Opinion Sreenivasan nudged Malayalis to look at themselves, and laugh

If Sreenivasan had only ever written Sandesam (1991), a satire about ideological hypocrisy in Kerala politics, or played one half of the jobless duo in Nadodikkattu (1987), which drew on the unemployment crisis driving out the state’s youth, or made Vadakkunokkiyanthram (1989), a sharp send-up of the Malayali man’s insecurities, he would have earned a place among the icons of Malayalam cinema. But the actor-writer-director, 69, who died last week, combined his rapier wit with remarkable productivity, writing and acting in over 200 films. This helped him become a key figure, along with filmmakers like Priyadarshan and Sathyan Anthikad and actors Mohanlal and Mammootty, in the “golden age” of Malayalam cinema (1980s-90s), when films became the prism through which Malayali society understood, and acknowledged, its own contradictions.

A gifted actor, Sreenivasan was widely admired for his understated style and pitch-perfect delivery in both comic and dramatic scenes. Arguably, though, his most lasting impact comes from his work as a writer. Sreenivasan had a rare ability to express bitter truths in the most palatable way. Humour was his preferred format, his mordant turns of phrase packing shrewd observations about Malayali life, poking fun at the obsession with global politics even as problems fester at home — “polandine kurichu nee oraksharam mindaruth! (don’t you utter a word about Poland!)” — or the English-language snobbery of the aspirational class, “How many kilometres from Washington, DC to Miami Beach?”

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While Sreenivasan directed only two films, Vadakkunokkiyanthram and Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, for which he won a National Award, both became instant classics for their pitiless albeit hilarious examination of the male ego. At a time when films across the country are loudly proclaiming their machismo and ideological rigidity, Sreenivasan’s oeuvre is a reminder of the quiet power of humour and sensitivity.