MUMBAI: Karthik Subbaraj has never been one to tread predictable ground. From the psychological chills of Pizza to the meta chaos of Jigarthanda and its audacious sequel, he’s built a reputation for subverting genre expectations. But with Retro, his upcoming film starring Suriya, Subbaraj is going back to something more primal and vulnerable — love.
“People expect me to do crime, thrillers, dark comedies,” he says with a smile, “but Retro is a love story. That is what it is at its heart.”
Set in the 1990s with nostalgia, style, and action, Retro may carry the visual grammar of a vintage gangster flick, but for Subbaraj, it’s all in service of something deeper. “Even in my earlier films, there’s always been a personal core, often emotional. But this time, I wanted romance to be the driving force. Not just love between a man and woman, but love as a transformative force, something that pushes the character to evolve.”
Suriya’s character, a once-feared gangster trying to escape his violent past, is pulled into an emotional reckoning when he falls in love. “It’s not the usual arc of redemption,” Karthik explains. “It’s about a man who doesn’t even know what peace feels like until he meets someone who makes him believe it’s possible. That tension between who he was and who he wants to be that’s where the romance breathes.”
Known for his grungy aesthetics and twisty plots, Subbaraj says working with romance as the central motif came with its own challenges. “It’s easy to make action look cool. But to make love feel real, especially in a world like this — that’s the challenge. You have to earn it.”
And that’s where Suriya and Pooja Hegde come in. “Their chemistry, their silences, the way they look at each other… It’s about subtle shifts, glances, restraint.”
For a filmmaker who’s often labeled as ‘stylish’ or ‘dark’, Retro is perhaps his most emotionally transparent film yet. “At the end of the day, style can grab your attention, but it’s emotion that stays with you. And in Retro, that emotion is love.”
Retro may come dressed in 90s swagger, but its beating heart is timeless romance.
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