Site icon News Bit

R K Laxman’s cartoons inspired ‘Mandela’ story, says National Award winner Madonne Ashwin

By IANS

CHENNAI: Director Madonne Ashwin, whose critically acclaimed Tamil film ‘Mandela’ won two National Awards at the 68th National Film Awards that were announced on Friday, says the inspiration for writing a story like ‘Mandela’ came from the cartoons of popular cartoonist R K Laxman. 

Talking to IANS, the winner of Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director and the National Award for Best Screenplay (Dialogue Writer) said: “We were very clear as a team as to what kind of film ‘Mandela’ was going to be. We wanted it to be a political satire but at the same time, we did not want it to pinpoint to any particular party or hurt anyone. We had this conviction that we would make a proper film that did not hurt anybody.

“RK Laxman sir’s cartoons were an inspiration in this regard. His cartoons would reflect the political situation without hurting anybody. It would speak of the situation from a common man’s perspective.”

Humour can be a very serious business. Writing a humorous script laced with sarcasm and wit and managing to reproduce it on screen in exactly the manner it was envisaged, must have been much more difficult.

Ask Madonne Ashwin how he learnt to write so well and he says: “I started writing only when I began participating in the ‘Nalaya Iyyakunar’ competition. I began writing for short films. But basically, we had good Tamil films to look at and learn.”

Ashwin signed off by sharing the names of the people who helped him in his creative journey: “I love director Selvaraghavan’s dialogues. I wanted to write like him. That was a big learning. Over a period of time, I wrote the dialogues for ‘Kurangu Bommai’ along with director Nithilan Swaminathan, who is a friend. He asked me to collaborate and it was a fun experience. As I began to write, I learnt the process.”

For all the latest Entertainment News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – abuse@newsbit.us. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
Exit mobile version