What makes a perfect relationship? Is love an awesome thing or never-ending suffering?
Do we need relationships or just hook ups?
Exploring the universal disease called love is Tamil filmmaker Balaji Mohan, who debuted with the breezy romantic comedy Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi (How to mess up in love).
Mohan, after his last feature film Maari, now turns with a web series, As I’m Suffering from Kadhal. This original series scripted and directed by Mohan is a take on love and relationships in contemporary times.
As I’m Suffering From Kadhal follows four couples — Meera and Santosh who are married and angry at each other; Tanvi and Ragav who will soon tie the knot; Divya and Badri who are living together; and Balakumar, a single dad living with his little daughter, Smriti.
Mohan says this story began as an idea for his next feature film but during the scripting stage he realised that he would not be able to do justice to his characters owing to the restricted time duration of a feature film.
“I have always been eager to work on the format of the episode,” he adds.
Treading on a new road, he soon understood that the challenges were different from a film.
“Each episode had to be different from the next besides taking the story forward,” Mohan said.
With eight characters running wild in his imagination and his creativity not bound by time or space, Mohan had free rein with his writing.
“I could take up issues I felt about and put them out. The stories and situations I have spoken are echoing around us all the time. People from ages 18 to late 30s will relate to them,” he said.
Mohan is also playing a role in this series and he is supported by upcoming actors Abhishek J George, Sundar Ramu, Baby Yuvina, Sananth, Sanchana, Dhanya Balakrishna and Nakshatra Nagesh.
Working on a lower budget for this series as compared to a feature were lessons in cost cutting and reminded him of yesteryears when he began his cinematic journey with short films.
With As I’m Suffering From Kadhal, Mohan launches his own production house, Open Window. He is also ready with the script for Maari 2.
The sequel of this Dhanush film will have a stronger core and more emotion, says Mohan. While Dhanush and Robo Shankar are in it, the remaining cast is yet to be finalised.
Check out the trailer of As I’m Suffering from Kadhal online. The best moment is when Smriti asks her dad, ‘Why does everyone continue to get married?”
As I’m Suffering from Kadhal goes on air from June 16 and is free to watch.
