From Nagercoil to Paris

If someone had told Janagi five years ago that she would be starring in a French mainstream feature film, alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg (of Nymphomaniac and Antichrist fame) and French heartthrob Yvan Attal, she would have laughed in your face. But the 30-year-old Tamil actress did just that with Son Épouse (His Wife), directed by Michel Spinosa, which released early March.

The film revolves around Gracie (Janagi) who is possessed by the spirit of her friend Catherine (Gainsbourg) who dies in ‘unresolved’ circumstances. Catherine’s husband Joseph (Attal) travels to Tamil Nadu to meet Gracie and the plot unfolds thereafter. Far from being just a ‘native’ side-character, Janagi plays a prominent role and even speaks French in the film. “Learning French was the most difficult,” says Janagi, adding, “But then Michel sir, the film team and two months of French classes helped a great deal. So I could manage my dialogues during shooting.”

Born in Devasahayam Mount village, outside Nagercoil, she grew up surrounded by the Western Ghats and tall-spired churches. The youngest of four, she completed high school, but her parents did not have the means to send her to college. The choice before her was either to find a job or join her sister, Prema, at Murasu Kalai Kuzhu, a street theatre group run by the local Christian diocese.

Inspired by Badal Sircar’s Third Theatre, where the lines between the actor and the audience is blurred and those watching the play are encouraged to be active participants in the production itself, Kalai Kuzhu uses songs to spread awareness about societal issues, such as the importance of education, anti-caste messages and Dalit rights. A Christian Left ideology permeates all their works. “I really would not be where I am without the help of the Kalai Kuzhu,” Janagi says. “We used to perform Paraiyattam, Oyilattam and various other folk forms across villages in our areas. In the years I spent there, I must have seen the entire State twice over since we travelled a lot with our productions.”

In 2008, along with four other theatre-artists from the State, Janagi was invited to attend a month-long workshop on Naveena Nadagam or modern theatre conducted by the National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi. The following year, she enrolled in NSD for a diploma programme in dramatics. Janagi spent the next three years in the Capital, learning theatre skills, theory and a bit of Hindi.

In her final semester, Spinosa and crew called her for an audition. As Spinosa says, “Despite my familiarity with Tamil cinema, I had not heard of Janagi till my assistant director Revathi told me about her.” He adds, “During the audition, we realised she had all the qualities that an actress needs to have: instinct, authenticity and creativity. She had an immediate and intimate comprehension of the character she was about to play, in her appearance and her background. She was the closest to the character I had imagined. Working with her was amazing and as you will see, she did a fantastic job in the film.”

Janagi on her part was initially sceptical about the audition. “Revathi akka asked me to come attend the two-day audition held in Chennai. There Michel sir asked me to improvise and I read out scripts in Tamil and then English.” She adds, “I really didn’t think I would get through and when I was informed that I was selected , I was very happy but also really surprised.”

Janagi took to the role in Son Épouse with unexpected ease. She says, “In my village there used to be a punniyasthalam (holy place) where they brought people, who were losing their minds or were possessed, to be cured. I have seen them since I was a child. When the role was explained to me, I could understand it well since I had seen so many people in a similar situation myself.” She adds, “They used to be tied to the trees outside the church and while growing up, we children used to tease them a lot, which I feel bad about now. But we used to see them all the time in our village, and they were always completely lost in their own world. Their families came to feed them and the church Father used to say prayers to exorcise the spirits that they believed were haunting them.”

With a French movie behind her, Janagi is looking for other options. Malini 22 Palayamkottai , a thriller, where she plays a rowdy in a jail, released in both Tamil and Telugu earlier this year. Apart from this, she features regularly on a Tamil news channel, Puthiya Thalaimurai’s programme Routhiram Pazhagu where she performs Therukoothu (traditional street drama). She is also set to travel with her erstwhile theatre group to villages near Kanyakumari, where she’ll be one of the trainers at a month-long theatre workshop.

With a promising career ahead of her, what has been her proudest moment so far? “It was when my father and mother came to Delhi to see me perform while at NSD. They didn’t really think highly of my choices till then. But when they saw me in front of all those people at the theatre festival, they found new respect for me,” says Janagi.