Upcoming projects
Chemical bond and material density of fabrics, the impact of weather on cloth... Aadujeevitham found Stephy Zaviour delving into scientific principles
Kamal Haasan is currently in a mental zone filled with political and campaign ideas. His focus is on the general elections that will take place in Tamil Nadu on April 19. With his political avatar hogging the limelight, the cinema personality Kamal Haasan has currently taken a backseat. But just for the next month or so. Because, after that, Kamal will start shooting for Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life, a muchawaited collaboration for Tamil cinema fans. There’s more in store, as Kamal tells us in a candid chat at The Hindu office in Chennai during a recent visit.
◣
We have completed both Indian 2 and Indian 3. Postproduction is happening on the former now, and the postproduction on the next part will follow. The shoot of Thug Life will kickstart soon after my election campaign. I also have a guest role in a film titled Kalki. at
Naveen Chandra and Sunaina in stills from
SPECIAL
ARRANGEMENT
YKamal Haasan office in Chennai. JOHAN SATHYADAS cop has taken a back seat, with audiences liking better the offbeat cops like the ones Naveen played in Ammu or Jigarthanda Double ◣.
Naveen credits the directors for writing such characters that are close to reality. “All these characters wear khaki, but each character has its own unique good and bad traits. For Ammu,
somewhere it became like a reference from real life because I have seen people do that. Jigarthanda was complete madness. Inspector Rishi is a very layered, intellectual character and I feel so proud to have gotten the opportunity to play this character,” says Naveen.
Sunaina
In Inspector Rishi, Sunaina plays a forest guard named Kathy. “Playing a forest guard was quite a new experience because I didn’t know what that job entails,” she says. Having observed the Tamil industry for over 15 years as an actor, and having ventured into OTT even before the pandemicinduced boom (in Nandhini’s Nila Nila Odi Vaa in 2018), Sunaina has seen how the writing of female characters has evolved over the years on the big and small screen. “A change is certainly happening, and I am also seeing more audiences demanding such a change. The audiences are telling the writers and directors that such and such actors deserve betterwritten characters.”
She adds that though change is happening in films to some degree, OTTs have always been a good place for good character writing. “Credit goes to creators like Nandhini who started writing and making series. They knew that one can’t live life without the women around them.”
Kanna Ravi
Kanna Ravi plays a pious subinspector named Ayyanar Moorthy, whose journey, he says, is traced through how he helps Rishi crack the case. Choosing such roles is a conscious decision to avoid typecasting, says Kanna. “I like acting because it breaks the monotony. I want to see myself in different roles with different looks.”
Inspector Ravi is now streaming on
Prime Video
Manjummel Boys ever before or since Aadujeevitham, has costume designer Stephy Zaviour ever given serious thought to the chemical component or the material density of the fabrics she used. “In the past, I have used fabric without thinking about their chemical bond. Resul Pookutty sir wanted to know it lest the rustling of polyester fabric interferes with the sound recording,” she reminisces. Working on Blessy’s opus ranks top on her list of films she has been part of.
The research was tricky. There is no photograph of Najeeb during his ‘goat days’. “Nobody has ‘seen’ him when he was living in the desert. What we know is what Benyamin chettan has written and Blessy sir’s visualisation. I hope the picture of Najeeb that Blessy sir has (shown through my work) and that of how people have imagined him meet.” She had not read the novel by Benyamin then but knew enough of it from what her mother, an avid reader, had told her.
Old photographs and videos were sourced from photo studios for accuracy. Although films based in the 1980s90s are being made, and costumes designed, this film, Stephy says, needed precision and attention since Blessy is a stickler for detail and perfection. It was reassuring as well. “There would be no goofups
Nbecause he would check everything.”
Most of the costumes worn by Najeeb (played by Prithiviraj Sukumaran) while in the desert, are handsewn.
“Everything ages differently in a desert. The garments show the movement of the story and the passage of time. The audience will see Najeeb in the same garment over a period of time. But it was not just that one piece, there were multiple thawb or thobe (the longsleeved, anklelength garment worn by Arab men) of the one
Prithviraj wore. The stains, the tears, the ageing — all of which had to be uniform in every piece. A lot of effort went into the film’s costumes.”
A question about the shoes is inevitable. “The shoes are also handmade. Blessy sir sent me a drawing of the shoes with specifications: the look, the wear and tear. It also had to convey the difficulty of wearing it in a desert,” Stephy adds.
The chemistry of fabric
Stephy calls Prithviraj a nonfussy, thorough professional. “He wore the same costumes for over seven years, the same dull and dirty thobes without complaint.” She was back home
(Below) Prithiviraj as Najeeb; (left) Stephy Zaviour. THULASI KAKKAT AND SPECIAL
ARRANGEMENT
in Kerala in 2020 by the time COVID19 struck while the crew was stuck in Jordan. “I left because I was the only woman on the film’s crew and it was not easy. There were etoilets and other facilities, but it was tough.” Stephy is grateful to her three assistants — Sanooj, Rafi and Zulfi — who have stuck with her since 2017, the year the film’s preproduction started.
“Back then I had not done as many films, I was, perhaps, the juniormost and among the most inexperienced on the sets but Blessy sir never treated me like that.” To this day she wonders why he picked her, curious as she is, she hasn’t mustered the courage to ask him either. “I am not sure I want to know the answer!” she says laughing. While Stephy recently turned director with
Madhura Manohara Moham,
she has designed costumes for films such as Ishq, Joseph, Guppy, and Jana Gana Mana.
Stephy describes
Aadujeevitham as a onceinalifetime film. “I don’t think I’ll spend seven years on another film. It is a lot of work — ensuring continuity and taking care of each pin, needle and piece of fabric. Each little thing, we (the costume team) have to take care of. It is mind boggling to think of the distance my box of costumes has travelled: from India to Jordan and Algeria and back.”