Waiting for Kandasamy

One of the most hyped films in Tamil in recent times is Susi Ganesan's Kandasamy starring Vikram and Shriya. The film started rolling almost two years ago with a lot of hype.

When interviewed in 2007, just after the film was launched, Susi Ganesan confidently said, "I am not frightened of the hype because I am confident about the content of my film. I will go on to say, the content is much more than the hype."

The combination of Vikram, Shriya and Susi Ganesan plus the postponement of the date of release several times has added more hype to the film.

A tired Susi Ganesan told rediff.com that he has not slept for days as there is a lot of computer graphics and special effects involved in the film.

"We are working against time. As we have to work on both the Tamil and Telugu versions, it has been really time consuming," said the director.

He decided to make Kandahar a bilingual as Vikram has a huge fan following in Telugu, second perhaps only to Rajnikanth. He has also roped in Telugu music director Devi Sri Prasad to compose music for the film. The hype about its music started with Vikram singing all the songs in the film a la the singing stars of yesteryears.

On why he chose Vikram as the protagonist, Susi Ganesan told rediff.com at the launch of his film that, "This film can't be done with a newcomer; it needed a hero like Vikram in the lead. He gave an extra dimension to my character."

He said it was a new kind of experience working with an actor of Vikram's calibre as Susi till now had worked mainly with newcomers and not-so-famous actors.

Director Shankar had said to rediff.com when his film Anniyan was about to be released that Vikram would come up with five different variations for each scene. Susi agreed with the observation.

"I totally agree with Shankar. For our trailer shoot, I asked him to jump and we had to have a few takes. I noticed then that in every jump, there was a slight variation. So, in every movement, he was trying to give a new dimension, and that is what great actors are about. It was really amazing to work with him."

Susi Ganesan has made Kandasamy as an adventure action thriller.

The film is about one of the major concerns the country faces now -- economic disparity. When one section of the society is moving up fast due to globalisation, a whole lot is left behind and with each passing day, the disparity is growing. The director feels there has to be a solution to this which he has done through the film though the message he sends is "not in your face."

I can't give the message directly; I have to entertain the audience and then tell the message. I would say Kandasamy is an adventurous film with an underlying message to it. It is a commercial film with all the commercial elements in it.

Vikram works as an ordinary government officer in the film but takes on the role of a saviour of the people like the protagonists in Indian or Anniyan, and tries to find justice for those affected.

One interesting thing you can look forward to in the film is the way people submit their problems to Kandasamy. Like you see in temples, there is a tree in the film where people write their woes on a piece of paper and paste them on the tree. Kandasamy takes up these cases.

Kandasamy is another name for Lord Muruga and that is why the director decided to give him the image of a rooster (the animal connected with Lord Muruga) when in disguise.

Kandasamy's costume also has been designed with Indian culture in mind.

In tune with the story of the film, the Kandasamy film unit has adopted two villages.

Susi Ganesan met the people of these two villages and asked them what they wanted as part of the film's initiative. They said they wanted basic requirements like repairing the collapsed walls of the school and the balavadi buildings, patching up the dilapidated roads, etc. The film unit immediately attended to all those problems.

What they did was, they constituted a committee of seven to eight women in both the villages to take care of everything including the finances.

The positive outcome of the initiative was that many from the industry have followed suit. Their argument, 'We have been getting money from the people but we have not given them anything back. It is high time we do something for them.'

Susi Ganesan said, "Adopting a village is like adopting a child. Even after we finish Kandasamy, adoption of villages will continue. This commitment is a part of what the film stands for."