Close on the heels of his film’s release this Friday, director Mu Maran speaks about his crime-thriller, 'Kannai Namabathey' and sheds insight into the art of creating a riveting thriller out of a regular story.
Almost every crime-thriller is built on three foundational elements: a crime, the motive, and whether or not the characters in the story find out about the perpetrators. With an all too familiar structure, crime-thrillers have nevertheless been one of the most popular forms of storytelling devices all through history. The popularity of the genre means that audiences often look to predict twists and turns. How then do you still thrill an audience? “The trick is in how you deliver the story,” says director Mu Maran, whose crime-thriller, 'Kannai Nambathey', features Udhayanidhi Stalin in the lead. “My film is a regular crime-thriller delivered in an irregular pattern. Imagine a story in which the events unfold in chronological order and lead up to a crime. That is one way to look at things but when you start a story by showing a character committing a crime and then reveal everything that happened before that, the mystery is compounded.”
Mu Maran further asserts that the central crime that the film hinges upon is itself something new to our audience. He hints at what that could be: “The crime and the mystery surrounding the crime is connected to the title. We chose 'Kannai Nambathey' for a specific reason.” Mu Maran goes on to talk about the story that envelops the crime. The film, according to the director, is about an innocent man who gets caught up in trouble and how he comes out of it.
Talking about how Udhayanidhi Stalin came into the picture, he says, “When I made Iravukku Aayiram Kangal with Arulnithi in the lead, everyone playfully asked if I was going to make a film with his cousin next. Even Arul sir asked me that at one point. I had no such ideas at that time but then, I thought, why not...”
Mu Maran’s original plan was to make a romance with Udhayanidhi but the actor had different ideas. “Ironically, at the time, I felt like I should move away from serious films, while he was thinking the same about lighthearted films.” The director recalls how he then had to come up with a gripping thriller—like the actor wanted—within ten days. With his voice lowered to avoid coming off as self-aggrandizing, Mu Maran speaks about the two hours of unwavering attention from Udhayanidhi as the latter listened to the script. Actors, in our industry, hold all the cards. The director quips, “There is nothing wrong with that because the business here revolves around the heroes.”
'Kannai Nambathey' is told from the perspective of a visual effects artist. “Our hero works for a company that does CGI work for films.” When asked about its significance, the director reveals, “Films are used as an element in the story; there are subtle film references. Our character works on the CGI of a lot of films and there is a point where the crime that happens in his life gets intertwined with the films he’s working on.”
I ask about the romantic script he originally intended for Udhayanidhi. With a smile, the director assures that he will make it and that he has not abandoned that story. Whether that might happen and when it might happen for this director, whose next is once again a thriller (called Blackmail and starring GV Prakash Kumar), is its own type of thriller.