Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The lingo master

OWN NICHE Suraj Venjaramoodu PHOTO: S.GOPAKUMAR

"Enthire?" is how strangers greet Suraj Venjaramoodu, whose name by now is synonymous with the dialect native to certain places in Thiruvananthapuram. "Initially I thought they were pulling my leg but then it hit me that they genuinely enjoyed the lingo ," he says after the astounding success of `Rajamanikam.'

"It isn't just in Thiruvananthapuram. The dialect is being picked up in places as far as Kozhikode. People say `Ivan Puliyaannu ketta?' when they recognise me on the streets!" he laughs. Once an artist in a mimics troupe, Suraj used to dub for the comedy series `Jaga Poga.' It was during a rehearsal for a show in the Middle East that he saw a beard lying around on the set and while trying it on the director exclaimed, "You look just like Mammootty! You have to enact him!" The movie `Dadasaheb,' starring Mamootty with a beard, had just been released, and there's been no looking back ever since.

The program `Comedy Thillana' was the brainchild of director Dhanwanthari who coaxed Suraj to take on the role of anchor with a flat native Thiruvanthapuram accent. As research, he would spend time mingling with folks from Kanjiramkulam who speak with the drawl. "What I've used in `Rajamanikam' is only part of the many such phrases that are native to the capital," says Suraj. The windfall was to arrive in the guise of `Rajamanikam'- imagine his surprise when Mammootty rang him up one fine day to ask if he would assist him with the delivery of the dialogues. "I consider myself very lucky in that I got to train the same great actor whom I'd been mimicking," gushes Suraj who then went to the sets at Pollachi and trained the actor. Suraj is now playing the same role as Mammootty's in `Rajamanikam' for the serial `Sanmanasullavarkku Samadhanam'. With the assurance of a range of roles in the 15 films that he has already acted in, Suraj is not afraid of being typecast.

"Each of my four releases for Vishu was with the four superstars of Malayalam cinema! There was `Thuruppugulan' with Mammootty, `Rasathanthram' with Mohanlal, `Rashtram' with Suresh Gopi and `Pachakuthira' with Dileep." Many more diverse roles await the enterprising actor on television and the big screen as the year unfolds.

SAJNI V. SAHADEVAN

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail