Koozhangal is not a film which has a beginning, middle or end. We don’t see a resolution or realisation. It’s just an observational film that shows a part of their lives. Why did you want to structure the film this way?
In this film, I can’t offer a solution. I can only address the issues. If I had given a solution, it would become a conventional film. We portrayed a journey on a personal level and it might be wrong for me to give a certain ending. We show the land and the people that there is hope that someday things will change. That’s the stand we were able to take.
There is a dog toy and even an actual puppy in Koozhangal and the poster of your next film, Kottukkaali, has a rooster. Tell us about the animals in your film.
In the case of Koozhangal, when I see it from a different perspective, I see it as the story of this lost puppy who is trying to make its way home and the whole film happened just so that it could find his home. If Velu hadn’t torn the currency notes, if they hadn’t walked back home, he wouldn’t have found the puppy. When I watch the film, I like to look at it this way. But when I made the film, it was all about presenting things from the child’s point of view. The father would walk past this puppy, but Velu would stop and take it home. Be it the balloon, the toy or the puppy, it is to show that when we have a kid’s mentality, several problems get resolved. In Kottukkaali, the rooster plays a main role. It rooster will have more prominence than the puppy in Koozhangal.
In your previous interviews, you have talked about your struggles and how your love for cinema helped you lead a better life. What does cinema mean to you?
Engayo kaanama poiruka vendiyavan thaan naan (I was supposed to be somewhere else, lost). But my love for films and what I learned from books and cinema about politics, caste, human beings and culture, has led me here. The fact that I am able to do a film, get recognised or even give you this interview is only a bonus. I am grateful that I wanted to enter cinema; that wish is in itself a blessing.