CHENNAI: We meet Mamta Mohandas in a city hotel, and she is seen happy with her healthy mid-evening snacks. “Sometimes, I don’t mind having something sweet as long as I burn my calories,” she says with a smile. The title promo of My Dear Sister has gone on to become a huge success, in which she is introduced to the audience as Nirmala Devi. “The script is unique in itself, but doesn’t steer away from sibling revelry. It is about a tiff between a brother and a sister—a brother who is or not in his right mind because of society, and grows up to be a chauvinist, and a sister, who becomes a victim of societal pressure and what her family expects her to be, and she is seen as a misfit in society,” she begins.
The glimpses show us a rural backdrop to the settings, and Mamta says, “Yes. The story is set in Tirunelveli. I had to reimage myself as Nirmala, and a lot of prep work has gone into playing the character. I had an idea of how Nirmala should look because I believe costumes help an actor better get into the skin of the character. Also, director Prabhu Jeyaram had, in fact, imagined way more than I did for the character. All these creative thoughts and minds on the sets made Nirmala look and enact in a different way than I have in my previous films. However, it took some time for me to resonate with the character.”
The actor-singer also opens up that she had to dub in the Tirunelveli dialect for the movie. We ask her to show her skills off to us, and she laughs, “You are putting me on the spot now. The dubbing itself felt very different because it was Mamta dubbing for Nirmala, but the entire setup helped me go about the dialect well. Also, there were actors from Tirunelveli. You become a character in the power of a setting, look or a costume. It helps them become an actor who they are not. A lot of people do not emphasise how looks help in becoming a character, and other minor things on sets. Also, I am a motor enthusiast, and I have driven a trucker vandi on sets.”
Mamta’s role in Maharaja was an offbeat yet inspiring in terms of how it was written. But she assures that she doesn’t want to be stereotyped into playing only such roles. “After Maharaja, I ensured that I wanted to be a part of good stories. There are several types of films, in fact, big films. But I turned them down because the character I was offered was not substantial. Now, I am looking to push my bar a bit and want to be a captain of stories I am a part of,” remarks the actor.
Mamta, despite listening to several scripts, says, “I am waiting for My Dear Sister’s release because I have invested a lot of time in this. I had to say no to other films because this film is close to me.