Synopsis

          The American football coach, Bear Bryant, once remarked: 'Winning isn't Everything, it's The Only Thing.'
          THE ONLY THING is a black comedy about a young, innocent man, ANIL, who comes from a small town to Madras for higher studies, and discovers the sweet life of corruption
          Anil stays with his relative, Mr Ramswamy, a Minister who is being investigated on corruption charges. He has amassed a fortune in cash, locked in his cupboard. Ramswamy naturally denies all charges. He welcomes Anil warmly and to protect him suggests Anil opens a bank account. Anil gives him all his money, a paltry Rs500/-.
          Anil is put up in the servant's quarters and goes about his simple, monastic life of studies, prayer and looking after himself. He meets a nice traditional girl, SITA, in college. However, she's more ambitious than he is.
          One day he returns to find Mrs Ramswamy ransacking the house. Mr Ramswamy has died in car accident, his car hitting a petrol tanker, and was immediately immolated. Mrs Ramswamy is looking for the money and throws Anil his bankbook with the Rs500/- deposit.
          A few days later, Anil goes to draw some money from the bank. He faints when his bankbook is returned with the updated entry. He tries to return it to the bank clerk, who insists it's his book. He tries to give it to Mrs Ramswamy, still searching, but she dismisses him. He finally turns to his idol and asks for advice. He buries the bankbook.
But the temptation is too strong, especially after Sita dumps him for another guy. First he buys himself a great meal, then a TV and the TV changes his whole outlook.

          He buys expensive clothes, a car, a flat and picks up a beautiful rich girl, HEMU. As a rich man, he calls himself Adam. He has become confident, bolder, extroverted. Though enjoying the money he is still wracked by guilt and desperately tries to remain the simple Anil. It's a conflict between his honesty and the corruption, with his deity as his only mentor. It grows smaller as he succumbs. Finally, the only way he can assuage his guilt is to give all the ill-gotten money to an orphanage for handicapped children. He sees their joy.
         At first, he's happy, he's reverted to the quiet, introspective Anil. Then he misses the high life and the Adam character he'd become. .
        One night he wakes to find Mr Ramswamy choking him. It turns out he'd faked his accident to escape the investigations and gone into hiding. But he's blown all his money and wants the bankbook. Of course, Anil's blown that.
Anil then comes up with the sly advice that Mr Ramswamy is still a party member and a minister. He can return to his old ways as, even if investigated and searched, nothing will be found, as they're broke.
       We end with Anil, now Mr Ramswamy's right hand man, helping him to rake in the bribes. Anil also gets the beautiful, rich girl, Hemu and, we suspect, lives happily ever after.

INTERVIEW

INDIAN EXPRESS interview by Kamani Mathai.
        First a journalist with 'The Guardian'. Then a novelist in 1973 with 'The Marriage'. Then came a string of nine fiction and two non-fiction books. And a multiple-award winning movie, 'The Square Circle', also listed among the Time magazine's-top ten movies of the year in 1997.
        Not to mention a 28 minute film. With Timeri Murari, it seems like there's more than only one thing going. 'The Only Thing', the title of his latest film, had its origin in the American saying, ' 'Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." It has an all Madras Players cast with Karthik Kumar, P C Ramakrishnan and Bhagyam Narayanan in the lead roles. Murari also makes an appearance in the film, Hitchcock style.
        The story is about a corrupt politician (P C Ram) who fakes his own death to escape investigation and Anil finds the ill-gotten money in his bank account. He then leads the high life.
         His almost Stoic to Epicurean conversion begins with his name (now Adam), his clothes (jazzy-snazzy red jacket from 'veshti'), friends (from statues of Ganesha to the bad boys and the 'girls just wanna have fun' types) and apartment (carpet-less floor to upholstered diwan, air conditioner- everything he needed to make his 'shudh' Brahmin papa shriek).
        "The story is vaguely based on a true story. On a very real Indian politician. So that covers a whole gamut of sins."
Murari had four other story ideas, but this one was selected over the others. One of them was about three girls trying to find the right man (rejected because he knew he'd have "problems shooting that one in India"). Another, a comedy, was about how gossip spreads through masseurs ("I knew I'd have problems with this one too. Who is going to let me film them half-naked and being massaged.")
         Shot in and around his house, 'The Only Thing' took just six days to shoot, Murari having made the film "basically to keep his name in the record books".
         'The Only Thing' was scripted, produced and directed by me. Actually, the other reason I made 'The Only Thing' was to see if I could direct."
          Direct, because he has a full-length movie in mind. "Don't want to say too much about it because you tend to jinx something when you talk about it. Let's just say it is about a person trying to discover himself. He has found out that his mother hasn't told him evening. Especially about who his father is. It will be set in India." This too will have an original screenplay. '
So right now, for Timeri Murari, it is direction that has taken over, while novels seem to have taken a back seat. For a while, at least.