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Chennai
Comic interlude
"I'VE BEEN very much around ... only that I have become very choosy about the roles I do," says Vinodhini when you ask her why she's not been seen in small screen soaps of late. Just as you thought her career on television was going great guns, Vinodhini stopped appearing in serials. And again when you felt that she was doing a good job as a regular hostess of Fathima Jewellers' weekly telecast, wherein she had to interact with the customers who came to the store, you didn't see her anymore. "I've grown up with cinema and acting ... I'll not dream of going away. Only that when I began to be offered the same kind of roles, I decided to take things easy till something interesting came my way," says Vinodhini who began as a child artiste in cinema. "I accepted the Fathima's show for the lark of it, just for a couple of weeks, thinking I would give anchoring a try, but they insisted that I continue and I went on for eight long years." From the first episode till the last week of telecast, it was Vinodhini who held fort. "But hosting is not my profession, acting is ... " she clarifies.
The fact that is even more intriguing is that suddenly she has re-surfaced in `Crazy' Mohan's weekly tele-hungama, "Vidathu Sirippu" — looking sprightly and energetic as Madhu's wife, she carries off the comedy role with ιlan. Why humour? "Why not," is her counter. "Mohan had approached me for his serial, even a couple of years ago. I was toying with the idea, not quite sure whether I should take it up. It was the troupe's director Kanthan who finally convinced me into accepting the offer. So here I am once again, this time in a different genre," she laughs. Vinodhini feels comfortable working with the unit, which makes the entire exercise seem a family get-together.
So probably it will be comedy for some more time ... "Not necessarily," Vinodhini replies. "I liked my characters in "Chiththi" and "Agal Vilakku." If I get roles with enough scope, I'll go ahead and do them."
But for Vinodhini, it all began with cinema. With her ravishing looks and talent, you expected her to go places on the big screen. She has been a Balu Mahendra heroine and has done lead roles in a few other films yet she did not receive the recognition she ought to have, you feel. Still there's no frustration in Vinodhini's response. "I've once again begun accepting films too. I am playing a positive character as the sister in law of Sonia Agarwal in `Chathurangam'," she says with cheer. Vinodhini knew the film's director Karu. Pazhaniappan (of `Parthiban Kanavu' fame) even from the days she shot for a television serial in Singapore a few years ago. "It was nice of him to think of me for a worthy role in his film ... I don't believe in taking up 10 projects at a time. I prefer to wait for those that appeal to me" — Vinodhini concludes with a smile.
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
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