Shaji Kailas
Action films are his forteasari

A crisis-ridden Malayalam film industry has heaved a sigh of relief with the resounding sucess of Valiyaeetan, the film directed by Shaji Kailas and starring Mammootty in the title role. There is nothing new for an actor like Mammootty to play a toughie with twirling mustaches or star in films which achieve mega sucess.

He seems to treat box-office successes and national awards in the same manner. However, the industry is abuzz with the success of Shaji Kailas as the maker of mega hits. Aram Thampuran, starring Mohanlal, was his first mega hit. This year he has again shaken the box-office with Narasimham, starring Lal again. Its profits are in the range of Rs 7 crores and the mass euphoria generated by the film is something unheard of. Monay dinesha (Aye son Dinesha), the dialogue used by Lal in the film, was on everyone’s lips ,while the film generated Narasimham dhotis and kurtas. Can Shaji repeat this mega sucess with Mammootty? The box-office collections of Valiyaeetan show that it is a bigger hit than Narasimham. Currently, Shaji is directing Vaanchinathan, starring Vijaykanth and Sakshi in the lead.

Shaji did not start out as a director of action films. He began his career with a comedy like Dr Pasupathi but this film did not give him the much-needed success because Priyadarshan had conquered the comedy film genre. It was the tie-up with story-script writer Ranjith Panicker that turned the wheel of fortunes for Shaji. Ekalavyan, with Suresh Gopi, and again the same team’s Comissioner were two super hits that brought the six-footer Shaji into focus. He adopted the sucess formula of doing films on topical subjects that clicked with the masses and Ranjith Panicker’s fiery dialogues were a hit with the masses. His heroes, whether they were IPS or IAS officers, were not the archetypal charachters who were do-gooders and did not steer from the lawful path. Mammootty, in The King, as the IAS officer and Collector, takes to the streets to bring the corrupt minister to book. He flaunts the powers of the excutive magistrate to overrule the corrupt IPS officer and shows the hollowness of the IAS officers who sit in airconditioned rooms and turn their subordinates into personal servants. It has always been the clash of the good against the bad but his hero has also many negative shades.

With the sucess of Valiyaeetan, the critics were quick to point out that Shaji, after Aram Thampuran, had latched on to a formula of the hero being a member of an upper caste feudal family and his fight against the bad elements in the society. Shaji’s films were full of Hindu temples, rituals and his hero was overtly a pro-Hindu. Why was Shaji not searching for charachters from other religions and castes? Was this a formula to woo the majority community to the box-office? Shaji’s answer to this criticism sounds like the dialogues from his film but this time its spontaneous. “Hindu religion is the most tolerant religion in the world and I can take any liberties with my hero if he is a Hindu. I can stage a fight in a temple and can even abuse our own Gods or rituals and get away with it. If I make a film with a Muslim or Christian character then the community will be up in arms. They will raise so many objections.”

The hero of a Shaji film has many vices even though he fights evil and indulges in superman-like acts which are so unlike Malayalam films or their makers, who are known for giving films which do not affect the sensibilities of the audience. But Shaji has taken films to the level of a Tamil or Telugu film where such heroism is the order of the day.

This trend, which seems to have been accepted by the masses, has sounded the death-knell of good cinema in Kerala, lament many directors. But Shaji has a very convincing answer for this criticism. Says Shaji: “This year, in the first six months only two films have run and others have flopped. I have not donned the mantle of a director who will educate the masses or make films for a certain class of audience. My first priority is to see that the producer who puts in money will make his profit. Next comes the man who puts his hand inside the ticket counter to buy the ticket — in return, he must get his entertainment worth. These are the only two priorities for which I will put lots of gimmicks to dazzle the audience and in doing so I have no qualms.

But if someone says that the hero in my film indulges in superman-type actions, I will not agree because nowhere does the hero of my film indulge in such antics. Did the hero of my film run to catch a falling grenade to throw it back or throw a ring in the sky and catch it after a fight like in Olympian Antony? My film hero has a powerful character which makes him do very powerful acts and the overpowering personality makes the audience think he is doing superman acts. The fights in my film do not defy logic. Real life is even more cruel than what is depicted in my films. Think of that real life incident in Kerala wherein a teacher was murdered and the murderers danced on his body in the classroom. Is not the Mamata resignation drama more bizzare than the incidents in my films?

Today, Tamil films are running in Kerala and we cannot shut our eyes to this changing trend. So we have to keep pace with it because to me only the box-office success of a film matters”.
Shaji feels that those directors who say that Narasimham has created a Rajanikant out of Mohanlal and that the actor will not be accepted in any other role are missing the point. Referring to the comment by Fazil that his film Life Is Beautiful was an attempt to break Mohanlal’s Narasimham image but the actor’s past image was too strong in the minds of the people and they did not accept Lal in a soft role. Shaji says: “I liked the film which has a good subject but Fazil should have added many commercial elements to attract the audience if he was catering to a mass audience or otherwise he should have targetted the film for a select audience.

For an actor like Mohanlal this film is no barrier. He can emote hundred different roles and all I have done is used Mohanlal for his ability to fight, dance, jump. I have not even exploited even one percent of the actor in him. If you give a good film in the right package, our audience will accept Lal. We don’t have a Rajanikant in Kerala. Today I cannot do a film bigger than Narsimham because I have to give this versatile actor a role much bigger than Narasimham. Did not Lal act in Rajavinte Makan, an action film, which was a hit and next gave a hit in Gandhi Nagar Secondstreet, which was a comedy?”

With work in full swing for Vaanchinathan, the first tamil film of Shaji, the mega hit-maker and his writer are to get together again soon to make a film with Mammootty as the rowdy police officer.
As for his critics, Shaji has this to say: “It is with the fullest cooperation of the hero, the writer and the producer, that I have made films.” The implication of Shaji’s statement is that the making of films is not an ego trip for him, that he is very much bothered about the repercussions on the persons concerned with the film he makes.

The repercussions are already being felt with Valiyaeetan set to give around Rs 7 crores to the producer. Nothing sounds better than the sound of cash falling into the ticket counters.

Ayyappa Prasad