An actor is an actor irrespective of the medium: MS Bhaskar

Bhaskar’s best performances over the years among many others are from Azhagiya Theeye, Mozhi, Brindavanam, and Kaatrin Mozhi from Radha Mohan’s directorial. “I don’t know if he keeps me as his obvious choice when he pens the characters. His faith in me has been immense which is why I believe he gives heavyweight characters like Annachi from Azhagiye Theeye or a professor from Mozhi or a widowed man from Brindavanam. Even in Kaatrin Mozhi I would have played an unpleasant widower, which was different from Brindavanam. So, I can reciprocate it by delivering a neat performance. He narrates it in such a way that it creates an impact in me and wouldn’t leave my mind or my heart soon,” Bhaskar starts off. He says that will be another milestone role in his career. “I play someone who has raised the heroine, who comes to Chennai and stays at the lead actors’ place for a few days. The incidents are narrated in a very comical manner. I cannot give away too much. He told me about the character only once. The name of the character is Mannargudi Narayanan and it has come out well,” he pauses.

While it has been a norm in Tamil cinema to design promotional posters with heroines for glam purposes, Malaysia to Amnesia has MS Bhaskar with Vaibhav in its posters. According to the veteran, directors like Radha Mohan and Gautham Menon among others are flag-bearers of change in Tamil cinema. “Be it Radha Mohan or Gautham Menon or even several other directors in Tamil cinema, with all due respect have brought about changes in the way we watch cinema. To deserve a place in a promotional poster, one has to be a good enough actor to be recognised also the prominence of the role too plays its part,” he adds. MS Bhaskar entered the audience household as Pattabi with the television soap Chinna Papa Periya Papa in the 90s. Talking about raising the standards from there on, Bhaskar says, “That was originally a character who was supposed to grace the screen for four weeks and leave,” he laughs. He addresses the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi as Kalaignar appa and adds, “Kalaignar appa called up Radikaa Sarathkumar and asked who this person is. She said told him about me and said that my character will be around for four weeks. It was appa, who insisted that my character has made a mark and should continue. That is how the innocent Pattabi managed to stay there for a few more episodes. Coming from a dubbing background, I played Pattabi with conviction. Be it acting or dubbing, I believe in delivering 100 per cent.”

Bhaskar is known to have a flair for Tamil dialects. Be it Madras baashai or Madurai Tamil or Tirunelveli Tamil, he has mastered the art. “You wouldn’t have seen me in the same body language in two films. Can you name any? I reject a film when a director tells me this role would work well as one of my characters from my previous film. Likewise, when it comes to dialect, there are lots. Many people do not know which one is Tirunelveli dialect and which one is it. Just because it ends in ‘ley’ it necessarily need not be a Tirunelveli slang. In another film, I would have spoken Sangam Tamil throughout my screen time. These are the improvisations I bring on location.” Having started his career as an actor in television and having several releases in theatres, Bhaskar doesn’t feel any difference in Malaysia to Amnesia’s OTT release on Zee 5. “An actor is an actor irrespective of the medium. Storytelling started off in therukoothu, then stage plays, and then came the cinema. Now it is OTT. We need to move on and continue to perform,” he concludes.