Vijay Sethupathi interview: ‘Cinema is not just about claps and whistles’

Ahead of the release of his Tamil web-series ‘Muthu Engira Kaattaan’, actor Vijay Sethupathi speaks about how the project healed him, his upcoming slate including ‘Pocket Novel’ and Mani Ratnam’s next, what does success mean to him and more

When I meet Vijay Sethupathi at Prasad Studios in Chennai, he is wrapping up a day of filming for Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Pocket Novel. It is 6pm and the actor hasn’t had lunch yet. His team is milling around, helping him get out of make up and in his caravan, I notice a set of weights, a keyboard, and a stack of neatly arranged books. This is the actor in his natural habitat — a performer who has averaged at least four releases a year for over a decade. 

He will be making his Tamil web-series debut later this month with Muthu Engira Kaattaan on JioHotstar, reuniting with friend and collaborator M Manikandan, who previously directed him in Aandavan Kattalai and Kadaisi Vivasayi. Manikandan is credited as the creator of the series, and shares direction credits with B Ajith Kumar.

Vijay Sethupathi In ‘Muthu Engira Kaattaan’ | Photo Credit: JioHotstar

“This story sort of healed me,” Sethupathi says. He harkens back to a time when he felt stuck after the pandemic, and brings up something he learnt through Distance Healing. “I was told then that we are not clouds, but the sky. Clouds are something that simply come and go in our lives. When I read the script of Kaattaan, I felt like the clouds in my life cleared and I was able to see the sky. It cleansed me,” he reflects. 

A noir-folk thriller, the web series unfolds in a sleepy village whose inhabitants are rattled when a severed human head is discovered. We follow two policemen attempting to unravel the identity behind it. The first two episodes, a fantastic coming together of dark comedy, absurd humour, and a police procedural, keep us guessing; who really was Muthu?

“I do not set out to do something with the mindset that it is going to be ‘amazing’. It feels egoistic to me,” says the actor, when asked if he feels any pressure to deliver something path-breaking yet again with Manikandan. “This is not what someone should be thinking of, especially while pursuing art. I am just doing my job, and what is important is to do it wholeheartedly,” he says while acknowledging the comfort of working with frequent collaborators like, Manikandan or Thiagarajan Kumararaja, with whom he worked earlier in Super Deluxe (2019). “There is freedom… I can talk openly, have discussions, and I know I will not be judged,” he adds.