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3. Should have the capability to improvise
– Remember the cat that Brando caresses
and the rose that he smells in the first
scene.
4. Should be able to show a myriad of emotions
– pride, arrogance, power, and agony
– all at their best.
5. Should be able to show the distinct change
in voice modulation, body language as years
pass by in the story.
To sum it up all, one must live a Don Corleone,
not act. How can I be so sure that Kamal
checks all these barebones? My answer for
that will be the name of a few characters
that he has played in his films. If he can
live a Velu Nayakar, a Krishnan, a Saketh
Ram, a Nalla Sivam, he can pull this off
with élan.
Michael Corleone – The next important
character in the film. This character would
go on and rule in the next two parts of
the Trilogy but I am talking only about
the first part and I would choose Ajith
for this role. Now this would be a big surprise.
That would probably because not many would
like to see Ajith in Al Pacino’s shoes.
Here is the point with which I would defend
such an argument:
Firstly, The Godfather -I made people take
notice of Al and it is not his best performance
by any means. That blunts out any Al-Ajith
comparisons to being senseless. Secondly,
consider the scenes where Pacino is the
cynosure. There are five such scenes in
all.
1. The hospital scene, where he, as a concerned
son, transfers father Corleone to another
room a la Agni Natchathiram.
2. The scene where he devises, much to the
amusement of the other members of the Corleone
gang, a trap for Sollozzo, the drug dealer
and makes them believe such a plan would
work.
3. The scene where he enacts the plan devised
and shoots Sollozzo from a point blank range.
4. The ‘passing the baton’ scene
with the father Corleone
5. The climax scene where all he tells is
an ‘I renounce them’ when his
plans to settle all family business is being
carried out by his men.
All these scenes don’t involve many
dialogues, which tilts the table in Ajith’s
favor. But these are scenes in which eyes
must be as expressive as they can be and
I find that Ajith can do a convincing job
in these scenes.
To enact Michael, one must be able to show
the transition from being a war hero who
wants to distant himself from the family
business to becoming a typical Don who takes
pride in what he does in the latter half
of the film. That is something that the
director should be able to take care of,
providing the right inputs to Ajith so that
he doesn’t miss those subtle variations.
The best director who can do this would
probably be one among Mani Ratnam, Bala
and Gautham Menon for they have either dealt
with films of this kind (Nayagan, Nandha)
or have a panache of trying to make films
in the Hollywood style (Vettaiyadu Vilayadu).
Now let us take a sneak peek at the supporting
cast. Tom Hagen, Sonny, Fredo, Clemenza
and Tessio are the other main characters
arranged in the order of importance. There
will be a toss-up between Nasser and Prakash
Raj for the role of Tom Hagen. These two
actors can underplay and still command respect
on screen which is essential for that character.
I would go with Nasser, for, that serves
a dual purpose of fitting Prakash Raj into
Sonny’s character. Prakash Raj can
bring all the attributes of the ill-tempered,
thunderous Sonny on screen. Any puny man
who looks incapable can be a perfect choice
for Fredo.
Now comes the two veterans- Clemenza and
Tessio. An automatic choice for Clemenza
would be Prabhu, not just for the bodily
appearance. Just think of the famous Clemenza
verse, “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli”.
I am sure Prabhu can come out with such
a ruthless dialogue in a simple way. Also
the scene where he explains about the gun
to Michael might get us back to the training
scene in Billa.
Another veteran Sathyaraj can handle the
role of Tessio, though it doesn’t
provide enough fodder for his capabilities
as an actor. It would be great to see him
in the role of a betrayer - a good man turned
bad after a long time.
Any good cinematographer would be enough,
for, this star ensemble is self sufficient
to bring the magic on screen and if it is
going to be P.C.Sreeram, the quality will
be taken to a higher pedestal.
There will be no compromise on the music
front though. It has got to be only one
man and we can wait for a few years if that
is what will take to bring him into this
project. The name is Ilayaraja. Only he
can produce a background score in the likes
of what Nino Rota was able to orchestrate.
I would use a Godfather type dialogue (“For
justice, we must go to Don Corleone”)
to stress upon this:
”For soul stirring, haunting background
score, we must go to Ilayaraja”.
A single production house cannot fund this
mega budget flick consisting of a lineage
of stars. A collaborative effort can pull
this off though. Are any producers listening?!
Thanks,
Sivaram.
ucanpostme@gmail.com
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