Appearances Are Deceptive

Casually changing channels, I landed up watching the Star Vijay Film Awards. I believe they were telecasting the award function in segments, one a day. This day, it started with (or rather, I started watching) the announcement of nominees and winners for the best costumer for 2009, then the makeup artist, Stunt master, art director, cinematographer, editor, story and screenplay writer. Then came the performance category awards and the first in the group was for the best supporting actor and actress.

The nominated movie list for all the above mentioned awards was almost a standard list of movies with just the name of the artist/technician changing. One of them was ‘Nadodigal’ and the best supporting actress was bagged by Abinaya, who played the role of the hero’s sister in the movie. As she walked on to the stage, they turned the camera towards a middle aged man who was in tears. This was possibly Abinaya’s father. As she approached the dais, I was wondering if this was the same girl who played the ‘sis’ role. She appeared very different (of course that was on big screen and this was on the silver screen), clad in a black and red salwar. She received the trophy, grabbed the mic and gave a shriek even before the MOC could ask her a question. Then she went on blabbering with the mic in her hand and I couldn’t understand a word of what she said. Anybody watching this; would have felt that she couldn’t get her voice out due to over excitement.

It took me a moment to realize that she was having a problem with her speech and hearing. And at once, I found my throat choking. This was a very touching moment indeed. She deserved this very award and much more, the reason being that no one would ever get a hint on her disabilities while watching the movie.
Her father was called on stage and was given a chance to speak about this award winning moment. This gentleman had just words of gratitude to three people, the director Samudrakani for the introduction he gave her, Sasikumar (the guy who played the lead role in the movie and the director who has offered her a lead role in his next movie) and the camera man ‘kani’. Abinaya signalled to the trio to come on dais. The emotion on the stage was really felt when the trio came in and spoke a few words each. I could see the majority of the audience with tears and found a drop falling from my eyes too.

I have heard a lot about handicapped people proving themselves. But the deaf and dumb actress caught my attention. Hats Off to Samudrakani and Sasikumar.

p.s: Earlier I had written a post titled ‘The Best Investment’. The title might have been more apt for this post.