‘G.D.N’: Madhavan shines again

“They grabbed my dreams. Now they want to take away my assets,” exclaims inventor-visionary Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu (GDN), with not a shred of self-pity or remorse.

This was a man who could see tomorrow — he fought the British, pushed for women’s education and turned Coimbatore into an industrial hub. Lamentably, we have forgotten him today, wasting screen space to tell hate-filled stories, often in the name of desh bhakti.

In ‘G.D.N’, there is a trenchant comment on the desecration of values and culture, and ruination of the education system through popular cinema in which Madhavan does a dance of mockery draped in cloth with figures of Tamil film stars imprinted on it.

The man and the actor are one on this: they are not afraid to look ridiculous to the outside world. Those watching his antics would think GDN’s behaviour is exceedingly eccentric, almost lunatic. But isn’t that what being an incorrigible dreamer is all about?

In this biopic, writer-director Krishnakumar Ramakumar meticulously reconstructs the life of a misunderstood genius, allowing the character to grow from a rural aspirant to a national oddity to a global gamechanger.

A large part of the narrative is taken up in mapping out Doraiswamy’s battle with the income-tax department where one man, Ambalapara Krishnan (played by Jayaram), is hell-bent to shut down all of GDN’s visionary aspirations.

Of course, the people’s beloved GDN is more than up to the challenge. How could he not be, when he is played by Madhavan? The actor’s ingrained charm and the character’s obdurate temerity merge without punctuation.

It is difficult to figure out who is playing whom. Very often, I felt the character was consuming the actor, goading him into areas of his subconscious that reify Doraiswamy’s inner world without statutory warning.

What do I say about Madhavan and his performance? The actor is a full-blown chameleon, what Kamal Haasan once used to be. Madhavan moves with effortless fluency from one masterly performance to another. In ‘G.D.N’, he has outclassed himself by bringing to life an unsung tainted hero with all his quirks, obstinacy and futuristic vision. Is Madhavan the best contemporary Indian actor?

I don’t know how far this plucky biopic has leaned into facts — I suspect all of it is true, but some of the twists and turns in the plot are so mischievous, they feel more manufactured than Doraiswamy’s world-changing inventions.

A performance and a product with such refined and resonant sensibilities cannot be reliant on the abilities of one actor alone. Madhavan has assembled a coterie of actors who know their job, and how to get to the core of the protagonist’s deviant genius without fuss. Jayaram is wonderful as Doraiswamy’s adversary, and so is Sathyaraj as GDN’s right-hand man. I wish Priyamani had played Doraiswamy’s second wife instead of first, so she could have been on screen longer.

Aravind Kamalanathan’s lensing is a visual treat, though not in any ostentatious way.

Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu was a fighter. Ominously, we are told that a generation would eventually emerge to fight Doraiswamy’s fight against authoritarianism. What would he say about what is happening in the country today?