Manikandan in a throwback picture. (Courtesy: X)
In an incident that seems straight out of a movie, a group of burglars who ransacked a film director's house have returned a part of the loot to him – his awards. Tamil director Manikandan, whose ancestral house in Madurai's Usilampatti was broken into last week, also received an apology note along with the two National Film Award medals. The unidentified men left the note along with the medals in a plastic bag, outside the gate of the house two days after the break-in. The contents of the note, originally in Tamil read, “Sir, please forgive us. Your hard work is yours,” Deccan Herald reported. In addition to the awards, nearly 15 sovereigns of gold, Rs 1 lakh in cash, and other valuables were found stolen from the house, the report added.
The director lives with his pet dog and was away in Chennai at the time of the burglary. The theft was discovered when a couple of the director's friends visited Manikandan's house to feed his pet dog.
Providing further details, The Hindu quoted Usilampatti Deputy Superintendent of Police, C. Nallu as saying, “When one of his employees, Naresh, returned home on Sunday night from the cinema theatre, he found the plastic bag hanging on the gate."
About the medals being returned, the officer added: “The valuables are yet to be recovered. But it has come to our notice that the awards have been returned.” He also said that a case has been registered and an investigation is underway.
Manikandan has worked as a filmmaker and cinematographer in the Tamil film industry. The aforementioned National Awards were presented to Manikandan's films Kaaka Muttai and Kadaisi Vivasaayi. While Kaaka Muttai won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film in 2015, Kadaisi Vivasaayi received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil in 2022.
The filmmaker's other celebrated projects include Kuttrame Thandanai and Aandavan Kattala.