Narain’s first few films — Chithiram Pesuthadi and Anjaathe , to name two — did quite well, but he has been rather quiet of late. It has been three years since he had a Tamil release. “Directors kept approaching me with the angry-young-man role. That only made me angrier,” he laughs. And in 2012, just as he was putting word out that he was open to doing light-hearted films, Mysskin approached him with Mugamoodi . “Perhaps the angriest of all the roles I’d done so far.” Narain knew it’d be criminal to turn down a Mysskin film, but he was also a bit unsure about cementing his reputation as an actor who could do only serious roles. “What if this backfires?” he asked Mysskin, who told him that they could always do another film later. Mugamoodi , unfortunately, backfired, but the planned reunion didn’t quite materialise.
“He has been exploring himself as a filmmaker. We are good friends, and I’m sure something will come up eventually.”
For the last three years, Narain has kept himself busy in Malayalam cinema. Just when he had all but given up hope about Tamil cinema, he struck a conversation with an acquaintance. “I was my usual jovial self with him, and he asked why I wasn’t doing light-hearted roles,” he says. It turned out that this acquaintance, Era. Saravanan, was about to make his debut film, Kaththukkutti … a comedy. If Narain wasn’t sold on it yet — Saravanan was a new director and the production banner was also new — a short narration did the trick. “ Kaththukkutti has all the ingredients necessary to make it a hit.”
Kaththukkutti is about a rural issue. “The director is from Thanjavur, and has firsthand experience of this issue,” says Narain, rather cryptically. After some prodding, he says the issue is “about land”, but won’t say any more. The film is ready for release, with the producers aiming to release it alongside Puli . Narain concludes the conversation with a huge compliment for the director. “When Mysskin first approached me for Chithiram Pesuthadi , he was a new filmmaker, and wasn’t really backed by an established banner. I trusted him and it paid off. I trust Saravanan the same way.” Some pretty big shoes to fill, I say. “I think he’ll do fine,” he says.
