A still from Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam Photo: Special arrangement
...says Gitanjali Selvaraghavan, whose film hit screens today
The year 2016 has begun on a good note for Gitanjali Selvaraghavan. Her debut effort on the big screen, Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam, released today, and she’s gauging the response to the bold subject she’s tackled in it. The film’s script has been penned by Selvaraghavan, her filmmaker-husband, but Gitanjali wants to carve her own niche in Kollywood. She tells Melange all about her tinseltown journey…
The hero looks exactly like how Dhanush looked in Kadhal Kondein. And like how Selvaraghavan looks in real life. Comment…
It was a Freudian slip, in many ways. The look just happened. The characters have no bearing to me or Selva and the story is very fictional.
But the script is Selva’s and you must have found it hard to shake off the ‘feel’ of his films in this one…
I’ll admit it; initially, I was trying really hard at making it look like a Selva film. I had a massive conflict between the head and heart, and had a candid chat with it. It was he who told me, ‘Own the script. Start treating it as a Gitanjali Selvaraghan film.’ And then, everything fell into place and the project took a tone of its own. So, while the characters and their complexities are typically like those in previous Selva works, the treatment is very unlike him.
Tell us about the most satisfying day on the sets…
There’s a scene we shot at a Tasmac bar; one in which the man rants about his ex-girlfriend to his friends and wonders what and who she’s with at the moment. It’s quite a long shot, and I had to teach the hero how to do it. Interestingly, on that particular day, I was the only woman on the entire set – I had to act out the scene with 120 men looking at me.
It was an unbelievably liberating moment… and proved that gender has no bearing on the work we set out to do.
Selva’s earlier films always have some kind of autobiographical reference. The locality in 7G Rainbow Colony, for instance. Were there any such points in the script of MNM?
There’s absolutely nothing of that sort in this story. It’s a completely fictional tale.
Are you a big follower of his work on the big screen?
I’m your quintessential Selva fan; I worship his work. In fact, while studying cinema in university, my thesis was on his films… so I have studied and examined his work in great detail.
That must have resulted in interesting conversations between the two of you…
Ha ha, yes. I remember discussing a particular shot in Aayirathil Oruvan that I found fascinating – the one during the ‘Thaai Thindra Mannae’ song – and wanted to know the thought behind that. I wanted to know its inner meaning because I found that sequence particularly brilliant. And he simply said, ‘Well, it looked good so I kept it.’ I was aghast at his response; I couldn’t believe that such a powerful shot justcame to him.
Finally, What are your hopes for 2016?
I’d like to see Selva have at least three releases this year. I would like my children and parents to be healthy and happy, and would personally like to kickstart my next project.
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