“Thirinju chavitti pongi valinjamarnnu…” As the Swiss Kalarippayattu exponent Heidi Rasmussen utters those commands in Malayalam, it has a bit of a comic effect on first timers but her postures are perfect and she demands nothing less from her students who are training under her at a gurukul near Chalakudi.
When she teaches back home, she uses French equivalents, she lets on. During the current visit to Kerala, she did a 20-day stint in Kadathanadan style under Madhu Gurukkal of KPCGM Kalari Sangam in Vadakara.
Every two or three years, when she can gather enough leave and funds, she travels to Kerala to train under various masters. The rest of the year, she passes on those skills to her handful of students at Nyon near Geneva by holding weekly classes at a rented space. “I am the only Swiss person to teach Kalari in my country.
Aparna was so adaptable to the character that she only needed to blend into the Idukki dialect and the life in countryside. “I took a break from my studies for a month for the schedule in Idukki and I could capture the way the people speak there. Character wise, Jimsy has many parallels with me. As I was raised in the city environs, village life was something new,” says Aparna, her words coming out in a well-measured manner.
Last year, she was paired opposite Vineeth Sreenivasan for the comedy entertainer Oru Second Class Yathra. An aspiring architect, Aparna appeared in her college —Global Institute of Architecture, Palakkad— the very next day after the shooting was over. She is in the third year of her bachelor’s in architecture. It is forewarned that if you don’t see her in the silver screen for a while, it’s because she has her studies atop the priority list and is in no hurry to sign project after project on the trot.
So there came a meaty role, in a renowned director’s next, soon after Maheshinte Prathikaram hit the screens and she could only humbly keep acting on backburner for the time being.
“It’s not just because managing attendance is tough, my course needs much hands-on learning and that cannot be missed recklessly,” she signs off.
