When a mainstream actor bags the topmost honour in the country, the industry goes all berserk — there is no shortage for paeans and plaudits. The star who turns an accredited performer has scripts written and films planned for her. But not for Surabhi Lakshmi.
This year’s national award winner says she has just ‘graduated from two-scene films to five-scene films’ and there is no commendable increase in her work volume.
Surabhi says it all depends on one’s prior screen image, the very reason her Minnaminungu could not make it to the most celebrated film festival of Kerala.
The film, which brought the best actress award to the State after 14 long years, does not figure in the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) schedule and the actor has come up with a parallel screening on December 12.
“Being a starless art-house product, Minnaminungu was soon taken off the screens after release. So, many film buffs were planning to watch it during the festival and it was quite disheartening to know the academy’s decision. Through the parallel screening, we are just creating a platform for a national-award-winning film,” Surabhi says. She feels festivals should promote offbeat , artistic ventures, rather than act as public relations agencies for mainstream cinema. “Along with popular, big-budget films, there should be some space for films like ours. You should not encourage commercial films at the cost of critically acclaimed films. Minnaminungu does not have big names, but you cannot deny the space it deserves just because of that,” she says.
Space at IFFK
In Minnaminungu , Surabhi plays a domestic help, one of the nameless faces lost in the sea of urban humdrum. “It’s about a woman and her survival, how her world comes crashing down when her daughter migrates to greener pasturesleaving her behind,” she says. A female-oriented narrative that also deals with migration and isolation, the film explores a very relevant theme. “They could have easily included it in the ‘Films on Identity and Space’ package or given us at least one screening in any other section,” she says. Minnaminungu will be screened at Lenin Balavadi on December 12.
