However, director Bala upset Suriya’s career by casting him in the lead role in his troubled film. NandaIt is noteworthy that two other problematic films were instrumental in establishing Suriya as an exceptional actor. As flawed as these films were, their remarkable performances overshadowed their problems, at least during their initial releases, and won the admiration of many.

For Suriya, who had hitherto played light and romantic roles, Nanda It served as his first real opportunity to show his full potential, if he had any, as the main character significantly challenged his abilities. Bala’s fascination with poverty porn and the brutal depiction of pain and suffering was evident in Nanda Also. In the film, Suriya played a mother-obsessed man, who returns from a juvenile home after serving time for killing his abusive father. Under the guise of an “honest depiction of reality,” Bala has repeatedly used harassment, torture and the real-life hardships of the oppressed, portraying them in an unfiltered and empathetic manner, which can cause those who have lived through similar experiences to relive their traumas. Nanda Bala was no exception. By overtly focusing on a man’s extreme maternal fixation, which actually requires professional care, and romanticising it, and glorifying his brutalities, which are a result of both mental health issues and the state’s inadequate prison system that fails to ensure rehabilitation, Bala created a disturbing film, though it was not that disturbing compared to his later works. However, Suriya embodied the character with exceptional skill, bringing out its multiple layers with finesse. From Nandha’s predetermined body language and the changes she underwent as she experienced various emotions, including rage, grief, sadness, love and a longing for maternal compassion, to the nuances she provided to the role, her performance in the film highlighted that Suriya was a spectacular actor who could reach great heights if given opportunities. Nanda It also earned the actor his first and only Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.

Suriya with his father Sivakumar (right) and Nandha director Bala. (Image: Suriya/Instagram)

Playing against ACP Anbuselvan IPS in Kaja Kaja (2003) not only gave Suriya the opportunity to explore and showcase his skills further but also marked an important milestone in his rise to stardom. Director Gautham Vasudev Menon’s fascination with the uniformed services is well known and he has often glorified this fact on screen. Kaja Kaja was the first film to highlight this fixation, glorifying extrajudicial killings and the use of third-degree methods by officers to ensure “swift justice.” By portraying his police characters as inherently good people with no shades of grey, Gautham ensured that their intentions, and consequently their actions, were not questioned. The romanticization of encounter specialists in Kaja Kaja The problem was so glaring that the core of those officers, including Anbuselvan, who were sent to fight organised crime in Chennai, were portrayed as “the untouchables”. Anbuselvan’s dialogue about how combat killings were cheaper than giving an accused a fair trial further emphasised this point.

However, Suriya’s portrayal of the righteous cop was outstanding and set a benchmark for the portrayal of police characters. His measured delivery and the rigidity he maintained in his body language brought out his deep understanding of the character, who rarely received love and compassion in his formative years and for whom his job was his entire world. Just like in Nandain Kaja Kaja Furthermore, Suriya demonstrated his ability to seamlessly navigate the various emotions and feelings of a character while staying true to his soul.

Director Sasi Shanker Perazhagan (2004), a remake of the Malayalam film KunjikoonanIt was the third troubled film that solidified Suriya’s reputation as a reliable actor, leading to bigger opportunities in films like Ghajini, aaru, Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, Vaaranam Aayiram and others. It revolves around Prem Kumar aka Chinna (Suriya), a hunchbacked man with other related disabilities. Perazhaganas Kunjikoonantreated the character in two ways: as comedy or as tragedy. The “jokes” in the film were mainly directed at Chinna and his disabilities. Others also sympathized with his supposed “incapacities.”

A scene where local goon Varadhan beats up Chinna, as villagers watch in silence, highlights the film’s lack of genuine empathy towards disabled people, using them primarily to elicit quick emotional responses from the audience. At the same time, attacks on Chinna, including calling him “gorilla manushya (the human gorilla)” of various characters were not only demeaning but downright offensive. While Chinna faced all the ridicule, Suriya’s other role in the film, Karthik, was the opposite: irascible, powerful (and eventually a stalker). However, Suriya’s performances in both roles helped mitigate the disturbing aspects of the film to some extent. His ability and willingness to undergo a transformation for Chinna and his dynamic performance underlined his talent, paving the way for his rise as a leading actor.