mattum, of course, was the best of the Mohan-Urvashi combination films.  As the gullible and bumbling member of the trio (which included Revathi and Rohini), Urvashi walked away with the film.  The extended hospital sequence is one of the film’s highlights.  The whole scene rested on the idea that the three women thought that they had accidentally poisoned and killed the Nasser character!  Revathi stating “poison overdose” and Urvashi naively responding, “naan oru spoon than potten” is an example of a seemingly simple line finding an actor who knew exactly how to deliver it to make it magically spring from paper to screen. 

You may not have heard of writer Prasanna Kumar.  But you probably know every Vivekh joke in Lingusamy’s Run.  Well, Prasanna Kumar was the dialogue writer for Vivekh in many films like Run and Manadhai Thirudivittai.  He had worked in the 1980s as a dialogue writer for Robert-Rajasekar in acclaimed films such as Paalaivana Cholai.  Subsequently, he was the dialogue writer of all of director Keyaar’s films.  Urvashi turned in stupendous performances in two of Keyaar’s films, Vanaja Girija and Irattai Roja. (I am not a fan of her work in Maya Bazaar 1995.) 

Khushboo, ever the gracious co-star, worked with Urvashi in both these films.  She mentioned in an interview that Vanaja Girija where she and Mohini played the titular roles, completely faded into the background once Urvashi entered the picture as the servant maid.  As the boisterous raconteur who can tire the listener (but certainly not the moviegoer!) into submission with her monologues, Urvashi had a whale of a time in this film.  There is a hilarious scene where Urvashi thinks that she has a great story to tell but is chided by everyone in the house.  Watch her narrate the same anecdote multiple times but with just a bit of variation, depending on the listener.  She does it in a single shot, with no let up in momentum.  It is a little gem of a performance by an actor who knew the precise modulation to even make throwaway asides work. (I have also written a piece on her performance in Irattai Roja.)

Click on 'Play' to go directly to the aforementioned scene:

Thanks to a subset of our directors (especially in Malayalam cinema) knowing the true worth of gifted writers, actors like Urvashi who always knew the importance of writers, are getting a chance to shine in significant roles. (Her performance in Christo Tomy's Ullozhuku was deeply moving.) It is a testament to Urvashi’s talent as an actor that she has worked effectively with writers across generations, knowing exactly the note to strike for every character.  As much as a director shapes an actor’s performance, it is the writer that carefully constructs the ‘audio’ part of the audiovisual medium that is cinema.  And when actors join hands with writers, it is the best possible synergy that manifests itself on screen.  Robert de Niro once said, “The talent is in the choices.”  And in choosing to work thoughtfully with writers, the monstrously talented Urvashi has certainly made the write choices!