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'I don't know why women feel I am an MCP!'

Earlier, you used to make only comedy films and they were such big hits. But Samantharangal is a totally different film. What kind of films do you like to make?

                                I make films which only I can make.

You mean films with the Balachandra Menon stamp!

See, I don't experiment. I don't try to make experimental films. I make films the way I know to and the way I want to. For example, I will never say, let me try a new canvas with more money. I won't feel at home then.

You never felt like experimenting?

I should be at home when I am making a film. I am at home when I write. I am at home when I sing. I am at home when I conduct talk shows. So, I will not try to do anything where I am not at home.

Women play a major role in all your films, but they are submissive before men. How do you view women? Are you a chauvinist?

(laughs) I really don't know. Many women journalists have asked me this question before. The first time I heard the word MCP was from a woman journalist. I didn't know what it was. I asked her what MCP meant. She said, 'Male chauvinist pig.'

Was it in Kerala that it happened?

No, in Bombay. That was quite sometime back. I don't know why women feel I am an MCP! I respect women and, in my films, women are treated well. I have not belittled them or exposed them in any of my films. Still, people call me that name.

Yes, you never exploited women in any of your films. But, somehow, you give a message that men are superior.

I think women like the message.

No. no. You are wrong.

I think, in their heart of hearts, they like such statements. They like...

The commanding, superior man?

Yes, they like such men.

You are wrong. May be the women of the sixties preferred such men, but not the modern-day woman.

I will say you are wrong. You women talk about feminism, but what you want and enjoy is security and protection from men. You may differ with me, but real women yearn for such things.

A woman is also the most privileged person in the world. As years pass by, she gets richer and her man is relegated to the background. It is happening everywhere. Have you seen how elderly people walk? Once they cross 50 or 55, the man walks only behind his wife. That is fate.

The fights, the problems and the rifts happen only when you are young. Once the woman gets a child, she becomes richer. Children are her wealth. What has a father got? Nothing. A father gets respect from his children only because their mother respects him. That's life.

You said you were a highly misunderstood person. Why do you feel like that?

I am always misunderstood. I do not know who should be blamed; me, the other person or my horoscope.

Is it generally a negative impression or a positive one?

Somehow, people get a negative impression about me. That's my misfortune.

Why do people misunderstand you?

See, that is what my horoscope says. You cannot change your destiny. I am not bothered about it now. I have accepted the fact.

By accepting it, are you not trying to reinforce what your horoscope says?

No. I have reconciled to the fact that I will be misunderstood by people. It could also be because I am a loner.

Are you that staunch a believer in horoscopes?

Yes. That is because I am a product of time.

You believe in destiny?

Yes. I believe in destiny. You may want to do many things, you may plan many more things, but things will happen only the way they are destined to. You cannot change destiny. You cannot change the course of fate. That is what my life has taught me.

'I am the child of Time'                                                                        Back