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Director Mari Selvaraj has opened up about the controversial letter he wrote to Kamal Haasan, which termed the actor’s hit film Thevar Magan as casteist. In a recent interview on a YouTube channel, Mari was asked about the letter and the Karnan director said that he wrote it with the understanding he had thirteen years ago.
The letter in question was shared widely on social media after Mari’s speech about Kamal Haasan’s Thevar Magan at the audio launch of Maamannan. The director claimed that he was immensely affected by Thevar Magan and didn’t know whether the film was right or wrong. He claimed all his movies are influenced by Thevar Magan. He said Thevar Magan bothered him as he couldn’t find due representation in the film.
Since his speech, a letter he wrote back in 2010 on the website named Kaatch is trending on social media. In the letter, Mari criticised Kamal Haasan’s 1992 film Thevar Magan as being casteist and glorifying one particular caste. He called out Kamal for being a Brahmanical elitist, who is unaware of the impact his film made on the ground level. He also termed the humanity of Kamal as superficial and fake.
However, in a recent interview with Film Companion, Mari Selvaraj said that he wrote the letter at a time when he was very emotional and didn’t have the kind of reading he has now. “A legend like Kamal sir has watched Maamannan. He knows how emotional it is for me. The letter I wrote back then… I didn’t have the reading or the understanding back then. I was very emotional and I wrote with the language I knew back then. From then to now, I have put in a lot of effort to learn about things and the film craft. Kamal sir watched Pariyerum Perumal and appreciated me. He has also seen Maamannan… he is the only one who has seen the film so far. When he held my hands and appreciated me, he knows how I was trembling.”
He added, “Kamal sir also spoke exactly what I thought he will. He said that ‘I have seen Maamannan. It is not just Mari Selvaraj’s politics. It is mine too.’ He said that this film will be a test for Tamil audiences’ taste. What else do I need other than this?”
Mari went on to call the misunderstanding between Kamal and him as the one that exists between a father and a son. “It is like a relationship between a father and a son. It is like a misunderstanding between a son who ran away from home. What if he speaks with anger to his dad, and the dad consoles him? It is that kind of a thing.”
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