Veera Dheera Sooran: A Conversation With Director SU Arun Kumar

Reading Between The Lines Of Veera Dheera Sooran With SU Arun Kumar

In this deep-dive conversation with Subha J Rao , director SU Arun Kumar unpacks Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 , his creative process, casting choices, and evolving approach to storytelling.

WHEN SU ARUN KUMAR'S Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 , starring Vikram, Dushara Vijayan and SJ Suryah, released on the big screen on the evening of March 27 after much anxiety and uncertainty over a court case, there was jubilation all around — not just because it was screened, but because the audience finally got the Vikram they loved, after years of waiting. It almost seemed fans were grateful someone finally cast their hero in a role that was right up his alley, one that did not involve intense physical transformation and tapped into his ability to emote. That response took the director, whose previous film was the slice-of-life Chithha , by surprise.

“I was worried because this was a screenplay format I had not attempted before, I jumped directly midway into a person’s life, and there are too many backstories. There’s intense drama, but no melodrama or excess emotion. Even in scenes where the audience is used to seeing a certain kind of action, they seemed welcoming of what we had attempted,” says Arun, whose film has just dropped on Amazon Prime Video. “This film taught me one thing — that the audience appreciates a good script and there is no need to dumb down the movie watching experience, presuming people might not understand.”

Below are edited excerpts from an interview with Arun, who does a deep dive into certain creative choices in VDS , working with Vikram, the desire-filled love of the lead characters, the interesting stunts and the writing of the prequel.

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While this film is about some hunters and the hunted, let’s begin with the very impactful love story, featuring a married couple. Many did raise issues over the age difference of your leads (three decades), but that was before they saw the movie…How do you write love?

When I heard of the social media conversations about the age difference, I did not give it a thought, because I knew the characters’ arc and I knew the performers would pull it off. That apart, I’m glad the love of Kaali (a splendid Vikram) and Kalai (a lovely Dushara) worked with the audience.

Married love is a beautiful thing, and I wanted to write in an equal relationship. In the film’s context too, this love was important, because it determines how Kaali responds to a situation. It was also a tool for me to showcase every character’s layers. It speaks of their history, for example, when Kalai chides him for his open display of affection after 10 years of marriage and two kids. And, when you know what really happened, you realise how much he has earned her trust.

Also, she’s a consenting adult. What if she’s happy with an older man? Also, as performers, Vikram Sir has maintained himself very well, and Dushara’s face conveys lived experience well — the age difference does not really show.

I love the idea of love, and always try to keep it relatable and accessible to all. It is when you enter the world of the characters that you hit upon the right tone that will work for these characters.

I like to keep things on an even track between a couple. There’s no power play, really. Be it Pannayaarum Padminiyum (a senior love story), Sethupathi (a cop and his wife and their playful love), Chithha (former sweethearts who are now boss and subordinate and who rediscover their bond) or Veera Dheera Sooran , I like to show them as being equals, because that’s how I saw my parents.

Your men are also very vulnerable, they apologise, even fall at the feet of their wives, unthinkable in a world where macho appeal rules. Your women wield a certain control using their love and nothing else.

Don’t you find it strange that while you live in a world where people largely adjust and give and take in a relationship, heroes in films will never apologise? That’s why I write my men as vulnerable, which is how many are in real life.

We don’t know who Kaali’s mother is. He’s constantly seeking warmth in his relationship with Kalai, and she gives him that.

I like my women to be the decision makers, and to get the nuance and tone right, I work with my female assistant directors — there are three of them now. I am very cautious that a female character should not exist for the sake of it. My women are also usually busy on screen — they are either running homes or working, or contributing in some way. That’s because, growing up, I’ve never seen a woman not do anything. It’s always been the vellarikkai paati , pookaara amma , pazhakkara paati … (the grandmother selling cucumber, the ladies selling flowers and fruit). The men were nowhere to be found. These women earned money the hard way and kept the family going. Even here, Kalai rushes from work to help with the petty shop. I truly cannot visualise men in these roles of substance in everyday life.

