I wish I was 30 years younger, says writer M Mukundan while talking about movies

‘Mahaveeryar’, a movie directed by Abrid Shine and adapted from the story by renowned writer M Mukundan, is running successfully in the theatres. The satirical drama is now the hot topic in Mollywood. Writer M Mukundan talks about his universe of words and cinema.

From script to movie

Abrid Shine called me up one day and told me that he was looking for a story with freshness. I told him a few stories that I had in mind. Those were threads from stories I had written before. Later I understood that he was looking for a plot that would complement the modern way of filmmaking, which is how this story was born. The two of us sat down and talked about the movie. Abrid Shine wrote the script himself as I was writing the script for another story, ‘Auto Rickshawkarante Bharya’ (wife of an auto rickshaw driver).

The making

Story and cinema are different. It is often heard that when a movie is adapted from a book or novel, it doesn’t do justice to that work. Most writers are plagued by ego. It could be the problem that surfaces when their story is depicted in a way different to what was written by them. But we are going from words to visuals. The writer must be able to accept that to traverse from the world of literature to cinema.

Nivin’s performance

I love Nivin Pauly’s acting. I noticed him after seeing his performance in the movie ‘Action Hero Biju’. Nivin also works methodically like Abrid Shine. He keeps the quality of not acting in too many movies all at once. The best thing about him is that he devotes his entire time to something once he has committed to that.

Auto Rickshawkarante Bharya

‘Auto Rickshawkarante Bharya’ gives me much happiness because I wrote the story and script for that one. This movie too will soon hit the theatres. Sometimes, I wish I was 30 years younger. I could have worked more actively then. Scriptwriting is not easy, it is very difficult at this age. A writer is independent in the world of literature. I want to pen scripts for more movies.