Time to talk about unsung heroes: R Madhavan on GD Naidu

CHENNAI: A red super car stops in the front and the driver waves at us signalling to get us in and join him for a drive.

He takes his helmet off which is when we realise its R Madhavan, who is in his element-- a child-like attitude on the race track. After ensuring all safety measures are in place, we ask him how excited he is about G.D.N. “I am. A lot. But let us first hit the tracks before you hit me with your questions on the film,” he laughs. The reason behind that cheerful mischievous grin is because he is all set to press the gas pedal at a whooping 130 kmph in less than 10 seconds. “I love anything that is engineering and I hope you are having fun.

Now, this is what we call cornering,” he says as he does it at 110 kmph. After a couple of laps, he is more excited to take us into the journey of what went behind making into G.D.N, a biopic that stars Madhavan after Rocketry: The Nambi Effect. “These are characters that contributed so much to my life as much as I do for them. GD Naidu was a genius. Apart from being a freedom fighter, he was also an agriculturist, an entrepreneur, an engineer and a scientist. He was a man of many faces without being academically qualified only because his intention was to do good for the people of his country,” he opens up.

Madhavan’s fascination of telling stories about unsung heroes of India after Rocketry. “It is unfortunate that we know very less about these people. I was full of angst when I realised that we have been made to consume things about people of less importance. Also, as an actor such roles give me a lot of scope to hone my acting skills by living their lives in front of the camera,” says the actor.

He in fact, mentions this as addictive because such roles stick on to him even after he is off sets and off prosthetics. “I hope to get new expressions and mannerisms that the audience hasn’t seen me in all these years. And they come out of the film realising that it is Maddy, who put himself in the characters’ shoes in the film. I sometimes panic that they might see a Minnale expression or an Alaipayuthe expression or a Vikram Veda expression which is not right for the film.

Also, when a story or the team isn’t strong enough, an actor gets lazy and tells himself that ‘okay let’s do an expression number 32 and get done with it’. Investing your heart and soul in every scene is hard and demanding as well. So, it is natural that these residual aspects of these characters will stay with us even after completing a project. Sometimes it’s intoxicating and sometimes it’s repulsive,” the National-award winner elaborates.

While many, even Maddy thinks that it is his first collaboration with GDN’s filmmaker Krishna, also an actor, we remind him of Aayutha Ezhuthu scene, where Inbasekaran (Maddy) kidnaps Trilok (Krishna) and gives him a beating inside a van. Maddy laughs and says, “The roles are reversed this time I think because he earned the ability not just to whack me on sets but a lot of respect.

This came about only because of Krishna’s ability to churn out a script.

The pitch itself was not that of a biopic. There are so many things about this guy and the larger-than-life image he carried back in those days. I was skeptical in the beginning but in a podcast Krishna spoke about GD Naidu and the things he wanted to make as a film. It was fabulous,” adds Madhavan.

He was recently conferred with India’s prestigious award, Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of arts. “More than an honour, I see it as a responsibility. I am even more considerate about the kind of roles I choose.

But it is not fair on me as well as the award because I am learning the parameters of judging the kind of roles I used to do. I feel the weight of it and I am grateful for those who recommended me for the honour,” he concludes as he would want to try his machine on the track for some more time.