Best part of our marriage is writing together: Suhasini
Suhasini Maniratnam talks to DT Next on returning to direction with the Putham Pudhu Kaalai anthology after 25 years, and writing with her husband Mani
Suhasini Maniratnam greets us with her effervescent smile on a video call on a bright afternoon. The writer-actor is back as a director in the segment titled, Coffee, Anyone? The anthology also has other short films directed by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Menon, Rajiv Menon and Karthik Subbaraj. One of the things that sets Suhasini apart is that she is the first among them to have made an anthology for Doordarshan titled Penn (1990) that had Revathy in the lead role. “I had the same drive or an enthusiasm when I wrote Penn to come up with something of that sort this lockdown. Mani too had helped me to write this story. This is the sixth story that we have penned together. I’m glad that Amazon Prime has brought me, Sudha, Gautham, Rajiv and Karthik together because I have always admired their works. In fact, I am quite junior to them when it comes to making films. Also, I believe I was the last one to be chosen for Putham Pudhu Kaalai as they weren’t sure if I would give them a confirmation. I agreed a couple of days after Mani had asked me if I would do this,” she begins.
The cast includes her mother Komalam Charuhasan, and her cousins Anu Hasan and Shruti Haasan apart from veteran actor Kaathadi Ramamurthy. Ask her if that helped the emotions she wanted to convey were intact, she divulges further, “In fact I wanted my dad Charuhasan and chithappa Kamal Haasan to be a part of it. I thought if Kamal can be a part of the film through a phone call as an anna or a chithappa. But that did not happen. My father unfortunately had a fall and fractured his collar bone a few weeks before the shoot. Though he recovered, he didn’t want to take a chance. When I asked my mother if she would be willing to play someone else’s wife, she quietly replied, Thambi ah nenachukaren paravaila (I will pretend Kaathadi to be my brother, that’s okay).” Shruti a couple of days ago told us that she had shot for her portions from Hyderabad. Suhasini heaped praise on her and tells us, “She has performed beautifully. In fact, Shruti reminded me of Revathy from Mouna Raagam. You will know when you watch it.” This is the second time she is directing Anu Hasan after Indira in1995. Suhasini with a smile reveals, “Her acting has changed immensely since Indra. In Indira I had to enact to her a few scenes and Anu being a BITS Pilani product wouldn’t want to do things my way. However, now, she has become a complete actress and has outperformed me. Among all these people, it is my performance that I wasn’t satisfied with because I had to look after the direction part of it as well.”
Suhasini gets candid on collaborating with her husband, the ace director Mani Ratnam yet again for Putham Pudhu Kaalai. “Mani and I work well together. You know what? The best part of our marriage is writing together. He used to take me along while writing for Roja and Bombay. While he used to write I happily ordered ice-creams and dozed off. Of late, I didn’t collaborate with him because I was missing the fanfare of watching his films. Even for his Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, I was happy to be among the audience on the first day. For Putham Pudhu Kaalai, I wrote and gave it to him. He edited and gave me a one-liner for which I had to start again from scratch. Overall it was interesting to sit and write with him in this pandemic,” she concludes.