‘Kireedam’s climax has been reworked on — the hero is no more a hapless man.

The day of the release of ‘Kireedam’ had young director Vijay on tenterhooks. Understandable, because it was a dream debut for the director — a huge banner had reposed confidence in him and given him a mega project on a platter. And it is to his credit that Vijay has lived up to it.Balancing romance, action, sentiment and comedy he assures you it’s a decent fare for the family audience and Ajit fans. “We’ve not thrust songs or fights into it at any point. They happen only when necessary. We didn’t go abroad for the duets and you’ll not find the predictable item number. Decent and natural within the commercial format, we are sure ‘Kireedam’ will go on to become a major hit.”

‘Kireedam’ is an experimental film, where realism and authenticity have been given primary importance. “I’ll give you an example. No man can hit a hulk of a villain with bare hands. You’ll always see Ajit using something he can lay hands on, to attack the enemy,” says Vijay.

Trained in Priyadarshan’s school the young man is always on the look out for spontaneity and naturalness in cinema. “True. The four years under him were a tremendous learning experience,” says Vijay. It was Priyadarshan who recommended Vijay to producer Suresh Balaje for ‘Kireedam.’ “Priyan has been supportive throughout,” smiles Vijay, who also has around 65 commercials to his credit.

“It was an excellent chance for me to work with Ajit. He makes decisions quickly and sticks to them. Only once did he listen to the narration,” Vijay goes on. Ajit told Vijay that he could do what the script demands and not change things for his sake. Yet how much is a director’s contribution in a remake? “As far as ‘Kireedam’ goes we’ve taken only the last 15 minutes of the Malayalam original. I worked on the screenplay for a year and a half. So you can imagine how much effort has gone into it.”

Ajit and Trisha in ‘Kireedam.’ Director Vijay

Did not the hero, crew or the producer even think that a negative end to such a positive and upright hero could tilt the scales against it? All said and done it’s the hero who is supreme to the man on the street. He wouldn’t want to see him lose. And playing up to his psyche could provide a straight ticket to success. “We know it, but we wanted to see how the audience takes to a realistic end. And all the Chennai theatres, be it Kasi or Sathyam, which I visited on the first few days, I saw the standing ovation from the audience when the hero, a victim of circumstances, breaks down. It was gratifying,” avers Vijay. “And films which end on a sad note, ‘Paruthi Veeran,’ for instance, were accepted.” But the point here is such films may not showcase a mass hero. No avid fan today likes to watch an upright man suffer till the end without respite.

Ajit’s reaction

“I was standing a little further away from Ajit when he came out after watching the movie. He walked up to me and with a hug said, ‘If I have to list my five best films ‘Kireedam’ will definitely find a place in it.’ It was an unforgettable moment for me,” Vijay recalls fondly.

Now to the most topical question of them all … Why then has the end been changed to a happy one since the past few days? “That’s purely because of the feedback from the media and request from distributors. Either way I’m confident that ‘Kireedam’ will go on to become one of Ajit’s major hits,” says a confident Vijay. It’s a feel-good mood that the Tamil film buff would like to carry home, and now ‘Kireedam’ is giving him just that.