Method in Madness
Actor Ashutosh Rana gets candid about learning the finer nuances of Marathi for Yeda.
Actor Ashutosh Rana gets candid about learning the finer nuances of Marathi for Yeda.
Off-screen,the fear-striking sadistic killer,Gokul Pandit of Dushman or the child-murdering religious fanatic Lajja Shankar Pandey from Sangharsh is a man sporting a broad grin and a handle bar moustache. While his characters depict questionable moral behaviour,actor Ashutosh Rana is a quick wit,pun-spewing person when not in front of the camera.
In the city to promote his debut Marathi film,Yeda,also a psychological thriller,Rana is all smiles as he talks about learning the language from scratch to get the tone right. “Yeda,ek aise insaan ki kahani hai,jiski soch bahut alag hain. Yeda hai par mera hai (Yeda is the story of a man who has a very different thought process. He is crazy,but he is mine).”
Rana,who shot to limelight with his negative roles,points out that Yeda is different in its own ways. “It is a psychological thriller and I play a negative role,but unlike my other characters this is a very grey role. Originally a simple middle-class man,Appa Kulkarni’s world is turned on its head when things start falling out of place for him,” he says.
Describing his character,Rana says,“What happens to an idealist when he falls? He becomes cold and cynical. More importantly,he loses his bearing to a point where he becomes an anarchist of the highest order. And they are dangerous people because they have been hurt and are now choosing to inflict the same pain on others for self-gratification.”
The promos of the film have Rana sporting a conservative Brahmin look as well as one of a cynic with long hair and ash-smeared body. In sync with the role,there are also deep guttural chants and screams signifying his angst. Not willing to give away much of the plot,Rana admits that because of his Maharashtrian wife actor Renuka Shahane,he is familiar with Marathi. “Learning it was another issue though. I learnt to pronounce each and every syllable in the right tone and get the intonations correct so that I would sound natural. It is important. If you cannot get under the skin of the character,people don’t remember it. There is a reason why even after more than a decade people remember Dushman and Sangharsh. Appa’s character will do the same in Marathi cinema too,” he says.
Amongst others,the movie stars Reema Lagoo,Satish Pulekar,Kishori Shahane,Pradnya Shastri and Sandesh Jadhav. Directed by Kishor Belekar,the dialogues are by Girish Salvi.
“Renuka announced last year that people would see me in a Marathi film within a year. I had to keep that promise. I think it was the character of Appa,which convinced me the most — that of an ex-idealist who becomes an anarchist,” he says,the broad grin still playing.
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