As mostly a supporting actor and in small roles, Nandalal Krishnamoorthy, popularly known as Nandu, has acted in dozens of Malayalam films, making his indispensable mark as a solid acting force to reckon with.
It was in filmmaker Ranjith’s hit film Spirit, starring superstar Mohanlal, that Nandu came into the limelight in full bloom as Manian – a role for which he even received the award for best supporting actor at the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA).
Taking a break from the six films that he is currently working in – including PuliMurugan, the big-budget movie starring Mohanlal due for release end of this year – Nandu was down in Doha earlier this week. Community caught up with him for a chat.


You have been in the film industry for three decades. How did this all start for you? 
I was never interested in films. I was the best NCC cadet of Kerala for six years and my ambition was to join the Indian Navy. However, that plan crumbled to pieces due to my vision problems. I then wrote some exams in the hope of joining the travel industry but that didn’t materialise either. Meanwhile, I would frequent the homes of music director M G Radhakrishnan and actor-director Venu Nagavalli, who were my close friends and neighbours, and even sing as part of the chorus in recordings. A lot of film stars would visit there. Another friend, Rajasekharan from Dubai, would tell Radhakrishnan and Venu to put me in the movies. I was 21; a jovial, enthusiastic fellow, who would readily crack jokes. Once Venu asked me if I wanted to act. I agreed. In 1986, I acted in my first film, Sarvakalashala. 
Soon, I had begun acting twice a year, while writing various entrance exams on the side. After a couple of years, I figured this career was going rather well. I wondered, ‘Why must I not choose this as a profession?’ As I began acting in more films, my interest only grew. I sharpened my focus on acting as a career.


What sort of roles did you gravitate towards?
Somehow, I was always called in to play comic characters. My physique was suited for that. You won’t believe if I tell you that it was as if a T-shirt and a trouser were somehow walking around. I was that thin! Like a skeleton. In one film, there’s a close-up shot of my Adam’s apple that moves up and down as I gulp. People looked at that and just fell over laughing. While I was typecast as comic relief for a long time, I longed to do serious characters. But it seemed totally out of my reach. One day, a director told me that the day I stopped doing these goofy roles and take up serious ones, my life will change. I told him that’s what I wished for, too! ‘Don’t worry, there will be such a day’ he said. And that day came when Adoor Sir (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, acclaimed filmmaker) summoned me for a role. That was accidental; it was literally an accident when we met.


How did that come about?
One afternoon, I was driving down in Trivandrum city. The road was empty but for a crashed car parked on the side. I immediately recognised the Blue Honda City as Adoor Sir’s car. On the other side of the footpath, I saw him standing, leaning on a lamppost. I pulled up, went up to him and said – Hello sir, my name is Nandu … I am a film actor. Do you want any help? He declined my offer and told me that he had called the police as he had hit a bike. The boy riding the bike was not serious and is taken care of at the hospital, he said. I then stood with him for almost 45 minutes. We spoke very sparsely because like his films, Adoor Sir is a very quiet man. 
Every 10 minutes, I would ask him shall I drop you somewhere and he would say no. I eventually left. But just before that, he asked me my name, pulled out a little notepad from his shirt pocket and jotted it down. Two days later, I got a call asking if I would like to do a character in Adoor Sir’s film. I almost fell down. I couldn’t believe my luck. The film was Naalu Pennungal (Four Girls) and it comprised four stories. 
I would play the husband of a woman in one of the stories. It was a super serious character. I can safely presume Adoor Sir hadn’t seen my other films else he wouldn’t have cast a comedy fixture like me in that role. But playing that part changed my life. The film wasn’t a commercial blockbuster, but I got noticed by scores in film festivals across India and around the globe. Soon, senior directors such as Siddique, T V Chandran, and Ranjith, began casting me in serious, substantial roles.


Would you say that the film that brought you widespread recognition was Ranjith’s Spirit?
What I would say is that Adoor Sir gave me a rocket to sit on, and Ranjith is the one who lit it. The reason my film career changed is because of Adoor Sir but how it changed is because of Ranjith. Countless people have told me that my character in Spirit (2012) was tailor-made for me. I agree and I am thankful that I could do justice to it. 
The challenge was to play a drunkard plumber. Mohanlal, the hero, is also a drunkard but he is a rich guy who drinks expensive liquor, whereas I play Plumber Manian who drinks the cheapest ones and comes home to beat my wife and children. In fact, back then, the four-minute video clip that shows my daily routine in the film was played to a conference of ministers in Kerala to hit home the ill-effects of alcoholism on poor people. Following that conference, soon, a ban on alcohol in Kerala was enforced.


Did the change in casting result in a shift in your choice of roles ever since?
I don’t say no to any offer. If it’s a small role and only two scenes long and yet important to the film, I take it up. What matters to me is that I play the character as well as I can. Even if the movie doesn’t run, people should tell me that I played my part well. Whatever role I play, I never like to act. I like to live that character and become that character. You need to put yourself in the shoes of the character and focus completely so as to be able to thoroughly involve yourself. I’m a big fan of Jagathy Sreekumar. He has acted in around 2,000 films and we call him the King of Comedy. When I watch him acting, I forget where I am. He is an unbelievable actor. So I try and emulate such actors in how they embody the characters. Observing them has taught me a lot.


So you eventually whole-heartedly embraced acting as a profession?
I used to sleep till late even after the alarm would ring. Many years ago, we were once shooting in Dubai. Actor and associate director Sudheesh came to my room and asked me why I was still sleeping. I didn’t hear the alarm ring, I shrugged. ‘You see, you didn’t hear it because even now, you don’t think of acting as a profession because of which you are earning your livelihood. If you think of it as your profession, you won’t need an alarm to wake up,’ he said. My eyes popped up and those words hit my brain in solid force. From that day until today, I don’t need an alarm. I set the alarm, of course. But if the alarm is set at 4am, I will wake up at 3.50am. Discipline is key. With discipline, things automatically fall in place.


Tell us about your reading of the trends in the Malayalam film industry today.
I don’t like how quite some films today use abusive language. A cop beating a culprit and using abusive words is understandable. Movies today though resort to abuses and below-the-belt humour on a whim, and I feel it isn’t good comedy when you have to rely on filthy words or vulgarity. Fortunately, it’s not the norm. Another trend is that earlier, films would have a huge cast of characters. But these days, there are three or four main characters in a film and the story gets straight to the point. Most importantly, the filmmaking approach today has changed. 
A very small subject can now be the centre of a narrative because how you treat it is what matters. That’s because these directors are growing up on world cinema and reading a lot. We used to have love stories or forced fight tracks, but now, with time, our movies are becoming more like Hollywood movies. Also, technology has changed a lot. Today, we use the latest technology in our industry, from helicams to gimbals, and all of this is boosting the filmmaking process. And of course, this is great for our industry.