The common factor between the Malayali films Sandesam(1991) and Nadodikkattu(1987) is no more. Sreenivasan who part and parcel of both the films has passed away.
It did not matter to the multifaceted man that the two films were on divergent topics. Sreenivasan enacted one half of a jobless duo in Nadodikattu which drew on Kerala’s unemployment crisis while he wrote Sandesam which themed itself on the hypocrisy in Kerala politics.
He also made Vadakkunokkiyanthram (1989) a sharp take on a Malayali man’s insecurities. He need not have been prolific
His place in Malayali films would have cemented by any of these films. Each spoke his class in its own way.
But the 69-year writer-director-actor with a rapier wit was an enormously productive person who wrote and acted in over 200 films. This helped him make his place in the ranks of film makers like Priyadarshan and Satyen Anthikad and actors like Mohanlal and Mammotty.
It was the golden age of Malayalam cinema (1980s-1990). For it was the times when the Malayali society understood and acknowledged its own contradictions through the prism of films.
A perfect actor, Sreenivasan was known for his pitch-perfect delivery in. both comic and dramatic scenes. Arguably, his most lasting impact comes from his works as an author.
He had a knack of expressing the most bitter truths in the most palatable way. Humour was his preferred format
Sreenivasan’s mordant turns of phrase poked fun at Malayalis’ obsession with global politics even as things fester at home. The English language snobbery of the aspirational class was not spared either “How many kilometres from Washington D.C to Miami beach?” readily comes to mind.
Sreenivsan directed only two films, Vadakkunathram and Chintavishtayaya Shyamala for which he won National Award. Both became instant classics in their pitiless and hilarious examination of the male ego.
,These films were made at a time when cinema across the country were loudly proclaiming machismo and ideological rigidity. The oeuvre of Sreenivasan is a reminder of the quiet power of humour and sensitivity.
