Malgudi Days is about being human: Vijay Raghavendra

The title Malgudi Days invariably takes people on a trip down the memory lane, thanks to the TV show made by Shankar Nag based on RK Narayana’s collection of short stories. Now, a film carrying the same title, starring Vijay Raghavendra is in the works, featuring the actor playing both an elderly writer named Lakshmi Narayana Malgudi and his teenage version.

According to Vijay Raghavendra, there are many connecting points to Malgudi Days. However, his film, which is directed by Kishore Moodbidri is all about “being human” at every stage of life, he says. 

“As a writer, Lakshmi Narayana Malgudi, has a reason to reminisce about his past a lot, at which time he relives the younger days of his life. They say one should ‘get into the skin of the character’, and this came true when I got to play these two roles,” Vijay Raghavendra adds. 

Ask him which role was tougher to play, and he says it was the writer’s character. “The schoolboy role was easy to play as I had my own experience of being a teenager. For the writer’s role, I had to take references from legendary personalities like Dr Rajkumar, my father, C Ashwath, Loknath, Dattanna, and I held them as sources of inspiration at different places.” 

Vijay had to put on prosthetic makeup to look like a 70-year-old. “Roshan G did the prosthetics for me,” he says.

Vijay Raghavendra wants the audience to experience the journey of Lakshmi Narayana Malgudi through the film. “We are all just the product of our own past. Unfortunately, in our busy lives, everyone tends to overlook that and we think that we have lost a lot of things, which is actually not the case. Everything is there, and all we need is to dig out the good things. That is what the team and I intend to say through Malgudi Days.”