Remembering Writer Sujatha

Saravanan Natarajan writes:

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
falling, like dew,
upon a thought produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions think…”
- Lord Byron (Don Juan- canto III, st. 88)

My facebook wall today is flooded with posts in memory of Sujatha, who passed away this day in 2008. Wielding many pens, he boasted a magnificent sweep of work – his non-fiction oeuvre comprises compelling pieces on technology, philosophy, religion, ancient Tamil literature, encouraging reviews of path breaking efforts of the modern school, ruminations, memoirs…His contribution to Tamil fiction is even more enviable in its infinite variety.. into his short stories, novels and plays, Sujatha inserted themes spanning romance, history, science, crime, fantasies…His prolific works reflect his prodigious genius…. a razor-sharp intellect, keen perception of everyday happenings, well-informed, analytical observations, painstaking eye to detail, usage of simple everyday language, yet in a style that was inimitably elegant, wry sense of humour and an uncanny synchronization with the mindset of current generation at any given time…. Is it any wonder that the giants of Tamil literature, led by the then Chief-Minister and his daughter, turned up in multitudes to pay their last respects to Sujatha?

Besides the hordes of writers, the beacons of Tamil cinema were benumbed at the news of Sujatha’s sudden demise… Director Shankar was at Apollo Hospital, keeping vigil along with Sujatha’s wife all through that terrible night… a grief-stricken Kamalhasan rushed back to Chennai…. Rajinikant, Bharatiraja, Balu Mahendra, Parthiban, Vairamuthu, Vasant, Rajeev Menon, Murugadas and Crazy Mohan were present to share the sorrow…. for they realized only too well that this was an irreparable loss to Tamil cinema… Even Karunanidhi, while recalling honouring Sujatha with the ‘Kalaimaamani’ Award and paying glowing tributes to his writing skills, did not fail to mention Sujatha’s singular contributions to Tamil cinema.

In a well-attended memorial meeting soon after Sujatha’s demise, Kamalhasan unveiled a portrait of the late writer, and spoke on his association with him. In an event marked by the presence of the pillars of the Tamil literary world, Balu Mahendra, Parthiban, Vasant, Satyaraj, Sivakumar, Thangar Bachaan, Vairamuthu, Ravivarman and ‘Pentamedia’ Chandrashekhar represented the sorrowing film fraternity.

In his tribute, Vairamuthu lamented, “oru kadal sattendRu uLvaangi vittadhaippOl uNargiREn…”
Let us travel today on a path that was for most path strewn with thorns and stones for Sujatha
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Around the time Sujatha was writing ‘Kanavu Thozhirchaalai’, his novel based on the tinsel town, his novel ‘Gayathri’ which had appeared in Dhinamani Kathir had already been made into a movie. Startlingly bold for its time, the story narrated the travails of a young woman who is married to a twisted villain in a house full of eerie intrigue. Starring the then upcoming Rajinikant with Sridevi and Jaishankar, the movie ‘Gayathri’ (1977) was the brainchild of Panju Arunachalam who drafted the screenplay and dialogues. It was directed by R. Pattabiraman. Ilaiyaraja’s songs like ‘Vaazhve maayamaa’ and ‘Kaalai paniyil aadum malargaL’ added to the movie’s appeal. Years later, Sujatha would recall how he sat watching the preview of the movie along with Rajinikant and had his first understanding of how a story could be compromised for the screen.

‘Gayathri’ was followed by Panju Arunachalam taking up two more works of Sujatha for celluloid adaptation the following year. The first was based on ‘Anitha ilam manaivi’, a novel that was serialized in Kumudam. A chilling whodunit, the movie was titled ‘Idhu eppadi irukku’ (1978). Jaishankar, Sridevi and Y. Vijaya acted in the movie, directed again by R. Pattabiraman. Screenplay and dialogues were by Panju Arunachalam. Years later, when talking about this movie, ‘Major’ Sundararajan remarked to Sujatha that he had acted in the movie without ever understanding his role. “Don’t worry,” said Sujatha to ‘Major’. “You were only a corpse in the movie!” The movie was a commercial failure. Panju Arunachalam was unfazed though, ‘Priya-la eduthuralaamga’ he said confidently.

