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'.

My Next Guest with David Letterman and Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan ha partecipato al programma My next guest needs no introduction, condotto da David Letterman e trasmesso il 25 ottobre 2019. Ieri The Telegraph ha pubblicato Shah Rukh Khan - The Charmer, un resoconto della puntata, redatto da Priyanka Roy, nel quale si legge: 'He’s learning to cook Italian, and we catch a glimpse of the superstar slogging away in the kitchen for Letterman and his crew. He admits that since he’s just starting out, he can make only three things - aglio e olio, pepper chicken and risotto'.

Chander Pahar: locandine, trailer e recensione

Chander Pahar, costosissimo film distribuito il 20 dicembre 2013, è, ad oggi, il campione d'incassi nella storia del cinema bengali. Al botteghino si è comportato dignitosamente anche al di fuori dei confini del Bengala occidentale: a Mumbai, ad esempio, pur subendo la concorrenza del blockbuster Dhoom:3, CP si è difeso bene. La pellicola è diretta da Kamaleswar Mukherjee e interpretata dal giovane divo Dev. La sceneggiatura si basa sul famoso romanzo omonimo d'avventure del 1937 di Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadyay. Le riprese sono state  effettuate quasi interamente in Sudafrica. Trailer. Vi segnalo la recensione firmata da Anjan Dutt, pubblicata da The Telegraph il 24 dicembre 2013:

'Sometimes films are produced for breaking new grounds. Temporary gains are unimportant. (...) Chander Pahar (...) I am certain will change the course of Bengali cinema in the next three years. The most expensive Bengali film till date (...) will inspire if not force the Bengali industry to be more dynamic in scale, thought, courage. And the actual returns of this film will be evaluated by the quality and success of films that will follow Chander Pahar in the next three years. (...) Kamaleswar Mukherjee will go down in history for braving the very difficult journey filled with risk but full of confidence. After a long time a Bengali film made me feel proud. (...) Almost 85 per cent of the film was spellbinding, gorgeous and filled with sheer good taste. (...) With Chander Pahar he [Kamaleswar Mukherjee] enters a different league where confidence and sheer hard work are evident in almost every frame. (...) I only wish editor Rabiranjan Maitra had done away with the frequent slow-mo and ramping, and resorted to just cutting, because they distract you from the pace of the narration. (...) Dev’s almost childlike fearlessness to conquer the unknown heightens the philosophy of the basic text. I was weary of the commercial star till the film started, but through the viewing was convinced that no one else could have played Shankar. (...) Dev combines sheer strength with utter vulnerability that works magic. (...) Dev’s entry into serious cinema succeeds superbly because he simply whacks the ball out of the field. Credit goes to Kamaleswar for using Dev’s vulnerability as his strength. (...) There have been many alterations of the original text, but most of them work immensely because the writer and director make it dramatic and believable. (...) There is so much inherent power in the visuals that a lesser elaborate and more haunting, minimalistic score perhaps would have been apt. (...) But the player who is literally responsible for the victory is (...) Soumik Halder. Here is a film from Bengal where almost 90 per cent of the cinematography is sheer brilliance. (...) Together with the production designer Nomonde Ngema, Soumik works out series of sequences where one does not need to hear anything but just keep watching. (...) To me it looks and feels far bigger than a 15crore project. Far glorious than many bigger budget Hindi adventures I have ever seen'. .