There’s only one Manichettan. I can’t be him: Senthil Rajaamani

It was raining heavily. Mani and his friends are returning home from a shoot late in the night. On the way, he happens to see a mother and her children in a leaking hut, huddling together to save themselves from the rain. He gets out of his vehicle to go and speak to them.
After Senthil Rajaamani enacted this scene in Vinayan’s upcoming movie, Chalakkudykkaran Changathi, based on late actor Kalabhavan Mani, he couldn’t control his tears.“My own family had such experiences during my childhood. During the rains, we used to keep vessels to collect the leaking water and would get up in the night to empty them.”
Senthil is a mimicry artiste and aspiring actor. During Onam in 2017, he was in USA to do a stage programme when he received a message from his friend asking him to call director Vinayan. “Out of excitement, I called him up immediately though it was late night in Kerala.” Vinayan took the call and asked him to meet him after he returns. “That week was hard to get over with. I met him as soon as I got back.”
Before explaining about his project on Mani, Vinayan asked him what he knew about the late actor. “My debut movie Pulliman was with Manichettan. I had also done a few stage shows with him. So, I was lucky to interact with him and have a fair idea about the man.” Vinayan then asked Senthil to enact a scene from any of Mani’s movies. “I had never mimicked him till then but I had seen his Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum many times. So, I tried to mimic the scene where Manichettan asks his amma if she could give him one of her eyes.”
It was director Vinayan’s wife who had suggested Senthil’s name to him. “I was then doing a television sitcom Vellanakalude Naadu. In that I had various get-ups. She saw it and told Vinayan sir about it. Before meeting me, Vinayan sir had watched my comedy shows and other programmes.”
When Vinayan told him that he planned to cast him as Kalabhavan Mani in Chalakkudykkaran Changathi, he broke down. Then Vinayan held him close and said he was looking for a tall and dark man who cried and laughed instantly. “He paid me the advance amount for the role.”

It took time for it to sink in. “I knew it was challenging to play an actor who had so much acceptance among the people. I was scared.” Senthil asked Vinayan why he was chosen for the role. “I do not resemble Manichettan in any way in either looks or my voice. How will I be apt for the role?” he wanted to know. Vinayan replied that he was not looking for a doppelganger of Mani or someone who could mimic him. In fact, he told Senthil that many such people had approached him ever since he had announced the project.
Eventually he decided to go for it. “When I learnt more about him, I found that there was nothing that Manichettan had not done. He used to climb coconut trees, swim with the buffaloes in the lake and drive an auto rickshaw. And Vinayan sir said I should do it all in the film.”
Senthil learnt to do all that besides gaining 12kg for the film. “I started resembling Manichettan when I gained weight.” In the shooting location, Senthil says, the crew used to tell him that he looked like Mani. “When the song Aararum Avatha Kalathu from the film was released, people from Chalakkudy came to me and told me that I looked exactly like Manichettan in some of the scenes.”

When some of the scenes were shot in Chalakkudy, Senthil was scared how people of Chalakkudy would react. “They love him like crazy and I knew they will not forgive me if I don’t do justice to him.” Senthil did a lot of rehearsals before shooting each scene. “One scene was that of Manichettan during his days as an auto driver. I wore the khaki uniform, the red thilak on the forehead and the shoot began. People started crowding and most of them knew the deceased actor well. Some even used to be his fellow drivers. After the shoot was over, some of them ran to me, cried and hugged me.” Senthil says that there can never be a better appreciation than that.
Senthil, who hails from Kunnamoodu, Thiruvananthapuram, confesses that all he has tried to do is to give his best. “There’s no one like Manichettan and no one can be him. He was a multitasker and a versatile human being. I find it as a blessing that I got to act in this film.” In the movie, his name is Rajaamani and he explains that the film cannot be described as a biopic of Manichettan. “However, throughout the movie, you will see Manichettan’s presence.”
A post graduate in history, Senthil is a KSRTC conductor but had begun his acting career through a television series, Maya Bazar. “Then I acted in series such as Sanmanasullavarkku Samadhanam, Enkilum Ente Gopalakrishna and Sthreedhanam. The combination between Chala Mary and Natholi Nelson in Sthreedhanam was a huge hit.”