For around two decades since his debut in 1995 in a blink-and-miss role, Joju George had remained in the margins of Malayalam cinema, playing mostly side characters, both comic and villainous ones. Then he slowly started moving up the ladder, getting meatier roles, leading up to the titular character of a brooding, retired police officer in Joseph , which has now fetched him a special mention at the National Film Awards.
“Though the roles in the initial days were smaller ones, they did get attention in their own way. Joseph was certainly a big one, which I wished would get appreciation from the public. I cannot say I expected an award, because I will then have to say I expect an award for each of my roles,” says Joju over the phone from Bengaluru, sounding worried as the floodwater level is rising near his home in Ernakulam.
Joju essayed with a certain ease the three stages of Joseph’s life, from his younger days to the sixties. For pulling off the latter, he studied the mannerisms of his father. He displayed his versatility in a role which demanded a range of emotions from him. The transformation from comic cameo roles to serious character roles began the year before that with Ramante Eden Thottam . With his upcoming Chola too winning accolades at international film festivals, Joju seems to have hit a purple patch.
Unlike Joju, Savithri Sreedharan,who also got a special mention for acting, was nowhere in the picture, as far as Malayalam cinema was concerned. But after Sudani from Nigeria , which has won awards all over, she and her co-actor Sarassa Balussery are everywhere.
“For 50 years, we have been acting in plays. I still remember the day when, as a sixteen-year-old, I went out to act in my first play staged by the Valayanadu Kalasamithi. Fortunately, I got the support of my family and the people of my village in Thiruvannur,” says Savithri.
Her only experience of acting in a film before this was in 1991, a small role in Kadavu , directed by M.T. Vasudevan Nair. In Sudani... , she played the role of Jameela, the protagonist Majeed’s mother, who brings a lot of warmth to the film.
“I was not in anyway connected with the film field, other than this one film appearance. But director Zakariya and the team of youngsters who were part of Sudani... made us both feel at home. They almost treated us like their own mothers, and helped much in our performance, because there is much difference between acting on stage and in films,” she says.
