A young woman is on the edge of a cliff, at the bottom of which lies a deep lagoon surrounded by rock faces, set deep inside a virgin forest. She does not know the depth of the pool or what lurks in the rocky crevices and underbrush; all she knows is that she has to leap. There is fear drumming inside her chest but along with it is the determination that come what may, she has to jump. The lissome woman takes a deep breath and leaps and when she surfaces for air, she has not only executed a perfect shot for a film but has also submerged her fear of heights forever.
“The first time I saw the lagoon, I almost had a heart attack because I am petrified of heights. When you ultimately conquer what you fear the most, fear has no power over you. It is all in the mind and today I can fearlessly jump into that lagoon without a second thought. ” It’s no motivational trainer speaking but actor Kamalinee Mukherjee, recalling her scene for the bumper hit Pulimurugan. It’s no exaggeration to describe her as gutsy, determined and passionate about cinema. Not to forget intelligent, articulate and a trained classical dancer and stage artiste. Her role of the rustic yet strong and lovable wife Myna of Mohanlal is winning hearts.
An actress who has proved her mettle across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi industries, Kamalinee has no doubt played a variety of roles in her 11-year career but she emphatically states that the role of Myna is a once in a life time role. “The primary attraction was in challenging myself to shed my urban self and turn rural. Myna and me have nothing in common, be it the conditioning or even the way she walks. My convent school upbringing has taught me to sit, stand and talk in a particular way and I had to shed all that for Myna. ”
Still from Pulimurugan
The travel to the jungle locations was hazardous and the team used to travel an hour to get to the edge of the forest and then drive another 45 minutes through deep forests. “We are not talking about flat ground here; it is undulating terrain that goes up and down. Sometimes we had to climb down steps that had been freshly cut for our convenience,” she explains. “Of course we also had nature playing havoc when we least expected it! It would rain at will. There is this scene of Mohanlal sir and me climbing the rock face from under the cave and we were tied to each other with ropes. It was drizzling when the shoot started but by the time we reached the middle it was pouring and we could not see anything in front of us! We could neither go up nor down because the force of the water was such and we had no option but to wait. Twenty minutes later when the rain stopped, the water was up to our knees.”
Kamalinee mentions how the crew ferried cranes up and down, balancing on precarious and slippery terrain. Besides the tiger in the film, did she get to see any wild animals for real? She laughs and answers, “I saw a cobra up close and another day I saw a herd of elephants. There was a waterhole not far from where we were shooting and animals would come there by sunset but we were not allowed to shoot beyond a certain time. We did see evidence of animal visitations in our locations in the mornings.”
What about the man who caught the tiger by the tail —- Mohanlal? Kamalinee answers, “Working with Mohanlal sir was like an everyday shot of energy. He comes to the set with this huge glow of energy and infects everybody with it. He is a very happy soul and has a camaraderie with everybody. It just boggles your mind when he goes back to being Pulimurugan in the blink of an eye. The entire shoot was demanding but he just went with the vision. I was like a sponge soaking up everything.”
An actress who puts a high premium on her characters, Kamalinee has played some strong contemporary women roles. Talking about the rise of women-centric films she opines, “When I have worked in Malayalam right from the Mammootty starrer Kutty Srank to Pulimurugan to some films I have watched, I find female characters to be well-defined! Even in Tamil, the female characters are getting fleshed out more realistically. Of course there is that fantasy element when female actors are concerned but there is an increasing trend to mould characters that we can identify with in real life. The quality of cinema improves when both leads have equal space even if it is a male-centric industry.”
