Part 4

Continued from Part 3

Character study is an important part when fleshing out the screenplay. At every stage during the script, the writer is confronted with the same two questions - why and how. Why should a character act a certain way (motivation) and how should it go about doing it, while remaining true to its mould (consistency). Particularly when dealing with drama, these two questions pose an interesting dilemma to the writer while he moves the pieces towards an important dramatic buildup. He can either choose the option of sacrificing motivation for the consistency (or the other way around), by bringing in a sudden surprise factor or stick with both the motivation and the consistency, and proceed along the tougher road that is less traveled. The advantage in choosing the first option is, it eases the burden on the writer to have to come up with either situations or explanations that would characterize the behavior at that moment, but runs the risk of feeling totally out of place. The latter option, though makes it an uphill task for the writer, yields rich results in the form of realism, truthfulness and sincerity - the hallmarks of great screenplays.

The movie - Acchamillai Acchamillai - an idealist couple strive for the development of their village. As they get drawn deeper into the village politics, the wife remains true to their ideals while the husband starts adapting to the new environment first as the village chief, and then as a local MLA, compromising his ideals along the way. At this critical juncture of the script, the writer has 3 options in front of him - either have the wife strive hard and make her husband mend his ways, or the husband realize his erring ways all by himself, repent his sins and return to his roots, or the most difficult path - the Balachander way - have the husband continue his descent into destructive ways, the wife try in vain to change him and unable to take his wily ways anymore, stab him to death, on the day of his taking oath as a minister, in a public function (Please note the parallel to Pratighatana that was made after Acchimillai). Right amount of motivation, characters consistent to the core and the results - rich, rewarding and realistic. (On a side note, the mere mention of the movie Acchamillai calls for the reminding of one of greatest point of view shots seldom seen on the Indian screens. The husband, who was already lost to the vices by then, walks into the room with the wife nourishing her child in the corner, and starts arguing with his age old father. The camera remains on the wife's face while all the action happens off-screen. As the arguments get heated and the voices rise, the facial expressions on the wife's face change from sarcasm, resignation, irritation, exasperation, before it finally settles on pure horror (when the husband slaps his father hard across the face at the end of the argument). This illustrates the capability of the director to not just go with the words in the script (HUSBAND CONFRONTS THE FATHER, WHILE THE WIFE LOOKS ON), but instead interpret the words according to his vision of how those words deeply affect the characters around. This point of view perspective is one of the most effective tools in the director's tricks bag and Balachander makes full use of it)

Subtlety plays a major role in establishing dramatic moments. While loudness loses the essence of the scene, subtlety elevates the scene and enriches the experience. Subtlety also allows the character to be true to itself without drawing attention to its actions, while placing the burden of discovering the hidden gem (the nuance) right on the audience; to which pat may come the question - why should the audience be burdened with the responsibility of finding these nuances, isn't it the writer's/director's job to be explicit about his intentions? These hidden gems give more meaning and (the so-called) depth to the character and allow the audience to understand clearly the true intentions behind his actions (motivations). Prabhu is a saxophone player and a poet par excellence (Movie: Duet) and is in love with the girl next door. In the classic love triangle formula, his younger brother, a singer, falls for the same person. The girl admires the poet who keeps writing to her anonymously. Fate has it that she mistakes the younger one to be the mysterious poet, leaving no option for Prabhu, but to sacrifice his love for his brother's sake. The moment when the girl realizes that it is Prabhu who was the mystery man all throughout, is brought out in a very subtle fashion, by the use of the same saxophone. While in a song rendered by his brother in the girl's company, Prabhu accidentally riffs into the girl's favorite "anjali anjali pushpaanjali" tune, and before he realizes the slip-up and falls back into the original groove, the girl had already realized that it was Prabhu all along. Just a slight variation in a few notes which does not last more than a few seconds, and the dawn of the realization as clear as the sun. It talks volumes about the capability of the director to convince the writer within him that he would not need the services of the words and that he could employ subtlety to get the point across in a more effective fashion.

Balachander's effectiveness as a writer to come up with poignant situations comlpemented his ability as a director to potray those moments without any loss of information from the paper to the screen. His natural instinct of going against the norm and purposefully looking at the darker corners of life under a microscrope and arc lights, brought to the screen a wide range of issues from female empowerment to community development (in another gem, Thanneer Thanneer), from physical desire (guppeDu manasu) to emotional resonance (Sindhu Bhairavi), for each of which simplistic answers and simplified solutions feel as out of place as any complex or complicated variety of the same. A reputed vocalist (a married one at that), at the peak of his career, allows a much younger, but quite competent, fan to enter his life and share his passion for music. While the rooted emotional connections strive for a deeper meaning in the relationship, she leaves him mid-way, so as not to further s(p)oil his reputation. The devastated musician plunges into pathos, vocally and emotionally. And the interesting quandry (could as well be termed as "the Balachander's choice") springs up again, questioning his emotional support, the young fan, (along with the audience), as to what would be the right thing to do here. Should she go back to him and bring him back to the days of glory (for, she was the cause of it all, to start with), or should she stay away from him and allow himself to get his act together? Balachander's selection of themes revolves around his single minded devotion of raising such uncomfortable questions, for which there are no easy and convenient answers. There are not many film-makers around in the world, who continue to constantly question the nature of human spirit through their works of art, however troubling and however disturbing it might be, in a bid to understand/realize the true nature of our motivations and machinations and K.Balachander, if not for anything else, would at least be remembered as one who dared to put his hand up and ask why.

The End

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