Sreenivasan was a fabulous actor. But he was even more fabulous as a screenwriter.
When we talk about the greatest screenwriters of Malayalam cinema, the names of MT Vasudevan Nair, P. Padmarajan and AK Lohithadas come to mind. Sreenivasan should also be part of this list.
True, he may not have written the greatest of dramas, romances or fantasy like them, he may not have dealt with so many serious issues, his world may not have been as wide and varied or his plots may not have been groundbreaking, but one thing we must admit: he was a gifted screenwriter and probably no one in Indian cinema understood the art of comedy writing as much as he did. And it wasn’t grotesque humor he wrote.
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He was VKN screenwriters. Malayalam is lucky to get a writer like VKN, a man who made us laugh out loud when we read a book aloud. Much like PG Wodehouse.
Because not everyone is a reader, not every Malaysian knows the genius of VKN. But everyone sees movies. So they know Sreenivasan, though more as an actor, of course.
He has done amazing work as an actor, no doctor – in films like vaDakkunoknoknoknkiyanthram, swapam, thakarachenda and punmuttayduna. But other actors could have filled these roles, he thought he might not be as good as him. It is a swaroopam, or parent mother, that would have been created if there was no actor named Sreenivasan.
However, there would be no Vadakkunokkijanthram. No one else could have written such a script dealing with the psychological problems of an insecure man married to the most beautiful woman. It might not be the most unusual subject, but the script is.
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Thalathil Dineshan’s life story is told through a series of incredibly comical scenes and dialogues that have become part of popular culture (this is the case with several Sreenivasan films). In the script of Vadakkunokkiyanthram, you could see the master craftsman at work right from the opening scene where the hero writes a letter to a psychiatrist in a magazine about his anxieties about marrying a beautiful woman.
The film also marked his directorial debut. He directed only one other film, Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, one of the best feminist films in Malayalam. It was a clever retelling of a film he did as an actor — Swaroopam, KR Mohanan’s brilliant but underrated work.
Sreenivasan’s comic genius was evident in almost every film he wrote, though not all his films could belong to the class of Vadakkunokkiyanthram, Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, Nadodikkattu, Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam, Doore Doore Oru Koodu Koottam, Paavam Mitazhnama, Rajakuma Sandesham or Udayananu Tharam.
And there is an element of the unexpected in the way he wrote the comic scene. For example, just rewind Azhakiya Ravanan, an unusual romantic film directed by Kamal, which failed at the box office despite great comedy and brilliant music by Vidyasagara, who made his debut in Malayalam cinema.
There is a scene where Mammootty leans back and makes Sreenivasan look closely at his beautiful face and asks him, “Do you remember this face?” Sreenivasan asks the hero, who has just returned to his native village, “Have you acted in Hindi cinema?” Mammootty’s face lights up, but not for long as Sreenivasan’s character, a tailor-made Malayalam novelist, explains, “Was he acting like a robber?”
A lot gets lost in translation here, one knows that, but when you remember that scene, you get an idea of what a gifted screenwriter Sreenivasan was. And his ambition was never to write.
He studied acting at the MGR Film and Television Institute in Chennai and took up screenwriting, as he says he was forced to do so by his good friend Priyadarshan, who told him that he could only act if he wrote a script. The movie was Odaruthammava Aalariyam.
Sreenivasan said that he also wrote the screenplay long before but did not take any credit as the story was based on an outdated, over-dramatic story suggested by the director. It was the right move from the man who rewrote the art of screenwriting in Malayalam cinema.
Published – 20 Dec 2025 12:06 IST