And that was other story of Sujatha that Panju Arunachalam made a movie of in 1978, ‘Priya’. One of the many Ganesh-Vasant crime novels, the story serialized in Kumudam revolved around a young film actress going to London for a shooting. Though Sujatha wrote that the actress gets murdered,editor SAP convinced him to bring her back to life. Starring Rajinikant, Sridevi, Ambarish and others, the movie adaptation was shot extensively in Singapore. Screenplay and dialogues were by Panju Arunachalam and ‘Priya’ (1978) was directed by SP. Muthuraman. ‘Priya’ was the first stereophonic album in Tamil cinema and Ilaiyraja’s songs hogged the airwaves. Sujatha, though, was thoroughly disillusioned at the way his story was mangled beyond recognition.

Sujatha’s ‘24 Roobai Theevu’ was made into a Kannada movie “Ondidhwani’ by the famed director Nagabharana- here too the crude, commercial elements that crept into the screenplay to cater to the image of the hero Ambrish filled the writer with disgust. When he was coming out of Kino Theater after watching the movie, he overheard one of the men asking another angrily, ‘Who is the writer of this farce?’. Sujatha covered his face in a muffler and walked away.

Sujatha’s next work to submit resignedly to the Kodambakkam crossover was ‘Jannal malar’ serialized in Ananda Vikatan. An interesting take on the efficacy of the prison system in reforming a convict, the movie titled ‘Yaarukku Yaar Kaaval’ (1979) starred Srikanth, Sripriya and Saratbabu. Veteran Malliyam Rajagopal worked on the screenplay and dialogues, besides directing the movie. Sujatha recalled with sarcasm that he had to search for his story in the screenplay! Music-director K.J. Joy is remembered to this day for that wonderful ode to parenthood, ‘Sippiyin ulle muththaadum seithi’.

Though ‘Gayathri, ‘Idhu eppadi irukku’, ‘Priya’ and ‘Yaarukku yaar kaaval’ were all based on Sujatha’s works, he was not directly involved in their making. That opportunity came soon enough. Director K. Balachandar invited Sujatha to come up with a story on a music ensemble interspersed with the romantic entanglement that the lead singer gets himself into, and Sujatha worked excitedly to come up with a plausible script for ‘Ninaithaale inikkum’. Starring Kamalhasan, Rajinikant and Jayapradha, the movie boasted of exotic Singapore locales and a brilliant album by MSV. With all this, ‘Ninaithaale inikkum’ (1979) did not do as well as expected. A bemused Sujatha narrated his first tryst with cinema thus, “Ninaithale Inikkum' for Balachandar was the first script I wrote for a film. Before that, my stories had been filmed, but I had not played any role in writing the screenplay or dialogue. For 'Ninaithale Inikkum,' I had written a totally different kind of screenplay.

Unfortunately, owing to constraints like star dates, Balachandar did not follow my script exactly. He made several changes and looked at the film as an opera on the lines of Abba. My original script was lively and if it had been faithfully followed, it would have been a model screenplay. Anyway, no regrets and I enjoyed working with Balachandar, his assistant Ananthu, Kamal and Rajini.'
‘Karaiyellaam Senbagapoo’ followed sedately in 1981. Sujatha had come up with a murder mystery against the backdrop of ancient folk songs and folklore this time. Though many including Balumahendra evinced interest in the story, it was Director G.N. Rangarajan who set about making a movie of it. Pratap, Sripriya, Sumalata, Sundar and Manorama were the principal actors. The movie was a flop despite Ilaiyaraja’s songs. Sujatha recalled the movie running for a week in Chitra theater and revealed that the remuneration promised for the project had remained a bad debt forever.

Sujatha was never greatly enthused about his works being filmed. In an interview, he said, “Not only I, no writer has ever been happy with the way his/her stories have been converted into films. Asked to give his reaction after his novels were filmed, Hemingway put it succinctly: "Take the money and run." Sathyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali' is a great film, but the original writer was not happy with it. Hitchcock once said that he would just read the novel he wanted to film, throw away and would never get back to it again during the making of the film.

