Endearingly called ‘Makkal Selvan’ (son of the people), Vijay Sethupathi has undoubtedly made an unique mark in the Tamil film industry. Without a film background or a mentor to boast of, the actor has won people’s hearts over the years by delivering some fine performances in films such as Soodhu Kavvum, Pizza, Orange Mittai, and Super Deluxe. But in recent times, his choice of films and the trajectory of his career as a lead actor have been worrisome.
Throughout his career as an actor, Vijay Sethupathi never followed the conventional path of Tamil male actors who eventually aspire to become ‘stars’ and refuse to play small or experimental characters. Rather, the actor associated with any film which was unconventional and gave him the scope to exhibit his acting chops. Case in point is his relatively small role in Kadaisi Vivasayi. It is also rare for a male actor to make space for a female lead to plan and execute a murder, which he did for Nayanthara's Kadhambari in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan.
Before making his debut as a lead actor in Thenmerku Paruvakaatru (2010), Vijay Sethupathi made blink-and-miss appearances in many films. Not one to be limited to the set definitions of a hero, he followed it up with the role of an antagonist in Sundarapandian where he effortlessly switched from a soft spoken friend of the hero to the hardened villain who hires henchmen to murder the same hero. He then went on to deliver a series of hit films including Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, and Soodhu Kavvum.
The roles he chose were experimental and brought a seemingly avant garde wave to Tamil cinema. He played male protagonists who goofed up, did not take themselves too seriously, and barely had any hypermasculine flexing.
Sethupathi’s choice of roles did not just give him commercial success. His evocative performances in Rummy and Pannaiyarum Padminiyum – which were incidentally directed by debut filmmakers Balakrishnan K and SU Arun Kumar respectively – earned him critical acclaim as well. Action movies (Sethupathi), romantic comedies (Kaadhalum Kadandhu Pogum, Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal), gangster dramas (Vikram Vedha), slice of life dramas (Dharma Dhurai) — you name it and Vijay Sethupathi has done it all.
In choosing the type of films he did, Sethupathi managed to break almost every mould that was set by his predecessors. It is perhaps this need to break out of the mould that is pushing him towards poorly written and directed films. While this has worked for most part, like in Super Deluxe, his decline can be attributed to perhaps wanting to maintain the ‘indie’ actor tag he has earned over time. Three out of the four full length films that Sethupathi acted in during 2021 (Laabam, Tughlaq Darbar, Anabelle Sethupathi) had unconventional roles for the lead actor, but were also poorly executed.
The first year after the pandemic was particularly bad for Sethupathi even though he starred in six movies, three of which were released in September alone. Despite establishing himself as a strong performer, it was almost as if he was worried about becoming ‘irrelevant’ because he did not have a hugely successful film since 2019 after Super Deluxe. The only memorable performance of Vijay Sethupathi in 2021 was as the villain (Bhavani) in Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Master, opposite Vijay. But that year was not all bad for Sethupathi as he was expanding his reach in the Tollywood industry by starring in his second Telugu film Uppena. He also made his reality television debut in 2021 as the host of Masterchef India in Tamil.
In 2022, the actor’s most memorable performance was in Vikram where he was part of an ensemble cast including Kamal Haasan, despite him starring in Kaathuvakula Rendu Kaadhal alongside Nayanthara and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. A similar track record can be seen in 2023 as well, with the actor shining in relatively smaller roles as a charismatic Communist leader in Viduthalai Part 1. Sethupathi, however, seems to have partly salvaged his career with his web series debut in the Hindi show Farzi, where he plays an alcoholic investigation agent in hot pursuit of a fake money printer. Although the show centres Shahid Kapoor, Sethupathi’s character is reminiscent of his older ‘morally-grey-but-lovable’ roles.
While Vijay Sethupathi is not going to fade into oblivion because of what is hopefully a simple dip in his career, maybe it is time for the actor to re-evaluate his film choices and once again play roles that earned him the moniker of ‘makkal selvan’.
In an interview to Netflix in 2022, Sethupathi said that till now he has only been learning how the film industry functions and is planning to use his knowledge after this. “Only now I have started exploring. All my lessons that I have learned from my mistakes and my experiences so far are the treasures I have earned so far. Now I’ll take all this and use it as practice for whatever comes next. I’ll refine all my ideas and methods,” he said. As a fan, one can only hope that Sethupathi keeps his word and comes back stronger than ever.