Interview: Suhasini (about&nbsp;Mahendran)

The interview is up.

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Reuben

What a great conversationalist Suhasini is. Loved the interview. Would love to hear more from her.

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bart

She makes me respect Mister Mahendran further more. Thank you both…

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V

Is there a way I can remove that line in my previous comment about Suhasini’s nervous energy? She is such a beautiful narrator of stories – I was smiling throughout this interview, especially when she spoke about how Mahendran wanted her to be herself in Nenjathai Killathey’s scene with Pratap. It must have been a close knit industry back then, with Alwarpet being one of the hubs! Just loved the interview – Mahendran peaked before I started watching films, so to me he, like Sridhar, belonged to the previous generation. Very nice to get to know so much about him, though, sadly, after his death. (Theri, for all its monstrosity, made today’s movie-goers google him up – else, who knows, his passing away would have been a news item only because Rajni Kamal attended it!)

And is there a way to highlight that line in my previous comment where I request for a Part 2 of this interview? 🙂

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Sifter

Wonderful interview. Wish it was looongerrr!

Please do a part two about J Mahendra.

And about other directors too. She seems like a treasure trove.

Kaise kahoon from Nandu is a beautiful song. Loved Janaki’s voice specially in that.

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shaviswa

This is too short an interview – considering how knowledgeable she is and how articulate she is while speaking. Plus, she is willing to call a spade and spade (comparing JM with Bharathiraja’s style for example).

That irreverence when she referred to Mohan as “avan” 😀

Please get another session with her – and preferably a longer session of at least an hour this time. You could publish it in parts if you are worried about how long the audience would be engaged

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MANK

Great Interview. She is honest, intelligent and articulate.

I always suspected that those ridiculous dialogues in Mani’s films are all Mani’s doing. Left to suhasini she would have written better lines.

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Wonderful interview. If she hasn’t already, she should write a book about that era of Tamil cinema. She has so much to share and her observations were brilliant. Like you, BR, do with your writing, she brings out the know how that supports the gut feelings of a lay viewer like me (like the example of how Mahendran shot an argument between Rajni and Sridevi in Jhonny).

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Defender

“I always suspected that those ridiculous dialogues in Mani’s films are all Mani’s doing” — You cannot really say that. She has been consistently hyper, less articulate, bragging in all her interviews, talk shows etc over the years, whereas her husband has been consistently poised, smart and articulate. Surprised to see a positively transformed persona here, which I wonder why (aging?, enlightened?…lol). So, there are valid reasons to believe she indeed wrote those “ridiculous” dialogues.

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krishna prasad

A fantastic intvw. Not a great fan of her acting, she was way OTT in some ( looks like more of the directors doing ) she knocked this outta the park. These ppl ( Suhasini, Radha, sumalatha, Sridevi) were amazing for their range and diversity. Have the movies now become so hero centric that we don’t find similar talent now a des or is their a genuine lack of it. Just able to pick a Aishwarya Rajesh here or a Vidya Balan there

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Anu Warrier

April 10, 2019

Man, that was a fabulous interview. Her affection for Mahendran is so palpable. I used to like her as an actress; even for us Malayalis, used as we were to quite a few ‘natural’ actresses, she was such a delight. Have great memories of watching her in Koodevide.

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vandana

April 10, 2019

for the first time ever, she was not irritating. She is annoying most of the times with the way she talks. Maybe this time, she spoke from her heart and she sounded genuine when she spoke about Mahendran

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(Original) venkatesh

April 11, 2019

+1 on the interview. Really good.

