‘Honest people are dismissed as being naive’ says actor Samuthirakani

Actor-director Samuthirakani speaks about his upcoming film, "Thiru.Manickam", in which he plays the titular role, the philosophical core of the film, what he learned from working with director Shankar, and more

Such like his on-screen characters, Samuthirakani turns philosophical while discussing his titular character in the upcoming film, Thiru.Manickam. On the film’s protagonist, director Nandha Periyasamy had earlier said, “In a world where everyone tries to survive, Manickam is someone who tries to live.” Samuthirakani expands on the answer and explains the difference between living and surviving, “If you treat everyone with love, you can sleep peacefully but if you think you need to pull someone down or hurt them in order to survive, that is not what I would call ‘living’.”

The actor says he is disappointed with how people have started to celebrate those with crooked intent as smart people. “On the other hand, honest people are dismissed as being naive and foolish. You look at a corrupt politician or a greedy businessman and think crooked people run the world but it’s the kind-hearted honest people who make the world go around,” he says.

According to Samuthirakani, Thiru.Manickam is against the supposed notion that you have to be wicked and cunning to live a good life. The actor explains, “Honest people like Manickam live a fulfilling life and this film beautifully demonstrates how.” However, from a screenwriter’s perspective, the actor-director-writer ponders upon the relatability of a flawed protagonist and why, more often than not, films tend to have protagonists with a grey moral compass.

“No one is a completely good person but you’re also under-estimating the audience if you think an unabashedly good protagonist is boring,” says Samuthirakani. He then points at Meiyazhagan as an example of a well-written film that does not rely on grey-shades to make its protagonists interesting. “Meiyazhagan should have been celebrated more, it is a wonderful film but makers tend to go after stories which would get instant positive reactions out of the audience, so they naturally tend to stay inside a bubble. This is why films like Meiyazhagan take time to gain traction before being pushed to streaming services,” says the actor.

Despite his heartfelt defence of grounded films about wholesome individuals, Samuthirakani is also part of commercial blockbusters about heroes who do extraordinary things. Fresh off Indian 2, the actor has again worked with director Shankar on Game Changer, which is all set to release in January. As someone who closely observed Shankar for more than a year, he says the director is extremely meticulous in his approach to filmmaking. “His shot division work is amazing, he plans for every scene from a 360 angle.

A lot of new directors struggle to decide on how to start and end a scene or even how to approach it, but Shankar sir is extremely thorough. He knows what angle a particular dialogue must be taken from. Even the editing order is written in the script,” he says. After he confesses to observing the Game Changer shooting with the curiosity of an assistant director, Samuthirakani talks about his upcoming directorial. Titled School Bus, the film has the director playing a school bus driver.

“In our childhood, we all would have come across a memorable person who is either a bus driver, a shop owner or a watchman who was kind to us, this film is about one such character,” he says. The director also reveals that School Bus is one of his dream projects and takes pride in declaring that he has completed the film with no compromises. “I know a lot of directors who have been forced to make compromises and end up losing their original vision for the film.

Thambi Santhosh P Jayakumar is one such person. He told me a story which involves Ameer annan and Arvind Swami sir in prominent roles, it is an amazing story and it would have changed society’s perception of Santhosh. Unfortunately, that film did not materialise and he was made to do other films.” He then goes on to add, “In the past, I have made a lot of compromises as well and it destroys your creative freedom. The only way you can truthfully materialise your vision is if you have the money to make your own films. I was able to do that in Appa, a film which I produced myself. Thankfully, I was able to do that again in School Bus and I can’t wait for everyone to see the film.”