Comic genius Sreenivasan. Review on Sreenivasan

One early morning, during my walk, I happened to see Sreenivasan on the walkway in Coimbatore. Extremely delighted, I shook his hands, but he whisked away. Poor man, he missed a meeting with a great fan of his. Yes, He is one of my favourites of Indian Cinema. Though I know nothing about his background, I remembered I saw him first on the screeing of P.A.Backer's 'Manimuzhakkam'in a small role. He appeared in comedy roles in many Malayalam films, but when I came to know that he was a scriptwriter for many films by Priyadarshan and Sathyan Anthikkadu, I began to watch him keenly.

Starting with silly comedies in the company of Priyan and Mohanlal, he gradually matured with social issues but with loads of humour. I will give a very shortlist of films I loved most from his entire filmography. 'Balagopalan M.A.' dealt with the aspirations of a middle class youth, who is bound by the family ties, and his desire to get settled with a house and wife.. 'Sanmansullavarkku Samadhanam' was a satire on the R.C.O.P. Acts where a landlord suffers to eject out the tenants out of his house. 'Gandhinagar 2nd St.' was another comedy, in which the unemployed hero impersonates himself as a Nepali Gurkha, and gets the job as a security in a colony. It was out and out hilarious. 'Vellanakalude Naadu' was the story of an aspiring civil contractor and his ordeals in executing his works and passing bills. The hero (Mohanlal) confiscates the Road engine, which belonged to the Municipality, through a court order and what follows is a laugh riot; they even have to engage an elephant to move the immobile engine.

'Nadodikkattu'was a super hit in which the two bumbling heroes, land up in Chennai by boat, thinking it is Dubai, thanks to Mamu Koya who claims he transports youths to Gulf without visa. The heroes run through various adventures and become CID officers. This film's victory churned out two sequals 'Pattinapravesam'which was equally hilarious and 'Akkarayakkarayakkarey'a damp squib.'Mukundetta Sumithra Vilikkunnu' was plagiarised from Sai Paranjpe's 'Katha'. 'Thattan thattiya Tharavu' was the story of an shrewd goldsmith, who is cheated by his lover and her parents. 'Varavelpu' criticized the trade unions' grip over small entrepreneurs and how a Gulf returned youth gets frustrated and defeated in Kerala surroundings. He buys a bus with its route and the problems he face are showed in humour and pathos. In 'Midunam'a small biscuit manufacturer is harassed by red tapism and dept. of environments and the Electricity Board. He is advised that he should connect his factory with the backwaters through underground pipes,which may run to a hundred kilometres to dispose his factory waste, which are nothing but sugar and wheat. In 'Paavam Paavam Rajakumaran' , a poor simpleton is cheated by his friends, that he is loved by a girl and how he falls prey for their gags is the rest of the story. There are plenty of films like 'Maruvathur Kanavu', 'Vidyarambam' etc., written by him.

In recent times, he is changing to a bit to urban style. 'Ayaal Kathayezhuthagayaanu' is such a film, in which the hero is a writer of pulp fiction and the heroine a psycho Tahsildar. The first half was a laugh riot while the second half sagged. 'Udayanaanu Thaaram'narrates the story of an aspiring film director and his fraud friend who becomes a hero by stealing his filmscript, and the movie had real class. Sreenivasan excelled in the role of a Matinee idol and Mohanlal the director. And just yesterday I saw his recent 'Bhargava Charitham-Moonam Kandam' the story of an underworld don who trembles when he handles weapons and the crazy psychiatrist who is engaged to cure him. The movie is an example of how the standard of Malayalam films is going down. The songless movie has a lot of fights and less humour and a real let down for Srinivasan fans like me.

Apart from scripwriting Sreeni is a popular comedian in others films and it will be impossible to list his good films in this limited forum, but certainly Aravindan's 'Chidambaram'should be noted in which he played a serious role opposite to the great Smita Patil. K.G.George used him frequently in his films.

Sreeni directed only two films and acted as hero in them and both were tremendous hits and award winners. 'Vadakku nokki yanthram' told the story of a young man who writes frequently to the psychiatrist coloumns in magazines, and his love for his newly wedded wife. His inferiority complex and unlimited love towards his wife, leads to mental unstability. It was both hilarious and mind provoking and brilliant.

His next film 'Chinthavishtayaaya Shyamala' was the story of a young girl married to a carefree, wreckless and irresponsible husband played to the core by Sreeni. How she tackles the situation and wins form the rest of the film. The character of the hero was well etched out. He is ready for adventures, interested more in business than his job as a teacher; His father and in-laws persuade him to go to Sabarimalai on pilgrimage, to shed his vices, but he returns as a sage, and to bring him to normalcy they have to wage another war.

His screenplays are loaded with situations taken from real middle class lives and his characters are lifelike. Village tea shop owners, office clerks, Tehsildars, Tailors, middle school teachers, Goldsmiths, conductors, priests, cheats, thugs, contractors, electricians, cattle brokers, Trade unionists, petty politicians with red diaries and 'Desabimani' in their hands, Abkari contractors, astrologers and alcoholics are all sculpted as characters in his films. Mohanlal was the hero in most of his films and the roles were tailormade for him. Mammootty and Jayaram acted in a few films. And excellent artists like Thilagan, Innocent, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathi, Jagatheesh, Oduvil, Mamukoya, Janarthanan, Murali, KPAC Lalitha and others had choosy roles in Sreeni's scripts.

Comedians are serious people and Sreenivasan's contribution to Malayalam Cinema is simply not based on humour, but on relevant social issues.