Manjima Mohan on Reclaiming Her Space With 'Suzhal: The Vortex'

A week has passed since the release of Suzhal: The Vortex, Manjima Mohan’s return to screen after two years — her last release was the anthology Boo — and the actor speaks candidly about how she missed being on set and the appreciation she’s been receiving for a character. She plays Nagamma in the eight-part series, but her character appears in only one episode. Yet the impact of her performance is such that the series clicks into place once her character gets introduced.

Manjima opens up about the sleepless nights before the shoot of a violent murder scene, the reason she took so long to make a comeback and how conversations about movies are a big no-no around her house.

A still from season 2 of 'Suzhal: The Vortex'.

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Excerpts from the conversation:

What I enjoyed about your character Nagamma is how she gets one episode, but that episode plays out like an entire movie with a beginning, a middle and a gruesome ending. It’s also the episode that holds the series in place. Did you have to listen to the entire series to say yes?

No, I didn’t listen to the whole story. I was given a detailed brief about my character, what led her to this situation and what was to follow. In terms of a timeline, the entire series begins with what happens to Nagamma. But the writing was such that it plays out in the seventh episode, but it influences the remaining characters. Bramma sir, one of the two directors, called my episode the “bottleneck”.

Did you have concerns about the screen time?

I don’t approach roles like that anymore. My concern is if my character will be effective to the whole show. It doesn’t matter if it’s 15 or 20 minutes if it makes sense when I hear the director out. Take the example of the character Bharathiraja sir played in Thiruchitrambalam. It may not have been long, but you just love his character. That’s what matters.

Your episode was extremely violent. Were you hesitant about that?

I haven’t performed violence to this extent, but I wasn’t really thinking a lot about it. I trust the director and the process. But I guess I do have some boundaries. It was all clear in the writing but as we shoot, if I did feel uncomfortable, we have the space to say no. And although it was violent, it was still leaning more towards the drama. That’s what I was stressed about.

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Stressed, but why?

I couldn’t sleep the night before the killing scene on the boat. It was to be shot in the middle of the sea, and it involved a major emotional outpouring. The performance aspect of it was what was freaking me out. Especially given what I’ve had to go through with the trolling I’ve faced earlier.

Are you referring to that emotional outburst in Oru Vadakkan Selfie?

Haha, yes. I feel I’m still haunted by the trolling I faced for that scene. My performance became a meme. So, whenever I shoot something that involves a breakdown, I get very worried. For the killing scene in Suzhal 2, I kept checking with a Malayali colleague on the sets if I was doing ok. I was worried if I had cried ok and if my reactions were working out. I was also asked to keep shifting my expressions.

What were these instructions like?

The director would ask me to look angry. Then I must switch to sad. Then it would be to “look confused”. It’s a tricky reaction to capture because my character’s crime is not planned. It happens abruptly and it’s twice as complex because I’m killing someone I love.

Does the nervousness help your performance?

I usually don’t have a process, but before I shoot for complex scenes, I allow myself to be stressed out. See I don’t sit around and keep rehearsing. Nor am I the kind to simply believe in 100 percent positivity. So, I let that stress get to me as long as it helps the scene.

But how are you on the sets on the day of such a scene?

For this scene, we had to shoot from 2PM to around 3 in the morning. It was a long day, and my only request is for the other people on the boat to not talk as I perform. I like to be left alone and no matter what happens, I know I shouldn’t let it affect my output.

A still from season 2 of 'Suzhal: The Vortex'.

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Was it trickier because it was sync sound?

It was a mix of both sync sound and dubbing. At first, we shot thinking it was sync sound and then I was called in to dub over it. That’s another thing that gets me super nervous because I hate dubbing. In the case of a lot of senior actors, they know how to improve their performance with dubbing. But in my case, I think it can go the other way.

Why is that?

I struggle to recreate the same feeling of the scene when I’m asked to repeat it. That’s also why I’m so bad at auditions. I’ve never landed a single movie after doing the audition well. I feel I need another kind of stress to perform.

Hasn’t that changed with experience?

Not really. I started working in movies as a child actor and I was always like this. I’m never a confident person but before the director screams “action!”, I begin to feel comfortable. That time between action and cut — that’s my safe space. I feel at home when the camera is rolling.

Did you miss that when you were not working?

I did. I took a break, and I sensed how much cinema changes every six to seven months. I can think of myself as a known face but that’s not enough for me to keep getting work because the industry knows how to move on.

Is there something you could have done differently?

I don’t think I know how to do the PR work effectively. I have zero ego as an actor, but I know I should also have reached out to directors and let them know they should consider me for certain roles. I reached out to Gayatri ma'am a while ago when I didn’t know she was writing Suzhal. The timing was just right and that’s what led to Suzhal.

What changed for you to start reaching out?

I think I believed that my work would keep bringing movies to me. I thought it could be 50 per cent my work, and then 50 per cent, my effort to reach out. I had this false sense of insecurity to think that asking for work was like begging for work. But this is the nature of the job when there’s a new actress every Friday. There are so many options.

How did you begin?

So, a friend of mine gave me a major reality check one day. She felt I was living off past glory, just because I had an Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada or an Oru Vadakkan Selfie, all those years ago. She forced me to get back to work and insisted I start messaging people. It took another month but then on one day, I woke up early, framed an elaborate message and started sending it out to directors I was familiar with.

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Do you feel the timing too is better now given the wider range of roles for women?

I do. Look at the kind of characters Shefali Shah gets to do or even Jyotika ma'am, who was so good in Dabba Cartel.

But it’s interesting that you took longer to reach out given how your husband is an actor too. I assume that a lot of talk at home is about the movie business.

Not really. Me and Gautham are not that kind of a couple. If we must talk about work, we’ve promised ourselves that we will step out of home, finish the chat, and then return home. Our other ground-rule is to not tag along with each other. We are both actors and we are married but our careers are separate. As a couple, what binds us most is the X Box and the joy we get from killing zombies together.