I’ve known Prabhu Deva for many years. He hardly talks. And he never talks about himself. To get a full sentence out of him you have to earn it. But with me Prabhu has always warm, responsive and respectful.
This man is a silent achiever. When he was awarded the Padma Shri I asked him if he is throwing a party. “What party, Sir? I have never hosted a party.And for what I will call people? To let them know I got the Padma Shri? They know already. There are so many people more talented than me who should get recognized.”
But do you know anyone who is dancer, choreographer, director and an actor? “Arrey , Sir. It’s all part of cinema. My mother could cook so many dishes, all exceptionally well. I wish I could achieve an iota of what some of the silent achievers have achieved.”
Silence defines Prabhu Deva’s latest outing as an actor. In Thael Prabhu Deva is incredibly intense as Durai, a family-less man who has nothing to lose, and is hence fearless. A little twitch of the eyebrow, some flaring of the nostril convey so much that words often do not. This is a remarkably accomplished performance .
In Kartik Subbaraj’s Mercury Prabhu Deva played a blind assassin. He had nothing to say in the film. That made Prabhu very happy. He was super-excited to be in India’s first silent film—Kamal Haasan’s Pushpak which has so far been given that honour did have one spoken line. Being a choreographer and dancer helped Prabhu express his character’s emotions in Mercury without words. Prabhu Deva used the dancer’s body language as an action machine to show his characters sniffing out his prey.
The chases in the environmentally challenged setting are interestingly staged, parts of it being heart-in-the-mouth, thanks to the cinematography and artwork which aid the ambience of shivery shindigs.Prabhu Deva gives his ghoulish character a life of its own. He fills the air with anguished shrieks that sends a chill up our spine. As long as he is on the ‘scream’ we are game. But the rest of the film is so awfully loud messy and theatrical I cringed on behalf of the multi-talented Prabhu Deva.
Prabhu feels there is much to be said about the virtues of silence in reel and real life. We speak too much in our films. We are afraid if we don’t talk non-stop the audience will lose interest in the goings-on. But that’s not case. There were long passages of silence in the opening scenes of Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa. In Gulzar Saab’s Namkeen, Shabana Azmi didn’t speak at all. In Koshish both Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachchan were dead and mute. They could convey so much through their silences.
Prabhu feels cinema should stop serving the purpose of a radio. “Cinema is predominantly a visual medium. Why turn it into a radio? I am happy to say in Mercury I’ve managed to ‘say’ what I have to without speaking.”
Prabhu Deva uses the dancer’s body language as an action machine to show his characters sniffing out his prey.
The chases in the environmentally challenged setting are interestingly staged, parts of it being heart-in-the-mouth, thanks to the cinematography and artwork which aid the ambience of shivery shindigs.
Prabhu Deva gives his ghoulish character a life of its own. He fills the air with anguished shrieks that sends a chill up our spine. As long as he is on the ‘scream’ we are game.
Prabhu Deva shot to fame as a choreographer, then as an actor and as a filmmaker in Tamil and then in Hindi. Prabhu’s idols are Michael Jackson and Rajnikanth. He loves massy movies as much as streetwise dance moves.He hates pretentious art.He loves the simple things of life. Hates to eat. To call Prabhu a frugal eater would be an understatement. Prabhu doesn’t eat. He nibbles on food.
The biggest setback and the tragedy that changed Prabhu’s life was the death of his elder son . It changed Prabhu’s perspective on life.And destroyed his marriage.
Prabhu is grateful to Salman Khan for the opportunity to direct him in Dabangg 3 and Radhe. But for now Prabhu is done with Bollywood.
Speaking of Salman Prabhu says, “Salman Sir has one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever come across inthis business. When I directed him in Wanted in 2008 I was new to the entertainment industry in Mumbai. Wanted was my first Hindi film as a
director. But I was made to feel fully comfortable .Salman Sir contributed a lot to his character. He would come up with really clever suggestions. And his dialogue ‘Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di phir main apni aap ki bhi nahin sunta’ was a rage. I think dialogues like these become famous because of the way Salman Sir says them.”
Now that Salman ghost-directs most of his films, Prabhu has moved on. There are many more peaks to conquer .
“If someone wants to to work, there is no end to it. I cannot sit still. I have to keep doing something. There is so much to do. I think I am all the things that I do put together. Work is all I have. I need to be constantly working in films doing work in any capacity,in any language.As a choreographer also I will go when the work inspires me,” the reclusive workaholic signs off.
Keep surprising yourself, Prabhu.