Actor Jayasurya who was last seen in the film 'John luther' believes that the Malayali audience cannot be fooled as they are serious about cinema, regardless of its genre. “Unlike in other languages, the audience in Malayalam won’t be able to digest larger-than-life heroes or villains. The Malayalam audience evaluates every aspect of cinema, including storyline, camera, and editing. The actor said this was unique to Malayalam and for this reason, most Malayalam films are meticulous in their making,” said the actor while interacting with the audience at the 41st Sharjah International Book Fair.
According to the actor, great films are often born out of great friendships and ego-less collaborations. “We need cinema groups that hold healthy and constructive criticisms about cinema. Most of the superhit films in Malayalam have come from great friendships,” he said.
He observed that he had a similar experience when he collaborated with Prajesh Sen. It was a different experience when he played a character so close to life in ‘Vellam’. “Murali is a character who lives among us. Just the fact that Murali inspired many people was an unforgettable experience in my career. This caused much impact on families. The film inspired many people to quit drinking. When a person gets reformed, it automatically salvages a family, which in turn will benefit the society. I think that’s big deal! I consider it a challenge to portray real-life characters on screen. I portrayed Murali after hearing things about him from others. Ditto when it came to football player Sathyan,” he confides adding that this was a blessing from God.
He also spoke about how he found it difficult to shrug off some aspects of these good characters from himself. He has kept each and every character close to his heart.
“There are characters living among us that the world should know about. Someone should play the character of Ashraf Thamarassery, who is engaged in philanthropic activities aboard. The world should know such people. It was when VP Sathyan was enacted on screen that people including myself understood his greatness,” he recalls.
In response to a question about whether Malayalam cinema will shift its focus to comedy, the actor said at one point there was interest in thrillers in Malayalam. Now that seems to be changing. He also said that his next film will be a comedy. The films that were planned during the Covid period are now coming out. Most people love fun and entertaining films. After the film ‘Katanaar’, he will be acting in a comedy film. Jayasuriya said that the third part of the movie ‘Aadu’ is also on its way.
Prajesh Sen, the director of films like ‘Captain’ and ‘Vellam’ that also gave Jayasuriya his best actor awards, admitted that it was a challenge to make films based on real-life characters. He has never seen PV Sathyan, the football genius. Captain’s script was prepared by listening to other people’s stories about Sathyan.
'Vellam’ is the story of Murali who lives amongst us. The old Murali was discovered from the stories Murali narrated too us as well as from those who knew him. For an actor, it is difficult to portray a living person. Fortunately, we could portray both of them on celluloid. And during both instances, Jayasurya was living as Sathyan and Murali. It was his commitment that led to the success of these films,” he admits.
Responding to a question from the audience, Prajesh Sen said that journalism has benefited him a lot in his film career. Having worked for 10 years in the field of journalism, he was able to interact with everyone from celebrities to ordinary people. It helped him to get closer to the lives of various people which in turn helped him to create these movie characters. Right from his school days, he has only heard stories that projected Nambi Narayanan as a villain. By the time Sen became a journalist, his innocence was proved. The very journalists who called him a criminal were reluctant to portray him as innocent. Nambi Narayanan was accused of stealing a non-existent technology. This was a big mistake of journalists. The case against him was that rocket technology was sold to Pakistan. A case was made that Nambi Narayanan secretly sold the technology to the neighboring country for 400 crores, which was sold to France for 100 crores in the open market. The journalists back then were not even ready to think about the logic behind such an accusation. Prajesh Sen observes that if such news stories were verified and researched properly, they would have changed the lives of many people. He also said that he wants to make a film about the life of Ashraf Thamarassery, a social worker in the UAE.
