Sreekumaran Thampi: âœShe Was a Voracious Reader. It Showed in Her Performancesâ
I first saw Srividya in what is now Chennai. I had gone to see a film with R. K. Shekhar, A. R. Rahman’s father. She was a young girl of 13 or 14. Shekhar told me she was the daughter of M. L. Vasanthakumari and had danced in a Tamil film. He predicted a bright future for her.
Years later, I was making a film for producer Subramaniam Kumar. He suggested that it would be good to cast Madhu sir and Srividya in the lead roles. But there is a history to that which I must get into. Just a year earlier, she had married George Thomas. She had acted in a film called Theekanal and fallen in love with its producer. She had decided that she would not act in films after marriage.
It was only after the wedding that she realised she had been conned and that her husband was not the rich man he had made himself out to be. He was merely a benami for the actual producer of Theekanal. So she was forced to return to films. Around that time, she had also had a sort of face-off with her Theekanal co-star, Madhu sir, and had given a statement to magazines saying that she would not act with him again.
In this scenario, I offered her my film Venalil Oru Mazha. To my surprise, she said she had absolutely no problem working with Madhu sir. I checked with Madhu sir about working with Srividya, and he also confirmed that he had no problems with her. They became very good friends again and went on to work together in many films, including five of mine.
Srividya and I worked together in six films: Jeevitham Oru Gaanam, Puthiya Velicham (a remake of the Meena Kumari-Dharmendra starrer Phool Aur Patthar), Ambalavilakku (the first Malayalam film to be shot in Kashmir), Swantham Ennu Padam and Aakramanam, among others.
According to me, Jeevitham Oru Gaanam is one of her finest performances. She won the Kerala State Film Award for the film. Her portrayal of Thresiamma is unforgettable. We had a slight misunderstanding during the making of the film. After that, I made a statement in a film magazine saying that I would never work with Srividya again. She retaliated by saying, “Sreekumaran Thampi is not Satyajit Ray, so it’s okay if he doesn’t want to work with me.” We had three more films under production, so, like professionals, we completed all our films together.
You see, I was a strict director, and I had certain principles that did not sit well with some people. I recall my first film as a director, Chandrakantam. The actress Jayabharathi did not want to wear the paavada (skirt) I had selected for her. I said, “Nothing doing. You have to wear what I decide.” And that was that.
My son was a child artiste who worked in 22 of my films. I did not let him work with other filmmakers. Anyway, to cut a long story short, in our last film together, Swantham Ennu Padam, my eight-year-old son played Srividya’s son. On the day we completed the film, she requested a photograph with him on her lap and me beside them. She predicted that he would become a good actor. She said something that moved me immensely: “When he grows up and becomes an actor, I’d like to play his mother.” All my anger and differences with her simply evaporated.
She was keen to act in another of my films, Gaanam. However, I felt the role was too similar to her character in Apoorva Raagangal, so I cast Lakshmi instead.
Years later, when my son turned 22, I made a one-hour television film with him. It was called Ammede Magan, a story written by my son himself. It required an actress to play the mother. The story was about a washerwoman whose son becomes a policeman. It was quite moving.
I remembered what Srividya had told me years earlier, so I called her. She was shooting in Munnar at the time. She told me she would take two days out of her hectic schedule and come to shoot for me. And she did! After two days of shooting, she refused to accept the money I offered her. But I insisted that, as a producer, I had to pay her. The film is still available on YouTube. It was also shown in two episodes on Doordarshan at the time.
The last time I worked with her was on the television serial Amma Thampuraatti. When I conceived the character, I knew that only Srividya could play an aristocratic woman of around 45 from a tharavadu (ancestral home).
She was suffering from cancer at the time, though she seemed to be getting better. In those days, Ganesh Kumar was handling her work. I had several differences of opinion with him. I quoted an amount for the television series, but she asked for double that sum. However, I was convinced that she was perfectly suited to the role and was keen that she alone should play it, so I agreed to the remuneration.
The cancer returned, and I could see that she was suffering. Some days, shooting became difficult. But as old-school filmmakers, we know certain techniques to camouflage an actor’s absence. I shot her portions without ever using a body double.
Anyway, we shot around 48 or 49 episodes. She came to dub her portions at the dubbing studio, and I felt she was incoherent. The words seemed to roll off her tongue vaguely. Although she could not tell that she was slurring, I knew something was wrong and asked her to go to the hospital immediately. She was admitted. She never returned.
The next day, I went to the hospital where she had been admitted. A Telugu-speaking female attendant told me that only Ganesh Kumar and I were allowed to enter. I went in and saw her undergoing a blood transfusion. Her face and body had turned black, like the deity at the Madhura Meenakshi Temple. We spoke for a while, and then she held my hand and said, “Thank you for everything.” She knew she was dying.
After the 49th episode, I appeared on camera and told the audience that Amma Thampuraatti was no more. I stopped the serial then and there. I incurred a loss of 8 lakhs, but I could not continue without Srividya.
What I liked most about Srividya was that, unlike many other actors, she was a voracious reader. It showed in her performances. There was something deeply educated about the way she emoted. She read Tamil writers such as Akilan. In fact, when she was shooting with me for a film, she introduced me to Ponniyin Selvan by giving me two books. Thirty-five years later, Mani Ratnam adapted it into a film.
Also Read: Balachandra Menon: “When She Walked, She Had a Dancer’s Grace, As Her Feet Touched The Earth Gently”
