Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Vivacity brims in each word. She speaks as if she never missed out on her audience till recently. Aswathi Menon, the ‘Avva Avva’ girl in Satyam Sivam Sundaram, as we all know her, has made a less-trumpeted comeback to big screen. “Glad that you noticed me,” she screams in excitement when called her for an interview for her second coming through Raffi’s Role Models. Even in a short screen-time, Lucy auntie has managed to tickle a funny bone or two with her performance. Fifteen years, and wonder how time flies! In 2002, she disappeared all of a sudden after Mohanlal-starrer Onnaman.

“My family decided to go back to Dubai. I waited for a while for some good opportunities to come through, but that was a dry moment for Malayalam cinema back then. The kind of offers that were coming was not so tempting. Somehow, it didn’t touch my heart,” rewinds Aswathi. In Dubai, an enriching acting experience awaited her – in theatre. An active involvement on a newer platform kept aflame the actor in her. “There is a lot of theatre happening there. A majority of it happen in terms of community theatre. A lot of production houses produce theatre over the weekend and I have been part of about five productions,” says Aswathi.

A stint with customer service and marketing in a real estate firm was never an excuse for her acting skills take a back seat. Later, her hubby Vikas, an HR specialist, felt it so unfair to let his wife, a passionate actor, stick to a nine-to-five routine. But when he asked her to go back, she asked, “Are you mad? It has been so many years, who will call me for a role?”

“Thanks to my husband, I am back in films again. He has seen me doing so much of theatre. I am able to follow my passion,” Aswathi put in her papers in November and returned to Kochi. A phone call to her initiator Raffi changed the course of her life again. “He asked me if I could join him in Goa if I was free. I liked holidaying. He called me back to ask if I was interested in a small role in his film. And I was game for the ‘loose’ Lucy,” she giggles. Ask how her life changed after Lucy. “I shed a few pounds and look much better now.” In no hurry, Aswathi patiently waits for good roles to come her way.