Mamta Mohandas on her hunger to perform and why actors need to stay grounded
(Originally published in The Hindu on September 19, 2023)
In the 18 years that she has been in the industry, actor-singer Mamta Mohandas has had many gaps; “a consistent wave,” as she puts it. The actor has done close to 50 films in Malayalam, several in Tamil and Telugu, and continues to be a much sought-after professional. And in all these years, through all those gaps, cinema and music have been constant; they have also played more roles than one might think as evident when she looks back from the time she grew up in Bahrain.
Those days, in Bahrain, Mamta’s portal to cinema was through music. She recalls how it was either by renting out VHS tapes of films — one fond memory is falling in love with Alaipayuthey for its music and never returning the tape — or through the only television channel, Channel 55, that had Indian content. “There is something special about understanding ‘my land, my nation’ through cinema. Wanting to be more Indian was so inbred because what you are kept away from is what you desire the most,” Mamta says.
Though the film lover in her would have wished her good luck, Mamta entered the film industry reluctantly. “I was a reluctant actor because I wasn’t even an actor. There was no part of me that was about presenting myself; I was nervous, I had body image issues, and a lot of inhibitions that made me shy and unconfident.” It isn’t the process of making a film that made her feel so; in fact, that’s the part she enjoys the most, she says. “Being an actor is also about how you put yourself out there, say, during promotions, and that was difficult to embrace.”
The flip side of these gaps in Mamta’s career, due to her battle with Hodgkin lymphoma and the subsequent changes, she says, might have inadvertently prolonged her cinema career. “I was able to stay more informed and re-informed. For instance, every time I went away and came back, something…
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