COLUMN: LOCATION DIARY
Production controller Aroma
Mohan talks about his experiences in the films, 'Thinkalazcha Nalla
Divasam', 'Commissioner', and 'Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (Jagratha)
Photo by Melton Anthony
By Shevlin Sebastian
For 'Thinkalazcha Nalla
Divasam' (1985), director P. Padmarajan made an unusual request. He
wanted a cow to give birth during the shoot of the film. The aim was
to show the pain of childbirth.
Poojappura Radhakrishnan,
who was an assistant to Padmarajan, was given the responsibility.
“Somehow he managed to locate such a cow,” says production
controller Aroma Mohan. “He checked with a veterinary doctor who
confirmed that it was nine months pregnant. Like human beings, they
also give birth in the ninth month.”
The cow, with black and
white skin, was brought to the location at Pravachambalam, in
Thiruvananthapuram. “Padmarajan insisted that whatever time the cow
gave birth, the entire crew should be present,” says Mohan. “After
every day's shoot, we made sure a security guard kept watch, so that
he could inform us in case the labour pains began.”
One day, in the afternoon,
the news came that the cow was on its way to giving birth. The crew
immediately gathered around. “Padmarajan shot the entire sequence,
lasting four hours,” says Mohan. “He used up 800 feet of film,
but, in the end, showed only a few minutes on the screen.”
In the film, Kaviyoor
Ponnamma plays the matriarch, who lives in a large bungalow. Her
children, played by Karamana Janardanan Nair, Mammooty and Ashokan,
have plans to sell the house. “So, that was the significance of the
calf's birth,” says Mohan. “Padmarajan wanted to show that
children forget the pain that a mother undergoes on behalf of them.”
Meanwhile, in the script,
for the film, 'Commissioner' (1994), scriptwriter Renji Panicker
wrote this line: 'In front of the Thiruvananthapuram University
College, there should be a lathi-charge.'
More than a thousand junior
artistes were roped in. There were actual policemen, from the special
armed police camp, at Peroorkada, as well as make-believe ones. A
Circle Inspector (CI) also wanted to take part. “I told him that if
he could stand a little distance away, as we had placed several dust
bombs at different places,” says Mohan. “He said, 'I have seen so
many actual bombs bursting, so what is a dust bomb?'”
Soon, the shooting began.
All the bombs burst, on schedule. There was dust all around. The next
thing Mohan noticed was the CI looking completely black, because he
was covered with dust, from top to bottom. The unit members panicked.
They decided to take him to the Medical College Hospital.”
“After
a check-up, the doctors confirmed that he was not injured at all,”
says Mohan.
But the shoot came to a
halt. And it needed the intervention of K. Karunakaran, the then
chief minister, to enable the crew to do the shoot on another day.
At the Vismaya studio, at
Giri Nagar, Kochi, Mohan pauses, and sips a cup of coffee, before he
launches on his next tale. “For 'Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (Jagratha)',
there is a scene where murder suspects are standing in rows for an
identification parade on an open ground,” says Mohan.
The climax needed to be
finished in one day. Director K. Madhu felt tense. But Janardhanan,
Jagathy and the other actors seem to be laughing at some joke.
Jagathy had a cloth packet in his hand. Madhu looked at them and
shouted, “Silence.”
Jagathy quickly gave the
cloth packet to Janardhanan, who took it instinctively.
When Madhu spotted the
packet, he got very angry with Janardhanan, as it was not relevant to
the scene. But Jagathy kept a straight face. However, in the evening,
when the shoot was over, Jagathy went to Madhu and confessed that the
packet belonged to him. The director gave a knowing smile.
(The New Indian Express,
Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)
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