Director Vijay Milton: Vijay Antony’s ‘Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan’ is inspired from a Denzel Washington film

‘Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan’ director Vijay Milton looks back at his breakout directorial ‘Goli Soda,’ which came out ten years ago, shares what he learnt from working with superstars like Shivarajkumar, and the quality he admires the most in Vijay Antony

Remember the ripples that Goli Soda created way back in 2014? A humble film, it boasted a lot of heart in telling the story of teenage boys forced to fight back when pushed to a corner, catapulting ace cinematographer Vijay Milton as a filmmaker to watch out for. As Milton looks back at the film, he likens himself to a 13-year-old boy who, through that film, was also forced to fight back. “It seems like a blunder that children commit so courageously because I don’t know where I got the courage to start such a project and how I managed to complete it.”

How precisely he translated the text to the screen, and the vigour he saw in the actors and his assistants, is what Milton remembers fondly from that time. “I didn’t provide them with the basic amenities required for a film shooting. I’m saying this because I endured all that because I had a dream I was running after, but they didn’t have to do that. They blindly just followed me.”

Ten years later, Milton is now at a place where he doesn’t have to think twice about getting caravans for his actors. He makes films for the likes of Shivarajkumar and Daali Dhananjaya, and the production values are exponentially bigger. After a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic — and production banner Infiniti Film Ventures’ line-up of films with lead star Vijay Antony — Milton’s Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is finally set to release this week.

The title grips your attention first — ‘The Man Who Despises Rain.’ Milton says he was adamant about this title, and you can see why. It immediately creates a sense of mystery about the character, which Milton says is the niche of the film. “In fact, Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is inspired by TheEqualizer, starring Denzil Washington. In that film, the mystery behind this lead character hooks you, and they drip-feed the information throughout the film. I have tried something similar in this film,” he says.

Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is also the perfect title for what Milton was going for, a poetic action film. And you can see this in all the promo materials that have come out — a character likens the comfort she feels for a stranger to one that you feel in a temple under the protection of an invisible god. Another states how the purpose of the world lies in our efforts to understand those around us.

There is a sense of biblical poetry in these dialogues, which Milton says comes from his affinity towards Russian literature. “My father inculcated a reading habit since I was six or seven, and I eventually stumbled upon the translated versions of Russian literature. Those days we used to get these big novels in Tamil for as cheap as ₹2. Because they are translations, the way the characters converse in these stories would be a bit biblical,” explains Milton, adding that he has taken creative licenses to give the film this flavour.

Milton understands a section of Gen-Z audiences get instantly aversed to anything emotional or poetic, quick to term them all ‘cringe.’ “That wouldn’t happen here. I was conscious not to advise anyone to do anything because that might get termed as ‘cringe’; I just want to have a conversation with the audience on a more mature level, and I have tried to be as concise as possible.” One thing Milton wishes to change through Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is how bloodshed is normalised to the current generation of audiences “ You won’t see gruesome fight scenes or bloodshed. Of course, you will feel the anger behind the action, but how we depict the anger is where I have drawn a line,” says Milton.