Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they say in unison that their wavelength is the same and believe in emphasising the character’s traits rather than adding masala and commercial elements to every film that has kept their friendship intact over the years.
But for Crazy Kutumba, the two versatile actors would never have come together simultaneously on the screen. Ananth Nag and Ramesh Aravind recalled some of their best moments and shared with Metrolife their experiences of shooting for Crazy Kutumba.The movie captures the mood, sentiment and the depth of emotion of a family living in rural North Karnataka. That people living in rural areas have problems peculiar to them, that their talents go unnoticed and unrecognised, that family bonds are stronger and not as vindictive as families in any urban set-up is what the movie is all about.
Ananth is Ramesh’s father and is an alcoholic, who is high 24/7. Ramesh sells six acres of land in a bid to do something useful, but the young man gets cheated inside out and returns empty-handed. “Our off screen and on screen personalities gel well. We both don’t hesitate to call a spade a spade and even in the movie, we criticise and complement each other. But there is no love lost,” explains Ananth.
Ananth, his sons and daughters follow their granddaughter, who signs in for a reality show in the City. “If there’s someone from a village participating in a reality show, the judges simply give him or her a consolation prize. Real talent is overlooked and that’s brought out in the movie,” Ramesh observes. He says that it’s a story about dreams coming true. The two actors admire each other a great deal and have only good words to say about each other. While Ramesh lovingly dubs Ananth as a Rolls Royce who can slip into just about any role with ease and finesse, Ananth says that Ramesh is associated most with comedy and yet gives importance to the character and is one among the more serious actors.
The two admit that at no point in their careers have they tried to glorify themselves, either individually or together.
“We don’t have prefixes before our names or open a film with a bang such as a fighting scene,” they say together. Ramesh says he admires how Ananth gets completely involved in every role that he plays.
“He doesn’t even need glycerin to cry but cries and laughs easily according to the situation at hand. That’s something that I am practising right now.”
Ramesh says that he’d definitely want to cast or even act with Ananth again and the latter says there are endless possibilities to their conversation and they exchange meaningful insights on and off the screen.