Madhav predicts great heights for Abhi

By: Subhash K. Jha, IndiaFM
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Madhavan plays a journalist for the first time in Mani Rathnam's ready-for-release Guru. Says Maddy, "I've always been on the other side of the firing line. Now I know how it feels to be asking the questions." Reliving the experience of shooting with his mentor Maddy says, "Guru is going to be no ordinary film. Trust me; I've worked thrice with Mani before, including the Tamil versions of Saathiya and Yuva. Never have I seen him so charged. Mani wanted to go into the various time passages in Guru chronologically. He waited for all our dates, and then did it in one go."

Any regrets about not being the central character in his mentor's film? "None at all. I've no qualms in doing anything Mani asks me to. He's my guru. And when my guru asked me to be in Guru there was no question of questioning him. Nobody questions Mani."

Maddy is happy to have worked with Abhishek. "He's one actor who's a friend first. It is very difficult to make friends with your colleagues. Somewhere the sense of competitiveness comes in. Not with Abhishek. I always wish I could do Hindi versions of my Tamil films. But when Abhishek did Run and Yuva, I was the happiest. If Mani's Yuva took Abhishek two steps forward, Guru will take him ten steps."

Interestingly Madhavan shot for Rituparno Ghosh's Sunglass back-to-back with Guru. "Though it was my first time with Ritu it felt like we had worked together many times. If in Guru I have Abhishek for company in Sunglass, I've Jayaji. People tend to notice how strong his mom's influence is on Abhishek's personality, specially the eyes and smile."

After completing his work in Guru and Rituparno Ghosh's Sunglass Madhavan is now in Malaysia for a week-long vacation with his wife Sarita and son Vedant.

"Actually," Maddy confesses seriously , "My parents advised me to go alone. Taking my son along is as good as kissing my vacation goodbye. To say he's a handful would be an understatement. He's barely 1, and he turns on my laptop and plays the music. He seems to be a gizmo expert from now only. He makes us run around his little finger. The only one not in his control is our parrot Ashley. Ashley hates Vedant for stealing away the attention. Even I feel the same way every time I see my wife and son together."

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