Ravi Mohan explains An Ordinary Man: a man becomes god

Ravi Mohan has given plenty of interviews in a 23-year, 37-film career, but the one he sat down for this week was a first: his first as a director, and he brought his hero along. Talking about An Ordinary Man, the film he writes, directs and produces through his own studio, he finally put its premise into words. “An Ordinary Man is about an average man becoming a true human being. That human being becomes a good human being. And that good human being becomes godlike. That’s the story.”

The structural choice is bolder than the logline. The film is built entirely around Yogi Babu, with every other character kept to small portions, a leading-man commitment few Tamil films have made to the industry’s most bankable comedian. The story itself has been waiting a while: Ravi Mohan first narrated it to Yogi Babu on the sets of Comali seven years ago, and the film only moved once the actor’s call sheets aligned. The comedy grew from a simple trigger, the idea of sending its thoroughly ordinary protagonist on his first trip abroad and watching the chaos compound.

The interview also marks a turn in Ravi Mohan’s own story. After months in which family disputes and courtrooms generated more headlines than his films, including a public apology to fans earlier this year, his attention is visibly back on cinema. The slate is suddenly crowded: Karathey Babu, the Ganesh K Babu directorial he stars in, reaches theatres on August 28, while An Ordinary Man continues shooting.

For a debut director, betting everything on a single performer is either a gamble or a statement of clarity. Ravi Mohan talks like a man who believes it is the latter, and with Netflix already attached to the film, at least one large audience is guaranteed to find out.