Holding court for laughs

AT 19, he wrote a paper on history of World cinema.

That got him a seat at the Film and TV Institute when he got Satyajit Ray to score music for his short student film, `The Rhetoric of the continuity'. Rajiv Menon incidentally, wielded the camera for the film.

In '89, he made a telefilm called `Jana' that was telecast on Doordarshan some three dozen times.

After two flops, `Kavithai Paada Nerumillai' ('87) and `Madhangal Ezhu' with Ramya Krishnan ('92), he self-admittedly took a recess to analyze why his films flopped.

That's when he went to Europe and played the lead in an Italian telefilm called `Pidgin'.

And made it a point to catch the action at the Cannes film festivals in '94, '96 and '98.

Now, after ten years and over 500 episodes of `Nayyandi Durbar', Yuhi Sethu having finally made his mark, is determined to make a comeback as a film-maker.

Yuhi Sethuraman as he was called, right from his days at the Institute always wanted to be intelligent comedian.

Like him or hate him, he has survived the toughest of times and is today a favourite of many with his poker-faced antics and sarcasm topped digs and wisecracks at his guests.

He shoots names of legends who are responsible for talk shows as they are today, tracing the history of talk-shows and stand-up comedies, lashing out at any criticism that `Nayyandi Durbar' is a take-off on Shekhar Suman's `Movers and Shakers'.

``My inspiration is not Shekhar Suman or Jay Leno or David Letterman. My inspiration is more from Yakshagana, Harikatha, Theru-koothu and the like - where a stand-up comedian sings and explains verses relevant to the society with a pack of musicians,'' he argues.

The idea of the talk show was his, he says. Initially, they had four writers.

The writers kept changing and now they have two writers for the show.

So how different is the show from the other talk shows - desi or international.

``When Johnny Carson does that, he is being himself. So do most of the hosts. The difference when I'm doing the show is that I'm not myself. It's a performance. The whole thing is a strain for me. It does not come to me naturally. Frankly speaking, I don't like taking digs at people. But unfortunately, that's what I am good at,'' he says.

He usually spends half an hour with the guest before the show starts to ``get the accent and know where he could take a dig at them''.

He has interviewed Shubha Mudgal, Kalimuthu, P. Chidambaram, recently Vasundara Das but the one show which always lingers in his memory is one where he met a countryside singer who sings elegies.

``Her name was Laxmi. She never understood what the show was about. She was like a wind, I couldn't control her. She just kept singing throughout the show. I slept for a while, I cried, I begged her to stop the show, but she just wouldn't stop. And she is someone who waits for people to die to fill her stomach,'' Yuhi Sethu recalls.

``That's the best example of the seriousness underlying life and death but still poking fun at it, during the show,'' he adds. If left to him he would want to have the Chief Minister and the DMK chief at his show. Of the DMK leader, he says, ``There's nothing to ask him. He's too strong a diplomat. He is shrewd and too clear of what he wanted from the election. It was all a part of his game plan,'' he feels.

By Sudhish Kamath

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Section  : Southern States
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