Suhasini Maniratnam was recently seen in SonyLIV’s Jai Mahendran, a political satire web series that questions bureaucracy, where she played a tahsildar. It marks the actor and filmmaker’s OTT debut in Malayalam. Naturally, she’s thrilled with the reviews she has been receiving for her maiden show in the said language.
Speaking to News18 Showsha exclusively from Chennai, she says, “It has been very good. I didn’t expect it because the series doesn’t have big names or a known director. Here, we had a bunch of relatively new people except Saiju Kurup and myself. But all of them performed really well.”
She refers to Jai Mahendran as ‘a welcome change’ for the audiences and states, “It’s a serious subject told in a humorous manner, and that’s what people liked.” Having worked across the Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam film industries, Suhasini lauds Mollywood for its treatment of comedy content.
“In Malayalam films and shows, humour isn’t cheap, and jokes aren’t of low standard. The sense of humour in their projects is always polished. So, the jokes and humorous scenes in this series are acceptable and smooth. There are no bad jokes, and you don’t need to twist or turn your face,” she tells us.
Renowned filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s wife, Suhasini, also spills the beans on how her husband reacted to her show. Talking about it, she says, “After I came back from the premiere of Jai Mahendran, where I watched the first three episodes, I discussed a lot with him. He told me that it sounds like a Sathyan Anthikad film. Sathyan’s a very well-known director in Malayalam cinema, who makes light-hearted films with a social message. Jai Mahendran reminded him of those films.”
However, she’s quick to add that they’re one of those couples who, despite working in the same industry, don’t engage in too many conversations about each other’s filmographies. Quiz her about their chats, and Suhasini shares, “When I listen to a script, I do tell him. And after hearing it, he almost always says, ‘Yeah, interesting!’ But other than that, he doesn’t really interfere. However, at the end of the day, when I return from a shoot, he always asks me if I got to do some good scenes.”
Suhasini remarks that she didn’t prod the Ponniyin Selvan and O Kadhal Kanmani director to share too many inputs on her work in Jai Mahendran, as she respects the fact that he’s neck-deep in work on his next big film Thug Life, an action drama that stars Suhasini’s paternal uncle and megastar Kamal Haasan alongside Silambarasan, Ali Fazal, and Trisha Krishnan.
“If there’s something interesting that happened at work, I tell him. Even if there are any difficulties I face, I tell him. At present, he’s also involved in making a major film, and I don’t want to interfere with his process by bringing up my work. We’ve very minimal exchange about characters, performances, or my scenes. I don’t occupy his time fully,” she points out.
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