Guru Somasundaram on ‘Minnal Murali’: I was not ready for this level of praise

“Afterwards Minnal Muralipremiere, someone in the audience came up to me and asked, ‘Can I hug you?’. Recalling the incident, Guru Somasundaram laughed. Life has changed for him overnight after the film dropped on Netflix on Christmas Eve. His meticulous performance as the antagonist has been appreciated by critics and audiences alike.

Talking about the film, Guru has a childlike joy. “I don’t usually watch my movies. In fact, I rarely check the monitor after giving a shot. but when i started working Minnal Murali, I thought it was going to be special. So I watched it with the whole team before the premiere and I was shocked. It was like I was struck by lightning, just like my character in the film,” he laughs.

Set in a village called Kurukkammula, the film revolves around two men – Jason (Tovino) and Shibu (Guru) who are struck by lightning in the same night. Both acquire superpowers and circumstances pit them against each other.

The unrequited love and society’s indifference towards his plight makes Shibu a bitter man. In Tulsi’s words, Shibu is “the second hero” and not the villain.

Hardly any villain can get hold of the audience. But Shibu’s character design managed to do just that. Not many know that Guru is the same hideous villain in ‘Sethulakshmi’, one of the segments of the five-film Malayalam anthology, 5 beautyL (2013). He worked as a studio owner who abuses a school girl (Anikha Surendran) in a segment directed by cinematographer Shayju Khalid. He said, ‘I know how much people hated the character of ‘Setulakshmi’. And presenting Shibu who, despite his antics, wins the hearts of the people. I was not prepared for this level of appreciation,” he says.

becoming a shibu

Tulsi and his team met Guru in 2019 to discuss the project. “He narrated the entire script while playing background music on his phone! I did not expect that I would get to do so much; I was drawn to the physical and emotional transformation of the character. Once I started shooting things went to another level,” says Guru, who made his debut with Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s cult film, aranya kandmi,

Guru believes it is all because of his decade-long association with Chennai-based Kuthu-P-Pattaray, one of the premier theater groups in the country. “I grew up in Madurai, which had a lot of theatres. As a child, I have seen many movies with my mother. Being an actor was the last thing on my mind while growing up because I was shy. After finishing my studies, I got a job. However, after a while I felt lost and didn’t know what to do. That’s when I read about Koothu-Pi-Pattrai and I fell in love with theatre.

He recalls that during Navratri, his mother used to dress him up as a girl. Maybe that’s where the acting part came from!

He said that theater gives confidence to improvise. “I always use it when writers give me space to improvise. It’s like blowing a balloon to its maximum capacity. However, you have to make sure it doesn’t burst. Similarly, I love the scene. I improvise without changing the root,” he says.

The first step to becoming Shibu, says the guru, was learning Malayalam. He took lessons from YouTube and can now read and write the language. “I believe it is important for an actor to learn the language to portray emotions. It was also about establishing a bond with everyone on the sets. Knowing the language gave me a special energy and it helped my performances. helped,” he says.

Actor-director Dilesh Pothan had dubbed for Guru 5 beautiful times, “Initially, when I had to struggle with the dialogues, Tulsi would pull my leg saying ‘I have to call Dilish again’. However, after a scene with Harishree Ashokan where she is murdered, Tulsi tells me that I should dub for my character.

He also watched Malayalam movies to choose the language. “I have seen many films of Srinivasan sir like Nadodikattu, Angane Oru Awadhikalathu, Akkere Akkere Akkere… a movie i saw many times njan publication, It had simple dialogues,” says Guru, who also starred in the critically acclaimed jigarthanda (2014), Joker (2016) and Jai Bheem (2021).

Guru is excited that he is starring in Mohanlal’s directorial debut. burrozo in February. His upcoming Malayalam release is Abhilash S Kumar’s chatambi, with Srinath Bhasi and Chemban Vinod.

His dream is to do a full length comedy role. “Many people have told me that I remind them of Nagesh sir. He is a brilliant performer even though we have seen him more in comedy,” he adds.

Does he have a favorite villain-actor? “Raghuvaran sir. I believe a villain has to have some honesty about himself. This is something I learned from a Brazilian theater artist. He saw that in our films the heroes are good and the villains are always bad. According to him the characters should have a mix of good and bad. Raghuvaran sir’s villainous roles had that mix. I love playing such characters,” he concluded.