The Vineeth Sreenivasan Filmmaking Primer

At The Helm Of Affairs

He made his debut as an actor and singer before he turned director, but it is in this last role that Vineeth Sreenivasan has truly found his calling, writes Neelima Menon.

ON the face of it, there is nothing particularly path-breaking about Malarvaadi Arts Club (2010). A group of friends — headed by a fiery, idealistic Prakashan (Nivin Pauly, in his debut) — hang around in their small town, indulging in some harmless fun. One of them becomes famous and it leads to a petty conflict, followed by the usual disputes and redressals. But the film was a winner at the box office. Maybe it had something to do with the year in which it was released — coinciding with the onset of Malayalam cinema’s feted New Wave. Or it had to do with the youth finding a realistic representation of themselves on screens that were hitherto groaning under the weight of superstars’ alpha male projections.

It is strange because MAC — heavily inspired by Dil Chahta Hai and Chennai 600028, by the debutant director’s own admission — was mediocre. But it also meant that the said director, Vineeth Sreenivasan, son of legendary writer/director/actor Sreenivasan, and an actor-singer himself, had found his true calling. With direction, Vineeth finally enjoyed unprecedented success.

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COMING OF AGE

The Vineeth Sreenivasan Filmmaking Primer

By Neelima Menon

For all those who thought MAC was merely a stroke of luck, Vineeth’s sophomore directorial outing dispelled that myth. Thattathin Marayathu (2012) not only gave Nivin Pauly his biggest career breakthrough but also introduced a fresh cinematic grammar to Malayalam films. A simple, conventional inter-religious romance story between a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl got a cheeky, entertaining restyling under Vineeth’s hands. The language laced with humour and irreverence, the candy floss romance, and the characters who had a refreshing relatability, all landed well. What was striking was the spin he gave to the concept of male bonding. There is no powerplay between Vinod and Abdu — in fact, it is to the latter that Vinod runs in an emergency, and in return is offered “odd life lessons”, making their relationship rather unique and significant. The friendship is as vital as the romance between Vinod and Aysha in the film.

“Vineeth is a diehard romantic and that’s what you see in Thattathin Marayathu. You can see significant aspects of his personality in his films, his love for his family and friends,” notes Ganesh, director of Anandam, who previously worked as Vineeth’s AD.

In retrospect, there are a few regressive ideas that Thattathin… propagates. Apart from the superficial romance (which is still forgivable considering the age of the lovers), there are disturbing concepts about Muslim women and their virtue (“a veil should cover a woman’s chastity, not her dreams!”).

No one would have prophesied a mystery thriller coming on the heels of a film like Thattathin…, but that’s exactly the genre Vineeth goes for in his third film, Thira (2013), with a plot revolving around human trafficking in India. Set in Goa and Mangalore, the narrative follows Dr Rohini Pranab (Shobana) who shelters trafficked girls, and Naveen (Vineeth’s brother Dhyan Sreenivasan making his debut) who is searching for his kidnapped sister. While the shaky camera and grey colour tone keep the momentum going, even more interesting were the representations: Thira’s perhaps one of the earliest films in which a trans person wasn’t caricatured. The judicious use of non-Malayali actors added authenticity to the depictions.

Two years after Thira, Vineeth scripted Oru Vadakkan Selfie (dir. G Prajith). The second half is quite haphazard, but what keeps it together is the camaraderie between Umesh (Nivin Pauly) and Shaji (Aju Varghese) — it seems like an extension of their friendship in Thattathin Marayathu. “I need to love the characters before writing them. It’s only when you are emotionally invested in the characters that you start to love them. We don’t know them initially; they develop and soon seem like real people. After a point, we start loving them. We can also hear what we have on our minds or sometimes just listen to what they say and simply copy that. Oru Vadakkan Selfie, for instance, I wrote from the brain. I only thought of what Dhyan would say and then the humour organically came,” Vineeth told this writer in a previous interview. Another interesting relationship is the one that ensues between Umesh and his father — despite how conventional the father is, Vineeth lends a mirth to his flare ups that crack you up too.

Jacobinte Swargarajyam, based on a real-life story and shot entirely in Dubai, tracks a rich Malayali businessman (Renji Panicker) who gets swindled by his business associate and it falls to his son (Nivin Pauly again) to bail him out of his debts. In typical Vineeth style, the conflicts are dealt with lightly, without quarrying into the nuances of the trade and opting for a quick, convenient closure.

Jacob’s family follows the patriarchal setup, where the men make money and the women are the caregivers. In hindsight, that’s a belief system that consistently plays out in Vineeth’s films. So the scene where the mother comes out of her domesticity and gives a dressing down to a businessman — that’s the most agency you can expect for a woman in his films. In Hridayam, the two women in protagonist Arun’s life, Darshana and Nithya, are around to facilitate his coming-of-age arc. Though they are shown to be independent women, their lives eventually orbit around Arun (played by Pranav Mohanlal) in one way or the other.

Hridayam borrows from Vineeth’s stint in Engineering college, and witnesses Arun’s coming-of-age journey, from his student years to fatherhood. Though the first half is breezy enough, capturing the fun, romance and heartbreak of college life, the film falters when it ventures towards more pressing issues. Arun’s shift to marriage and fatherhood is mostly superficially written, with farcical attempts to address the gender dynamics in marriage. The film made over Rs 50 crore at the box office despite releasing during India’s second COVID-19 wave.

“I think Vineeth is very sincere when it comes to storytelling. There are no other agendas. He’s not fussy about stars or about playing to the gallery. He will tell a story that is deeply personal to him. As simple as that,” observes Ganesh.

Actor Aju Varghese, who was his college mate and later debuted in MAC, takes pride in being a member of the “Vineeth Sreenivasan School of Filmmaking”. Aju later assisted Vineeth on Jacobinte Swargarajyam, and realised being an AD was no piece of cake. Basil Joseph, director of Minnal Murali, also started as an AD, with Thira. “I can relate to Vineeth’s films — they are commercial; the humour is very grounded and relatable. We are also the same age. And he has a reputation for nurturing fine talents. It’s not easy to get an entry into his school of filmmaking. I earned the experience of 2-3 films with Thira,” Joseph told this writer in an earlier interview.

In contrast to his direction, it took some time for Vineeth to find his groove as an actor. Though he dabbled in a lot of diverse roles, it was Mukundan Unni Associates (2022) that really turned the tide in his favour. Directed by Abhinav Sunder Nayak (who worked as an AD on Thira, apart from editing several films), the film saw Vineeth easily slip into the psyche of the greedy and wicked lawyer Mukundan Unni who can calmly watch his rival plunging to his death, after he slips a snake into his car.

For Vineeth Sreenivasan the filmmaker, who swears by sweet romances and happily-ever-after endings, Mukundan Unni was unchartered territory. And we hear Vineeth took a while to say yes. Surprisingly, Vineeth’s instinctive naivety lends an edge to the character’s deviousness. His voiceover, narrated in a honey-satiny soft tone, is forbidding. He followed it up with a memorable performance in Thankam where he played the responsible, pleasant and efficient Kannan, a gold broker. Look out for the heartwarming camaraderie he shares with Muthu (Biju Menon) and you know that the actor has truly come of age.

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