She opens the door sans any makeup, makes no fuss about my gatecrashing into her room and flashes her signature smile that outshines the sun. Intelligent, articulate and witty, Suhasini hasn’t changed a bit from the nostalgic frames in our mind and you can’t help wondering aloud why she is staying away from the arc lights.
“It’s like asking a teenager whether he or she misses the feeding bottle,” she shakes off the question with a mischievous smile. “I have grown up from the busybee actress and am now involved in many activities, including cinema. I run an NGO for single women, anchor two TV shows, write columns and handle my home,” she chips in.
Suhasini says multi-tasking has been the bottomline of her life for long.
“It’s not easy juggling roles. But it’s my life and I am going to live it by my rules. I write two columns, one in Tamil and another in English for magazines. I do two TV shows in Tamil. One has finished four years and the other is just 30-weeks old. Also it’s my third year as the curator for Dubai Film Festival for which I select south Indian films. I am doing two films in Tamil and Telugu and, of course, I have my responsibilities on the home front. I am shooting four days a week.”
She adds that her busy schedule denies her any heavy duty creative indulgence and that is what keeps her away from donning the director’s cap again after ‘Indira’. “I am also in the committee of Chennai International Film Festival. So during that one month I don’t do any other work. This is how life goes on - full and packed,” she smiles. Suhasini has been part of the industry as an actor, director, script writer and producer for more than three decades now. She says that in Indian cinema heroes eternally remain heroes while the heroines are shooed off to peripheral roles.
“It’s simply because the male actors have nothing else to do. They are taken care of well by their wives and families and can completely focus on their career. Men do only one thing at a time and that’s why they are able to pull it off for a longer time,” she says.
Is she being overshadowed by Maniratnam, her filmmaker husband?
“On the contrary, I overshadow him. Even if we were not husband and wife we would have existed very well. It’s not mandatory that you should develop a complex when you move in the same circuit.”
As someone who eats, drinks and breaths cinema, Suhasini keeps a close tab on what’s happening around her. “I have to watch two films every week for my show. Normally Malayalam films don’t figure in my schedule, but if there happens to be a great Malayalam film, I somehow manage to watch it. I earnestly feel that Malayalam films should go back to their quality days. I won’t say Malayalam is going down, but it’s going in a different direction. Malayalam cinema used to be unique and inimitable. I think it’s not possible to mimic Malayalam films as they are too original. But, now, to my horror, I have found Malayalam films are imitating the Tamil and Telugu formula films of the 80s,” she says.
At the same time she finds Kollywood more promising with some absolutely brilliant talents coming up, especially the directors. “Other than the masters you will find an array of exceptional new generation filmmakers like Ameer Sultan, Selvaraghavan, Goutam Menon and Sasi Kumar. I can name twenty talented upcoming youngsters in Tamil industry, but it’s not the case with Malayalam,” she says.
She adds that Malayalam is a little special for her as it is the only language she has learnt to read other than Tamil. “I have a soft corner for this state and its literature.” She says she has her own criteria to gauge and zero in on projects. “There should be some quality, something that challenges and inspires the artist in you. I have been very selective about my last Malayalam films, be it ‘Vanaprastham’ or ‘Nammal’,” she says.
For her the most disappointing aspect of Malayalam cinema now is the scarcity of female oriented subjects. “Today there are no films like ‘Adaminte Variyellu’ or ‘Koodevide’ where female characters are not mere accessories. And this situation is a major letdown,” she says.