Many a time protégés of great teachers find it difficult to emerge from the shadows of their gurus. Not so for Director Blessy. Much as he acknowledges the contribution of his supremely talented and revered guru, Padmarajan, he has retained his characteristic individualism.
A brilliant debut with ‘Kaazhcha' in 2004, which won three State awards, was followed by ‘Thanmathra' that won him critical acclaim and a clutch of awards. These were followed by ‘Palunku', (2006), ‘Calcutta News', (2008) and ‘Brahmaram' in 2009, which set a new technical standard.
Early days
With his latest venture, ‘Pranayam', slated for an Onam release, the spotlight is once again on Blessy.
With audience expectations high, delivering something novel each time is tough.
Much as he revels in the comparison, he does not get stifled by it.
There's an interesting tale to his internship with the “gandharva” of Malayalam cinema.
In 1985, on Christmas Day, a young and frustrated Blessy Ipe Thomas gave himself an ultimatum. It was a dramatic, poignant soliloquy much like the ones his audiences would get to see later in his award winning films.
Passion
He set a deadline for success: to end his life if, at the end of a year beginning that day, he would remain without work. Cinema was his passion, film making his dream.
But much like the vicissitudes of life as portrayed in his films, he was recruited by none other than director Padmarajan.
Blessy has never looked back since.
At a dubbing session of ‘Pranayam' he sat patiently, for an entire afternoon, with the voiceover artiste trying to get a single word right. It ended incomplete, only to be taken up the next day and worked on till he was satisfied. “Padmarajan sir was in AIR before he came to cinema. He was a stickler for the right intonation. I have got this from him,” he said.
In his second film, ‘Nombarathi Poovu',(as assistant director) he had, maverick like, gone around with a recorder to the General Hospital to get the right sound effects.
This exacting search for the right word, sound, set, look, gives his films an honest depiction of life. But strangely when it came to writing the scripts of his films, Blessy faced a dead end. Finally he became a script writer quite by default.
It was Mammooty who encouraged him to write. “‘Write just the way you are narrating the story to me, he said'”. He began writing and wrote like a man possessed just breaking in for food. The script of ‘Kaazhcha'was ready in 15 days.
Since then Blessy has been writing powerful, evocative and articulate scripts of his films.
It had all begun with a cinema hall, next to his house that led Blessy into the world of films. Growing up in Thiruvalla, a small town, with his big family of six siblings he observed the day-to-day realities of joint living. This has been his foundation and has provided fodder for his films.
Bold themes
Blessy has attempted bold and daring themes. In the to-be released ‘Pranayam' he deals with an offbeat aspect of love. 0
Quiz him about the reason why ‘Palanku' failed to connect with the audiences and he gets all animated and elaborately defends his point of view. Through that comes out a sensitive, emotionally charged artiste trying to portray intangible realities like, “the smell of money”, “the ephemeral fragrance of joy”, the “permanence of pain”, perhaps complex for a medium like celluloid.
Surprisingly the auteur who has dealt mainly with serious subjects was voted as Best Comedian in an Inter College Competition and also received the Best Actor award at Mar Thoma College in Thiruvalla.
He strongly disapproves of the trend of remakes as unhealthy and a pointer to a dearth of creative writers, directors and even actors in the industry. “What will outsiders think of our cinema”? he asks incredulously, almost embarrassed. Lack of good film critics is a reason, he believes, for Malayalam cinema to lose focus.
His current film is a celebration of love. The director discloses his trysts, as a young boy, when “the girls never got to know about his love. “It blossomed and died in my heart.”
At 47, Blessy is a work in progress.
He now yearns to write a song.
