Gautham Menon: The Gentleman director

Gautham Menon is an unusual interviewee. You can attack his films without worrying about offending him. And so, we catch the bull by its horns — an analogy in keeping withthe times — by telling him that the romance in his last release, Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo in Telugu) felt surprisingly tepid for a Gautham Menon film. Also, the second half, especially, seemed rushed. He has an explanation, one he says he hasn’t revealed to anybody yet.

The original plan was to shoot more footage to make the hero’s sudden transformation into a cop feel… not so sudden. “We had it all written. The hero trains to become a police officer, gets posted in Pune, investigates a series of cop murders… It was all there in the script, but we couldn’t shoot.” Courtesy Simbu. And yet, he doesn’t want to sever ties with him. “There are things he does as an actor… I pick them over his eccentricities.” Eccentricities. Not a word too many South Indian filmmakers use in common parlance.

The critics weren’t kind to AYM. “Do you know that even Vaaranam Aayiram, which I consider to be a piece of art, was trashed?” And then, he trains his gun. “Critics don’t matter. I remember being heartbroken by reviews after the release of Ekk Deewana Tha. Mani Ratnam reminded me that we don’t ask permission from critics before shooting our films. Why must we seek their approval after making them?”

Gautham Menon is convinced that AYM was received well, especially in the B and C centres; that’s the sort of approval that gets him sleeping well. For long, he has resisted the urge to classify audiences so. “But I am convinced now that a successful big-budget film has to work in all the centres.” His last two films—Yennai Arindhaal and AYM—are indications that he is beginning to fuel his big-budget aspirations. There are more commercial elements than ever before in his work. “But the problem is, I can’t write fantasy like Rajamouli. I can’t make the sort of films Shankar is making.”

But Gautham can make an urban commercial film like Yennai Arindhaal. “If Yennai Arindhaal had been a regular big-budget film, you’d have had more rowdies flying in the air. Ajith would have had a lot more punch lines.” In fact, that was the plan until Ajith asked Gautham Menon not to do with him what other commercial filmmakers were doing already. In a sense, the filmmaker seems to have dug himself into a hole with his body of work.

The film he’s now making with Vikram, Dhruva Natchathiram, is an attempt to climb out of it.

It’s an ambitious spy thriller, and Gautham Menon hopes that it will be the first of many films in the franchise. The teaser has already been viewed more than 3 million times. “Vikram sir suddenly called me from New York and suggested that we shoot the teaser. I went, without a big crew, without really securing local permissions…It was an impromptu shoot.”

Even while preparations are on for the shoot of Dhruva Natchathiram, work is also underway with his next film, Enai Noki Paayum Thota, starring Dhanush.

Though the team has already released a song, the composer’s name has been kept under wraps. “I’m furious that a couple of newspapers have claimed the authority to announce it. I’m running a thoughtful campaign.” The idea is to let audiences hear the music without the baggage of knowing the composer’s identity. “It affects how you consume music. You end up attributing qualities to the song that may not even exist. I wanted people to absorb ENPT’s music without preconceived notions.”

Source: The New Indian Express