Debugging the Maya double role myth: Is Airaa really Nayanthara’s first film in a dual role?
Nayanthara’s Airaa is easily one of the most awaited films of the season. Thanks to the impressive posters and the teaser, the buzz towards the film has also been coming up nicely. After the amazing success streak that Nayanthara is having with films such as Kolamaavu Kokila, Imaikkaa Nodigal and Viswasam doing extremely well, this emotional horror thriller is expected to strike a chord with the audiences once it hits the screens on the 28th of March.
Airaa is Nayanthara’s first film where she essays a dual role, in a variant career that spans 63 films. Though she has played almost every character in the book, a dual role is something that had not come to her until Airaa happened, and the actress seems to have given it her all for the two characters in the film. While the much-talked about, dark-skinned ‘Bhavani’ is the center of all the attraction, the other role seems to have a lot of swag and style owing to the actress’ image.
However, there exists a doubt amidst a section of the audience, who feel that Maya is her first film in a dual role, criticizing the way that Airaa has been promoted until now. We too had that doubt, and we decided to contact Maya’s director Ashwin Saravanan to see what he had to say on this. “It is actually a very interesting and tricky question to answer. Since we don’t show Maya’s face throughout the film except for the photograph, it never really registers as two dual roles. But personally, I would suggest that Airaa is the first film where you would have her playing two roles as you physically have her playing two different characters, you actually see them, you have dialogues for them and they have equal screen time. Maya is based on the mother and the child’s connection, we don’t explore the mother’s story as much. There’s no drama there. So technically, it would be unfair to call Maya a dual-role film,” said the director who is now working on his next film Game Over.
To get some more clarity on the characters in Airaa, we also spoke to the film’s writer Priyanka Ravindran and director Sarjun. Giving us more details on the roles, Priyanka said “In Airaa, there are two characters who are in stark contrast to each other. And importantly, they are not related to each other in any way, such as being sisters, twins who got abandoned in childhood or so on. When you see the film, you will actually believe that they are done by two different actors and will forget the fact that it is a dual role because Nayanthara ma’am has played both the roles entirely differently. From body language, to looks to mannerisms, everything!”
Sarjun had more to add about Nayanthara’s performance, saying “Giving life to a character is something an actor can do in a film but after giving life, if the character can talk to you (the audience), make you angry for her and make you cry for her, that is not something every actor can do. Lady Superstar is a phenomenal actor who has done justice to both the characters through her performance.”
With all this talk, it is now pretty clear that Airaa is Nayanthara’s first film in a dual role. After the teaser that really teased us and made us throw out guesses about the storyline, one can look forward to nothing less than an engaging ride at the end of March. Nayanthara in dual roles in a thriller that offers her full space to explore two characters instead of one. Who’s going to say no to see a film like that?
