On the first day of screening Ezra at a theatre with the media and stars in attendance, a pretty girl walked down the stairs with a look of expectance. A member of the audience picks up courage and approaches her asking, “Have you acted in this film?” She nods her head and says one word, “Rosy,” followed by a look of disbelief on the viewer’s face. There was no trace of the character Rosy in Ann Sheetal. That surprised look is testimony to Ann’s talent of slipping into Rosy’s skin. Rosy is a Christian girl living in the 1940s dressed in a blouse and mundu with dark make up, unglamorous and with a haunted look in her eyes, while Ann is vivacious, dresses fashionably and talks eloquently. Ann is delighted with the compliments coming her way including Prithviraj’s. It was after a successful audition that Ann landed the role of Rosy and for a debutant, it was a big challenge.
Ann agrees, “Rosy is not the regular girl and the instructions given when I signed up for the role were that I should understand the character’s point of view and what she went through.” Rosy is a woman who trusts her Jewish lover but is left in the lurch because of his father’s opposition. She goes through an intensely emotional turmoil and pays the price for it. Ann continues, “It was difficult for me to empathise with Rosy, but when I wore her costume, saw the sets and began acting her part, the empathy kicked in and I felt her pain!” Ann’s makeup was dull and she was made to look like the girl next door. That was the physical transformation but more challenging was the acting. “The most difficult part was making the audience understand Rosy’s plight and make her suffering look credible!” she opines.
Acting opposite state award-winning Sudev Nair was also daunting for the newcomer but she considers it her luck to act with someone who was very patient with her. The reported spooky happenings at the sets in Fort Kochi were witnessed by her. She recalls, “We had random generators switching off and lights flickering on and off when the priest came and blessed the sets.” Ann is an army kid who grew up all over India but is settled in Kochi now. Since she began receiving offers from an early age, she enrolled at the Barry John Acting Studio. She mentions, “It was at the fag end of my course that I was called for Ezra.”
