Mamta Mohandas all praise for ‘Thalavara’, praises Arjun Ashokan, Akhil Anilkumar for shedding light on vitiligo

Actor Mamta Mohandas, known for openly discussing her health challenges, has praised the makers of Arjun Ashokan’s latest film ‘Thalavara’ for bringing attention to vitiligo, a skin condition that affects millions worldwide. She emphasised the importance of recognizing the film that depicts real heroes who face daily battles, even as Malayalis continue to celebrate the rise and success of ‘superheroine’ films.

Mohandas also commended Arjun Ashokan for choosing to star in a film like Thalavara. She shared her thoughts: “While we celebrate the rise N long awaited coming and successes of ‘superheroine’ films this season, I take this opportunity to also redirect your attention towards and throw a bright light on a hero who chose to select a script and played the role of a person who represents the life of several super- heroes & heroines that live amongst us fighting real battles everyday.

Thanks Arjun Ashokan for choosing to do Thalavara and congrats to Akhil Anilkumar who has handled a sensitive matter when told what could’ve otherwise been dull and a sob story to tell and unrelatable one to most, managed to keep it simple and entertaining without hurting anyone’s personal sentiment in my opinion. Rather our ‘panda’ is almost half oblivious to it in the story and is jolly good in his own reality where he feels safe. But the world is a cruel place and reminds him… hey don’t you see, you are the problem. Not anyone of us!”

Here, Jyotish’s experiences will feel personal to anyone who has vitiligo or closely know someone they love living with this superficial yet very ‘normalcy-disrupting’ skin condition, where one loses their color partially or permanently. Akhil has knit together a beautifully painful yet powerful tale that highlights personal, emotional and especially the psychological challenges that one living with it needs to be mentally prepared for in order to face life - be it at home with their own family, at work, amongst friends, in personal relationships and in society. More power to all Pandas that live amongst us - we shall kungfu through this and more!

Fight on. Also congrats to the make up team who made it as close as they can get to making the condition look ‘real’ and Arjun, great job on sitting with that look for long hours of shoot. I’m sure ‘showing it’ would’ve been as hectic and ‘camouflaging it’. Music was a fabulous addition to the whole theme and great performances by all artists (sic),” she wrote. Though many appreciated Mamta for expressing her solidarity to the film, a few others criticised her for ‘putting down one film just to appreciate another.”

The actor made her stand clear by editing her post with a clarfification: Btw I stand to clarify cuz ‘attention seeking haters’ have commented that I’m bashing another film by mentioning this one. I loved Lokah myself. All praise,” she wrote.