Is the real Sundar C still around? - Column - Candid views - Sundar C Guru Sishyan Vaada Irandu Mugam Anbe Sivam Thalainagaram

worked with Superstar, Kamal Haasan and Ajith? Very few; in fact the number could be less than five. K.S. Ravikumar is the first name that will strike everyone’s mind. Sundar C is also one among them. It is with Kamal that he created perhaps the most lasting impression of his career; Anbe Sivam.

A small note on Anbe Sivam: I think that this movie is the single most quoted one in articles relating to Tamil cinema in the last decade. Everyone has something or the other great to tell about the movie. And, even now, nearly 8 years after its release, we are yet to get fed up of expounding its positives. That proves that the movie is definitely in the league of evergreen, all time classics. Talking about Anbe Sivam with so much interest is both happy as well as sad. Happy, because we have witnessed a product that is worth so many years of discussion. Sad, because the eight years between Anbe Sivam and today have failed to produce one movie that can replace it in such discussions.

Getting back to Sundar C. We know that he directed Anbe Sivam. Even if not many people are ready to credit him with being the helmsman of this movie, the fact remains that he was the director. And, besides Anbe Sivam and Arunachalam, Sundar C was a director of 25 other films, many of which created good impressions at the box office. One can clearly remember associating Sundar C’s name with hilarious comedy. It was his signature and he almost always delivered the goods in his films.

In fact, his comedy was the kind that could be enjoyed by all classes of audiences. Hits like Ullathai Allitha are testimony to his ability to handle comedy as a director. The biggest proof however lies in Winner; containing perhaps the most watched comedy scenes of the decade. There is almost no single day when the sequencees of comedy scenes featuring Kaipulla are not telecast on TV. It is almost like a staple diet. The comedy scenes of Winner have already climbed to the status of evergreen moments in Kollywood; one supposes.

The good thing about Sundar C was that he directed movies that could be enjoyed by families. Yes, there was the occasional dose of glamour and violence. But, they basically remained clean entertainers. And, there is no denying the fact that even he has had duds at the box office; every director has that. But, there was never any doubt over his potential.

But, since 2006, we have been searching for Sundar C, the director. Not that he has gone into retirement; he stepped in front of the camera. Not that one feels that this man is unskilled or unfit to be a lead actor. But, he seems to be underutilizing his abilities by subjecting himself to some below par stuff. As an actor, Sundar C has not been associated with producing clean entertainers that can be seen by families. Almost inevitably, all his movies, barring his first few as actor, have had oodles of glamour and are almost incomplete without an item song. His latest release going by the name of Guru Shishyan was perhaps the furthest one can go in the name of commercialism.

It is not very heartening to see a man of proven potential underselling himself; settling for stuff that does not do any justice to his abilities whatsoever. Now, we hear that he is set to direct a film again in which he will also be starring. Perhaps, that will tell us whether the skilled and popular director is still alive within the ‘mass’ star that Sundar C is now. Kollywood is more in need of Sundar C the director who produces neat and clean family entertainers and great comedy rather than Sundar C the actor who stars in films that try to pull off anything in the name of commercialism.

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