Melancholic lover is a role that actor Gouri G Kishan has mastered with performances in 96, its Telugu remake Jaanu, and in the Malayalam film Anugraheethan Antony. She has also perfected playing the younger version of an older character. Her Manjula in the upcoming JioHotstar series Love Always blends both. "In a way, getting your heart broken is a beautiful thing. Don't mistake the statement. You need the capacity to express love genuinely to end up getting disappointed," she begins. Gouri reveals she felt stressed by the demand to play a woman her age in a period setting, and a 60-year-old inside a 20-something woman's body in the present. "As far as playing younger versions of an older character, I am thankful to both Prem sir and Madhu ma'am for not asking me to watch the older films of Trisha ma'am and Jayasudha ma'am. Both the filmmakers had clear details in the writing, and the script reading sessions helped."
Jayasudha, on the other hand, wishes she had Manjula's magical powers to be transported back to her twenties. "Not that I have any complaints about my life. I entered the industry when I was 12 and became a top-tier heroine by the time I turned 20. So I wasn't exposed to much beyond films. Having grown up around Chepauk Stadium, I've always been fascinated by cricket. So if I could turn the clock back forty years, I would want to pursue the sport."
Elaborating on how she captured the character's dualities in Love Always, Gouri says she and veteran actor Jayasudha practiced certain mannerisms. "For example, whenever Manjula gets stressed, she pulls her ear down. So with such tiny mannerisms, I was able to pull off this character," says Gouri, who calls herself an 'old soul' who swears by old-school romance. "My movie and music tastes prove the same. In fact, people in their 30s and 40s ask me why I behave like an old person."
Interestingly, Jayasudha, who has been acting for over five decades, believes that focussing too much on the technicalities of the performance robs scenes of their magic. "The show is less about logic and more about magic. Barring a few scenes that required Gouri and me to follow a pattern, we went with the flow. Sometimes, especially in stories like this one, striving for perfection and stressing too much over it will spoil the beauty of the scene."
Jayasudha is all praise for director Madhumita for the way she conceives scenes. "This is still an increasingly male-dominated field. To be part of such a beautiful story idea and vision from a woman director makes my web series debut all the more special," says the veteran. Echoing the sentiment, Gouri says working with Madhumita halved her pressure on sets. "Living in a society that looks down on ambitious women, it was great to see Madhu ma'am leading a huge team. You can share jokes with her and also see her lose her cool when things aren't going right. At the end of the day, she has a task at hand to complete. Also, I didn't fear someone looking at me a certain way or saying certain things on set. I knew I could tell her right away. That was relieving, and I said I would give her dates whenever she asks (Laughs)."
Gouri says Love Always helped her discover a lot more about herself as a person and as an actor. "I was able to tap into my maternal side in Love Always. The older Manjula has a grandson, and we are young actors. Any kind of affection can be misunderstood as another kind. I think I became familiar with this emotion because I got that love from my mother," says Gouri, who asserts that prioritising oneself is not a bad thing, and an ambitious woman need not necessarily be understood as someone who dislikes the concept of family. "My goals are my identity. That said, I do want to marry and have kids. I don't see the two as mutually exclusive."
Jayasudha says that marital problems and falling out of love are not a modern-day invention, just that they are being expressed more nowadays because women have options. "A relative of mine who was married for many years openly said to me once that she is staying with her husband only because she did not know better. She said that if she had been educated enough, she would have left the house long ago. So divorce is not a new-age problem," says the actor. Summarising the series, which begins streaming on JioHotstar from Friday, Gouri says that women should not be demonised for prioritising themselves. "The thing I have learned from Manjula is that one need not wait for 40 years to put the foot down and say it's enough."
