The Tovino Thomas Interview

'My Characters Are Not Perfect Or Ideal'

With his film 2018 being named India's official entry for the 2024 Oscars, Tovino Thomas chats with Subha J Rao about his journey in Malayalam cinema, and how he stays grounded amid fame.

THERE’s Tovino Thomas the actor, and there’s Tovi the person. People might or might not like a performance by the actor, but rarely will you find someone who has a problem with the person. “Oh Tovi, he always returns calls”. “Oh Tovi, he is never dismissive in his answers”. “Oh, Tovi; you’ll get a good conversation”.

And they are not lying. The actor is as real as one can get, taking a break to say hello to someone who’s walked into his home, and does not shy away from revealing his belief systems and conviction in issues concerning humankind.

He’s self-effacing to a fault. There’s a hugely popular video clip in which Tovino recalls how a fan rushed up to him, bypassing Dulquer Salmaan, and how he was just getting ready to preen when the person called him “Unni Mukundan” and hugged him. With zero malice, Tovino pretended to be Unni for the elderly fan.

During the August 2018 floods that wreaked havoc in Kerala, Tovino was among those who tried to make life as comfortable as it could be under the circumstances for others, helping carry provisions to the relief camps and more. Until a journalist discovered just who the young man — clad in shorts and tee, sporting a visored cap, carrying a bunch of nendran bananas in one hand and a carton of biscuits in the other — was!

Two years later, when Tovino the actor met with an accident on the sets and was hospitalised, there was an outpouring of care and concern for Tovino, the person his audience has come to deeply associate with and love.

Almost everyone who has crossed paths with the actor, whose 2018: Everyone Is a Hero is India’s official entry to the 96th Academy Awards, speaks of how lightly he carries his fame and success. Much too has been said about the seminal movies he is a part of. But this interview is an attempt to understand what drives Tovino the person, who in turn influences the actor in him.

In 2018, you are this person with a backstory, yet also someone who puts himself on the line for others. How did you go about playing Anoop?

I usually like to focus on my reactions. I like to design them, working with someone who knows the theory of acting. It need not be the same acting coach for every movie. I also work with someone who knows or is someone similar to the character I am to essay. If I’m playing a cop, I’ll speak to one to get the minute details and reactions right. I work with people who can help me essay a version of themselves on screen with a certain believability. Hollywood does it, so why not us? That way, every reaction is rooted in the movie’s reality. I did that for Anoop, like I did it for the other characters I’ve played and the ones I am playing now.

ALSO READ | The Jude Anthany Joseph Interview | 'I Always Have A Back-up Plan; That's How I Pulled Off 2018'

You’re big on technique. How do you work on it?

I like to focus on technique. I look at new movies and old classics. I read theory. I definitely watch a movie or two every day. Or, I’ll watch something on the technical aspects of cinema, which will eventually help an actor some day. I was an assistant director and I like to learn about such aspects. They help me understand a performance better and I think help me contribute better to a film.

Doing all these things makes my work easier and happier. I do a lot of homework, but it is more targeted than random. That way, I get more out of it.

Read The Interview

From Commissioner To Kannur Squad, How Malayalam Cinema's Cop Films Came Of Age

Amid Kannur Squad's success, Neelima Menon revisits Malayalam cinema's notable depictions of cops and how these celluloid portrayals have evolved over time.

THERE is a moment in Roby Varghese Raj’s Kannur Squad when ASI George Martin of the Kerala Police is told by his senior that since they are low-ranking officials, they don’t have the provision to arrange flight tickets for his team to travel to Uttar Pradesh for nabbing the men accused of assassinating a local politician. George listens from the other end of the phone, tonelessly responds with an “Okay sir,” vexingly passes on the message to his eager team, and then stares at their Tata Sumo and muses, “This is our fifth cop.” What’s significant is that the ASI is played by Mammootty, an actor and a superstar who has slipped into countless (roughly 35) cop characters in his four-decade-old career. More than the numbers, what’s impressive is the actor’s willingness to play various shades of a designation that’s usually depicted in binaries in cinema. That too, with such nuance. In fact, if you simply take the actor’s trajectory of cop roles in Malayalam cinema alone, it can perhaps draw us towards the evolution of celluloid cops from the ‘80s till now. Perhaps Mammootty is the only superstar in Malayalam cinema who has played the different gradations and rankings of a cop.

Mammootty’s blazing, righteous, profanity-spewing Circle Inspector Balram in Avanazhi (1986) can be attributed as the ‘archetype’ that led to a legion of angry young cops in Malayalam cinema. That was clearly the inspiration for script writer Ranji Panicker while moulding the character of Police Commissioner Bharathchandran, played by Suresh Gopi, in Commissioner a decade later. Not only did Commissioner elevate Gopi’s market value, but also made the actor synonymous with cop roles in Malayalam cinema for the longest time. Since the characters came at a time when narratives were primed around alpha-male heroes, Suresh Gopi’s cops could leverage the situation. Be it Mohammad Sarkar (FIR), RD Nayanar (Janathipathyam), Easo Panicker (Crime File), DYSP Ashoka Nariman (Nariman), Antony Punnekkadan (Twenty-20), or DCP Joseph Vadakkan (Christian Brothers), save for the different plotlines, his roles in khaki largely stuck to the same template — brash, angry, upright officers who wanted to take on the world. And the actor failed to bring any variations or hues to his characters. In hindsight all the characters he played later were cut from the same cloth as his most popular cop avatar: Bharathchandran.

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