Poolside at Gokulam Park is a beehive of activity; hectic promotions of Hallelooya are on. The film is due for release in a couple of weeks. The film, directed by Sudhi Anna, will see Narain and Meghana Raj in lead roles. Both actors have been away for a while, almost two years.
The inevitable question, therefore to Meghana, is “where were you all this while?” As she settles down for the chat, she turns quite a few appreciative heads. Dressed in pale pink floral shirt and white trousers, she looks much younger and beautiful than she does onscreen. Her last release was in 2014, The Dolphins .
She says she has been busy with Kannada films; she has wrapped up work on a few. Her fans there were wondering why she wasn’t doing enough Kannada films. Then there were the offers from Malayalam films, she says, “I didn’t want to be typecast, the offers I was getting were a little repetitive and I rejected many films.” For instance, several offers that came her way had resonances of her role in Memories .
In fact, her role in Hallelooya shares similarities with it, but “it is not the same.” She resists the sameness of roles to save herself from the resultant boredom – “The characters had to be the kind I could relate to. Some of the roles were too boring, elaborate family dramas or too extreme, gruesome thriller types.”
Back with a bang: Meghana Raj. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat
The Memories role, despite its length, was integral to the narration and relevant. Besides, she says, “I played a young mother not the stereotypical mother.” Then there was her role in Beautiful , as Annie/Anjali, the climactic whiplash twist, which for her is that once in a lifetime role which she cannot reprise even if she wanted. “I haven’t done a ‘villain’ role after that one despite the offers because I simply couldn’t.”
The ‘virgin idea’ like that of The Dolphins excites her. Hallelooya is set in the similar, ‘innocent’ mould. In the film, she essays the role of a paediatrician with shades of her other roles. “The film has a rural backdrop; and my character maybe sari clad but is far from the mature type. I asked why couldn’t my character wear salwar-kameez and still be a doctor. But then the setting is such that it made sense to not have too glam a look.”
Moving between the Kannada and Malayalam film industries, she is at home in both despite the varying sensibilities. While the Malayalam industry demands she underplay, the other is no place for understatement. “When I returned to Kannada films after a hiatus, after working here, it took time transitioning to that style. I am a Kannadiga, I grew up there, watched the films so it was easy. Actually both are.” She perceived, initially, that Malayalam would be a problem but she was surprised and finds the dialogues rather easy to deliver. Her role in Beautiful is, often, assumed to be her Malayalam debut. She made her debut with Vinayan’s Yakshiyum Njaanum in 2009, but it was her role in her fifth Malayalam film that got her attention.
She is full of praise for Kerala and the Malayali audience, who she calls sophisticated and warm. Since she has done the most films with Anoop Menon, she counts four, when are they working together again? “I am often asked the same question. I would love to work with him again but as of now, nothing.”
But she does reveal this much that this year the audience will see her again in one more Malayalam film, as of now, work on which will start tentatively in May.
