For thespian K Gopalan playing a Leftist character in Anamika Haksar’s film came easy | Eye News,The Indian Express
The Malayalam actor on his Hindi-film entry with theatre director Haksar’s debut film Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Ja Riya Hoon, on the luxury of theatre and growing up with a Leftist vision
Lalli, A labourer from Kerala and committed communist, dreams of revolutions, social change and equality among people. In his sleep, he sees himself flying the red flag and rousing the oppressed. After an agent, who’d promised to help him migrate to Dubai dupes him, Lalli is stranded in Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). He works as a loader, and talks to people about justice and inequality. When theatre director Anamika Haksar wrote the character, based on a real experience, for her debut film, Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon, she knew the right actor to play Lalli.
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Haksar had first watched K Gopalan in 1995 when he was performing theatre sketches of Anton Chekhov and Malayalam writers in Thrissur and followed him through several powerful productions, such as Sankar
Venkateswaran’s The Water Station (2011), a two-hour non-verbal play in which Gopalan essays a man who’s weighed down by a load but takes the audience by surprise by breaking into a dance. “He is able to penetrate into the character of another,” says Haksar.
The satirical film merges enacted scenes with animation and weaves dream sequences to create allegories. The story revolves around the lives of people who populate the streets of Old Delhi — migrant workers such as Lalli. For Gopalan, 53, the role of Lalli was a natural progression from the conflicts of his own life. “In Kerala, most people in theatre are from the Left.
Rating: 5