In glistening silk sarees and wearing heavy jewellery, Vineeth and Soorya could undoubtedly outshine any woman. The actors, who have performed in Santhosh Sowparnika’s ‘Ardhanari’, a film on ‘Hijadas’ and ‘Kothis’, were in the city on Wednesday for a press meet held as a prelude to the release of the movie on Friday.
Producer of the film and singer M G Sreekumar said that he ventured to make the movie for the powerful, yet different, theme it carries. “This is a movie with a message. I did not look at the financial angle while taking up the movie,” he said.
Speaking on the film, director Santhosh Sowparnika said that the film peeps into the mental conflicts and social system in which the ‘third genders’ live and does not portray them in a humorous manner. “If anybody makes fun of them, they are doing it without knowing them. They also have a way of life and others should understand that they too are pained in such situations.”
Soorya and Vineeth are marking their entry into tinsel town after doing female roles in a popular television show. They explained how the film tells some real-life circumstances they encountered many a time. “So as to show justice to the characters we play and to maintain perfection, we also maintain some features of women, like growing long hair and long nails in real life. On seeing this, people call us humorous names, which is painful,” said Vineeth.
On the same lines was the response of Soorya, who has been donning female roles for the past nine years. “To learn the behaviour and gestures of women, we observe a lot. But others take it badly,” said Soorya.
Mahalakshmi, who has played the lead in the movie, was also present at the press meet.
The movie has four songs penned by Prof Madhusoodanan Nair and Rajeev Alunkal which were set to tune and sung by M G Sreekumar. This is the last movie in which veteran actor Thilakan acted and the voice dubbing for the character was done by director Santhosh Sowparnika.