5 Essential Directors Who Unleashed The Actor In Dhanush
More than a decade and 25 films later, when you look at Dhanush’s career today, you realize not all directors he has been associated with have been able to bring out the best in him. Some have worked with him solely for commercial reasons, while the rest, at least a handful, tried to unleash the ‘performer’ in Dhanush. Let’s take a look at those directors who’ve understood Dhanush’s talent and succeeded in portraying him in the fashion the masses as well as cinema enthusiasts have enjoyed over the years.
Selvaraghavan: Of all the actors Selva has worked with, his best work has come out with his brother in Kadhal Kondein and Pudhupettai. While the former portrayed Dhanush in a role of a physically and mentally abused character to perfection, the latter gave us an opportunity to witness the transformation of Dhanush from an actor to a performer. Dhanush’s rise from a school boy to a gangster in Pudhupettai is highly inspiring. Some may argue that since Selva and Dhanush are brothers and therefore they share a great rapport and comfort level when it comes to working together, but it’s the common vision that the pair strives to achieve every time they collaborate.
Vetrimaaran: Two films with Dhanush and we’ve realized the potential of filmmaker Vetrimaaran, who has dazzled us with his work in Pollathavan and Aadukalam, which eventually bagged a few National awards as well. Vetri knows to make the kind of films with Dhanush that will appeal to the masses as well as the multiplex audiences and critics. His work goes beyond the coveted awards we all have associated it with. Both his films were high on content, extremely different from each other and showcased Dhanush in roles we’ve never seen before. It also looks like Vetri has sworn to only make films with Dhanush no matter how much time is spent between each of his films as he’s readying to collaborate with the actor for the third time.
Bharatbala: It was Aadukalam that landed Dhanush an opportunity to work with Bharatbala in Mariyaan, which was based on a true incident. The film may not have done so well at the ticket window, but it certainly proved that Dhanush is a director’s actor and when used effectively, he can produce remarkable performances. As a fisherman, who later gets taken hostage in Africa, Dhanush gave his career best performance in a tailor-made and extremely challenging role. There’s an underrated film in every successful actor’s career and in the case of Dhanush, it has to be Mariyaan.
Aanand L. Rai: It takes guts for a director to take an actor of the masses to a language and industry he’s completely alien to and make a film with him. When Aanand L. Rai announced he was launching Dhanush in Hindi, many felt he was making a big mistake and probably is going to end up making a joke on himself in Bollywood. But he did the exact opposite and silenced all those who initially thought he was stupid to make a film with Dhanush. Raanjhanaa was not just a successful film, but thanks to Dhanush’s effortless performance, it blurred the line between Bollywood and southern film industry. Even Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan couldn’t enjoy a successful stint in the Hindi filmdom, but Dhanush seemed to have rewritten history.
R. Velraj: It’s not easy to make a crowd-pleasing commercial film. After experimenting with films such as Raanjhanaa and Mariyaan, Dhanush made a strong comeback to the commercial zone with Velai Illa Pattathari. Velraj, who had earlier worked as a cinematographer with Dhanush on several occasions, handled the actor in a commercial avatar extremely well. He designed Dhanush’s character to instantly appeal to the younger audiences, included a heart-warming mother-son relationship to satisfy the family audiences, sprinkled some comedy with Vivekh, some punch lines and a lot of heroism. It was the perfect formula for a commercial potboiler and it struck gold at the box-office, becoming the biggest blockbuster of the year in the language.
No matter how talented an actor is, it eventually rests on the shoulders of a director to extract the best out of his hero. On Dhanush’s 31stbirthday, here’s wishing that many more directors make use of his potential to the fullest.
