Suriya Gautham Menon

Suriya, the Nadipin Nayagan of Tamil Cinema is now awaiting the release of his upcoming political action thriller 'NGK' which will hit the screens on April 2019. The film is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Selvaraghavan, and it also stars Sai Pallavi and Rakul Preet Singh in other pivotal roles. For Suriya, the box-office verdict of 'NGK' will have crucial impacts in steering his career, as his previous release 'Thaanaa Serndha Koottam' failed to meet up to the expectations.

Even though other Suriya movies released in the recent past that include 'Singam 3', '24', and 'Maasu Engira Maasilamani' minted some money at the box-office, all these films tried to exploit the star power of the actor, and none of these flicks tried to explore Suriya as an actor. As Suriya continues to do mass roles, some of his fans are eagerly waiting for a class performance from the actor.

At this juncture comes the name of Gautham Vasudev Menon, the director who played a crucial role in affirming Suriya's name as both a star and actor in Kollywood. Even though Suriya and Gautham Menon have worked only in two movies, both these flicks were impeccable in one way or the other.

It was in 2003 that Suriya initially joined hands with Gautham Menon in the movie 'Kaakha Kaakha'. The film portrayed Suriya playing the role of Anbuselvan IPS, a dashing daredevil cop. Unlike other cop movies that portray protagonists in supernatural avatars, Gautham Menon tried to narrate the story of a policeman a pure human without any extraordinary capabilities, and his raw cinematic language received positive responses upon its release.

Suriya immortalized the role of Anbuselvan in 'Kaakha Kaakha', and the success of this movie expanded the market value of Suriya in both Kerala and Andhra.

Then came, the milestone movie in the career of Suriya, 'Vaaranam Aayiram'. Performance of Suriya in this Gautham Menon directorial still remains his career best, and in this film, Suriya finely portrayed the life of a father and son in different phases of their life. This film also helped Suriya to bag the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Tamil.

After the success of 'Vaaranam Aayiram', Suriya mainly concentrated on mass masala flicks, and he established himself as a commercially viable hero in Kollywood. However, in this journey, he gave more preference to stardom and thus, intentionally or unintentionally, he stood away from acting-oriented roles.

In the meantime, due to several creative differences, Suriya and Gautham Vasudev Menon canceled their plans to make a movie which was titled 'Dhruva Natchathiram'. Now, Gautham Menon has apparently completed shooting of this movie with Vikram in the lead.

As Suriya is busy working in commercial entertainers, some of the actor's ardent fans hope that their Nadipin Nayagan will make an elegant comeback as a performer in a Gautham Menon movie. Let us hope the dream combo will work again in the future soon.