Monday, December 14, 2015

Mohanlal : Scene breakdown

Mohanlal is an actor who has inspired me as an actor for years with his brilliance at his craft. One can see all the stuff you leant in acting school being put into action brilliantly by him, though he`s not a trained actor himself ( which doesn`t mean training is unnecessary. He is also trained albeit while working in films on his own. That takes some godly skills ).
        From the people who`ve worked with him to other sources I ve heard multiple stories of how he approaches a scene and  works it out. One can see that naturally and instinctively Mohanlal follows guidelines that bring naturality, shades , depth and a uniqueness to every performance.

One of the most important thing on camera and on stage is the ability to act just with your back (On stage it would be breaking the rule, but smartly and with good effect). In India broadly many people classify acting into expressions (facial), body language (attitude) and dialogue delivery. The fact that it involves much ,much,much more than that is oblivious to the general population and surprisingly to a good number of industry insiders too. Expressions without purpose, body language without a fully rounded character and dialogue delivery without a thought process mean nothing and all this is just scraping the surface of the art of acting. But Mohanlal is an actor who is beyond that.

He breaks down his scene (consciously/ sub-consciously ) so well that one can see it. Case in point the video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdShD27fGI

The scene is from the Tamizh movie Iruvar (Dir :Mani Ratnam)

0:11 - Mohanlal enters the scene with a book in hand and wearing glasses. Mohanlal uses props effectively and when not provided even demands for them. This couldve been the director`s touch or the actor`s addition but the book and the glasses immediately bring in a sense of naturality to the whole scene portraying a normal day where the character was reading his book to be interrupted by his man friday. If he would`ve entered with out the book , it would take away from the dramatic value of the unexpected betrayal by his party to him which succeeds this moment which happens at 0:13 - He drops the book established a couple of seconds ago on hearing the news. . Also the little glance towards the crowd outside increases the curiosity and build up to the news that follows.


0:37 - From this moment onwards one can see only his back. A masterstroke from the director. Watch how his back is arched in disappointment and the pace is slow and a sense of helplesness really hits home to the audience when he rests his hand on the wall and the back continues caving dramatically till he closes the door. What adds more to the scene is the fact that before he turned his back , one could see disappointment in his face but the body was comparatively more defiant not wanting to show his disappointment to his people. But as he turns, his body begins to cave and before he can breakdown he would prefer to shut himslef away from the world ,


In hindsight it might look very minimal and not a big deal. But these small things matter a lot in efffectively convincing the audience and mohanlal knows just the right amount of of projection that is required to bring it out.

Another scene where mohanlal uses his back brilliantly is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1o3b3Drs70

Watch from 1;01 to 1;08 which is a shot from the front and watch him repeat almost similar action at the end from 5;04 to5;10 which a is a shot from the back.

The first one is due to an emotional reaction and the second one due to a physical issue. But both were an unexpected bodily response for the character. The similarity in action also ensured character continuity. Maybe that was not consciously thought of. But if your character is clear in your head all these actions would automatically follow.

Pure genius !



6 comments:

  1. Good observation, Impressive act and same breakdown.

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  2. great observation and points. the link to the second video is missing.

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  3. Thanks guys . Belli - My bad. Link updated :)

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  4. Great observation and wonderful points to be learnt

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