''I learnt kissing from Kamal sir''

Gokul Sai Ramnath's Vaaliba Raja had the talk of the industry coming down for the audio release. He assisted Cinematographer-Director K.V.Anand during his early days. 

 

K.V.Anand says, "Directors are bifurcated either by the Bharathiraja school or Balachander school. But we, P.C.Sir's assistants claim ourselves to be from Kamal's school. With a list of astounding films to his credit, I would like to date back my experiences from the Thevar Magan shooting days. There was a shot requiring 3000 odd junior artists, but the production executives could find only about 1000. We, the cinematography team with P.C.Sreeram sir were going bonkers to probably use a Tele lens and cheat the crowd. 

The whole set, along with a sumptuous lunch for all the 1000, was ready. But, Kamal sir later came in asking for 2000 more people. Considering the situation and as usual sticking to his diligence, the producer Kamal made it a point to literally cancel the shoot without a single scene being shot for the day, with director Bharathan's approval.

 

Then finally we did the scene the next day with the exact 3000 people.This is an even more exciting trivia from Thevar Magan. It is Sivaji sir's death sequence. Kamal sir has to come running to him and then blast into an outrageous hue and cry. He goes for a pause looking at his dead dad and then breaks down with a pillar to support his grief. To stage this mise en scene, Kamal sir wanted a small background score bit from Raja sir to instigate the mood. So the production team got the BGM played during the shoot. Everybody on the set went in tears seeing his acting except for Sivaji sir, a great actor who couldn't cry because of acting as a dead body. So it is to this level, Kamal sir fervidly prepares himself and executes such timeless vistas. When every aspect of film making quintessentially exists, magic is born. Even now, when I talk of it, I get goosebumps.

 

My team always uses Kamal sir's works for references. If for a Madras slang or even kissing scenes as a reference when we have such series to be shot, we look at his films. How has he done it? The soft and sophisticated kiss or a wild kiss.

In Anegan we had a 1987 period progression to be shot. We were breaking heads on how to stage it. Dhanush was to have a hair style of that particular time frame. Not only being a front runner and leading the industry towards digitalizing the film processing, he was also a visionary to bring up new hair styles, setting trends. He did the 1990s hair style by 1987 itself. So lets go a little back to films like Tik tik tik (which came out in 1981) to have references. That was his calibre.

 

So this team is extremely lucky to have had his gracious presence for the audio launch and also an opportunity for me to stand next to him. This movie's audio and trailer look promising. Gokul is somebody who narrates even the Mahanadhi script genially. During the Ayan shoot, he used to walk off the sets when we had emotional scenes shot. He is such a person, who wants it all happy all the time. I wish him and the team a great success. Thank you all"