‘I would have never done Koode if I had stayed with Bangalore Days’

Anjali Menon tells City Times what drives her to make movies and why she’s open to criticism

IF YOU ARE yet to watch Anjali Menon’s Koode, there is only one message the director wants to convey: “Please don’t compare it with Bangalore Days.” While the Prithviraj, Nazriya and Parvathy starrer has grabbed eyeballs for a whole lot of good reasons; comparisons with Menon’s super hit Bangalore Days (2014) from certain segments of the audience, have not gone down too well.

“A lot of criticism is because there is a huge carryover of expectations from Bangalore Days,” says the director over the phone in a chat with City Times. “This is a completely different film. I’d like to reiterate that.”

It’s not that Anjali Menon is averse to criticism. She is the first to admit that it’s only through reviews that filmmakers are able to find out if what they intended to communicate has gotten across.

“Today’s audience is so informed that many of the Facebook Posts that they put up are as good as what the critics do. So I really welcome it. Even in terms of criticism it is worthy to read it cause at the end of the day, be it an audience which is watching at the theatre or on television, they all have individual perspectives which form a major opinion, which for us filmmakers is a source of interest.

“When you make a film you are far removed from the audience. Throughout the time as a director I’m playing the surrogate audience, imagining this is how the audience will feel. So at the end of the day it is important for me to know if that is how they see it or not. That’s a big part of being a filmmaker for me – to understand what the audience is responding to.”

But social media is democratic in that it gives space to the genuine commentators as well as the ones who just want to cause mischief. How does Anjali react to that?

“I really appreciate criticism where people have taken the time to write it out and be constructive,” Anjali reiterates. “Of course there are people who say things just because they want to say something. But I would judge from the language a person uses as to what their intentions are,” she explains. “That clearly gives me an indication whether it is something I should take on board or not.”

“Language and tone is very important. I pay specific attention when I’m talking or conveying something, so that’s what I’d expect from others as well.” Touche.

Reinventing herself

From making her directorial debut with Manjadikuru in 2012 to sharing writing credits for another hit Ustad Hotel in the same year to giving off a hit with Bangalore Days in 2014, there is no doubt that everything Menon touches has a tendency to turn to gold. And there is a reason for that.

“I had several offers to do Bangalore Days in Hindi but I did not want to,” she tells us. “It doesn’t make sense for me to do yet another Bangalore Days.

“I’m trying something different in Koode; a different narrative, a very different mode…

“If I had stayed with Manjadikuru after I’d gotten lovely responses for it, I would never have done an Ustad Hotel.

“I would have never done a Bangalore Days if I had stayed with Ustad Hotel.

“‘I would have never done Koode if I had stayed with Bangalore Days.

“In every film it is important to some extent to reinvent oneself – and try something different.

“So far in my experience it has only done me well.”

There can be no doubting this reasoning of hers, if one goes by her career so far.

Menon who is venturing into the publishing world as an editor, a role she is pretty excited about (she wouldn’t tell us more except to say it is an interesting narrative for her to pick up after her films), credits the Malayali audience for the golden age the film industry is going through currently.

“The audience is open to different concepts now. They are willing to look at new narratives, new content…,” she tells us.

“People are actually going to the cinemas to watch movies and that makes the biggest difference in the world,” she explains. “Because at the end of the day you may have made a masterpiece but if no one is watching, what’s the point,” she asks.

“At the end of the day if an audience interest is not there in the film, that is in many ways a dampener.”

“So it’s the audience interest and the different content which is very exciting at the moment.”

“There will be multi factors but this is the most important one. This is what makes everyone in the food chain sit up and take notice. Nobody can any longer predict this will work and this won’t. There are typical movies which people go and watch and say, ‘I’m not sure this will work’, that are totally doing wonders… it’s getting unpredictable and that’s what’s wonderful.”

So what drives Anjali Menon as a director to do movies? “I have a short attention span. So the subject has to interest me for a sustained period of time, only then do I do it….

To wrap it up what is it that Anjali Menon holds close to her or koode in her journey? “My heightened sense of sensitivity,” she responds immediately. “That is my biggest strength and my biggest weakness.”

Judging by Koode, we’d say it is the former.