I had to undo myself: Rima Kallingal

Rima Kallingal has built up quite an interesting filmography over the years. Right from the outspoken Varsha in Shyama Prasad’s Ritu to the Maoist in the latest Kaadu Pookunna Neram, Rima carries the rare recognition of having dared to stay within the frameworks of the current commercial movie industry and yet stray off the beaten path to portray strong characters.

In Kaadu Pookunna Neram, Rima successfully shatters the very image of a ‘typical’ Malayali heroine movie buffs hold so close to their heart. “On an emotional level, you see Maoists, their struggles and the day-to-day issues they face. Everything is quite alien to a person living in a complete comfort zone like me. We are the privileged people out here. In order to get into a mind frame to understand their emotional psyche, the first thing I did was to read about what has been happening. I read up about the UAPA and got an understanding of how unfair the system is when we look through their eyes. These are people who don’t even have the basic necessities — food and shelter. It is a far away world for us to put it correctly, something difficult for us to even empathise with.”

On what triggered the energy for this role, Rima says, “I remember this particular letter written by Roopesh’s (Maoist leader) daughter Ami. I think that one letter completely set the tone of my performance. The helplessness and anguish of the people who don’t have anybody to support them. That one letter completely unleashed the kind of energy I wanted for a role like this.”

On turning into a tormented tempest on screen, she says, “We kind of get polished inside a society, I had to completely cut down all kind of that and completely become rugged. The character is very rough and raw. A person who is living out in the wild, who is always fighting, someone who has so much of anger inside her.”

She admits that this is one of the most challenging roles she had to pull off till date. “I had completely cut off everything I had known about my body language. This was an alien territory for me. My very first experiment with a character like this; in that way it was very very challenging. I remember Deedi Damodaran telling me when we met at IFFI, ‘it’s been ages since I saw a woman swing her hands and walk.’ We’ve been too clustered, women being told to cover up their body language, make it subtle and feminine. I had to break those guidelines and go out there without my body language, be powerful and demanding.”

Asked if the role was written for her, Rima laughs, “I do not know if the role was written keeping me in mind, although I would love to believe so. But then I also heard him mention in a few interviews that he wanted someone who could relate to what is being said in the movie. I find it quite a compliment that he thought I could relate to it. It was quite a role and I feel blessed that he believed I could carry it.”

When it comes to life outside of the big screen, much like other celebrities, both Rima and her husband — director Aashiq Abu have inadvertently found themselves being hounded by social media for speaking their minds. Asked if it has become tricky for a celebrity to open up, she says, “It is a wild untamed world out there on social media. Forget tricky, I think it has become impossible,” she laughs. “We are not super humans, we are just like everyone, we have emotions and want to speak against certain things. We also live in the same society and environment as everyone else. Just because we work in the film industry does not exclude us from the right to react to our surroundings. But then, usually the kind of backlash some of our comments get is so uncalled for. I have felt it is very unfair.

Primarily, we are artistes and our job is to create art, entertain and engage people through it. At times, when we are in the forefront and we talk about a certain issue, they expect you to talk on every issue that comes up, in that case we won't have any time left for anything. We are overloaded with information right now. I think we should become responsible in the way we treat this medium because it’s got a lot of potential and strength.”

Kaadu Pookunna Neram has been released across Kerala in government-owned theatres and multiplexes that are not part of the tiff between producers and distributors.