Pearls on her crown: Pearle Maaney

As effervescent as a bubbling soda with her signature curly locks and impish grin in place, Pearle Maaney is something of a child- woman, self-admittedly more child than woman. This real life persona of hers often spills onto her reel life, be it on the big screen or small screen where she is most often seen in bubbly roles.

Pearle’s career has hit a purple patch with some strong roles in films like Team 5, Pretham and Kappiri Thuruthu not to mention her host duties in the dance reality show on the mini screen. The pretty actor is all set to shed her vivacious image and get serious for her upcoming period film Kappiri Thuruthu in which she plays a Jewish girl.

Pearle is excited, “I just could not say no to the script because it was so good. Kochi, especially Fort Kochi, has some interesting stories, landmarks, architecture and anecdotes because it is an amalgam of various cultures like the Portuguese, Jews, French, British, etc. Many Blacks were also brought here as slaves but nobody knows what fate befell them or their descendants. This area was also home to many artistes who did not see money as the ultimate reward but believed in the purity of their art.”    

Kappiri Thuruthu tells the story of many such unknown and forgotten individuals of yore, some of whom are still alive. Director Saheer Ali researched the script for two years and it is the first time that Pearle heard a script with fully-framed dialogues!

She states, “The dialogues flow like poetry and is steeped in cultural richness with complete authenticity. I also could not help but ask Saheer why he thought of casting me as a Jewish girl and he simply said that I was the first face that came to his mind!”

Pearle adds, “This film will be a huge challenge for me because the dialogues are completely in Malayalam and that too, the old Kochi slang of the period and it would be an effort to get the pronunciation right.”

Pretham will see Pearle playing a lead role that is in complete contrast to her real life persona. She says, “I play a very mature and balanced girl. I could explore the other side of myself through this role. Somehow the character got to me because I was suddenly being asked why I was so silent or why I was acting so feminine. I found it difficult to come out of the character after the shoot of the film.”

She will also get to do some bike stunts in her forthcoming film Team 5 where she plays Sreesanth’s sister. She admits to being nervous but naughtily quips, “Sreesanth too has to learn the bike stunts so we can learn together and he cannot overtake me.”