In an exclusive interview to iDreamPost, Gautham Menon gets candid about his fascination with two genres – romance and action, why he makes movies and how films give him a chance to recreate moments from his life.
Gautham Menon is a compulsive dreamer. Strangely, his dreams have acquired a particular landscape which feels all the more familiar as the time goes by. It’s almost as if he dives into a particular time frame of his life and wants to relive those moments. And he has done that, time and again, over the years. Perhaps, that’s one reason why he’s often criticised for toying around with similar characters and themes, although his admirers tend to look more into the layers of the story than what’s shown on screen.
If someone ever made a biopic on Gautham Menon, the director, he would be equivalent to Dominick Cobb from ‘Inception’. Leave aside all the action and gravity-defying stunts, the emotional undercurrent of Inception gravitated towards Cobb’s reluctance to let go off his wife Mal from his memories. He relives them every single time he dreams. To watch a Gautham Menon’s film feels something similar. He floods his films with familiar settings, characters. At some point, it’s quite evident that he draws a lot from his own life which explains why his films feel so personal at some level.
We, the audience, are treated like Ariadne, who wanders into Cobb’s dreams to discover places he spent most of his time, people he knows among several other things. It’s fascinating what similar characters can do when they are placed in different settings. For instance, Gautham Menon’s latest film Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo (Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada in Tamil) feels like Yem Maya Chesave’s Karthik’s story if he hadn’t chosen to become a filmmaker. It’s intentional, going by Gautham Menon’s explanation. And so we began talking about him, his life, his movies, his friends, his women, his attention for detail, his….
Going by the sheer number of times you’ve drawn inspiration from your own life, it almost feels like you’re Cobb from Inception. You’ve made 15 films now, most of which dabble with either romance or action, and there’s a certain style to everything you’ve done so far. Do you find it hard to let go off whatever has happened in your life?
(Laughs) I guess so. When someone tells me that Anurag Kashyap has written a script and it has a cop, I get really excited and I consider adapting it in Tamil. That happens. And then, when I sit down to write, I think about moments from my own life, people I’ve come across. It’s more of a comfort zone that I try and strike. My problem is if I want to have a hero who can throw a punch, I want him to be in a position where that is a regular day-to-day thing. So, what all can he be? Either a cop or a gangster. Or he can be in the army at the border, where there are guns and stuff like that. Then, when I try writing about a normal guy thrown into a violent situation, it becomes a film like Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo. I’ve to give a reason to him saying, “When some people came after me for warning them, I threw in a few punches and I felt confident. And I can handle anything.” So, I go through these logical issues, which is why I zone in on these cop stories and romantic films.
Fair enough. You’ve often spoken about how the women in your life are a source of inspiration to create characters like Maaya, Jessie or a Leela now. What’s with your fascination for police officers? How did it all begin?
When I made Kaakha Kaakha, I interacted with a lot of policemen. There’s a cop named Radhakrishnan, who was one of the first few to be involved in an encounter in the streets of Chennai. So, the next morning, when the news came out that gangsters like Asai Thambi were shot dead by these cops, I was quite excited about it. Then I read the human commission report about this encounter and how some people had to undergo an inquiry. And then, Radhakrishnan’s wife told me that when he goes out, she would get calls where people threaten her saying, “Get your white saris out. From today onwards, you’ll wear white saris.” Those were the initial inspirations to write Kaakha Kaakha. And since then, I’ve been touch with him and lot of others. Then, Ajith introduced me to few other top cops when Yennai Arindhal was happening. I’m always fascinated by their lifestyles and what they go through. And I’m hoping that they would change the system and the way it works. Now, imagine, if a woman walks into a station, will she feel comfortable? There are sounds that make you feel very uncomfortable. I remember once we were at a police station and a cop was beating up someone right next to us. Why does it have to be such a public display? Why is it that a cop, who really wants to change the system, is not able to in the end? That fascinates me. That’s one angle that I’d like to explore in future.
You’ve primarily dealt with two themes – romance and action for most part of your career so far as a director. Eventually, you might hit a roadblock somewhere. Isn’t it? Do you often struggle to flesh out newer characters and emotions within these boundaries that you function in?
So, I’m hoping for new writers will come forth to help me and take my vision forward. As we speak, I’m holding a script that is about four friends from college and it’s a Dil Chatha Hai kind of road-trip film. It doesn’t have a single cop in it. I might introduce a cop at some point…I don’t know (laughs). It’s got love, but not the one which you see in my films. It’s a very matter-of-fact, what happens in life….more real that you see in my films. Another film that I’m hoping to make with one of leading stars in South is about a guy who’s an intelligence officer….network of people and stuff like that. Hopefully, these are the films that’ll get me out of my comfort zone and still let me do what I want to make.
