International glory beckons unknown Tamil director

Ameer Sulthan’s film Paruthiveeran is being screened at the Berlin international film fest

BERLIN: Paruthiveeran, one of the most brilliant films to come out of India in the last few years, is not for the faint-hearted.

Directed by Ameer Sulthan, this cauterising Tamil film has been selected for the 58th Berlin International Film Festival that runs from February 7-17.

A tragic inter-caste love story set in rural Madurai, it has heroine Priyamani playing a woman in love with such ferocity, that one has not seen in perhaps a decade.

The tragedy is that few Indians have heard of Chennai-based Ameer Sulthan — let alone seen his film — beyond Tamil Nadu, even as he is poised for international glory.

Paruthiveeran, which will be screened in the International Forum  of New Cinema section in Berlin, is one of five Indian films selected by the festival. “After my first two films Mounam Pesiyade (Silence speaks) and Ram, I got a visiting card. After Paruthiveeran, I got a credit card,” laughs Ameer.

Tamil star Surya had asked Ameer to make a hero-oriented film to launch his brother Karthi. Ameer not only made Karthi a recognisable face, he cannily rocket-launched his own career — and earned thrice the film’s budget.

Ameer’s crudely powerful screenplay and characters, especially the women, are the powerhouse of the film. “We belong to a warrior clan and women in Madurai, where I come from, are like that,” says Ameer.

“There is a proverb, ‘Even if a tiger enters the room, a Madurai woman will thrash it with a broom.’ The women swear freely and it is quite normal for a woman to tell a man, “Don’t act smart or I’ll cut it off when you are sleeping’.”

Debut actor Karthi, who is also the son of actor Sivakumar, studied engineering in the US. “I assisted Mani Ratnam on Ayutha Ezuthu (Yuva in Hindi), but thought I’d try acting,” he says.

“Ameer would not give me a narration of the story, he’d only tell me what we were shooting the next day. He did not want any pre-conceptions and kept me in suspense. The result is worth it. The film was selected by the Rome, Rotterdam and Stockholm festivals, but we waited for the big one, Berlin.”

“Ameer was the only director we could afford to launch Karthi, and we thought we could control him,” admits producer KE Gnanavel Raja. “We were mistaken, but there’s no doubt he has made a top quality film.

Only, I was forced to cut the gang-rape scene at the climax as neither men nor women could stand it. Only when women come, does a film become a hit. Anyway, it is common for Tamil exhibitors and projectionists to cut scenes whenever they feel the audience is fidgety.” He can rest assured when the film is shown here in Berlin: nobody will fidget.

(Meenakshi Shedde is on the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Jury of the Berlin Film Festival 2008.)