Mirch masala
KOCHI: Singing in Mollywood and Kollywood, doing stage shows in and out of the country and anchoring on television were more than enough to keep her busy. But when opportunity came knocking from tinseltown to step onscreen, Ranjini Jose couldn’t resist. After all, who would say ‘no’ to a movie offer from a big banner to be directed by a hit director with Mohanlal in the lead? “It was even more tempting when I got to know that my role let me be more or less like me,” says Ranjini who makes her maiden appearance in Mollywood with Rajaputhra films’ Red Chillies directed by Shaji Kailas.
The debutante actor elucidates: “There is no running around trees or love scenes. Mine is an attitude character - a radio jockey who is part of the nine member music band Red Chillies.
Mohanlal owns the FM station that I work in. A murder takes place and unravelling the mystery behind it is the crux of the story.” Ranjini has lent her voice to two songs _ penned by Girish Puthenchery and composed by M Jayachandran _ in the movie and one of the songs has been picturised on her.
“It was fun shooting the film. Though facing the camera was not new to me, I was uneasy before my first shot and that too with Lalettan. He sensed it and asked ‘You feel you shouldn’t have walked into the project?’ I said ‘Absolutely’ and the whole crew burst out laughing. All the tension vanished into thin air and it was a joy ride from then on,” recounts Ranjini.
She has also dubbed for her character in the film. “I never knew dubbing was so tough! A lot of effort has to go in to get the exact lip sync. Plus, one has to get into the mood of the character to give the correct feel through dialogues.” As the “daughter of a dad who never lets me drive his car,” Ranjini had a whale of a time on the shooting sets of Red Chillies. And she drove nothing less than a Prado! “It was an amazing feel.
I’ll cherish that forever,” she says without hiding the excitement.
But for the time being, the crooner is concentrating on her singing assignments.
Slated for release are movies in Malayalam and Tamil in which she has sung _ Colours, Bad Boys, Nanduni, Swapnathil Hazel Mary, Nalai Nammathe, Akam Puram, Aru Vadai and Dhadak Dhadak among them.
Though Ranjini started off with melodies (she made her singing debut in Mollywood with Balachandra Menon’s Melevaryathe Malakhakuttikal), it was Suresh Peters who introduced us to her offbeat voice through the song ‘Masam masam’ in the Mammootty starrer Aparichithan. “But I don’t want to be typecast,” she says. Ranjini sang in around 125 films but she is keeping her fingers crossed to accomplish her dream.
“I want to sing for Rahman.” Meanwhile, she’s busy making other plans. “I want to learn some western vocals from the UK and then take a postgraduation in something creative like advertising.” And yes, wedding bells are ringing.
“I’ll tie the knot this year.” Like the suspense of the murder mystery she has acted in, the singer is keeping the name and whereabouts of her love closely guarded. “You’ll get to know soon.” Keep guessing!
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