Actor, Screenwriter, film score composer and lyricist in Malayalam cinema, Anand Madhusoodanan opens up to JYOTHI VENKATESH about his career and in this exclusive interview for Filmytown.com
When I meet Anand Madhusoodanan for this exclusive interview at PVR Orion where the Malayalam film Vishesham was showcased during the recent 16th Bengaluru International Film Festival, actor says that he has written not only the screenplay of the film but also plays the lead in the film which also has Chinnu Chandni playing the role of his police officer wife.
Talking about his career, Anand Madhusoodanan says that he had actually commenced his career not as an actor but as a music composer. “I had the instinct to narrate stories. One fine morning, my director asked me to narrate a story for his film Vishesham and when I did, he instantly liked the way I had set out to enact each and every character even while narrating the subject to him”, he quips.
Young Anand is an all-rounder who has also composed the music for the film which is about the travails of a middle aged man named Shyju, who has just got out of a failed marriage but falls in love with a female police officer. The two get married but then that’s when the troubles begin in their lives.
When the director offered to cast Anand in the lead role, frankly Anand was a bit confused but the confidence that his friends had in him made him determined to go ahead and try his luck as an actor. Though Anand confessed that he was ready to take the stress to make a commercial film, his director was confident of making a film without stars as he was impressed with the subject narrated to him by Anand.
Modestly Anand confesses that he does not at all think that he has done his best as an actor in the film. “I pitched the subject to actor Basil Joseph who suggested that I could it better than any other actor. I never thought that I could end up with the offer to play the lead,” Anand confesses.
“It is like you are putting a universe one at a time. You have to think it logically and approach your role. The biggest advantage that I had as an actor was that I knew the depth of the character I set out to play. You have think out of the box when you set out to play a character which you have written for a film.
“I think that I have been a part of the film Vishesham right from the beginning because the seed came from me being the writer of the subject. I love when the audiences come to me after then screening and compliment me because now I feel that I have a face which earlier I did not at all have as just a technician.”
Anand startles you by telling you that he was never attracted to acting and wanted to be someone who is behind the camera. “I was always wondering whether people were giving me false promise because of their love for me. I am now learning something whenever I see an actor on the screen. I do not want to push myself to any particular method but shape my art in my individual manner.”
Among Anand’s favorite actors are Bharat Gopi (he was such a natural actor who did justice to any role that he had set out to play), Nedumudi Venu, Murali, Mohanlal and Mammootty. “I want to be an actor and not a super star”, says Anand who adds that we are going through an evolution as far as Cinema is concerned. Anand says that he is a great fan of director K.G. George who he feels had such a great filmography since he has helmed a few films like Adaminte Variyellu and Panchavati Palam and adds that he wants to be a passionate filmmaker like George.
Anand asserts that he is right now in a stage when he is getting roles which revolve around the same character that he played in Vishesham and adds that as an actor he wants to do films as a measure of EMI especially since h feels that each movie is important in your career though you should never lose the passion for a film. I prefer to get the right opportunity to do a film I love. Money will come to me if I do the right movie.”
Anand Madhusoodanan says that his favorite music composers are Johnson, Salil Chowdhary etc and he wants to be someone like Vishal Bharadwaj and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Right now, Anand has also announced the title of his next Malayalam film. It will be named Vandd which will be a crime comedy. Anand signs off by stating that currently he is also in the process of penning yet another romcom as a writer.