You tend to draw a lot from your own life and people you’ve met. Do people know that they their lives and the conversations they’ve had with you have ended up, in some form or the other, in your films? What is their reaction like?
They do. For example, the Jessie on whom Jessie from Ye Maya Chesave (Vinnaithandi Varuvaya) was based on didn’t know about it until I showed her the film before the release. She got very emotional and she was okay with it. And later, a lot of people asked her if it was her story. And then, there are small moments from my own life and my sisters’ life which end up in my films. They know about it and they are okay with it. Most of the time, at home, they keep quiet because they know that anything they say might end up in my films. It’s a running joke in the house. But I like the process. There’s a scene in Ye Maya Chesave, where Karthik is amazed by a line which Jessie says and tells her that he’s going to use it in his next film; then, Jessie says, “that copyright belongs to me”. It’s something like that.
Okay…let’s talk about your thought process behind writing romantic stories. Do you see them as love letters to women who inspired you to create those characters?
Not at all. The only time that happened when I made a film and I wanted the message to reach across was for my father when I made Vaaranam Aayiram. Other than that, I’ve not used my films as a means to reach out to someone. It’s about me and my reflections about moments from my life. It’s my own family what you see in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Varanam Aayiram, Accham Enbathu Madamaiyada. At one point, I’ve had this conversation with my friends where I’ve said, “I’ve two sisters and I thought I have figured it out.” But then, you can’t ever figure out at all, when it comes to a woman. So, I thought, the line would fit into the story (Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo). So, scenes where the hero cooks and brings food to the table, sisters hanging out with their friends in the house, playing crickets with friends, standing near the gate…since I’ve been through all that, it’s easy to translate the visual on screen. I won’t call them love letters (laughs).
Since you write so many romantic films, do you subscribe to the notion that ‘Only unfulfilled love can be romantic?” (It’s a dialogue from Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Or do you see all forms of love and expressing love as a positive thing?
If you are not able to go ahead with it or take it forward with someone you’re in love with, I believe that stays on your mind longer than anything else. That lingers in your mind for a while. When you’re in love with someone at 16 or 17 and actually felt something in your heart, it takes a long time to get over her when she walks away from your life for some reason.
I’ve heard that from many guys that they can’t get over the first love. When we studied in college, my friends used to ask me for advice about how to talk to a particular girl and I would help them out. A friend of mine, in particular, was trying very hard to be with a girl whom he fell in love with. He would accompany her on her train journeys from Trichy to Kerala, drop her at home and then, take the next train to Trichy. He would be around her in college and once, he managed to take her out to a coffee shop and kiss her. With great difficulty, they managed to be together for a week and then the girl said that her father won’t approve of their relationship and she left him. It’s almost like a Jessie kind of love story which lasted for a week. He says that he’s still not able to get over her. Then life happens. They’ve met later, they have families and the families have met each other’s side. I’ve gotten over my first love because somewhere along the way, I didn’t feel it was worth it beyond a point. But this guy hasn’t been able to get over and most people are like that. So, I use stuff like that as motifs in my films to suggest that ‘a girl going away from you is like death’. It works as a mob-mentality kind of thing.
Of late, there’s a lot of debate about the portrayal of romance in films and how it’s actually stalking. Your films are probably an exception. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that the girl never says no to the guy immediately and the guy rarely crosses the line even though he’s madly in love with her. What is the idea behind that? Does she want him to make an effort to understand her as she is?
Yeah. It’s a very thin line. If you cross it, then it’ll definitely look like crazy stalking. I have looked back at my own films to see if I’ve crossed that line. There are moments when Madhavan in Minnale, follows Reema to her house, parks his bike outside, cuts telephone wires. That is stalking in a true sense. But somewhere along the way, when he gets to a point where he could have gotten physical with her because she believes him to be somebody else, he backed away from that moment.That earns him some respect in her eyes. Likewise, with Maya coming after Anbuselvan in Kaakha Kaakha, you could also call it stalking because she comes after him. She comes to commissioner’s office and he asks her, if she’s there to meet someone and she says, “I don’t know anybody else”. That could be stalking too. But I’ve made sure that these are decent people, they aren’t going to lose their mind over this. There’s a limit that they’ll draw which they’ll never cross. Even in AYM, Leela is in the guy’s house; he’ll never force himself on her, he’ll not speak ill of her to his friends. There’s a beautiful chemistry, conversations, fire… He peeps out of the bedroom to see if she’ll look at him…that’s about it.