This is why I have an issue with the popular pictorial representation of farmers — it’s always men, when more women work in the fields. I think we should break these stereotypes, at least in cinema.

Let’s speak about the writing of Veera Dheera… You chose to jump headlong into the middle of a person’s life, revealing bit by bit as the story flits between the past and present.

This began as my wanting to do something different from what I’ve done so far, in terms of structure. Let’s take the story of the old lady, the crow and the fox (a popular Tamil fable) as an example. Every story begins with the grandmother living in a village, and how she decides to make vadais . I wondered how it would be if I jumped to the scene where the fox upstages the crow to get the vadai . That will also get people thinking about what happened before.

Strangely, rather than a challenge, I liked this process of writing. Where things unfurl like they would in real life. In reality, you don’t meet someone randomly with a background voice telling you a backstory. Which is why in the opening scene, you keep meeting characters, like you would in real life. You meet the brother, the sister, the father and the mother; you observe their dynamics, you imagine their bond. You also have questions that the rest of the film will hopefully answer.

In a film that’s a thriller of sorts, the stunts stood out for how intuitively the characters reacted to each other in the sequence. Kaali fights some casually, because he knows their movements from his past with them. How did you and Phoenix Prabu work on this?

When I was writing the script, I was clear that this is how the fights should be. By the time the fights appear on screen, people know part of Vikram’s past. And so, he mostly fights with familiar people, people whose techniques are not new to him.

In a fight, the thrill is always what happens after, because once the fight starts, you presume the hero will win anyway. We wanted that process to be interesting. And, this began at the writing stage itself. We did not want a plastic fight; we needed high drama and emotional highs and lows. We needed familiarity, we needed halting newness in Kalai’s reaction to some people. The lensing helped a lot too. Almost the entire film was in a 50mm wide short lens. I did not want to keep changing the lenses. Prabu took on the challenge and executed it.

By now, everyone says Vikram and Arun are a dream team, and there’s eagerness for the prequel, but how did this come about?

After Chithha , I was writing a script to shift genres when I got a call from Vikram Sir. He liked what I had written, and I finished it keeping Vikram Sir in mind.

When he met me, all he wanted to know was why he should be a part of this story. I narrated the scene in the wedding hall where he searches for his friend, and his interaction with officials, and how the audience should be able to see the importance of an unseen character on the protagonist’s face. How well he pulled it off!

I think Vikram Sir is one of the finest actors in the country who can pull out nuances very casually. When shooting, all I had to do was implant some thoughts, using emotions as clues — Kaali has to speak with guilt, he has to be vulnerable yet strong… and Sir would deliver.

Watch some of Vikram's unmissable performances on OTTplay Premium.

After a long time, people got to see Vikram as he is, without any physical transformation…

I believe the physical form is second, the first is the emotion. If you can convey something well, that’s good enough to take the character to the audience. This is why Kaali worked, though he enters the frame well into 20 minutes of the movie.

How did you react to that scene in the theatre?

It was a very new feeling. It was a bonus, because for that day, all I sought was a release. But the theatre erupted in joy. It reminded me of the time when I watched his Dhool in the theatre. It brought back happy memories of his early movies.

You cast SJ Suryah slightly differently too, as SP A. Arunagiri …

I’ve always liked him as a performer and felt this was something up his alley. All I had to do was nudge the actors with cues — they would invariably deliver what I was looking for. I think that’s what a director should do — just direct them towards the right emotion. Otherwise, there will be mood jumps because you don’t shoot linearly.

Have you started working on the prequel? Any characters you’d like to focus on?

No, I will work on a project or two before I sit down with it. Off hand, I can think of some characters that could be explored more, such as Dilip, Kannan, his sister Srija, Kalai’s mother and Periyavar’s wife.

Also Read | Vikram Confirms Veera Dheera Sooran Part 1 and Part 3.

Given a chance, would you do anything differently in Veera Dheeran ?

I’d probably trim the film by 10 minutes or so (it is presently 150 minutes). I’d tighten the flashback portions, and the point when the climax arrives would come in sooner.

Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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