Talk about irony! The same long curls, that brought her many offers to act, had to be cut for the same reason — to act. Parvathi Menon had then just acted in an ad film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery. He told her that he would like to cast her in his movie Double Barrel, and that someone would call her about it. It is when the call came that she knew she had to chop off her hair for the character — a Russian don, with coloured Mohawk hair. She was reluctant at first but then she heard out the character brief and knew it was going to be a different movie. And it was ‘Lijo sir’s’. So the long dark hair had to go.
“It’s hair, it will grow,” she told herself. But there was some depression. “That went too when I saw the film. I knew it was totally worth it,” Parvathi says. She has already seen the movie twice, and in theatres, very few recognised her, for the hair has now grown to her shoulders. “People rarely recognise me because I have a different look in every movie.” And Double Barrel, she calls her, ‘almost sixth’. The roles after her launch in Gangster had been small. But she was noticed in Angels, her voice was noticed in Sapthamashree Thaskaraha when she dubbed for Sanusha, and then later in Koothara and How Old Are You.
In Loham, she played a cameo in a song. And then of course came Double Barrel, where she plays Lady Tarkov, who carries two guns with her. “By the time I learnt to pick up the guns, it was time to shoot. There had to be so many retakes.” Modestly, she claims she knew very little acting. Because acting has not been her primary interest, she had worked in the radio for years as a programme producer. She had a celebrity show, where she interviewed many in the film industry. So when Aashiq Abu called her for Gangster, she joined the crew who she felt comfortable with.
Parvathi is yet to decide if films would be a full-time career, as of now it is still media. But she is accepting offers on the side, her next is Pathemari where she plays Mammootty’s sister, again with a completely different naadan look. “Imagine, I had to wear a wig!” She plays three phases of life, as a young girl, as a middle-aged woman who then grows old.
