He refused to write about what he did not believe in: Madhupal remembers Sreenivasan
I first met Sreenivasan on the sets of Samvalsarangal in 1985-86. The shoot was in Ernakulam. Back then, I was not part of the film industry as an actor. I was just a cinema lover, someone who went to film sets driven purely by passion, trying to understand how cinema worked. It was a phase when love for cinema alone could take you to any set. What I saw then was a man constantly on the move, running from one set to another -- an extremely busy Sreenivasan. Even at that time, his perspectives were very different. He looked at issues in ways most people wouldnt even think of. Despite his hectic schedule, he spoke to ordinary people without any hesitation. For me, every conversation with Sreenivasan felt like reading a new book. I became closer to him during Vadakkunokkiyantram . From then, I noticed that every line he spoke could only have been spoken by Sreenivasan. The reason was simple: he observed only those who stood firmly on the ground. His life was with them, the common people, and he travelled their paths. Sreenivasan never wrote about anything he did not know. If he felt a story would not work as a film, he would simply drop it. The rest of us might still try, thinking about the advance money involved. But Sreenivasan never worked that way. If he felt something wouldnt work, he never wrote it. He did only what gave him complete satisfaction. That is why films he made even 20 years ago are still alive, finding space even in the trolls of the younger generation. His dialogues connect instantly with people because they come straight from lived experience. Sreenivasan always walked with the people. He was a writer who lived among them and understood them deeply. That is why, whether it was Sandesam or any other film, he never wrote about anything unfamiliar to him. After my film Thalappavu , producer S C Pillai came to meet me, saying he had come on Sreenivasans suggestion. They wanted to make a film with Sreenivasan as the hero. I told them honestly that I could not make a film suiting Sreenivasan on my own. I said I would do it only if we could develop a story together through discussions. A few days later, Sreenivasan called me, laughing loudly. I had earlier told him a lie, that I had tried calling him but couldnt get through. He immediately caught me out. I then told him the truth: I wasnt sure if I could make a film that suited him. Laughing, he asked me, Am I such a big actor? That was Sreenivasan -- simple, ordinary, and completely without pretence. He may have left thousands of stories unwritten, but he wrote only what he was sure of. (As told to Jose K Joseph)
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