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Sometimes you just hear some people talk so well, with so much sense and articulation, about something so relevant, that you just want to listen to them alone. Do you relate? That was me when I heard actress Parvathy Thiruvothu speak at Film Companion’s Actor’s Adda interview moderated by Anupama Chopra. The interview also featured top stars who have had some great performances over the decade, from Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Alia Bhatt, Manoj Bajpayee, Vijay Sethupathi and Vijay Deverekonda.
Most of you may know of Parvathy from her Bollywood debut – Qarib Qarib Single – opposite Irrfan Khan. I watched the film and loved her understated performance in it! But she is primarily a south-Indian actress, working in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada cinema. She gave rather path-breaking performances just this year with Uyare – where she played an acid attack survivor – and Virus. Both films went on to get her great reviews for her performance. Her filmography includes many well-appreciated films like Take Off and Bangalore Days among many and they are absolutely brilliant. I already have a list of them in my watchlist!
The trailer of Qarib Qarib Single:
I personally love her for the sole reason that she takes immense care in the kind of scripts she chooses and doing roles that she resonates with, and not just act for the sake of acting. Many poeple do that, and while that is not wrong, I do feel like it takes some grit and determination to hold a strong ground in an industry like ours. She has even gone on to say that she will not star in a film that promotes misogynistic dialogue. Given her filmography and her views on the kind of cinema she champions, Anupama asked Parvathy about her choice to not do films that glorify misogyny of any kind.
To that she said something that makes so much sense:
It is a very fine line between reflecting what’s there in the society and showing what misogyny is, and glorifying it. It’s entirely up to the writer and director how they glorify it. When a man is being misogynistic and is being…you know…abusive, and you show that in a way that incites applause in the audience, then that’s glorification. And at the same time, if you make the audience think whether he’s done the right thing or not, then there you are collaborating with the audience. There, there is cinema, it’s a dialogue.
She was hinting at Arjun Reddy or Kabir Singh and why it was a problematic film according to her. And guys, it is not very easy to sit in the same room as someone who has worked on the film (Vijay Deverekonda, the lead actor of Arjun Reddy was also part of the interview) and explain very gracefully about the problems in the film without sugarcoating it.
And for the uninitiated, this is not the first time that the actress has spoken up about this issue. She has taken on some of the biggest names in the Malayalam film industry and stood her ground. She says that she herself is a victim of the influence of such films in the past. Now, when she has a platform like hers, she wants to be responsible in her choice of films. And I clapped for her in my heart because she just earned all my respect. We need more Parvathy’s everywhere, not just in the film industry. Don’t you agree?
And on a side note, but very importantly, her hair! What a cool hairdo, and how she carries it off so amazingly! Love it when she said that when she does a lot of movies and promotions and sees a lot of herself out there, she needs to take off and cut away from it all, chop her hair, go off social media and just live in solitude. Well, couldn’t relate more. She is who I want to be when I grow up, you guys. Can’t wait to see more of this wonderfully intelligent actress and woman on the big screen soon. Thank you for looking out for us and inspiring us, one film at a time, Parvathy!