Want to be the torchbearer of change: Malavika Mohanan

City Times catches up with Malayalam actress Malavika Mohanan, who is making her debut in Bollywood with Iranian director Majid Majidi's Beyond the Clouds

MALAVIKA MOHANAN RECALLS writing an essay on Iranian master filmmaker Majid Majidi's film Baran in her college while she was doing a course called Understanding Cinema. Little did she know that she will do her first Hindi film Beyond the Clouds with the same director. "I have always been a fan of Majidi. My favourite film of his is Children of Heaven. I remember writing about Baran in my college a bunch of times." 
Malavika who has done Malayalam films before calls this experience creatively satisfying  while talking to City Times over the phone from Mumbai, "Majidi is one of the best in the world right now and he pushes you creatively." 
Beyond the Clouds releases in the UAE this weekend. There was a special screening of this film last December during the Dubai International Film Festival where Majidi was present.
Shahid Kapoor's brother Ishaan Khattar makes his debut in this film along with Malavika. They play siblings in the movie. Malavika has no qualms playing the role of a sister and wants to be a torchbearer of change in the storytelling landscape of Bollywood. "Yes, I am playing a sister but even Ishaan is playing a brother. You know what I mean? I am really glad that it is a love story but just not romance. There is a notion that everyone only wants to make a romantic story about a couple or a boy and a girl in love. But there are so many stories to be told - it can be a story of a brother and sister, father and daughter or so many other relationships."
She is glad that the movie is exploring a different kind of dynamic of a relationship. "I don't think we have explored this kind of a story in Hindi cinema. Since we are young actors, we should be the torchbearers of change. Since we have such a big platform as actors and we should use that to bring change in such a positive way. I hope this works so we can tell so many different kinds of stories." 
Mid-way through our conversation when she finds out that we have already seen the film a while back, she is all excited and asks us why we didn't tell her earlier that we had seen the movie! She eventually opened up further to give us an insight into her character. 
She said that she couldn't relate to her character Tara at all because Tara led a very tough life whereas Malavika comes from a privileged and protected environment. But it was important for Malavika to find that pathway to find Tara because she thinks how one behaves as a character stems from what one goes through as a person. "I did not have any reference point because she was not based on someone. She is an everyday Mumbai girl. She is not a movie star or a sports star but an average person. It was challenging to connect with her because I do not come from that social economic background. They (the characters played by Ishaan and Malavika) lost their parents at a very young age so she matured early since she had to take care of herself. She does things that she wants to do. I lived with my parents and I always had a protective household. I never had to earn at a young age. So it was difficult to connect with her.  She had been alone most of the time; she was in an abusive marriage... All these things shape you as a person."
She added that playing this role took a toll on her but as of now, she is just excited, a little nervous and very curious to see how the movie will be received.
Casting for the role
Malavika: I got a call from the casting director one day and I didn't know much about the film because there was no audition for the movie. They were casting for the movie in a very internal process. The casting director met me and told me about the project. Then we did my look test in my character and next day I got a call that Majid wanted to meet me. It all happened pretty fast. We did one more look test with Majidi sir and the whole process took one week.
 
The scene that took a toll on Malavika
Malavika: I think all the scenes honestly took a toll on me but there is one scene where Ishaan and I are having a fight and I tell him how I was abandoned by my husband and did not have anywhere to go. That was a long monologue and that was really tough. The entire history of what my character went through had to come into one monologue. It was not just sadness or anger, she was helpless and she is upset but at the same, she loves her brother so much. It was very difficult for all of that to come through.
 
On Ishaan Khattar
Malavika: We didn't have any workshop or any rehearsals. I came onto the project very late, around 15 days prior to the film shooting, so most of our interaction happened once we started shooting. Then we also travelled a lot for the film and with the film. We went to Rajasthan to shoot for the film and we were all staying at the guest house. We really bonded there. Once the project got over, we went with the film to Istanbul, London, and Goa and that really got us close. 
 
Shooting in Dhobi Ghat 
Majid Majidi is known to bring out the realness and simplicity of life on the big screen. He prefers shooting on real locations and often casts nonactors for his movies which is why he wanted newbie Ishaan and a Bollywood fresher Malavika. Malavika said that it was very difficult to not 'act' in front of the camera, "It is very difficult to not act like you are 'acting'. It is not easy to 'just be' especially when there are 250 people staring at you on the set. Most difficult thing is to 'just be' but that's the point of this craft. It was challenging initially." But she connected with her character while shooting for the movie in the real locations of Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai, "My character is from Dhobi Ghat and my first day of the shoot was in Dhobi Ghat. Since it was in a real location with real people around and dressed as the character, it gives you a real sense of feeling and it made things easy in the beginning and then I kept diving deeper into it." 
 
 
 
arti@khaleejtimes.com