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An interview with - S.J. Surya , film director of ' Vaali ', ' Kushi '. (Part one)
His debut film ' Vaali ' catapulted him to centre stage and Ajit, the hero, got a new lease of life. There was freshness in his script and shots. His second film 'Kushi', just released, had Vijay. Expectations were naturally high, but the film was a slight disappointment. However, after a little trimming, ' Kushi ' is doing well in the theatres. Vijay, who was going through a lean phase, seems up again. Despite being panned by critics, Surya is a happy man, and so is the film producer A.M. Ratnam. Excerpts from an interview with the writer-director. Q: Contrast ' Vaali ' and ' Kushi '. What made you take up such different subjects? Surya: ' Vaali ' was a thriller and a family drama. I wanted my second film to be a love story. ' Vaali ' was about a pair of twins, different from any attempted earlier. In it, Ajit in one role was normal and in the other a deaf-mute. In earlier love stories, the problems tackled were caste, status, religion or parental enmity. In ' Kushi', the lovers are their own enemies. Usually, in such films, the lovers meet one day and become lovers the next day. No one touches on the story before that point. How situations work to bring the lovers together. I travelled about twenty years back, from the time they were born, their accidental encounters as children, with incidents that work slowly to bring their lives together. I have taken small incidents from life and strung them in sequence.
Q: But the pace is very slow, while audiences want racy handling. Surya: That was deliberate. I felt my subject needed leisurely treatment. Q: ' Khushi ' means happiness, celebration, but here the duo are constantly at each other's throats and hurting each other. Surya: Love has its tiffs. But this does not mean the lovers are not happy. Tiffs are a part of love; they add spice. So the lovers find pleasure in this pain. Without them, their love somehow would have appeared to be a fake. Q: Why bring in Shipla Shetty just for a song? Surya: She was an important commercial ingredient. Films are an entertainment medium. I want my audience to be happy, to laugh, to have a nice time and go home satisfied, whether the film has a message or no message. Frankly, I did have a tough time trying to bring in scenes that would justify my title. Q: Like the scenes of Mumtaz, who stands out like a sore thumb in the youthful clean ambience? Surya: (Laughs aloud) That was also deliberate. It was a diversion, an attempt to hold audience attention. I wanted the girl to imagine her lover in the arms of a sexy woman and Mumtaz fitted the bill. (to be continued)
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While his teacher-parents were training young minds to become better, more useful and knowledgeable citizens of tomorrow, Justin Selvaraj was weaving dreams on how to bring a little more light into their lives. By way of entertainment. By weaving his dreams on celluloid, through the magic of cinema. After his schooling in the little village of his birth, Vasudevanallur near Kuttralam, he took a B.Sc. degree in physics at the Loyola College, Chennai. But that one lingering passion -- cinema, the movies, the magic on celluloid when the lights go out -- persisted. Justin wanted to be a part of this magical world. A stint of about six years as apprentice under various directors like Vasanth, and he was ready for his first film. But, before that, a change of name. Justin became S.J. Surya. 'Justin' sounds like stuntman, said a friend.
I take the audience into confidence and they watch with amusement the way the two lives converge. All in a realistic, natural way! I admit it is a bit experimental, but audiences have taken to it and I am happy with the response. l believe that love never happens at first sight. Admiration may be, but love takes time to develop. Mine may not be a racy emotional love story. But I think I have conveyed the sweetness of the emotion to the audience. It's a love story from a different angle.
