CINEMA Parvathy’s Panimalar in ‘ Maryan’ is her attempt at unravelling a character — flesh, blood and soul
Panimalar is fresh in mind — earthy in colour-soaked
clothes, long hair, glistening nose ring and kohl-rimmed eyes. That
image in the head will never lead you to Parvathy. The young actor has
shaken Panimalar off her. With her hair cropped short, thick glasses,
checked shirt, black skirt and a bag slid carelessly across the
shoulder, she is every bit just Parvathy. “I wanted to get back to being
myself,” she says gloriously winning back her anonymity.
Panimalar
has vowed critics and ardent movie-watchers. She is real, solid and
Parvathy’s sweat and blood. The actor, who has done a mere 12 films in
seven years, dedicated months to knowing Panimalar. And she was
daunting. “She is brave and vulnerable. Pani taught me a lot. She was
always putting herself out there, emotionally and physically. She
drained me.”
The 25-year-old might be getting back to
being herself, but not to the self she was before becoming Panimalar.
According to the actor, every character she plays nourishes the person
she is. Panimalar taught her love and its aches. “People talk of the
look in her eyes. At that moment I felt it,” she says.
Being Panimalar
Equipping
herself to feel Panimalar’s pains was long drawn, but one that Parvathy
insists upon. “Spontaneous acting is rocket science to me. I have seen
actors taking a puff and becoming the character before the smoke went
out of their mouth. But I have to get into the character’s groove,” she
says.
She pieces together the character by living her
life in her environment. “I have to know the clothes she wears, how
crumbled they are. Does she cook? If so, how does she cook. These become
my bag of tricks. For me, a scene just doesn’t happen. It has to have a
before and after.” So Parvathy became Panimalar amidst the fisher folk,
attending Sunday masses, singing in the choir and learning to weave
palm leaves at the craft society. “If I don’t do that a lot of Parvathy
will seep into Panimalar. Many from the fisher community will watch the
movie and I have to be honest to them.”
Acting and
films are not a pastime for Parvathy. It is passion and vocation — one
in which she sees a greater purpose. The motive of a film is significant
to her. She refused good roles in movies which she thought did not
exude a positive purpose. “We are underestimating the power of films. It
is important to see how the society shapes up through this art. Films
are a big responsibility. It should make a wee bit of improvement. That
is what books, art and dance do. So why not movies?”
Sticking
to these convictions, she knows she cannot be prolific. “But ethics
can’t change. The actor in me and the person I am have to go hand in
hand or we will die fighting,” she says.
“I have not done a single character I won’t stand by. That clarity is everything to me,” she says. After her last Malayalam film
City of God
released in 2010, Parvathy was jobless for a year and a half.
“I
call that my golden period. It made me sure why I want to be here. But
it also gave me a sense of detachment. I know I cannot compromise on my
dignity and my art. This is the result of my arrogant faith,” says
Parvathy. Prior to
Maryan
, there came
Andar Bahar
in Kannada and
Chennaiyil Oru Naal
in Tamil.
Quite a few of her films in Malayalam,
Tamil and Kannada were not box-office hits. But that helped her love her
craft irrespective of chimerical success. “I learnt the hard way. Of
course, I want the producer who spends to make money. But my happiness
comes from each day of my work. I can have the plum cake, I don’t need
the icing.”
The actor also diligently spurns the
frills of stardom, beginning with immaculately made-up public
appearances. Make-up, she says, “is like sticking pins into my eyes. I
just washed my face and went to the premiere of
Maryan
. I was comfortable, happy and liberated. I cannot be a poster girl. So why try.”
Surviving time
“I
will be happy if 20 years later someone watches my movie and says,
‘That girl did a good job.’ The immediate doesn’t matter. It is about
that which remains,” Parvathy says. For an actor weaving away from the
trappings of a star, anonymity is important.
The
actor in her learns through casual interactions. “I am scared of being
recognised. When you are looked at, you lose your freedom and that is a
huge loss for an actor,” she says.
Even after
Maryan
, the actor has not far signed any new films. “If I don’t share the
passion of a director, I do not want to cheat him by being in it... If I
go away nothing is going to happen. You are not indispensable. So what
is the hurry?” she asks.
Meanwhile, she makes sure
her craft is intact. The arts, music, painting and dance, lure her.
“Painting sharpens my sense of colour, music sharpens my ears and when I
dance, my body is sharpened. That is my tool. I have to groom myself or
else I will become rusty.”
P.ANIMA
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