How techie Hrishikesh Bhaskaran, a VM Basheer fan, turned screenplay writer for ‘Neelavelicham’

For the techie who leads the engineering team for the Entri app, based in Kochi, cinema was only meant for leisure. He did try writing a script along with writer Muhsin Parari for Aashiq Abu though. But the pandemic aborted that plan.

Then one fine day, Abu handed him the 16th edition of the Bhargavi Nilayam screenplay published by DC Books and asked him to read it. Adding that he was planning to make a film. It all started during a casual conversation. Just one of those regular days when Abu used to discuss his ideas with friends to get their input. So, Bhaskaran added his bit. The discussions continued for a while. They kept going back and forth about the screenplay.

When the filmmaker announced the project after four-five months, the first thing he asked Bhaskaran was if he could join his team as an additional screenplay writer. To work in a VM Basheer screenplay was too tempting a bait to ignore. And he was an unabashed fan.

Bhaskaran has an interesting perspective regarding his approach to the classic screenplay. “Any book after it is written is for the reader to interpret. So, he has the freedom to read between the lines. He can go on a tangent about the characters’ past and present. We operated in that space. Basheer’s lines are there but we work between those lines.”

The original had 103 scenes and they were aware that adding any more to make it contemporary would stretch the film further. They wanted the characters to be more detailed though.

Though he saw the film multiple times, the screenplay was his main reference, and thought some minor tweaks could be done. “The screenplay was very rich and multilayered, and one could make so many different films with that one screenplay alone.”

In the original, only the writer is there. Bhargavi is a reference. Hrishikesh having read extensively on Basheer, also discovered during the course of his research that the screenplay had several references from the writer’s previous works (Anuragathinte Dinangal, 1983; Anarga Nimisham, 1946).

So, the conversations between Bhargavi and her lover Shashi Kumar were borrowed that way. “We just need to pick and layer these references and add them to the existing scene order. Very minimal tweaks that way. Aashiq himself has written two-three scenes in the film.”

He admits it is a task to duplicate the famous Basheerian language. But, thankfully, since they are adapting it for the screen, it was about the dialogues falling into a pattern and within the Basheerian vocabulary.

First Basheerian book and getting addicted

The first-ever Basheer writing he read was Pathummayude Aadu (1959), as part of the school curriculum. “Most of his works were written before I was born but still I was able to relate to the characters and their predicament.”

To explain how contemporary Basheer’s works are, Bhaskaran quotes Robert McKee: “Stories is a museum. If you want you can read the Odyssey or Mark Twain and it is waiting for you and every one of those great stories are as valid as it was earlier.”

Of course, in school, it was just a story for him, he recognised the profundity of his works in adulthood. Basheer, according to him, is always a fine introduction to the world of reading. “His resonates even among those who aren’t voracious readers.”

He did write short stories in school but being an IT professional, his writings primarily revolved around technology-related articles. This is his first published fiction.

The challenge was more internal as the thought of vicariously rubbing shoulders with the legends kept running in his mind. “If there is some inadequacy, it is not because we haven’t tried, it is just that we are not able to do it.” Bhaskaran says he agrees with Roshan Mathew who played Sashi Kumar in the film that “we can’t take a claim to this film.”

He is prepared to be censored by the Bhargavi Nilayam fans though. But, at least, he says he has the confidence to fish out the Basheerian source materials if they question certain elements added to the new version.

As for the additional screenplay, he says it’s tricky to explain it. So, it goes something like this. Yes, they have adapted the screenplay, but every scene has some tweaks keeping an eye on the next-gen audience.

He cites an example. “When the Novelist enters Bhargavi Nilayam, we have kept his dialogue to ‘Salaam’ instead of his flowery prose. There are several scenes in the film where Bhargavi and Shashi Kumar are conversing behind a wall. We have condensed that to one scene,” he says.

On the sets and references from Basheer’s works

Bhaskaran was there on the sets every single day of the shoot. He says Abu is a director who won’t lock the script before a shot. That means they have enough time to better a scene or modify an odd dialogue.

“Aashiq’s contribution was tremendous. I got help from everyone on the sets,” he says. The work was “immensely satisfying” similar to organising a youth festival in which you have even helped move the benches and chairs.

Though they don’t call him Basheer in the film, they have embedded the writer in him. So, they are interpreting Shashi Kumar to be Basheer himself. After all, he is also Basheer’s creation, and he always looks inwards for inspiration.

The words Basheer utters to Saraswati Devi in Anuragathinte Dinangal are exactly what Shashi Kumar tells Bhargavi. So, the connection is evident. They have even made sure there is a similarity in their attire, observes Bhaskaran.

Though they haven’t made any changes to Bhargavi, he says Saraswati Devi is there in Bhargavi. That was how they briefed about her to Rima Kallingal who plays Bhargavi in the film.

Anuragathinte Dinangal is said to be a memoir in which Basheer wrote about his love affair with a woman called Saraswati Devi. Legend has it that he first casually jotted it down as ‘Kamukante Diary’ and planned to burn it. But it was his wife Fabi who handed it to MT Vasudevan Nair who published it as a book.

Bhaskaran reasons that since he is talking about Anuragathinte Dinangal in the preface of Bhargavi Nilayam, there has to be some relation.

“That’s why I am saying that I am using that space as a reader,” says Bhaskaran.

Though they haven’t done a major updation to the antagonist’s character (Shine Tom Chacko) who looks one-dimensional in the original, Bhaskaran says they have an interpretation of him as well. When Basheer breaks up with Saraswati fearing the wrath of society and her mother, he decides to isolate himself at Bhargavi Nilayam to get over the heartbreak. That’s why he is lonely, and he is able to understand Bhargavi who has gone through similar heartbreak. It is also clear that except for Chacko’s MN no one has issues with Shashi Kumar. So, they have given a human form to their conflicts in life and that’s how MN came to be. “Maybe Basheer himself will refute this theory.”

Neelavelicham is said to be an incident he experienced. Or it can be a hallucination. Basheer in this introduction has given his nod to the readers to “interpret Neelavelicham in whichever way they want.”

“All his stories had themes that were universally relatable to any era or gender. There was suffering, hunger, fight for basic needs, love,” observes Bhaskaran about Basheer’s draw among his readers.

Which is his favourite Basheer character? “Since every character has Basheer in them, all are my favourites,” he says.