6 interesting trivia from Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain
With Kandukondain Kandukondain turning 21 today, here are some interesting facts about the evergreen drama, starring Ajith Kumar, Aishwarya Rai, Mammootty, Tabu and Abbas, that Rajiv Menon shared with us when the film celebrated its 20th anniversary
Getting all the stars together was challenging
Rajiv Menon says they could never get all the stars together. It took one year to make this film though it was only 15-16 reels. "It was very difficult to get everybody together, but once they came together, it was great fun," says the director.
Rajiv had difficulty casting for Mammootty's Major character
"I had imagined someone like Parthiban, but there was some issue going on between him and the producer at that time. I tried Arjun, but he was doing films like Mudhalvan, so there was no need for him to play one among five characters. I felt Mammooty would be great as this aggressive character and reached out to him. Mammukka was cool and he said OK," says Rajiv.
Tabu and her grandfather's characters are based on Rajiv and his grandmother
Rajiv reveals, "I had a very close relationship with my father’s mother because she stayed in my room after he passed away. I used to spend time talking to her, and the relationship that you see between Tabu’s character and her grandfather is based on that."
Rajiv used his own experiences when writing Ajith's character
"Certain elements of me is in Manohar’s character. One of the scenes that is very close to me is the one where you see the character doing wedding photography. I’d precisely done that in my life," says Rajiv.
Rajiv opted for a natural style of lighting
The visual style was based on the elegant dignity of characters who are living in a plush place, which they are not the owners of and do not have money — classy, but not rich. That treatment exists even in the colours that I used for Aishwarya’s Meenakshi (blues and greens), the ones that I used for Tabu’s Sowmya (earthy and sombre).
Rahman & Rajiv went more Indian, more folk for the songs
Since Rajiv Menon and AR Rahman had explored Broadway and western music in Minsara Kanavu, they tried to explore music that was in a ‘more Indian, more folk’ kind of a zone. "I knew that Rahman had the ability to do great folk music, and it was so beautiful. Each of the songs has a history. The first composition we did was the title song," says Rajiv Menon.
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