Having been brought up by a single parent, actor Sruthi Hariharan, who will be seen in Mansore’s Nathicharami says she connects with film — which gives women a voice — on a personal level.
Sruthi has more than a couple of reasons to be talking about her upcoming film, Nathicharami. While the film has two national award winners — director Mansore helming the project and Sanchari Vijay in the lead role — writer Sandhya Rani and music director Bindhu Malini are also on board.
The story highlights the institution of marriage in today’s time. “In fact, the title means a ‘promise to stand by or I shall never let you go’. When I heard the subject, I immediately connected to it. These days, few films have a strong woman’s voice,” says Sruthi, hesitant to term her project a women-centric film.
In the film, Sruthi plays the role of a widow who faces ordeals after the passing of her husband. “During their married years, the couple makes a promise to each that they will stay with each other through thick and thin. However, after the demise of her husband, the woman starts questioning the very idea of marriage,” she says.
Having seen her mother bring up her brother and her single-handedly, she says that her mother often lived on the memories of her father. “The situations in Gowri Mahesh’s story are similar to those I’ve seen my mother go through. However, the characters are very different,” she says.
“The film has been written from a woman’s point of view. That’s the biggest advantage to a film,” says Sruthi, who met director Mansore at a film screening, when the actor mentioned she was keen to associate with him for a project. “He had mentioned that if a good script comes by, he would let me know. That was two years ago,” says the actor, who adds that she chose the story only for its subject, and not because of the award-winning crew.
”It takes courage for a man to talk about women’s sexual desires in cinema. It would have been easy for Mansore to take up a commercial project with a big star which would have assured profits. But he has chosen to take an unconventional path,” she says.