A firebrand speaks
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
|
Thankar Bachan touches upon his next film, and issues involving cinema.
|
EASILY PIQUED: Thankar Bachan
It is a continuous game of catechism with Thankar Bachan. The writer-director-cinematographer now turned actor and producer, counters every poser with a query and looks keenly at you for a response. When people ignore the point he's trying to make and prefer to ask mundane questions instead, it irks him.
And he makes no bones about his exasperation. It could be one reason why Bachan is often in the eye of a controversy. "This is not the kind of publicity I want ... Normally I never mention names in my interviews. But even my general statements are quoted out of context and sensationalised," says he.
Bachan is busy with `Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy,' written and directed by him. He is also its hero. Navya Nair plays his wife.
"None whom I asked wanted to do it. Have you seen a hero or heroine in our films acting as parents? Only rarely. Vikram was the only actor who evinced interest in the role. With a fantastic actor like him we can take Tamil cinema to its zenith. Yet what are we churning out," he asks.
Why acting
Thankar Bachan maintains that a cameraman is a glorified coolie in jeans, who has no say in cinema, acting is the easiest of jobs and only direction is a challenge. It was his wife who suggested he act ... "Oh no!" He stops short. " It was Nandita Das who first said it! She was supposed to do the film. `You do the main role. Let's act together,'" she told me. Later a popular heroine did agree but soon asked, `Can you make my child a two-year old.' That put me off. It was then that I approached Navya... "
`Azhagi,' Thankar Bachan's first film with Parthiban and Nandita Das was well crafted but it did not win any award. "Can you believe it? What did it not have? Yet ... " he shrugs his shoulders. And now to `Chidambarathil... ' "Most households have a character like my Appasamy — he's a loving husband, a doting father and yet a wastrel. And the film has a message beneath the humour," he laughs. Ilaiyaraja is the composer. "I sincerely believe that only he can bring in the nativity so essential to my films. "
When the West is far ahead in content and form, we are still in pathetic shape, feels Bachan. The viability factor makes directors resort to gimmicks that sell, you point out.
Thankar Bachan comes forward in his chair, with a glare. "Do you then mean to say that they are all making money? Out of 60 such films made not even 10 are hits. Why does their formula not work always? Are the other 50, art films then? They lack content, that's it. Technical wizardry is a myth and the formula format an excuse," Bachan pauses for breath.
Then how did he allow a blatant item number in his `Azhagi,' which stuck out like a sore thumb in the otherwise poetic treatment?
"We had so many other things happening in the sequence, if you had noticed ... " Bachan's justification does not seem to hold water but you let it pass.
Why such a quaint name as Thankar Bachan? "Not just quaint. It's downright unique. My name is Thangaraj and I'm called Thankar at home. Bachan is my father's name. P. C. Sriram once told me, `If you are able to make an impact with this name it would mean you've arrived,'" Bachan recalls with a smile.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
