Director Ram interview: On ‘Paranthu Po’ and how filmmaking can be therapeutic-OxBig News Network

While the lights and cameras are being set up, director Ram confesses this is his first interview since 2019’s Peranbu. “Gone are the days when we hoped for just the film to succeed; now we hope even the interviews do well, wondering if a good one might at least pull in 10 more people to the theatres,” he says, a statement that speaks to how this constantly evolving media ecosystem can be overwhelming, even if you are a master filmmaker who has made sharp socio-political commentaries in films like Kattradhu Thamizh, Thanga Meenkal, Taramani and Peranbu.

Ram’s films, typically, have all been released after long intervals; only Taramani and Peranbu were released within two years of each other. This year, however, his fans have reason to rejoice since two of his films are gearing up for release – Paranthu Po, set to hit screens on July 4, and the long-delayed Nivin Pauly-starrer Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai. “We shot both films simultaneously and finished Paranthu Po a few months after wrapping Yezhu Kadal…. The latter still had some work to be done on the release front, and so we asked producer Suresh Kamatchi if we could release Paranthu Po first, and he agreed to it,” says Ram, adding that Yezhu Kadal… will release three or four months later.

Paranthu Po, from the promo material, hints at a breezy comedy-drama, a first for a filmmaker known for helming intense socio-political dramas. This intrigues one to know the ‘thesis’ that Ram had laid out before writing Paranthu Po – for the unversed, Ram follows a thesis-driven approach to screenwriting as opposed to a plot-driven approach. He constructs characters that help him substantiate the underlying thesis. However, before we delve into the thesis of Paranthu Po, he reveals that he no longer believes films need to explicitly espouse their thesis, “because I think when the whole film is about that thesis, it’s better not to have a dialogue or a scene exposing that.”

Actor Shiva in a still from ‘Paranthu Po’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Paranthu Po, Ram says, is about the lives of characters obliviously living as ‘slaves’ in a city. “We all come to a city like Chennai because it tells you that if you come here, you can succeed in life. Moreover, cities become places you can go to after escaping the values that a village or small town imposes on you. A city thrives in the dreams it gives its inhabitants. If a city can house only the successful, the population will be smaller, and there will be nobody to work for those successful people. So, for a city to function, it needs such slaves, and it is that pursuit of a dream that enchants them and lets them be slaves; they won’t even know they are enslaved.”

Paranthu Po, he adds, takes us through the lives of one such middle-class family entranced by that dream. “It speaks about their happiness, their goals, and whether ‘vaathu muttaila irundhu dinosaur varuma varaadha’ (will or will not a dinosaur come out of a duck egg).”

Actor Shiva plays the lead role in Paranthu Po, and it is a surprise to see the actor, known for his commercial comedy films, star in a Ram film. The director praises Shiva as an actor who can pull off naturalistic performances. “He’s a long-time friend of mine; we both made our debuts in 2007, and we had been discussing a potential collaboration ever since. Because he is such a natural actor, you might at times wonder if he is acting as an idiot or if he is one. His comedic timing is also quite extraordinary. Moreover, we needed a ‘grown-up child’ for this role; yes, he’s a father, but he has the heart of a child. That’s who Shiva is,” explains Ram.

Another off-beat casting choice is that of the Malayalam actors Grace Antony and Aju Varghese. “They can pull off humour well. It was Nivin Pauly, while we were working on Yezhu Kadal…, who suggested Grace for this role. He had just worked with her in Kanakam Kaamini Kalaham, and then after I watched Appan, I realised that she would be the best fit for it.” Also playing pivotal roles are Ram’s frequent collaborator Anjali and a child artiste named Mithul Ryan.

Aju Varghese, Grace Antony and Anjali in stills from ‘Paranthu Po’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Interestingly, Paranthu Po will be the first film in Ram’s filmography without songs composed by his frequent collaborator Yuvan Shankar Raja. Santhosh Dhayanidhi has composed the songs, while Yuvan has only written the score. “When the film was about to be sent to festivals, Yuvan got busy working on some big films. Moreover, Madhan Karky watched the film and suggested we could narrate a few things through songs, after which 11 songs came into the picture.” The team had to then compose those 11 songs within three days. “Yuvan said that it would be better if he scored the background score and that I find someone else to score the songs. And the person who came to the rescue was Santhosh. And I believe that Santhosh gave his best; he was only focussed on what the film needed and not on giving a hit song,” reveals Ram.

As the conversation veers towards his filmmaking sensibilities, I am reminded of a statement that Ram made about keeping the audience in mind while writing a screenplay. “When you analyse me through the films I’ve made so far, you’re only analysing my understanding of the audience for whom I make them,” Ram had told The Hindu long ago. The director believes that the ‘audience’ in question — the viewer who helps the writer steer the screenplay in mainstream cinema — need not just be a voice within the writer. “There are audiences around you as well, be it your friends, family or assistant directors, who will also help you understand whether your thought processes, methods, and the emotions you wish to express are reaching them or not.”

A writer, Ram adds, must have a conflict or an interaction with the contemporary world. “The writer as well as the audience, is living in the same society. A writer can either write a fantastical, larger-than-life film or about something others have observed or failed to observe in their lives. For the latter, the writer needs to observe life through education, media, literature, the Internet, or even someone on the street; you will also realise what others feel about the films you watch.” These observations influence our ideas about how society is evolving, and it is this understanding that helps a writer choose his method of storytelling, adds Ram.

Director Ram
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharan B

He goes on to explain how even the characters of his films, say, the mother, father and son in Paranthu Po, reflect this ‘audience.’ “These are the same people who come to the theatres to watch a film. The attempt is to see if we can get close to their lives, whether we can find humour, emotion or understand meaning in their lives. How film viewers see life has changed, and so when we observe that change and decide to make a film on them, it means there is an audience within us, isn’t it?” Ram paints.

Ram’s films, especially Peranbu and Thanga Meenkal, feature breathtakingly picturesque locations, often set in the mountains or valleys. “Climbing mountains makes me peaceful, and so does the sea breeze,” says Ram, while reaffirming that Nature is all around us, even within concrete confines. “Even the chair we are sitting in is part of Nature, constructed to suit the physiology of human beings.” But you wonder if there’s something beyond the aesthetic value of these visually striking locales that prompts him to set his stories here. “There are two definitions to this Nature, one that is omnipresent and another that refers to the elements like the ponds, rivers, skies, mountains and the ocean. Now, these places that connect us human beings, creations of Nature, to the air, water and skies, can rejuvenate us. So the places that appear in a film reflect the emotions the characters feel or show them reviving themselves,” explains Ram. I ask him if shooting in such places feels as therapeutic as one can imagine. “Filmmaking itself is therapeutic. When you start shooting a film, you will forget everything else. In a 30-day schedule, you might even forget your family until they call you because cinema can steady your mind, and it happens to everybody on the set. Sometimes, people get entranced while ensuring that the scene comes out right,” says the director.

Ram has made three films since the passing of his guru, the legendary Balu Mahendra. Has he ever wondered what the veteran would have said had he watched these films? “Yes, I thought about that for Peranbu, because it was something that was straight out of his school of filmmaking. If he had watched Paranthu Po, he would have enjoyed it as well since it has some good humour, and I think he would have laughed out loud,” he signs off.

Paranthu Po releases in theatres on July 4