INTERVIEW | Sharan Venugopal: The response to ‘Narayaneente Moonaanmakkal’ is validation after the occasional self-doubt

Debut director Sharan Venugopal discusses his debut feature, Narayaneente Moonnaanmakkal.

The first time I spoke to Sharan Venugopal was before the release of Narayaneente Moonnaanmakkal. We talk about how he comes from a family of bankers, his childhood in Koyilandy, studying engineering in Thiruvananthapuram and cinema at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, his National Award-winning short film, Oru Paathira Swapnam Poley and how he cannot reveal much about his debut feature film. And he confesses to being as nervous about his first release as any debutant director would be.  “There is really not much I can say about the film before the release!” he says. We decided to speak again after the release.

When we get on a call, a couple of days after the release, Sharan sounds happy. Most of the apprehensions of a newbie director are gone. And with good reason. Narayaneente Moonnaanmakkal has met with rave reviews and everyone who has seen the film is all praise for his maiden effort. The script is also by him.

The movie is about three brothers who meet after ages as their mother is on her deathbed. It is an uneasy kind of waiting, for the inevitable. In the meantime new wounds are inflicted while the old ones fester, the relationship between siblings suggests a fragility and a vulnerability. Grudges linger under the surface. Alencier Lopez, Joju George and Suraj Venjaramoodu are the brothers, Vishwanathan, Sethu and Bhaskar, who drive the plot. 

There is plenty in the film that Sharan, as the writer, could have gone overboard with but, as a critic said, he shows restraint. It is a mature telling of a story that is relatable as are the well-etched characters.

You know and understand where each is coming from but, as a viewer, you are not forced to judge or take sides. Not when the brothers fight — over ideology or the division of wealth nor when they contemplate putting their mother out of her misery. Their motives are not lofty, they are in fact, sometimes, petty. The brothers’ children meet each other for the first time, we see their journey of self-discovery with growing pains. They unwittingly fan the simmering flames. 

To ‘do you know such people?’, Sharan says, “yes, I know people like these and I have heard of people like this.”

What of the restraint and maturity that shows in the handling of the subject? “That (restraint) was there in the film right from the start. It is perhaps the language of my films, even the smaller ones that I have made over the years. And what you are, perhaps, shows in your films,” says the 32-year-old with all honesty. The decision to turn filmmaker was not epiphanic for him, it was born out of a love of films which grew during his stint at engineering college given the vibrant cinema culture in Thiruvananthapuram, especially with the IFFK.