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Happy with twin loves

Vasundhara Das wants to do a woman-oriented Malayalam movie, she tells Priyadarsshini Sharma

Photo: V.Sreenivasa Murthy

GLAMOROUS SINGER Thankful for learning experience in movies

`Haste, haste, salaam namaste,' sing Vasundara Das and Kunal Ganjawala in the peppy title number of `Salaam Namaste' that's topping the charts now a days. The movie opened in the country this week. Recently in the city to inaugurate a jewellery store in Thodupuzha Ms. Das expressed her keenness to do a Malayalam movie. " I have been able to create an identity among Malayalis, having done two films, `Ravanaprabhu' and `Vajram', with Mohanlal and Mamooty. Now, I am looking for a female oriented script. Malayalam cinema has churned out very good women oriented movies so I want to do that," she said

It is Bollywood that she is presently occupied with, both in films and songs. The catchy soundtrack of `Salaam Namaste' and `hot, hot..' of `No Entry' is playing all over. Simultaneously, she acted in movies like `Filmstar' with Tanuja Chandra where she plays a convict, a role of a police woman in `Pather Bezubaan', an out and out masti film, `Kudiyon ka hai zamanna' and the latest, `Ek Dustak' recently. So, is the singer-actor, Vasundara changing her priority?

" Right now my career is a nice balance between films and music. I came as a singer but my first release was a film! And my identity has been established both as a singer and an actor." But is it stage shows that she is excelling in being a bit of both, actor and singer?

" Yes, I am very actively touring around the world doing stage shows. As I have an identity among Malayalis, Tamils, Kannadigas and of course in the Hindi belt and have sung in all these languages, I find I have an audience wherever I go. I did the Mohabbat tour with Mohanlal and East Coast Vijayan, after which a survey was conducted and they found that audiences wanted me back. So I went back and did the Marhaba tour. I have just returned from a tour in China, which was for the Wutaishan festival, organised, by a Buddhist monastery. For that I chose songs with a sufi tinge. I sang a song from my album, `Meri Jaan' and then of course Rabba Rabba."

And what does she feel about the lip sync on stage shows? "Lip sync by a singer is a shame but it is all right for an actor doing a stage show to lip sync."

At 27, Vasundara is still very young and has a long way to go, but having acted with seasoned stars she has in a very short span learnt a lot. " Working with Kamal Hasan in Hey Ram was a huge stroke of luck. It was like learning the ABC of acting. Then came `Monsoon Wedding', which was a two-week workshop with Naseerudin Shah. Mira Nair herself was doing a kind of experiment so I learnt a lot. Working along with Declan Quinn, a brilliant cinematographer, with make-up artiste, Luann Claps, who is the personal make up man for Richard Gere were all eye openers. But after such parallel cinema, doing a commercial film, `Citizen', was a reality check. It came at the right time. After this I was ready for `Ravanaprabhu', which was a mix of a good role and commercial film. "

And what about acting with the two Malayali super heroes, Mohanlal and Mamooty? " I have never seen anybody who is same both off screen and on screen. He does not need an effort to act. It comes to him naturally,' she says about Mohanlal. Mamooty is, " very focussed and professional."

Bangalore based, Vasundhara is part of a seven-group band Arya, which believes in world music. And she finds inspiration for this global music from Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, a musician from Azerbaijan. And Kerala? " When you are in Kerala you wonder why you have to go out of the country to shoot." And so she yearns to be back here to shoot for a Malayalam film and perform a strong woman oriented role.

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