Kay Kay Menon: I come from the believable school of performances

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Kay Kay Menon a Priyanka Roy, pubblicata da The Telegraph il 31 marzo 2020. I come from the believable school of performances: Kay Kay Menon:

'Special OPS is unanimously being praised for its plot and performances, even being hailed as a landmark in the Indian web space. Are you hearing similar things?

I can’t really recall anything specific, simply because the response has been so huge and so overwhelming. To pinpoint one is very, very difficult (laughs). The quantity of accolades has been too much. Overall, I am very humbled by the response. We knew that we had made a good series, but this kind of a response was unexpected. It’s a very pleasant feeling.

Himmat Singh is a great character to play in the way he’s written, flawed yet upright and invested with so many layers. Was there a trigger point that made you certain that you wanted to do the part?

I think the trigger point was Neeraj (Pandey) coming up with a series like this. We have known each other for a long time now... 16 years. So when Neeraj told me that he was doing Special OPS and wanted me to play the lead, I had no qualms in saying ‘yes’. It’s more of a trust thing, you know. After that, of course, I read the script entirely. I began from the first episode and I simply couldn’t put down the script till I finished it. I realised that this was tremendous writing, a tremendous screenplay, and all we needed to do was to execute it well.

You have played shades of Himmat Singh in various other characters in your films. What was the biggest challenge of playing a man whose gut and intentions are scrutinised and doubted at every step?

I don’t look at parts as challenges... I categorise them as interesting and uninteresting. The thing is that I play people, I don’t play roles. No two individuals are the same, but two roles can end up being the same. So, say I play Mahesh the cop and Suresh the cop, I will play Mahesh and Suresh as people and not as cops. In Special OPS, I played Himmat Singh, who is, as a person, different from Rakesh Maria (the real-life Mumbai top cop that Kay Kay played in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday). The institutional values are perhaps the same, but the individuals are different. I look at roles as being very limited and, of course, limiting. There are perhaps only about 25,000 roles... lawyer, cop, doctor, terrorist... whereas the kinds of people out there are limitless. For me, Himmat Singh was a person who not only had to maintain a balance between his home and work, but his real character comes through in how he handles himself and his professional life during the inquiry. He had to put across his point without disrespecting his seniors who are conducting the inquiry and that, for me, was interesting because one stands the danger of becoming slightly heroic in nature and then losing it all. That balance was tenuous but interesting for me as an actor.

When you play a person, do your core values have to resonate with that of the man you play or as an actor, are you open to being every kind of man on screen, even if their values are different from yours?

No, I have to strongly believe in every character I play, even if he is an evil person. You cannot carry your personal ego or values into a character. I have to surrender my ego completely and be loyal to who I am playing. Only when you do that, then the person you play becomes believable for the audience... otherwise you end up faking it. If you think you are playing a villain, then you start playing a villain. I know that’s the trend, but that’s not how it’s meant to be done (laughs). That’s why I tell people that when I am playing a villain, then between ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’ don’t mess with me... because I don’t know how I will react! (Laughs) Kay Kay Menon doesn’t exist at that time, it’s only that man I am playing. Basically, I come from the believable school of performances. If you have to make things believable on screen, then you have to be that person... there is no alternative or shorthand to that. That also allows the actor in me to improvise because I am completely driven by the person I am playing. It’s not Kay Kay Menon being smart. (...)

You’ve been in the business for 25 years now. Would you say this is the most exciting time in the Indian creative space, given the wide variety of roles being written and the presence of different platforms to tell one’s story?

I think so. I come from the time where there were no such opportunities... there was no Internet and hence no digital platforms (smiles). I see the young actors of today being given so many opportunities, which we didn’t have when we started out. It feels good to see that. Now, if you are on social media, you can become a star... if you have some talent, that is (laughs). I am glad that opportunities have opened up for this generation, be it artistes, writers, singers, everybody. It’s a good time because it also ensures that the standards go up because there is competition. At the same time, there is also the danger of diluting the quality. It happened with Indian television. It started off as a wonderful medium, we spoilt it... completely! We have to be careful not to do that with the web.

Is there a difference in how you pick your roles now as opposed to how it was a few years ago?

The medium doesn’t bother me... as long as the camera is there, I am fine. Apart from that, it’s difficult to pinpoint how I choose what I choose. It’s about the moment, you know... you read something, you like it, you fall in love with it and you want to do it. It’s simply the feeling of, ‘Okay, this needs to be done’. There is no clause or rule that I follow, it’s an overall subjective feeling. It’s a lot like love, for example. It’s something that you get attracted to at that point of time and say, ‘Let’s give it a try’. And many a time, it fails also... it’s not a foolproof method. I have failed more often than not, but you need to go in with that intent and positivity. (...)

Your Twitter timeline is dominated by fans saying how much they want to see more of you on screen. Has less always been more for you?

That’s not been a conscious decision. People tend to think that I have a plethora of offers at every point of time and that I am being choosy. I am choosy, of course, but that ‘plethora’ doesn’t exist (laughs). Of what’s offered to me, I skim through and do what appeals to me. The offers are definitely not as much as people assume them to be. Sometimes, the industry works in strange ways, I really can’t comment on that. But within the limits of what’s offered to me, I sort of pick enough stuff'.

