Karthi Wants To Bring The Joint Family Back Into Our Lives

Iconic Tamil actor Suriya’s brother Karthi has in a decade of acting established a reputation for doing out-of-box roles in films that challenge the actor and the audience into new ways of looking at the process of building characters.

Karthi who has lately done a lot of intense roles in films like Kaashmora, Mani Ratnam’s Katru Veliyidai is now having the time of his life shooting for what he calls his most personal project to date.

“The film is called Kadaikutty Singam. It is produced by my brother Suriya. And it talks about values that are very close to my heart. It is about values of the Indian joint family.We specially in cities are forsaking the precious joys of living in a joint family. It’s a terrible loss. I am a member of the Tamil actors’ association and I see actors above the age of 60 leading lonely lives with their wives, abandoned by their children living on the pension they get from the Association. It’s a very frightening situation,” says Karthi regretfully.

In Kadaikutty Singam Karthi plays the only son of the family. “There are five sisters and then I’m the only male child. So you can imagine what a pampered character I play.”

Karthi says it’s like being at home. “I come from a joint family and I know how precious my family is to me. But I am working with 20-something actors who keep wondering why we get so emotional doing the family scenes in the film. They come from nucleur families and are completely removed from the concept of a joint family.”

Speaking of his brother Suriya, Karthi’s voice lights up with reverent affection. “He is so much ahead of me. It will take me years to achieve he has. I am lucky to have made a small name for myself in an industry that has already given so much love and affection to my brother. As for sharing screen space with my brother, we have to find a script that does justice to our presence. Our film together will happen for sure.”