The Sivakarthikeyan-Sai Pallavi starrer Amaran came out as a major winner at the 72nd National Film Awards, which were announced earlier this Saturday. Besides GV Prakash for best background score and Rajkumar Periasamy for best director, the film also earned R Kalaivanan a win in the editing category. The achievement for Amaran comes hot on the heels of the blockbuster run for Kalaivanan's own Karuppu, starring Suriya.
Reflecting on the achievement, the editor shares, "I have not at all kept track of the National Awards from the time of the nominations as such. I only came to know that I have won when the director told it to me. Therefore, the win is very surprising to me."
Speaking of which, not many would find it surprising that both Amaran and Karuppu are blockbusters, with films featuring stars such as Sivakarthikeyan and Suriya, respectively. Both films reportedly earned more than 300 crore at the global box office. Addressing whether a blockbuster or a national award would benefit him more in the future, Kalaivanan is quick to note, "This is only my first National Award. I would only get to know its impact going forward. I do not even know whether it has a cash prize attached to it." He adds, "It is all a balancing act at the end of the day. Amaran, too, is a blockbuster. I want to be part of good films always."
The win for best editing for Amaran is Kalaivanan's second back-to-back achievement in the recent past. In late May, actor Suriya presented Kalaivanan, too, with a Batman edition car as a sign of appreciation for his work in their blockbuster film Karuppu. "Suriya sir is yet to reach out to me, as the news is just out," Kalaivanan smiles.
The achievement is an acknowledgement of Kalaivanan's hard work on the film. He spent two years working on Amaran alone. "I kept thinking about this film day and night and did not do any other film parallel to it. The film has plenty of emotions and actions, and balancing both was my biggest challenge while working on it."
It is worth noting Kalaivanan works in a technical field in cinema that usually do not get the recognition it deserves. Kalaivanan explains, "Not many awards have a category specifically for editing. There should be more recognition for it; unfortunately, that is not the case in general. That is why it feels special for us editors when such a big award comes our way."
Many actors have said that it is possible to change an entire film at the editing table, a notion that Kalaivanan agrees with. Amaran, meanwhile, is based on the life of the late Major Mukund Varadarajan. Elaborating on this, Kalaivanan explains, "That is true; there is hardly any back-and-forth shift between the timelines in Amaran. The film starts with a narration from Sai Pallavi ma'am (Major Mukund's wife Indhu Rebecca Varghese), and it follows that arc throughout. The screenplay itself has that linear order, chronicling Mukund sir's life from his birth to death; only, there is much action and emotion in between, and I had to balance both."
It is worth noting that Kalaivanan is also part of Om, directed by Amaran's own Rajkumar Periasamy. What makes Kalaivanan and Rajkumar's achievements at the 72nd National Film Awards even sweeter is the fact that they will get to share these with their Om stars Dhanush and Mammootty. While Dhanush's Raayan won Best Tamil Film, Mammootty's performance in Bramayugam has also been recognised by the jury.
On whether there would be a big celebration on the Om set, Kalaivanan delivered an understated response, echoing his director's sentiments. "I do not know about that. All of this has come as a big surprise for me." The editor's humility also reflects on the type of film that Amaran is, devoid of the sort of jingoism or hypernationalism that typifies recent military films in India. "I was not conscious of it (hypernationalism) at the editing table, because the writing itself took care of it," the editor notes.