A thol sanchi (shoulder bag) around her, books pouring out of it, Ammini walks through the woods few dare to go to and settles everyday at an abandoned site she had found as a child and kept a secret. Ammini is 16 going on 17, witty and smart but unlike a typical heroine of Malayalam cinema, her smartness doesn’t come off as cheap tricks played on fellow characters. It is her words that make her different — quick-witted, intelligent, spontaneous. An unforgettable character that MT Vasudevan Nair had created and Hariharan had put on screen in the late 1980s. Aaranyakam, to this day, remains a favourite, and more than often, an influence on young women of all times. Saleema, who played Ammini, had appeared in a few more Malayalam films with lasting performances, like the mute girl in Nakhakshathangal sung about as ‘Aareyum bhava gayakanakum aathma soundaryamanu nee’ (You are a soulful beauty that will make anyone a musician). And then she disappeared.
And now, Saleema is coming back to cinema after nearly three decades. She called her friend and co-actor from the 80s, Vineeth, to tell the news. “They all tell me it is time to come back now and I really want to. Acting is my passion, I will never stop doing it again,” she says in a telephonic interview. It is something she knew she’d do as a child when she accompanied her actor mother Girija to the sets in Telugu cinema. “Mom had acted in a Malayalam film too — Ashadeepam — with Sathyan sir.” Saleema’s grandmom Thilakam too had been an actor.
Saleema has done more than 150 modelling assignments. She was seen in a few Malayalam films like Njan Piranna Naatil by P Chandrakumar, Bhagavan and then Nakashathangal. Aaranyakam came after that. “There is so much to learn from geniuses like director Hariharan and MT sir.” Aaranyakam begins with the lines spoken by the older version of Ammini, ‘I wish to revisit my younger days when I was in search of beautiful words’. It is like a beautiful coincidence to hear Saleema say similar words about her life too, repeating how she loved acting, and how she wants to come back. “I want to do a variety characters in all languages, Malayalam too.” Her return is not only to acting in Malayalam but also to the beautiful Kerala.
