Honing the humour

Kadak Singh

Some scripts immediately resonate with you. Then there are those that have something missing, and yet are too good to pass. For Parvathy Thiruvothu, Kadak Singh was the latter. The actor felt the script didn't establish her character strongly. But it presented the opportunity to collaborate with Pankaj Tripathi and director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. "My first response was, ‘I don't know whether I want to do this film'. I couldn't quite see my character on paper. But Tony da [Chowdhury] made me see what we'd be building together. It was a leap of faith for me because while the script in its entirety was brilliant, you can't only love a script. Your first point of contact with a story is your character. Tony da convinced me about it on a Zoom call," she recounts. Today, as the thriller drops on ZEE5, the actor is glad to have taken that leap of faith.

A still from the film

Kadak Singh - also starring Sanjana Sanghi - revolves around Tripathi, who plays the joint director at the department of financial crimes and is suffering from retrograde amnesia. Where does Thiruvothu fit in the thriller? She says, "In Shakespeare's works, there is always the fool, a whimsical person who gives perspective to the rest of the characters. My role does that."

Working with Tripathi, whom she credits for opening her up as a performer, has been a cherished experience. In the film, she found herself tackling comedy, a genre that her co-star is adept at. "Pankaj-ji says his best-selling item is humour, and mine is seriousness. [But here] I had to do comedy. I had to bring out my least-sold item, which Pankaj-ji [helped me] do. And in his performance, he employed [seriousness]. [Such an exchange] encourages you to do more and be less shy about it. Parts of me became unclogged by working with him."