After a deluge of films on male bonding and androcentric movies, posters with two women, both excellent actors, have been creating ripples of excitement. Directed by Christo Tomy, Ullozhukku, starring Urvashi and Parvathy Thiruvothu in the lead, reaches cinemas on June 21.
Parvathy returns to Malayalam cinema after her last outing in Anjali Menon’s Wonder Women in 2022.
Parvathy Thiruvothu in a still from Chris Tomy’s Ullozhukku. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“It never felt like a break because I was constantly working,” says Parvathy over the phone from Kochi. “After Wonder Women I had immediately hopped on to two or three projects the next year. Kadak Singhand Dhootha had to be finished quickly.”
She has also acted in Pa Ranjith’s historical action drama, Thangalaan. Tight-lipped on the forthcoming film, she says the director wants the project to be under wraps till it is ready for release.
Ullozhukku was finished about a year and a half ago. “We shot it in around 40 to 45 days. It has taken time to come to theatres but I am glad it is releasing. In the meantime, I have been doing projects in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.”
Directed by Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case director Christo, the film is the story of a middle class family in Kuttanad. As the area floods, the family faces a crisis as they are forced to postpone Thomas’ (Prashanth Murali) burial. He leaves behind his mother (Urvashi) and wife (Parvathy). Thomas’ mother wants to bury her son in the family grave. The delay creates a situation when the grief and angst of the women threaten to unearth secrets that had been suppressed for long. The tagline of the film gives a hint of the story - ‘Lies will drown… secrets will surface’.
The trailer of the movie has heightened expectations about Ullozhukku in which Urvashi and Parvathy are acting together for the first time. Others in the cast are Jaya Kurup, Alencier Lopez and Arjun Radhakrishnan.
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey under the banners of RSVP and MacGuffin Pictures, the film’s cinematographer is Shehnad Jalal. Music has been composed by Sushin Shyam.
“Shot in Thiruvalla, the film’s main location is a house, which happened to be Christo’s ancestral home. His family relocated during the shoot to enable the shooting. It was the house he was brought up in and where he used to spend his vacations. That brought an extra layer of connection to what he saw growing up, what his core memories were and how those made its way to his screenplay.”
Parvathy Thiruvothu | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Although Christo had contacted her in 2018, Parvathy turned down the role as she was “scared of the character. When he called me for a full-screen narration, I said no. I genuinely thought I would not be able to pull off this character. It is so layered and deep. I am scared of most of the characters I take up.”
She feels that her decision also had to do with what was happening during that period in her career and personal life, partially as a result of virulent cyber abuse.
Nevertheless, Christo was diligent and patient and approached her again after he made some changes in the narrative. Parvathy recalls that she read the first half and found it so intense, she could not read the second half. She requested the director to narrate it to her.
“It is overwhelming to read a script that is so brutally honest. The characters are so real, there is no façade whatsoever. I said yes and I also wanted to check whom he would be casting in the other main character. And my heart gave a jump when I learnt it was going to be Urvashi. I told Christo that I was certainly going to do the film and if he was going to cast Urvashi chechi, it would be a double yes from me.”
Parvathy asserts that the role of the daughter-in-law of the house is one of her most challenging characters, physically and psychologically. “It was probably the most difficult shoot of my entire career. It was very slippery to find exactly what this character was going through or what exactly was her motive… it cannot be put into a genre of a crime mystery.”
They were shooting close to a water body around the house. Usually, at that time of the year, the surroundings would be flooded because of the rain. “People who live there are used to the entire house flooding. Obviously, I am not used to something like that, for instance going about my day, cooking food and folding clothes while we are knee-deep in water. We had to physically get used to it and the layers of flood as the movie progresses.”
Parvathy Thiruvothu with Christo Tomy and Urvashi (middle) | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“It seems like we were getting stranded on an island. The physicality of it was adding to the fact that the psychological arc of each character is pretty intense. It only gets more intense. It does not get lighter.”
Parvathy had to learn rowing and arrangements had been made for her in Kochi to learn the technique. “It was an amazing workout for the upper body, which left me sore for weeks!” She points out that not only did she have to row, she also had to emote and make it look like rowing was something that she was used to.
“Whenever there is a flood, that is their mode of transportation, they don’t think twice about it. Actually, more than the technique of rowing the boat, it was the reality of being natural that made it challenging for me.”
While talking about working with Urvashi, Parvathy cannot stop marvelling at the senior’s actor acting prowess.
Parvathy Thiruvothu and Urvashi in a still from Christo Tomy’s Ullozhukku. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“I don’t know where to begin. I think just watching her perform is like the best education. She has got decades of experience under her belt and a brilliant director’s eye as well. The way she collaborates with each of us speaks of her experience; the way she understands exactly what the director wants; the way she transforms into that moment…, she is a person who understands the depth of the character.”
Parvathy wonders how Urvashi is able to bring in nuances from the recesses of her mind as she is extremely relaxed before her shot. “When it is time to perform, she is present and there. She knows the text. She is so gifted and she knows how to switch off immediately after the shot. I saw how extreme relaxation can bring out the most amazing performances.”
The two actors from different generations were able to spend time talking and spending time with each other as they are there in almost every shot of the film.
Musing on the title of the film, she believes it is one of the best in Malayalam. “We have come up with some amazing titles in Malayalam cinema – Aalkkoottathil Thaniye, Adaminte Vaariyellu,Ulladakkam and so on. And now we have a Ullozhukku. The title has layers to it. It translates into ‘inner currents’ though ‘Undercurrent’ is the title we went with in English. Ullozhukku is about the subconscious inner current that we are unaware of, the part of us that is secretive and that we don’t show the world. It is very mysterious like that, where everybody knows a bunch of secrets and how they co-exist.”
Moving on to the bonanza Malayalam cinema is witnessing, Parvathy says after watching Anand Ekarshi’s Aattam, which she considers one of the best films to have come from the Malayalam movie industry, she felt it was going to be a great year for Malayalam cinema.
“It set the ball rolling and it started getting better. The range is unbelievable. I think the variety speaks for itself,” she says referring to Manjummel Boys, Aavesham, Premalu and Bramayugam and Thalavan.
On the issue of the sidelining of women characters in many of the hits this year, she says her takeaway from the entire discission is that, perhaps for the first time, the discourse started from the media and not somebody from the film industry calling it out.
“During the last six or seven years, the Women in Cinema Collective has been speaking a lot about the need to be inclusive and the need for more women to be in the workforce (of cinema). But this time, the issue was raised by the media and so, I feel, there will be a larger discussion and more people will come into the picture than something within the industry.”
Continuing on the subject, she says: “If you say, art is the timestamp of the times we are living in, then it is the overarching responsibility of any artiste, whatever art you practise. Do you want to undertake that (responsibility)? For instance, we watch Iranian films; it is a timestamp of the times they are living in.”
As for her turning director, she says she prefers to talk about it when she makes the announcement and not anything about it at present.
Published - June 18, 2024 02:26 pm IST