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April 13, 2019

This interview spurred me to watch Nenjathai Killathe again. And I have to echo what Suhasini said about IR’s background score. If I had to compare with Mouna Raagam, the NK BGM is more symphonic and progressive with nothing like that annoying solo shehnai motif. I mean, I don’t blame him for using it, he was trying to fill in the melancholic spaces there. He could use silence a lot more in this film and the writing was also imo better than in MR. I have to ask why the MR-IR combo gets so overrated. It’s a great combo for sure but there is a section of the audience which makes it out like without MR, IR’s greatness would have been greatly diminished. This ignores the work he had already done with Bharathiraja/Mahendran/Balu Mahendra before he worked for the first time with Mani. He probably had over 200 films already to his name by the time Mani first time worked with him, right?

In the process, the work of these directors also imo gets underrated. The void Mani stepped into was a void where these directors too were getting railroaded by the SPM commercial juggernaut and becoming less and less influential in Tamil cinema. Mani made a more artsy kind of film making mainstream again but his sensibilities weren’t exactly new and probably would not have been accepted without Mahendran and others already laying the groundwork in the late 70s/early 80s.

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Film Clips

Can you please post this in English or add subtitles (for non-Tamil speakers)?

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Why do Tamil Industry folks call seniors as “sir”. In fact in general sir word is used a lot by tamilians. Once Kris Srikanth was interviewed by Narottam Puri and he addressed him as sir.

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Madan: I saw NK long time back when it was released and I was realizing that IR is a phenomenal talent. The second interlude music of Paruvame Puthiya Paadal was so different from what was passed off in Hindi music those days.
IIRC NK was a 1980 movie. Along with movies like Nizhalgal it was clear to me that he was the best MD in India, by a mile.

Few years back I tried watching that movie in Youtube. Found it too dated and gave up the stuggle. That acting and narration style is passe.

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TambiDude: Every song except Mummy Peru is exceptional in that film. Uravenum is another incredible track, probably my favourite from the film, more so than Paruvame (though yes the second interlude of that song is also out of the world). Though the complex emotions of Uravenum work better in conjunction with the film than standalone. When I heard it standalone, I was confused whether it was supposed to be romance or pathos but the scene makes it clear why it has to be so conflicted and the intense and almost avant garde passages (the piano in the first interlude or the solo violin in the second) add to this mix of passion, longing and envy.

About the film itself, I did find the acting pretty underwhelming but the plot and direction worked for me because it is still (as in even today) very unusual for a mainstream Tamil film to show so much family dysfunction and so openly. There is also no attempt to glorify the lead characters as saints which to some extent was going on in Mouna Ragam by comparison (and is generally a problem I have with Mani films except Alai Payuthey where he did try to frame the Madhavan character honestly instead of pandering to ‘sentiment’). In NK, Sarath Babu has another family pretty much out of wedlock. Mohan loses Suhasini due to his insecurity. Prathap is driven to depression as he tries unsuccessfully to court and make love to his wife, proving that his facade of patience strains him immensely. In essence, NK had the honesty that was there in 80s art films in Hindi like Arth but for the mainstream, it was very bold. I would say that is still the case.

Today, grey is defined more crudely like a bad guy, a gangster who has a soft corner for somebody (Vethalam) or a thief who takes up a good cause (Katthi). That’s not an everyday kind of grey which at least imo is far more interesting and rewarding. A recent film that somewhat evoked NK in its exploration of dysfunction and also not trying to make out its central characters as angels was Kapoor & Sons. I liked it too though it was a different kind of dysfunction and didn’t have the emotion of love as the core though there is a love track. It’s not even that the acting is particularly lacking today; Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress and especially in this kind of film. You just don’t have IR’s BGM to convey all the emotions that the actors themselves or even the director are unable to bring out fully. He sort of fills the spaces for the director and enriches the film in a way that I haven’t heard any other Indian music director achieve.

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I also liked Kapoor and Sons. My only peeve was that why does such movies only show upper/rich Indians, as if such families can’t exist in lower class.

Check our Titli. It shows the life of lower class Delhities very well.

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TD: Thanks. Will do. Have heard about that film.

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“for the first time ever, she was not irritating. ”

LOL. Rare combo to have both husband and wife irritating.

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Chowkidar Tambi Dude