Cop films in Tamil cinema are often mere star vehicles, piling one action set piece over another to dazzle audiences. They rarely delve deep into the life of a policeman. But director Gaurav, whose next film Sigaram Thodu features actor Vikram Prabhu and Sathyaraj as cops, says his movie will not attempt to construct a ‘mythical’ cop on screen. “In my film, the protagonist will be depicted as the guy next door. He appears in police uniform in only three scenes and there will be no exaggeration.”
Gaurav says he wrote the film after being fascinated with the modus operandi of ATM and debit card fraud. “I was surprised at the level of sophistication of the criminals. I attended some training programmes conducted by the police department to understand how these thefts take place.”
But what about the macho image of the Tamil cop? “I feel there are many notable feats of policemen that actually go unnoticed and unreported in the media. I have attempted to focus on the way the department works, the intra-departmental camaraderie, how they track down culprits and so on.”
Gaurav reiterates that this is not just a police-procedural film. “It is also a film about the relationship between father and son. Usually, father and son are shown to be at loggerheads with each other. In this film, both Vikram Prabhu and Sathyaraj are cops and both love and trust each other.
Like all filmmakers, Gaurav says there were limits on how far he could go. “I didn’t want to present an in-depth account because first, I wasn’t making a documentary and second, this is commercial cinema and needs a bit of love, comedy, action.”
