The Lost World

IN Adoor Gopalakrishnan's 1993 masterpiece Vidheyan, M.R. Gopakumar, then virtually unknown outside Kerala, played a born loser, a migrant labourer who is battered into submission by a dissolute feudal lord. It was a first-rate characterisation that won the sensitive Malayali stage actor, in his first major film role, unstinted critical accolades all around. It also earned him, last month, a significant part—that of Indian scientist Ajay Sidhu, a long-lost friend of the film's explorer-hero—in Steven Spielberg's upcoming blockbuster,

The Lost World: Jurassic Park II. Only Amrish Puri had done it before: gone global with the Cincinnati kid. So Gopakumar knew exactly how big the The Lost World offer was. But his leap into the international league was nixed by the American consulate in Madras, which denied him a 'work visa' on the grounds that he had no documents to prove that Spielberg had actually hired him. "I was scheduled to join the unit in Los Angeles on September 4 and work until November 11. The consulate sought a letter from the producers before granting me the visa. But there's been no response from the US," reveals the 45-year-old Thiruvananthapuram actor whose association with theatre dates back to 1973. 

It's obviously all over now. But the postal department employee is not bitter about the unfortunate turn of events. "The fact remains that I was selected by a director of Spielberg's standing from among a large number of talented contenders, including one Indian actor based in London," philosophises the award-winning performer. But couldn't the US consulate have been a little more accommodating? Gopakumar's film career began in 1989 with a "walk-on, nameless part" in Adoor's Mathilukal . It was this minuscule appearance that led to the infinitely meatier Vidheyan> role, which attracted the attention of Uma da Cunha, Spielberg's casting coordinator in India. "She had no idea about my whereabouts," recalls Gopakumar. "She got my address and phone number from Adoor." 

When did Gopakumar learn that Spielberg had a role going for an Indian actor? "As late as early August," he says. "Uma da Cunha asked me to send her my photographs and a bio-data which I promptly did," says Gopakumar. In mid-August, he received a two-page script and a message which asked him to enact a sequence in front of a video camera and rush the tape to Bombay the same day. "I did everything in a few hours and sent off the tape." 

Soon enough, word arrived that he had got Spielberg's nod. The thrilled actor rushed to Madras to complete his travel formalities only to hit a massive stone wall. It meant much more than the loss of a weekly remuneration of $2,000 over two months. Gopakumar, Spielberg's choice, had lost an entire world of opportunity.