Santhakumar is an Indian director and screenwriter who predominantly works in tamil cinema. He is known for directing ''
Mounaguru'' (2011) and ''
Magamuni'' (2019).
Career
Santhakumar worked as an assistant director to
Dharani
Dharanis (IAST: ), also known as (Skt.) ''vidyās'' and ''paritas'' or (Pal.) ''parittas'', are lengthier Buddhist mantras functioning as mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, and almost exclusively written originally in Sanskrit while Pa ...
for ''
Dhill
''Dhill'' () is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Dharani. The film stars Vikram in the lead role, alongside Laila, Ashish Vidyarthi, Nassar and Vivek in supporting roles. The music was composed by Vidyasagar, while cine ...
'' (2001), ''
Dhool
''Dhool'' () is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Dharani. The film stars Vikram and Jyothika in lead roles while Reema Sen, Vivek, Sayaji Shinde, Telangana Shakuntala and Pasupathy play other supporting ...
'' (2003) and ''
Ghilli
''Ghilli'' ( ) is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language sports action film directed by Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam. It is a remake of the Telugu film '' Okkadu'' (2003), written and directed by Gunasekhar, with few changes made to the st ...
'' (2004) before commencing work on ''
Mounaguru'' in 2006.
''Mounaguru'' notably featured no lip-sync songs, a staple of Indian films, as he felt that it would ruin the film's narrative.
A ten minute sequence featuring
Arulnidhi on his knees took ten days to shoot.
The film faced no significant competition during release and was a success. A critic wrote that the film "has everything that might count as a cliche but the marvel of it is that it never descends into mediocrity or becomes predictable". He commenced work for his next film ''
Magamuni'' based on the two namesake characters in 2015,
and first wrote Maga before Muni.
Arya
''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''),Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood i ...
was cast in the titular roles after the producer suggested him after the script was finished,
and Santhakumar decided to cast him after Arya was mentally strong and became a cyclist despite having a commercial failure.
Regarding her character Deepa,
Mahima Nambiar
Gopika Palat Chirakkaraveettil (born 21 December 1994) known by her stage name Mahima Nambiar is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films. She debuted with '' Kaaryasthan'' (2010) and went on to receive praise for h ...
called her a female version of the director. Regarding the film, a critic wrote that "Director Santhakumar comes back to filmmaking after a eight-year gap
..but has not lost touch with the craft, going by ''Magamuni''. Not only is his story narrative unique, his writing of the various characters are also well fleshed out and detailed". Unlike his previous two films, he turned producer with ''
Rasavathi
''Rasavathi: The Alchemist'' is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language romantic action thriller film written, produced and directed by Santhakumar. It stars Arjun Das, Tanya Ravichandran, Reshma Venkatesh, and Sujith Shankar in lead roles. The soundtra ...
'' (2024), which was not well received with a critic noting that "To call the film’s pacing slow is an understatement and it’s understandable given the wafer-thin plot, which the director tries to accentuate by adding more characters that in turn lead to more scenes".
Personal life
He studied at
American College, Madurai
The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by United States, American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Indo-S ...
.
Between films, Santhakumar likes to do solo traveling for soul searching and writing.
Filmography
References
External links
*{{IMDb name, 1421683
Tamil film directors