Optimism personified

In the movie Thamasha, directed by Ashraf Hamza, the character Chinnu enters the plot at a crucial moment, oozing confidence and spreading positivity. She is cool and does not bother what the rest of the world thinks of her appearance. At first, others looked down on her. But, as the movie progresses, she carves a niche in audience’s heart with her smartness. Above all, she, with her fine performance, shatters all stereotypes surrounding female body in cinema. Chinnu Chandini, who enacted the character Chinnu, says she is realising it. “Now, I get that. When I go for promotions, people tell me this,” she says, giving all the credit to the makers of Thamasha.

“They have taken the movie without bringing negative shades to any of the female characters, thus breaking the existing mould of female leads,” adds a happy Chinnu.

Thamasha is her third movie after Anuraga Karikkinvellam and Cappuccino. In the first two movies, she appeared in small roles. “This is my first major role,” she says. “It was Khalid Rahman (director of Anuraga Karikkinvellam) who asked me to take part in the audition of Thamasha when I visited him during the pre-production works of his upcoming movie Unda. At the audition, I was asked to act the scene where Chinnu meets Sreeni mash (Sreenivasan),” she recalls.
 
Ask her about enacting a character that bears her real-life name, she says, “Actually, it was some other name. They called her Chinnu after I joined the set. I don’t know the reason; maybe because they found it more apt for the character,” says Chinnu, who plays a chubby woman on screen who meets a bald-headed Sreenivasan  (Vinay Forrt).

Though Thamasha is filled with humour, it sends out quite a serious and relevant message. It discusses body shaming,  especially in the era of social media. The film is brutally honest in portraying the subject. “I think it is a relevant subject,” says Chinnu.

“At first, audience laughed at her, and then they loved her. Many people have messaged me on Instagram saying it was their story. One person said the scene where Sreeni and Chinnu first meet had happened exactly like that in that person’s life. I feel, not just Chinnu, people could relate to Sreeni as well.”

She says she had faced it in real life, too, but could not differentiate it then. “I gained weight while doing television shows, sometime back. It was a gradual process. So, it had not registered in my mind. Those who had known me all those years used to comment and crack jokes on it. The point is, at that moment you would not see it as body shaming. You would consider it as a joke from familiar people. It is only looking back after a while would we feel so,” explains Chinnu.

She says she was a bit tense to portray the character as she was not sure to pull it off. “At the first reading, the climax was not shaped up. As the script evolved, I got a tad tense because I didn’t know if I could do justice to the role. Because, there was no way I could hide on the screen. As the focus is on my character, any mistake from my part would reflect on the screen.”

However, now Chinnu, who works in Mumbai, is a happy woman. Cinema has been her dream since childhood. Though she drifted away from it, she is glad that she took a U-turn and returned.  “I want to continue in movies,” she says. And, she doesn’t want to get stereotyped. “I want to mould myself for characters. This look may not work in all movies,” concludes Chinnu.