Another first from a pioneer
|
Veteran film producer T.E. Vasudevan scores another first in the industry by registering his script with the Registrar of Copyrights.
|
T.E. Vasudevan
THE GRAND old man of Malayalam cinema, T.E. Vasudevan, is at it again. At 87, this pioneer producer has written a script and registered it with the Registrar of Copyrights, Government of India, something that no one in the field has thought of to date.
Why?
"I don't think anybody has done it before, but I thought it was high time we started doing it, so that there is a well-worked out script for the director to follow and some discipline will set in if some thought is given to the story. Also a lot of unnecessary squabbles can be avoided if this is done," he says.
Campus story
The title of his movie, also registered, is `Double Climax.' His characters are youth on a college campus and the subject is drugs and their impact on young minds and bodies. The heroine is addicted to ganja and the message to the youth is how drugs can ruin lives. Vasudevan is willing to divulge some more `as the script has been registered.' Most of the action takes place on the campus too. The commercial elements, such as songs, dance and emotions of all hues, are all thus naturally in it.
"If one `Lajjavathi' could make `4 The People' such a popular movie, I have a feeling a song in this script, which I have penned, will appeal to the youth in equal measure," Vasudevan said.
Unlike the others in his generation, Vasudevan, the first recipient of the J.C. Daniel Award, is youthful both in mind and body. . His single-minded commitment to recording and researching the history of Malayalam cinema for five years resulted in the book that the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy has brought out in a CD format recently.
The five-year period that he took to complete the job was more of a `tapas' than a job, for he made no profits from it.
Script writer
Among the 50-odd movies that he produced and the hundreds he distributed under the banner of Associated Productions, Jai Maruthi Productions and Jai Jaya Combines, right from the Forties, there were a few for which he had written the storyline. "Most of the stories were by Moideen Padiyath, but very few people know that I wrote stories for some of my movies, like `Kannur Deluxe,' `Cochin Express,' `Danger Biscuit' and `Lottery Ticket' under the pen name, V. Devan," says the veteran.
`Nair Pidicha Pulival,' `Snehaseema,' `Puthiya Akasam Puthiya Bhoomi,' `Kavyamela,' `Ezhuthatha Katha' were landmark productions, which won national awards too.
With a glint in his eyes, he says, Aranmula Ponnamma, 90, is the only person who issenior to him in the industry. "Even Dakshinamoorthy is one year junior to me, as also P. Bhaskaran," he adds. P. Bhaskaran was his lyricist for his first production, `Amma.'
The bespectacled Vasudevan may not turn producer again with the script he has written, owing to his health, but he is keen that somebody should make the film as the message it conveys is important and he believes the entertainment values it holds will make it a success.
PREMA MANMADHAN
Photo: Mahesh Harilal
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