Talking about Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo (Accham Enbathu Madamaiyada), the second half, especially from the moment Chay meets Manjima in the hospital, unravels as if it’s all set in real time. And there’s only so much story you can narrate in that space. Did you think about how long will you hold on to that segment before you move on to the final act?
I gave it a lot of thought and decided to go real time. Leave the hospital scene, even when they are in the doctor’s house, his only thought is – Is there any other way in which the others can enter the house? He goes up, closes the door and he hears a gunshot. When he comes down, his best friend is dead already, mother is also down, and he’s shooting. It’s bizarre. You don’t come across such stuff in real life. And then, he sees the girl screaming that the friend has been shot, he continues to shoot and then goes on to the other side to hold on to her. Now, there was this idea to dissolve and show that they spent 3-4 hours there. Ideally, that should have been the case. They could have stayed back and be safe, but then, at point of time, he decides to get out of the house. That’s when I decided to just go ahead and treat it like a real time scenario instead of using a dissolve.
There was an option to not kill Mahesh (played by Rakendu Mouli) in that particular scene. But then, I was bound by time and circumstance where the only option left for me was to kill the character. Satish, who played that role in Tamil, had to shoot for Kabali and it must have been a dream for him to work with Rajinikanth sir. I knew that it’s unfair on my part to ask him to not go for that shoot. Rakendu Mouli didn’t know any of this and it didn’t make sense to me to have two different versions for Tamil and Telugu. I thought that it would make more sense for the lead character to come back and take revenge if the friend’s character dies. The audience has got to love him till that point of time and taaap…there’s not even a shot of him falling on the floor. It’s brutal. You don’t see him again in the film. I thought the pain will work in favour of the narrative. But it was planned as real-time till they get onto the train. But even there, they have to fight against the cop. If you notice, they are in the same clothes, it’s dawn when they get onto the train and after they escape, it fades out. It’s up to your imagination to figure out what would have happened after that. We did shoot moments of Naga Chaitanya taking a wounded Manjima to a doctor to get treated, dropping her in Salem, and him coming back to find out the reason why so many people want to kill Leela. We couldn’t use it because I didn’t shoot it with Simbu.
A significant part of the story is set in real-time. I’m curious to know how do you time it? A minute longer, that scene would lose its momentum and anything less than what it is right now, it would seem too rushed up. Isn’t it?
I’m very particular about these things. People who know me make fun of the importance I give to logic, timing, how many days, how many bullets – We actually counted the number of bullets that he can fire with the two guns in his hands. It doesn’t exceed 18 because that’s how much two guns can hold. Initially, there was lot more firing, but we removed certain shots during post-production and during the edit, we toned down the firing. There was plenty of discussion on how much time it would take him to become a police officer – even on the day of the final mix, when Chay and Simbu were dubbing for their respective versions, I called up few friends, who are police-officers, to check if 2.5 years is good enough for the character to get transferred from one station to another. We even discussed if he should be ASP or DCP. Everything was discussed and dealt with. And since I’m stuck with date and time, we took care that the wall clock in the hospital (11:30 PM) and later in the home (1:30 AM) was adjusted accordingly.
The film begins with a tribute to ‘Godfather’. What was that exact moment in the film?
There’s a scene in ‘Godfather’ where Al Pacino stands outside the hospital and there’s nobody inside to protect his father. The police officials would have cleared out everyone. Soon, Al Pacino’s friend comes and tells him to just stand there with his hands in the pockets and pretend that he has a gun in the pocket. A cop passes by and notices Al Pacino. After a brief argument, the cop hits Pacino. That was the moment which inspired me to write this film.
There were two sequences in my head – Work a story to include this scene from Godfather and another story about a normal guy who becomes a cop. So, I ended up merging both. Another defining moment in the script is when Chay is going on a bike and says – “He shouldn’t have hit me. I’m so pissed off. Mahesh. Your parents. My bike.” – It also works as a commercial angle, where the man walks back to take on those who have hurt him.
The last time we spoke, you said that when you start shooting a film, you only have 80% of the script ready with you and it’s towards the end that you come up with the climax. Was it similar in AYM’s case?