I am certainly not blaming the directors. It is just that the medium is different. Compared to those who see the film, the readers are a minuscule percentage. Probably my novels would have been read by 30-40 lakh people, but the films were seen by crores. In a medium like cinema where the stakes are high, compromises are unavoidable. They don't affect me. People who have read my novels are unhappy with the film versions, but those who have not read them are happy with the films. That in itself explains the difference in audience tastes.”

Sujatha teamed up with Kamalhasan next, and wrote a story exclusively for cinema, strategically serialized in Kumudam before the movie’s release. ‘Vikram’ (1986) starring Kamalhasan, Dimple Kapadia, Satyaraj, Lizy and Amjad Khan, was a stylish adventure movie set in an imaginary Middle-East country. Sujatha wrote later how the story went haywire in the second half due to various factors- he had to write a fresh episode of the story every week in Kumudam even when the filming was not going as per schedule due to call-sheet issues of Dimple Kapadia & Amjad Khan. To cap it all, Director Rajasekhar abandoned ship midway and Santthana Bharathi directed the remaining part.
Another movie that Sujatha was associated with the same year was ‘Unnidathil naan’. Produced by Sujatha’s friend, the U.S based Shankar Ramani (along with Joesph Enok and Paul Pandian), the movie was directed by Arun Veerappan. Netaji, Shyam, Nalini, Devilalita, Thengai Srinivasan and Mouli were in the cast. Cricketer Kapil Dev made a special appearance in the movie. The story narrated the changes in the lives of two men as a consequence of a bet between two rich friends. Sujatha’s dialogues were simply brilliant. Thayanban had composed two scintillating songs for the movie, ‘Ninaithaal unnaithaan ninaippen’ and ‘Naan unnidathil naan’.

The third movie based on Sujatha’s works to be released the same year was ‘Poi Mugangal’. The movie was adapted from ‘Kaagitha sangiligal’ which had been serialized in Saavi. The story recounted the desperate search of a young woman for a kidney donor to save the life of her husband. SP. Muthuraman commenced an adaptation of the story with Suman and Ambika, but the project was given up. The version that had the Kannada actor Ravichandran and Sulakshana in the lead roles and directed by C.V. Rajendran made it to the screen. The story was a heart-rending account of a young woman’s futile search for a kidney donor to save the life of her husband who is suffering from renal failure. Sujatha brought into the narration the plethora of ramifications that surround a kidney transplant and the varied experiences of hospital life. The reactions, misconceptions and reluctance of even kith and kin to donate a kidney to save the life of a young man in their family showed, with stark candour, how fragile human relationships are.

It was some years before Sujatha next associated himself with Tamil cinema, and the director who made the return possible was Bharathiraja. Enamored of Sujatha’s ‘Raththam ore niram’, the director asked Sujatha to come up with a story set in the pre-independence era. But to Sujatha’s disappointment, Bharathiraja made some major changes in the story, and the movie ‘Naadodi thendral’ (1992) starring Karthik and Ranjita turned out to be quite different from Sujatha’s expectations. Ilaiyaraja’s songs like ‘maNiyE maNikkuyilE’, ‘sandhana maarbilE’ and ‘yaarum viLaiyaadum thOttam’ became hugely popular. Reminiscing on the movie later, Sujatha said, “The original story I gave was about the assassination of a collector and I had put in a lot of effort. But Bharathi Raaja changed it into an ordinary triangular love story set in the pre independence backdrop”. His later collaborations with Bharathiraja- Kangalaal Kaithu Sei (2004) and Bommalaattam (2008) were also disappointing to say the least. Sujatha went on to rationalize thus, “I don't blame the directors for these failed projects. As I told you, the target audiences are different and the directors know the medium better!”

In 1993 came Director Joshi’s ‘Airport’ (1993) starring Satyaraj, bearing some startling similarities to Sujatha’s ‘J.k.’

