Actor Soori interview: On ‘Maaman’ and if Vetri Maaran would revive their ‘Ajnabi’ adaptation

Actor Soori speaks about his upcoming film, ‘Maaman,’ co-starring Aishwarya Lekshmi, and reminisces about his early days after moving to Chennai in the late ‘90s

“Vandhorai vaazhavaikkum Chennai.” When actor Soori came to Chennai in 1996, the city may have tested his belief in that idiom, which loosely translates to ‘Chennai shelters all those who seek.’ When asked what this city has meant to him, Soori gets nostalgic about his days of struggle, reminiscing about a time when, he says, the film industry wasn’t even visible to people who moved to Chennai with celluloid dreams. “But Chennai offered me a lot of opportunities, and I took on whatever jobs I could get; I knew I could somehow survive in the city,” he says, adding that the city taught him life even before he entered the film industry. “It also taught me relationships and the importance of family. I had to grow inch by inch, not step by step, but somehow I have reached this level of growth. I still have a long way to go, but I am grateful to the city for this life. Chennai vandhorai vaazhavaikkum,” says Soori.

Two years later, in 1998, Soori acted in an uncredited role in Maru Malarchi, after which he began his stint as a set assistant. “Back then, I just wanted to act, but you can’t ask for an acting chance easily. I worked as a carpenter or a painter on film sets, hoping that just being on the shooting spot would prove helpful if they needed a junior artist in the last minute.” And that’s precisely how he got to be in the front of the camera in Suresh Krissna’s Sangamam. “Did you know it was I who painted the puli vesham on the kids in the ‘Mazhai Thuli’ song? I was also supposed to ensure they don’t jump into the lake and spoil their make-ups.” That’s when an opportunity presented itself. “They needed a background artist, and they asked me since I was nearby. I couldn’t sleep for a whole night after doing that shot, as if those two seconds were the whole two-and-a-half-hour film.”

Then Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu happened in 2009, catapulting Soori to the spotlight as a comedian. Fascinatingly, he never knew becoming a comedian was his calling.” The nature of my job was such that I would work at a site for four days and then move on to another. I only used to focus on keeping the work atmosphere light and entertaining. So it was those around me who made me realise that my sense of humour was a strength and that it had its own set of fans.” Soori recounts how art director Muthu hired him, not to do carpentry, but to keep his hundred-odd labourers entertained. “He just wanted me to be with them and do nothing.”

Decades later, Soori has now transitioned into a bona fide Tamil cinema hero. After successful turns in Viduthalai, Kottukkaaliand Garudan, Soori is now awaiting the release of Maaman, a stirring family drama which, as the title suggests, centres around a maternal uncle’s affection for his dotting nephew. This is an attempt to reveal the dramatic shade to the actor in him, says the actor. “I am just focused on bringing unique characters to the audiences, and so I wanted to do something entirely different from those three lead roles, as an ordinary family man.” Instead of waiting for one such story, Soori decided to pen one himself.

The actor reveals that producer K Kumar asked director Prashanth Pandiyaraj to request Soori if he could narrate his through line. “I absolutely loved his web series Vilangu, but more importantly, the way he conversed with me, and the inputs he had after listening to my story gave me the confidence that he could do a good job at it,” adds the actor.

Fascinatingly, what has truly struck a chord with Soori’s second innings as an actor is his choice of characters; despite having made a strong impression as a comedian, his protagonists appear as they are, not resembling the comedian Soori we are familiar with. “That’s what I strive a lot to do. I am not sure how successful I have been at that, but the response from critics and audiences tells me that my efforts aren’t going in vain. Sometimes, in films like Garudan, I had to be conscious not to appear as the old Soori.” Maaman proved to be quite challenging in that regard, he adds. “This character, Inba, would either appear as a normal family man or as very emotional, as a man stuck in the whirlwind of what happens in the film. The person you would see when he’s an ordinary man isn’t too far away from the comedian Soori, and so I had to ensure I stay as Inba and don’t conjure the old Soori back again,” he reveals.

Soori is all the more familiar with family entertainers boasting a long ensemble cast — Rajkiran, Swasika, Bala Saravanan, Baba Bhaskar, Viji Chandrasekhar, and child actor Prageeth Sivan appear in Maaman, alongside female lead Aishwarya Lekshmi. He has even appeared as the maternal uncle of heroes and heroines. So he must have naturally thought of punchlines and jokes that could help the film. “Of course, but I would ask the director to let Bala utter those dialogues; though we couldn’t utilise him a lot in Maaman, he is in the film specifically for comedy, and so it’s only right that he scores with those lines. Moreover, I don’t want to keep reminding you of the comedian Soori,” he stresses.