I was clear that this is the story of a normal guy who ends up becoming a police officer. I had written the script till the hospital scene, which was initially set in Karaikudi, and when I narrated the script to Suriya, he suggested that the story would suit someone like Simbu more than him. That’s when I pitched the script to him. I always knew that this is going to end when the guy comes back and takes charge as a police officer. How will that happen? What will be his dialogues? What are the montages? I wrote all of that as the shoot unfolded. If you look at the screenplay, till a certain point, it’s only from the hero’s point of view. I don’t cut away too much to the heroine in the house because the audience shouldn’t know too much about her. Otherwise, they’ll know why the goons are chasing her. The only thing she mentions is – ‘I’m a single child. It’s boring at home, I like it much better here. I want to be a scriptwriter.’ And even her attitude, when he asks her why do you want to come along with me, she says, “I want to feel the wind on my face”. That’s what you get to know about her. At one point, I shift to the cop’s life as he tries to find out who this guy is, comes to the hero’s house, finds out what his name is, and then, hits a dead end.
The name that you’ve given to the character, Rajinikanth Muralidhar, seems to have got a mixed reaction from the audience. Was it an after-thought to include this?
When I start writing a script, I usually give a name to the protagonist. But while writing AYM, I just went ahead with the flow and had everyone calling him…Kanna, Chinna etc. So, when the girl asks him what his name is before getting onto his bike, that’s when you realise that we don’t know it yet. My team thought it was an interesting idea. I knew that some people might end up saying it sounds silly, but I decided to go ahead with the flow. Then, 70% into the film, when the cop comes to the father’s house, that’s when the name appears for the first time. When I gave the rest of the script to my team with that scene, they said, “Sir, you must be joking!” They thought I was having fun with them. At times, I do that. I would send someone else’s script just to see how they react and then, I would send them mine. I was very sure that this is the commercial gimmick of the film and I wanted to do it at least once.
You make it sound like some itch that you wanted to get over with…
(laughs) Baradwaj Rangan, who panned the film, said it right. (Is he just cooking up an alphabet soup to satisfy the A, B and C centres?) And I thought why not! And I also got reviews saying that because he’s named Rajinikanth, nobody is bothered about the backstory because Rajinikanth can do anything. People just forget lots of things. You can call it whatever – easy filmmaking, stupid or anything, I just wanted to do it once in my career. I’m over that itch right now.
I’ve always wondered – Why do you make films in first place? What do you get out of it?
I get a super high. I don’t smoke or drink, I might have an occasional beer maybe 2-3 times a year, but it doesn’t do anything to me. I’m in love all the time (with women). But the high that film gives me is something else. The idea of making a film amidst a lot of chaos, struggle is quite challenging. Otherwise, by now, with the kind of struggle that me and my team have faced, all of us would have ran away. But everyone is in it for something…maybe it’s this passion to make movies that keeps us going. There’s a high we get when we watch our films.
We don’t know how much these films will collect, we find it very difficult to convince distributors to come onboard, but I feel a high when I direct. I’m very reluctant, so to speak. You can’t get me to sets so easily. I need to know that everything is right in my head. People close to me know when I’m not in the right mood. I try to push it further. But once I get into the zone, I’m all frenzied because I want that rush. When Dhanush or Simbu performs, I’m so much in love with that day because what I’ve done is translated so beautifully on screen. He’ll do some magic. When I go to Rahman sir’s studio and sit, I’m enveloped with this spirituality around me that I feel very humble. The way he talks to me, which is always about work, I feel very spiritual there. I feel there’s some external hand that’s taking me there and making me sit next to him and listening to him compose music. It’s that high that drives me.
When you say that you feel that high every time you direct a film, or see someone perform beautifully or even compose music, are you trying to just accumulate these experiences or does cinema complete you in some manner?
It’s never about accumulating experiences kind of thing. It just completes me as a person. Honestly, I don’t think I can do anything else. It’s not about the money either. I haven’t made enough money yet. It’s always bare survival kind of thing. I get a high and that drives me to put myself out there on a Friday to be judged. I’ve people asking me how do I deal with everything that happens on a Friday – reviews, criticism etc. From Friday to Sunday, I go through an overwhelming emotional graph. On Friday, I feel a certain way, on Saturday I feel good and on Sunday morning, I feel low. That has happened consistently for 7-8 years now, including this past Sunday. I was feeling good till Saturday night when I was told that the film was doing quite well and then I woke up and felt very low till mid-day. Then, when I met others, they told me to not worry about the reviews and stuff because the collections are steady.
Once, I asked Mani Ratnam how does he handle criticism and he told me to not read any reviews. Apparently, the moment his films release, his team makes sure that he doesn’t touch his phone or access any form of technology. They pull out all the wires. He said, “If you aren’t asking anyone’s permission or opinion before making a film, then why should you read what they’re going to write about your film.” It made complete sense to me. I stopped reading reviews for a long time. So when people ask me how do I face that Friday, I feel like going back to write something and come back on another Friday. I’m not shying away from that ever. I want to do something new with the music, cinematography etc. So, I have a lot to prove to myself, but not to anybody else.
