In today’s take, Filmfare’s Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai writes about the quiet magic, warmth and relatability that made Sathyan Anthikad’s cinema timeless.
In his words:
Movies are meant to take you outside yourself and yet reveal truths about yourself. It’s this interior-exterior pull and tug that characterises most of Sathyan Anthikad’s films. So, while TP Balagopalan MA (1986) and the Gurkha in Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986) deal with the ever-changing job scenario (or the lack of it), it’s their relationship with their loved ones that often defines them.
Family, then, is a major preoccupation with Sathyan Anthikad. Those families are ties that bind us together as in Veendum Chila Veettukaryangal (1999) or tear us down as in Sasneham (1990) or Thalayanamanthram (1990). Movies that a generation of us school-going kids were hooked on in the 80s, and perhaps dictated our own personal moral codes.
With a screenplay soulmate in the genius of Sreenivasan, Anthikad gave us movie magic. Mohanlal’s humour in Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986), Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam (1986) or TP Balagopalan MA (1986) is that bittersweet reminder that despite every problem the common man is beset with, he takes it on the chin and fills the vacuum in his life with mirth. I’m often tempted to draw parallels with RK Laxman’s common man and the pithy one-liners that Mohanlal’s characters mouth in Nadodikkattu (1987) or Pattanapravesham (1988).
That chameleon actor Mohanlal is a perfect voice to Anthikad’s humanitarian concerns of the disintegration in societal values and falling family structures. The actor-director duo were joined at the hip. They spoke the language of laughter. And together they were mirroring a society in transition. It’s almost as if Mohanlal’s characters had jumped off the movie frames and walked into an everyday office. He was that real.
If humour doesn’t save the day, then there’s always love to fall back on. The beauteous Shobana in Nadodikkattu (1987) and TP Balagopalan MA (1986). I especially refer to the Vaishakha Sandhya song in Nadodikkattu (1987) (which symbolises every middle-class man’s yearning for a beautiful wife and stable profession). Hope floats in the form of the charming Karthika in Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam (1986) or Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986). Go through the grind, it’s all going to be good at the end of the day, the director seems to assure us.
A director is probably as effective as the actors at his disposal. Ergo, KPAC Lalitha, who’s been the cornerstone of many of Anthikad’s films. She, with her thespian status, is that summer breeze on a cold, cold day. How an actor elevates a scene to monumental levels is displayed by her, especially in Anthikad films like Veendum Chila Veettukaryangal (1999) and Kanalkkattu (1991). Her bickering with Innocent and her final scene with Mammootty, where she asks him if she can keep his wedding chain, are the stuff of gooseflesh-inducing moments.
Like Lalitha, Anthikad harnessed the services of stalwart actors like Thilakan, Oduvil Unnikrishnan, and Sukumari, besides the fabulous Urvashi, who also did the trick. Sample her comeback line in Malayalam to Jayaram in a tense scene in Mazhavilkavadi (1989) after speaking continuously in Tamil, “Njangal Malayalees aanu.” That throwaway line, like many others in his films, is the Anthikad signature. The ability to extract humour in the most exacting situations. It’s almost like there is hope even in the most hopeless situations. You just have to find it.
And by God, we found it in his movies.
Post the 90s, some sort of creative malaise took over the Malayalam film industry, and one did see the director out of his depths. Perhaps older collaborations weren’t working or maybe the stars had just moved on.
A classic example of that somewhat diminished magic is seen in his most recent Ennum Eppozhum (2015), which is at best a half-baked recreation of the Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986) romance set in a modern context. Context is important, but then so is reinvention and adaptability. And somewhere our great director faulted.
But Anthikad has left us with a legacy of movie images and memories to last us a lifetime.
More than anything, on a hard day, when scenes of Mohanlal with his umbrella in TP Balagopalan MA (1986) or his kukri in Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986) come to mind, a smile forms on the curve of your mouth. An Anthikad movie is like laughter is the best medicine.
Also Read: Hridayapoorvam BTS Video Highlights The Unspoken Bond Between Mohanlal and Sathyan Anthikad