Bharat Gopy has fond memories of the film. The moustache that my character, Ayyappan, sported was real. George made me pose for still photographs in the costumes of Ayyappan and that was it. The entire shoot was in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram (Vattiyoorkavu).
The theatre, the house to which I bring Jalaja, were all located nearby. If my memory serves me right, the name of the studio was ‘Sreekrishna Studio.’
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The poetics of this film, expressed mainly through the highly personalised semiotics of the director, confirms not only Gopy’s understanding of the self-awareness of the handicapped but also his severe self-control and discipline in using every frame, every foot of the film.
Yamanam is not just a dramatization of the plight of the handicapped, its a revelation or epiphany of post-modernist film poetics.
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Following a premonition, Muniyandi returns abruptly and quietly. And as he knocks on the door, he sees a shadow sneaking out of the back door. Maybe Muniyandi has recognised the shadow, maybe he has not, but it does not matter really.
The crucial event is the clandestine visit- after that Muniyandi has no desire to continue living. The next morning, Sankaran is in a nightmarish half-sleep, with strange noises floating around him.
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The rest of the film show Lekha’s developing relationship with Suresh Babu, played by Gopy, the cameraman-director and art-film maker, who is married and has a son. At the pinnacle of her career, after she wins the Urvasi award for her performance in one of Suresh’s films, she elopes with him.Visalekshmi has hysterics and confronts Lekha in heavy, melodramatic scenes. Babu’s wife and son blackmail him emotionally. Finally Babu breaks off with Lekha, who commits suicide.
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Mani Kaul, celebrated film maker interviewed Bharat Gopy in 1979 for the Times of India, immediately after his winning the National Award for the Best Actor. Read the full interview here.
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