Sujatha worked with Kamalhasan on the script of the ambitious ‘Maruthanaayakam’, but the movie is yet to be made. In fact, it was Sujatha who suggested to Kamal the story of ‘Maruthanayakam’. He said in this connection, “For the last 7 or 8 years Kamal had been searching for the right story to make a historical. He even had plans of doing a historical musical on the lines of 'Ambikapathi' and toyed with the idea of making a film which had only verses for dialogue. While he was examining so many ideas, I suggested why not we go into immediate past history instead of going to ancient period. It was around that time I came across a folk ballad edited by Tamil scholar Vanamamalai and published by Madurai Kamaraj University. Impressed by the ballad, I showed it to Kamal to find out if it has the potential of a good film. Kamal was initially reluctant, but agreed to go through the ballad. In the elaborate and excellent introduction was a footnote which said, "This Yousuf Khan was originally a Hindu Vellala called Marudha Naayagam. Kamal immediately jumped at it and felt that the story had all the potential of a good historical film”.

In 1998, Sujatha wrote the dialogues for Director Ravichandran’s ‘Kannethire thondrinaal’ starring Prashant, Karan and Simran. During this time, Sujatha worked on Gandhi Krishna’s ‘Engineer’ starring Arvind Swami and Madhuri Dikshit, but though a major part of the movie was completed, it was given up due to various reasons. When Rajeev Menon set to work on an adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’, it was Sujatha who penned the dialogues for the movie ‘Kandukkonden kandukkonden’ (2000). An off-beat movie that Sujatha scripted in 2001 was ‘Nilaa Kaalam’. Directed by Gandhi Krishna, the movie fetched Master Udayaraj the National Award for the Best Child Actor. Sujatha wrote the dialogues for JD-Jerry’s taut thriller ‘Whistle’ (2003).

P.C. Sreeram was the next to try his hand at adapting one of Sujatha’s stories for the big screen. ‘Irul varum neram’, Sujatha’s riveting account of the gruesome horrors of rape and the trauma that its aftermath evokes that was serialized in Kalki was made as ‘Vaanam Vasappadum’ (2004). He also helped in polishing the screenplay and dialogues of ‘Chellame’ (2004). Later, he wrote the youthful dialogues for Jeeva’s college caper ‘Ullam ketkume’ which saw a belated release in 2005.
Earlier, Sujatha had got to work with Director Maniratnam on ‘Roja’ (1992) and this marked the commencement of a refreshing chapter in the history of Tamil cinema. Sujatha’s dialogues added sheen to Maniratnam’s works such as Thirudaa Thirudaa (1993), Kannaththil Muththamittaal (2002) and Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004). It was Sujatha who developed the story of ‘Dil se’ (1998) from a plot narrated by Maniratnam.

Director Shankar’s association with Sujatha dates back to 1996 when Sujatha worked with Shankar in ‘Indian’ (1996). His collaborations with Maniratnam and Shankar gave Sujatha immense satisfaction. In an interview in 1998 he said, “My most satisfying efforts were Mani Ratnam's 'Roja' and Shankar's 'Indian,' though I wrote only the dialogue for these films. 'Roja' especially was a gratifying experience because I participated in all the discussions during its making. For 'Indian,' the director did the thinking, gave me the sequence order and after I wrote the dialogue, Shankar would choose what he wanted.” Sujatha even wrote a primer on the art of screenplay writing titled ‘Thiraikkadhai ezhuthuvadhu eppadi’. Sujatha and Shankar continued their collaborations in Mudhalvan (1999), Boys (2003), Anniyan (2005) and Sivaji (2007). In his last days, Sujatha was working on the script of ‘Robot’, Shankar’s magnum opus with Rajinikant. While handing over the completed script to Shankar, Sujatha is reported to have remarked in jest, "Shankar, I completed my work satisfactorily. Hereafter, there is no tension for me; even the film may well be my last one!"
Sujatha was a whiff of fresh air in the stifling avenues of Tamil cinema. Dhool salutes the unassuming genius.
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Presenting here a song of timeless allure from ‘Idhu Eppadi Irukku’ (Sujatha remarked wryly that even Panju Arunachalam’s ploy of renaming ‘Anitha Ilam Manaivi’ with Rajini’s punch refrain from 16 Vayathinile could not salvage the movie!) My take is, even this song of surpassing magnificence could not help the movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1thQz0vpjp4




Discussion at:
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