Was Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya the last time you got positive reviews across the board?
Absolutely not. I don’t think my films have ever gotten unanimously positive reviews. When Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya released, some said, it was like watching ‘paint dry’ and another critic said, ‘Great screenplay, poorly directed’. That comment hit me hard and I couldn’t help but confront the critic who wrote so. For the first three days, the reports for the Telugu version (Ye Maya Chesave) were really good and then the tide turned in Tamil as well. I think because I make realistic films which go a certain route, romantic or action, after a point, my films are judged a little differently.
Even for Varanam Aayiram, they said, it was too indulgent…too much English. On the first day of Kaakha Kaakha’s release, one of my assistants, who was standing outside Sangam theatre, called me saying, “Sir, people are saying that they can’t understand this style of filmmaking – it’s too fast for them.” I said, let’s wait and watch. My producer called me to check if we could cut the love-portions and just make it an action film. I resisted and said they might as well take my name off the credits if they do so. I go through this for almost every film. So, what brings us back to make more films? I think it’s the high of making films itself. I’m sure every filmmaker goes through a similar feeling.
In the past, you’ve said that Kaakha Kaakha, Vettaiyadu Vilayadu and Yennai Arindhaal are part of a trilogy, at least in your mind. Is Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo/Accham Enbathu Madamaiyada also part of one such trilogy?
I think it would be more of a prequel to Kaakha Kaakha (Gharshana). Think about it. We began Anbuselvan’s story in Kaakha Kaakha with a voice-over saying that his life, as a police officer, is always on the edge and that, anyone who’s close to him might be in danger at any given moment. Coming back to Accham Enbathu Madamaiyada, there’s a dialogue towards the end of film where he says, “This is the first episode of my life.”
This almost reminds me of what Richard Linklater did with ‘Boyhood’. Do you also have one such plan to complete the story of Karthik? If most of your films are interlinked in some manner or the other, what happens few years after ‘Yennai Arindhaal’ happens?
I’m hoping to make ‘Raghavan Is Back’. I’ve an idea. But then, people keep saying that I make too many cop films already. So, maybe that’ll influence my decision about when I’m going to make it. Beyond a point, I don’t care. If I end up making a really good film in between, then this onslaught would die down. But, you’ve a point. All the hero’s characterisations are same in my films. You know everything there is to know about Karthik, Rajinikanth and Satya Dev. I don’t need to think about the heroes in my films anymore. I just need to focus on the women and write it from their perspective. (smiles)
Has there been a film in recent times, in any language, that you wish you had directed?
Pellichoopulu. It was so much fun. It’s something I would have directed blindly. That’s the reason why we bought the remake rights and I want to make it in Tamil.
Going back to your films, you’ve almost always set the stories, at least the boy’s life, in a middle-class family background. Is there a specific reason for that?
I want to recreate my life on celluloid. I know the middle-class life better. I understand it. So, why toy around with something else which you have never experienced? What you see in my films is what I’ve lived. Friends, family, sisters, texts, visuals, friends talking at the gate, playing cricket. Why create something that’s not in my system right now. I’ll at some point.
My next script has stuff that I don’t know. One character runs a car dealership and he lives all by himself. I want to shoot it immediately because the visual has opened up in my mind. It’s not Interstellar. It’s still within the middle-class/upper-middle class life scenario, set in a different background. And I’m waiting to shoot that. The Telugu hero’s character belongs to a rich and big family which runs a chain of restaurants. I want to shoot a palatial house in a board-room conference.
When I get a script to shoot ads from agencies, a visual opens up in my mind. If that doesn’t happen, it means that I hate the script and those are the moments that has never worked with me.
In the past 2-3 years, you have been through a lot of ups and downs, financially and in terms of how your films were doing at the box-office. What’s your state of mind right now? Are you relieved?
We’re in a happy space right now. It’s got nothing to do with film releases. I feel lighter. My partners have really stepped in, brought in new people who have taken care of the financial debts and everything else. We don’t want to deal with regular financiers anymore. We have weaned away from all that and that itself is a big relief. Our vision is there…we are working towards it. I’m in a very positive frame of mind. I’ve so much to do in near future. I can’t wait to work with Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, NTR, Nani, Vijay Devarakonda, Prabhas, Naga Chaitanya, Rana in Telugu to name a few (laughs).
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