Le prime del 2 ottobre 2015: Talvar

Presentato in prima mondiale al Toronto International Film Festival 2015, Talvar è diretto da Meghna Gulzar, figlia del celebre regista, poeta e paroliere Gulzar. Nel cast Irrfan Khan e Konkona Sen Sharma. Vishal Bhardwaj firma la sceneggiatura e la colonna sonora, oltre a collaborare alla produzione. La trama si ispira ad un fatto di cronaca realmente accaduto nel 2008, il duplice assassinio di una ragazzina di nome Aarushi e di un domestico. I genitori della ragazzina, due dentisti, furono arrestati con l'accusa di omicidio. In Talvar la storia viene narrata da tre differenti punti di vista, compreso quello dei genitori di Aarushi. Trailer. Curiosità: lo scorso gennaio era stata distribuita un'altra pellicola sull'argomento, Rahasya, diretta da Manish Gupta e interpretata da Kay Kay Menon.

Vedi anche Toronto International Film Festival 2015

Kay Kay Menon: 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema

Ieri è stato distribuito Udhayam NH4, film tamil diretto dall'esordiente Manimaran, interpretato da Siddharth e da Kay Kay Menon (al suo debutto a Kollywood). Vetri Maaran ha collaborato alla sceneggiatura. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Kay Kay a Shobha Warrier, pubblicata da Rediff il 18 aprile 2013. Kay Kay Menon: 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema:

'What was your initial reaction when Vetri Maaran and Manimaran came to you with the script of Udhayam NH4?

The first time I met Vetri and Mani, I found that they were contemporary film makers, modern in their thinking and not orthodox in any sense. They had a unique sense of cinema. So, that was quite exciting for me and made me say 'yes' to their project. (...)

What impressed you about the story and the film-maker?

It has to do with the film-maker and not the story. A simple love story can be made into an interesting film if the film-maker can think differently. For me, the film-maker is more important than the story. What impressed me was his extremely modern way of thinking about cinema. The conversation I had with the film-maker was very interesting. (...) Only someone who thinks out of the box excites me. (...)

What kind of films do you believe in?

I believe in cinema! Unfortunately, 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema. Only marketing works here. Even the item songs in these films are an extension of marketing. (...) You must have certain integrity to make cinema. Unfortunately, in 90 per cent of cases only the marketing mind of the director works and not the creative mind. 

Has your idea of cinema changed over the years?

Certainly, it has evolved over a period of time, as you see more films and work in more films. Once you are working in films, you learn a lot more about cinema. It is connected to your thought process and like any thought process this also evolves after a period of time. After 16 years of working here, now I have a clear idea about what is cinema and what is non-cinema. (...) Where lots of money is involved in film-making do you see marketing governing the film. 

Many film-makers say that unlike writing or painting, a lot of money is involved in the making of a film, and it is necessary that they get the money back.

I don't agree with this argument. Nobody can use that as an excuse to make trash. Money can be used for a good purpose as well. That is a lame excuse for those who have no talent but have money. But if you have talent, you will use money very well and for the uplift of cinema. Like you can use money for eradication of poverty, you can use money to remove the poverty of mind in cinema. I feel it is the duty of the film-maker to try and uplift cinema and the mindset of the audience. If you give only trash all the time, the mindset of the audience also will not change. They will never evolve into good cinema viewers. (...)

Is the satisfaction you derive from cinema more important than money?

It is to do with legitimacy. You can earn money in any way but you have to have peace of mind too. What I do is only with good intention. That is more important than earning money for me. Fortunately, good cinema has increased in Hindi. So, we can have some hope that audiences are maturing.

Once you started acting in Udhayam NH4 were you happy with the way it was made?

I was very happy with working in this film. While making the film, we were evolving every day and creating new things. A genuine moment has no expiry date and this film has many genuine moments. 

What exactly impressed you about the way the film was made?

The whole process of thinking out of the box impressed me. It is like if you give a simple story to a mediocre film-maker and a brilliant film-maker you will see how different the films will be. You see a brilliant film-maker blossoming in front of you, improvising and growing. In the case of this film, once we started shooting, it went up by 10-15 notches.

Do you understand Tamil well?

I understand Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi but I can't read and write them. My policy is that I work only in films the language of which I understand even if I can't speak it. If you don't understand the language, you will only be mouthing the dialogues the assistant director tells you. Then, you will only be a dummy kind of actor, which I don't like. 

Was it enjoyable to shoot in real locations?

Shooting in real locations gives you a lot of possibilities. For example, the script may say the Jeep travels in one direction, stops, and the driver looks in one direction. Now, when in a real location, there are so many possibilities that you can use, like a dog running in front of you, or a tree or trees in that area. You will improvise according to the location and that becomes an interesting feeling for an actor.  

What kind of an actor are you? Do you internalise the character?

All acting is internal; there is nothing external which, according to me, is hamming. Even if you are playing a loud character, that is also an internal process. Each actor has a way of internalising. 

Has any character you played refused to leave you?

I let them live their own lives. I call them back whenever I require them! It's all about exploring your self. And I enjoy the process. Most actors are fake and they get away with hamming because of marketing. It has nothing to do with what you do in a film; it's all about marketing. 

Are you against marketing?

I am not as long as it doesn't intrude into cinema. I am also not against item numbers if it has something to do with the film. But if it spoils the film viewing, I am not for it. You cannot adulterate a film by forcing item numbers etc into it. A marketing guy cannot enter into the film; he can only be outside the film'.