RK Narayan’s visual poetry, Shankar Nag’s passion, a talented cast, a hummable tune and a quaint little village gave us the timeless series Malgudi Days that best encapsulates the essence of nostalgia
The quaint yet bustling town of Malgudi may have been fictional, but there is a ‘Swami’ in all of us. On this day, 21 years ago, India lost a gem with the passing of Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami or RK Narayan, the man who gave us the innocent, charming, impish yet realistic Swami and Friends among many other classic stories.
For Narayan, Malgudi was “imaginary and cannot be found on any map”, but to all those who have read the book, smelled the pages and watched the television adaptation, Malgudi Days is a life changing experience passed down through his eternally engaging and thought-provoking stories.
Known for his graceful, poignant and elegant writing style, Narayan was an artist who painted a picture, simple as it may be, with the vivid colours of words, values and experience. His work appeals to all ages across generations as his language is simple, earthy and story plots utterly real.
Every character that RK Narayan created, even if it was a crook, he had an old world charm about him
The collection of stories called Malgudi Days was made into a television series with the same name in 1986, directed by acclaimed actor-director Shankar Nag and produced by the equally famous TS Narasimhan. Acclaimed Kannada theatre personalities and artistes like Girish Karnad, Ananth Nag, Girish Kasarvalli, Vishnuvardhan, Arundhati Nag, Vaishali Kasarvalli and Master Manjunath enriched the series with their extraordinary acting skills.
Finding the ‘perfect’ Malgudi was certainly a challenge for Shankar Nag.
Though Narayan originally belonged to Mysore, the place where he lived and wrote his masterpieces, the fast-growing city did not fit the bill of being the idyllic, charming village envisioned by the writer. After numerous hours of hunting for the perfect location, Agumbe in the Malnad region of the southern state came to be the imaginary Malgudi. Arasalu railway station that saw just two trains a day provided the perfect fit.
The Indian Railways recently transformed Arasalu station to bring back the old-world charm. It now houses a museum that showcases RK Narayan’s Swami, his friends and Malgudi.
For the children of the 80s and 90s, the catchy tune of Malgudi Days played to black and white sketches of Malgudi is pure nostalgia. It transports you to the days where in fictional Malgudi, 10-year-old Swaminathan along with his friends had real-life problems and solutions.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I thank god at least once a day for it… I will always be Swami of Malgudi Days
From living up to the high expectations of his father to navigating taxing yet timeless friendships, Swami, played by Master Manjunath imparts to generations the lessons of honesty, friendship, respect, integrity and hard work.
News18.com spoke to actor Arundhati Nag about the making of Malgudi Days and its relevance today.
“Innocence is always relevant, so is telling a story from the heart. These are two important qualities of Malgudi Days. Every character that RK Narayan created, even if it was a crook, he had an old world charm about him,” Arundhati said.
She recalls the day Shankar Nag, her husband and one of Karnataka’s most loved actor-directors, burst into their home to announce that he was directing RK Narayan’s Malgudi Days.
“He was shooting near Bannerghata road in Bengaluru and came driving across the city. He had taken some shortcut to reach quickly and burst into the house saying ‘you know what, I have got an offer to direct Narayan’s short stories’,” Arundhati told News18.
All of us grew on the sets of Malgudi over three years. Our child took her first few steps on the sets of Malgudi
“Both Shankar and (his brother) Ananth were such big fans of Narayan’s work. They were avid readers and when they came to know that Mr Narasimhan had got the rights to produce Malgudi Days and Shankar was going to direct it, it was another high,” she said.
It was not just about making a national television series on Narayan’s much-loved masterpiece, but Malgudi Days was also about giving India first-hand experience of Swami’s world.
“It was a virgin experience for everyone. For Shankar, it was about doing something for national television. For Narayan, he was to be seen after the movie Guide, but he was not very happy with his Guide experience, so this was a challenge,” Arundhati said about the TV series that was aired over three seasons on Doordarshan.
Narayan had to approve the pilot episode of Malgudi Days before Shankar Nag got the job. The story taken for the pilot episode was The Old Man and the Temple. The scenes with Ananth Nag and Bimal Desai were shot overnight at a small fort near their home off Hosur Road.
“In those days, there was no art department. Everything was made by hand. There were articles from our home, including bells for the temple. We requested a friend to gives us an old temple door, we had bells for the cows. When Narayan saw the piece, he loved it and Shankar got the job,” said Arundhati laughing.
The 39 episodes of Malgudi Days were shot with the who’s who of Kannada’s theatre world and everybody involved with the project just came together to create the masterpiece.
“Everybody slept on balconies, nobody asked how much was being paid, they enjoyed every bit, including travelling in a bus, all the way to Agumbe just to shoot a single-line dialogue,” Arundhati reminisced.
“All of us grew on the sets of Malgudi over three years. Our child took her first few steps on the sets of Malgudi, attended her first Baalwadi (pre-school) in Agumbe,” she added.
Manjunath Nayaker, who played the character of young Swami with his mischievous smile complete with a round cap on his head and a streak of white ash on his forehead, still lives the Malgudi dream.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I thank god at least once a day for what Malgudi has done for me. The legacy of Malgudi will always be there and I will always be Swami of Malgudi Days. I have the responsibility of ensuring I live up to it and safeguard that opportunity that god, Shankar Nag sir and RK Narayan sir gave me. I will always be grateful to them,” Manjunath said.
For the young child artiste Manunjath who had started acting in films from the age of three, Malgudi Days was not without challenges. With no knowledge of Hindi and limited exposure to English, Manjunath sought help from Shankar Nag and his team to translate the dialogues into Kannada so that he would understand what he was delivering.
“Shankar Nag sir insisted he wanted to shoot it on a movie camera. He wanted to get the old world feel, the grains in the shots and back then camera technology was nothing like today. We tried to finish our shots with minimal retakes. But Malgudi gave me an opening into Bollywood with the Amitabh Bachchan-starter Agneepath and other language cinemas,” said Manjunath who had established himself as a child actor before landing Swami’s role.
He talked of the experience of watching the series during Covid-19 lockdown with his son who is exactly the same age as he was when they shot the TV series.
“We found time to sit down and watch it continuously. My son’s first reaction was quite interesting. He was surprised that teachers or my father in the serial could give us a spanking. I explained why it was important to be strict as a parent to bring up a strong and humble individual. I jokingly told him how our generation had much better reflexes than his as we successfully ducked blackboard dusters or things thrown towards us,” the actor-turned-government liason consultant quipped with a laugh.
Two decades later, in 2004, another director, Kavitha Lankesh, was given the project of shooting 18 more episodes of Malgudi Days. She feels that RK Narayan’s works hold a lot of relevance today.
“It was an honour for me to work on it and earn a place next to a great director like Shankar Nag. I never have and never will compare my work with him. He is a legend, but the whole idea of working on Malgudi Days was just overwhelming. By the time I began work on 18 episodes, Agumbe and the places around it had become commercial,” Kavitha told News18.
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