On the brink of a breakthrough

Outside a supermarket in Kochi, he stands, looking conspicuously tall, watching the midday rain of July. Anand Gopinathan looks different from when you last saw him, especially if it was on a big screen playing a role in the film Avarude Raavukal. There is a beard now, a pretty long one, Tovino-like. It's for a new work, he says.

He has been working as a model for many years, for commercials and on ramps. But it is with one thought that he came from Pathanamthitta to Kochi seven years ago — to act. “I have loved films from childhood and like a lot of people I had a collection of video cassettes at home, given by my uncle — a professor,” Anand says, sitting at a café, still watching the rain outside. Here, he looks more like Sam, his character in Avarude Raavukal.

His first scene in the film is of him sitting in a café, being stared at by Vinay Forrt. He appears as a painful memory that Vinay can't seem to escape from. Till the end when it is revealed what it all means, Sam, played by Anand, remains an enigma, a smiling peaceful face. This would be his fifth or sixth film. The others so far — Ms. Lekha Tharoor Kaanunnathu, Ennum Eppozhum etc. — had seen him in small roles. He calls Malgudi Days his first break, where he appears as a Naxalite. Luck has evaded this young man struggling to be an actor.

“Like someone once said, it is all about being at the right place at the right time. I just had been at the wrong places at wrong times,” he says. But then he was right to go to the Cochin Media School to learn acting, where director Shanil Muhammed learnt filmmaking. He met Shanil at a short film festival. “Shanil's short film Radio was featured and I was really impressed by it,” he explains.

The friendship that began there lasted through the years and the two founded an event management and ad company. “Shanil knows what I could do, what exactly I could do. He chose me over others. So I had to make sure I didn't disappoint him. I was also a little nervous sharing the screen with experienced and talented artistes like Vinay Forrt,” he says. But Anand got over it, the film came out and his character was appreciated. He is now in talks for new works and is waiting for another break.