Samuthirakani interview: On ‘Thiru. Manickam’ and how to avoid being pigeonholed

How has 2024 been for you and Tamil cinema?

It’s been amazing. We have had so many wonderful films this year and I am elated that I got to be in some of them as well. With the curtains closing on the year, I am glad to bring two films, Thiru. Manickam and Rajakili, to the big screens. It feels great to end the year with such good creations.

Watching you as a happy family man is a sub-genre by itself. What can you tell us about ‘Thiru. Manickam’?

I will be happy only for a fraction of the film (laughs). It’s a film about a simple, honest man who is in touch with his inner truth. Many of us hide the truth we carry. When we are pushed to the brink, we might even do things we don’t wish to do. But here’s a man who says that even when you test him, he will stand by what’s right, and the film explores who he is, where he comes from, and why he is the way he is.

The film debunks the myth that those who can’t bend the rules would lose everything and begs you to see the well-being and reward of leading an honest life. We live in a time when youngsters, dejected with failure, think about switching to the other side. This film will make them reconsider the same and instil some hope that they can achieve whatever they aspire for.

A still from ‘Thiru. Manickam’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In the 2000s, families, especially women, used to go to theatres to watch family-oriented films or for devotional subjects. These days, they have to watch big-star vehicles, regardless of how violent they are. Do you think we are missing out on making films like your ‘Neranja Manasu’?

Our responsibility is to cater to what the consumers want. At the end of the day, this is a business. You can’t go to a hotel and demand a plate of idli because you are a good person; you need to pay for it. Similarly, if you have something noble to say, you have to bring it within the constraints of commercial filmmaking. What you can take a call on, however, is how far you are pushing that commerciality. Thiru. Manickam is a thriller that tries to say something noble. You won’t find an item song in this film but there might be a film claiming to say something good but with a couple of item songs. It’s all about the route we take to tell our stories.

You have done a lot of films like ‘Velai Illa Pattadhaari’, ‘Appa’, ‘Don’, ‘Thalaikoothal’, and ‘Aelay’that speak about the father-son relationship…

That list is endless. I should do a get-together with all those who have acted as my sons in these films. On one hand, there are actors like Dhanush, Sivakarthikeyan and Manikandan, and on the other, there are those small kids I had acted with who are all now grown up into young adults. The boy who acted as my son in Appa, J Vignesh, has grown up to become a hero himself. They all still call me appa and I do wish to meet them all.

Each of these roles as a father is so distinct but did you ever wonder if you would be typecast if you kept performing as a father?

Every father is unique and so every character will be unique. If someone asks me to do a father’s role, I would immediately agree. Because I am someone who yearned to win my father’s affection and I miss my father a lot. In fact, I thought of Thalaikoothal as a debt I had to pay to my father.

A still from ‘Thiru. Manickam’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

So, you are confident that filmmakers wouldn’t confine you to a box…

I am confident that I cannot be confined to any boxes. I have shot for three drastically different roles simultaneously, and that’s when I realised how I could transform myself into the roles. I just need to wear the costume, sit still for 10 minutes on the sets, and think about the character to get under its skin. We need to be honest about it. If you are playing a police officer, you need to charge yourself and be prepared to embody that character. I am playing a cop in Drishyam director Jeethu Joseph’s next; we are starting the shoot in March but I need to start preparing for it from now. We need to be honest, respect the character, and be responsible; only then will the camera see us for who we are. Only then can one actor seem so distinct in every role he plays.

You made ‘Vinodhaya Sitham’ for ZEE5. When OTTs came in, they seemed like an alternative space for small-budget productions and indie attempts. However, now, even OTTs are going after bigger fish, aren’t they?

There’s a space for everyone. When we finished Thiru. Manickam, the producers asked me to talk to ZEE5 since I made Vinodhaya Sitham and Vimanam for them; I refused because I have never approached anyone asking them to buy my film. If the film has truth in it, it will reach its audience.

So when we make any film, you will get that one still that will encapsulate it all, and that’s the still you choose as your film’s poster. We had one such still for Thiru. Manickam, in which my character, carrying a bag under his arm, stands in the middle of the road and stares into oblivion. I asked the makers to select this still for the poster. It so happened that a ZEE5 executive saw this poster on a street and asked me about it. They watched the film and bought it. And only because they bought it were we able to bring this film to theatres. So, if you are confident in having made an honest film, and if the audiences support your film, everything will fall into place. There are good people everywhere and this world goes around because of those people.

A still from ‘Thiru. Manickam’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

This week, we remember your mentor and veteran filmmaker K Balachander on his 10th death anniversary. If he were here…

He is here. He is always with me. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about him. I just wish he had gotten to see films like Thalaikoothal and Thiru. Manickam, because he used to celebrate our films. While watching Nadodigal, he was holding my hand throughout, and whenever the audience applauded, his grip tightened. He then said, “I feel like climbing atop my seat and hollering because you were the last of my pupils and I was sad to see someone so talented keep losing. But Nadodigal will safeguard you forever.” And I am still trying to best Nadodigal.

Say he is standing in front of you, what would you tell him?

I will hold his feet… hug him. He is my everything; he’s my father, my friend, my sibling, my beloved, my teacher. We used to converse so much, be it about literature or anything under the sun.

Samuthirakani | Photo Credit: S Shiva Raj

You are starting 2025 with Shankar’s ‘Game Changer’. Will we get to see director Samuthirakani this year?

Yes, I am making a film called School Bus, in which I play a school bus driver. I drive around 22 children and we will see who these kids are, who their parents and teachers are, and what the responsibilities of a school bus driver are. I am starting in April, during the Summer holidays, since I have to shoot many sequences inside school premises and I need many young school children to play these roles.