'Manja Pai' has a strong message: Raj Kiranl
Actor Raj Kiran who plays the all-important role of Thatha in Manja Pai talks exclusively about his working experience in the movie.
Nowadays, you rarely act in movies. May be one movie in a year or so. What made you accept Manja Pai?
Cinema is a powerful medium, by which we can easily reach the masses. When I do movies, there should be a good message for the society. I don’t want to do run of the mill movies. In today’s society, there is not much respect for the elders. Manja Pai talks about the bond between a grandfather and his grandson. Manja Pai will be an eye opener for today’s youth to respect elders. I hope more people make movies with good messages to the society. There is a good audience for it.
Your chemistry with your onscreen grandson?
Before working in the movie, I haven’t met Vimal. By looking at his movies, I thought he must be an innocent guy. When I met him during the first day of the shoot, I realized my instinct was right. We had a real Grandfather – Grandson relationship while working in this movie. In fact, the entire unit used to call me Grandpa.
How was it working with Lakshmi Menon?
Lakshmi is also an innocent girl. She has no trappings of a movie star. Very down to earth girl. I really liked how our three roles were written in the script.
How do you find Director Raghavan - who is making his directorial debut in Manja Pai?
Raghavan used to assist Sargunam. I find him to be very hard working. Till he is completely satisfied with the output, he won’t leave you. He is a tough task master.
How about the Producers, Thirrupathi Brothers.
Both Lingusamy and his brother Bose have the highest respect for me. If you watched Sanda Kozhi, you can see how Dir. Lingusamy projects me in each and every scene. When I told them that I really liked the script of Manja Pai, they jumped on as producers along with Dir. Sargunam to produce the movie.
How about the Songs in Manja Pai. In your movies, songs were very popular.
Yes. Isaignani created magic in my movies. After listening to the songs and watching the movie with BGM, I was very impressed with NR Raghunanthan’s work. He reminded me of Isai Gnani. Also Kavingar Yuga Bharathi has penned wonderful songs. One more thing about Manja Pai – all the supporting cast in the movie has done a fantastic job.
What about your movie – Sivappu.
Yes. It’s a good movie. Unfortunately, the producer of the movie passed away recently. The movie will release soon.
Have you signed any other new movies.
Yes. I have signed 3 new movies. It won’t be appropriate for me to talk about these movies. Let the producers and directors make the formal announcement.
Any thoughts about the current state of the Tamil movie industry.
In those days, not many movies were made. Today, more movies are being made. Technicians who used to work one movie at a time used to concentrate a lot in that movie. Nowadays, technicians tend to work in more movies simultaneously. Hope they do justice to all their movies.