Mahanubhavudu starring Sharwanand and Mehreen has been wrapped up but director Maruti is in no mood to take a break. With its post-production activities in full swing, he has also begun writing the script for his next, with Naga Chaitanya in the lead. There is also London Babulu made on his home banner and directed by Chinni Krishna, releasing in October. Maruti talks about how the idea of sketching the character of Sharwanand in Mahanubhavudu germinated and more.
Bhale Bhale Magadivoi showed the protagonist suffering from forgetfulness, Mahanubhavudu also deals with limitation in the hero’s personality; he suffers from OCD — an obsession for cleanliness. Was it conceptualised about during Bhale Bhale...?
“Not really. I usually pick ideas and concepts that surround me. This is about a man who likes everything to be spotless, something more than neatness. Earlier there were no tissues in our lives. But now we are giving a lot of importance to it as our concern for hygiene has grown.
We have turned so sensitive and conscious that we don’t go near people who cough or sneeze. This has led to distance in relationships. If someone is sick we avoid going near them instead of showing care and concern. Be it in the villages or the cities, this ‘ati subhram’ is causing rift in relationships. This is the message in the film.”
Isn’t he creating a clichéd Telugu hero with a disorder? Maruti says there are disorders that one enjoys and there are some that we avoid. “If I show the hero as losing both his limbs, the audience won’t enjoy the story, they won’t accept the disability. Even though you intersperse it with comedy, it is on our mind constantly. Chinna lopam untey preminchataniki panikirara?We empathise with him.”
In Mahanubhavudu, Sharwanand apparently uses a tissue to ring the bell in a temple. He wants to be neat and he expects the world around him to be neat. If someone shakes hands, he cleans his hand immediately and you get offended wondering if your hand was really that dirty.
The director stresses that once you watch the film, you will be reminded of such stuff that happens in real life. After a lot of research on a number of disorders, he zeroed in on Germophobia. He quips, “This is a big disorder. There are others too. For instance, some people keep checking if the door is locked, we rush to the kitchen to see if the stove is switched off, to check the car doors though it is locked. Such people don’t concentrate on anything else. .”
The director says he did watch a few films as research before embarking on Mahanubhavudu. North 24 Kaatham starring Faahadh Faasil was one of it, the film didn’t deal with OCD completely. Some others he saw was As good as it gets, Friends, another Korean film and Hangman. “I wanted to discuss the concept and found all of these films. I wondered if we could really make a film on such disorder. There are people who see the pluses and minuses and our goal is to enjoy the minuses while weaving an entertaining story around it. It is not easy to write a story on disorders. Showing the deficiency for two and a half hours could put the audience off, we should know how much of it should be utilized to drive the story.
Maruti thinks he did a far better job with Mahanubhavudu than Bhale bhale... He has no doubts it will be Sharwanand’s career best role. It breaks the image of Sharwanand as an actor who has a settled, unhurried style of behaviour and is good at emotional scenes. In this film he entertains you right from from frame one to the end.He adds, “He wears clothes that have a tight fit and are in layers, he fears that if you wear lose clothes..dust settles in it. He is familiar and in control with his surroundings in his house but once he steps out — things go out of his grip. It is a beautiful love story with OCD involved in it.”
Finally he says he enjoys the role of a writer and a director more than being a producer. Since he is in a better position, he wants to give opportunities to talented writers, he adds.