'Not much of a dog person, was tense while shooting': Raina on playing 'Charu' in Rajesh Madhavan's ‘Pennum Porattum’

Actor Raina Radhakrishnan still remembers the day she walked into the audition room for ‘Pennum Porattum’. More than 2,000 hopefuls had turned up, each vying for a spot in Rajesh Madhavan’s directorial debut. Raina, too, was just another auditionee that day. What she didn’t anticipate was that a role with relatively little screen time would eventually emerge as one of the film’s emotional pivots.

Released recently to positive reviews, ‘Pennum Porattum’ revolves around two striking triggers. One is Suttu, a dog the villagers believe is rabid. The other is Charu, played by Raina, a woman coveted by a lothario in the village. While the narrative unfolds around multiple characters, Charu stands apart as the lone voice of reason in a village driven by impulse and fear. She observes, questions, and reacts differently, making her presence crucial despite her brief appearance.

“I had done a few films before, but when I came across the casting call for this project, I wanted to audition mainly because it was Rajesh Madhavan’s film,” Raina says. “Like everyone else, I went through the audition process. Later, I was told that Charu wouldn’t have a lot of screen space. But I also understood that she would be a very important character in the story.”

What helped her approach the role with confidence was her partial understanding of the film’s larger narrative, something many of the other actors did not have at the time. “Most of the cast didn’t know the entire story while we were shooting. I, however, had a basic idea of the plot and knew that Charu was integral to it. Compared to the characters I had played earlier, this one felt very different. That difference is what made me want to be part of the film,” she explains.

One of the most distinctive aspects of ‘Pennum Porattum’ is its casting. A majority of the actors are residents of Palakkad, many of whom were facing the camera for the first time. Raina’s major scenes with them come in the film’s climax. By then, they had already spent weeks on the set and had grown comfortable performing in front of the camera. “By the time I joined them for the climax portions, they had been shooting for quite a while. Even though they didn’t know the complete story, they were fully immersed in their characters. That really surprised me. During the initial workshops, they were quite shy, but once filming progressed, they were completely in sync with the tone of the film,” she says.

Another key presence in the film is Suttu, the dog around whom much of the tension revolves. Charu shares a crucial emotional scene with Suttu towards the end. Ironically, Raina admits she isn’t much of a dog person in real life. “Suttu is actually a very gentle and sweet dog, but initially, I was quite nervous. I kept wondering how I would perform in such an intense scene with a dog. By the time we reached the climax shoot, Suttu had become very friendly with the assistant directors and the team. With their support, I was able to get comfortable. I was honestly scared to even touch him at first,” she says with a laugh.

Raina credits Rajesh Madhavan’s clarity of vision for helping her shape Charu convincingly. “Rajesh was very clear about who Charu is. She isn’t like the other characters in the film. She has had some exposure to the outside world and, because of that, she looks at situations differently. He asked me to approach the role very naturally, almost like how I am in real life. That helped me find the right tone for the character,” she notes.

Before ‘Pennum Porattum’, Raina had appeared in films like ‘Falimy’, directed by Nithish Sahadev’. Her acting debut, however, was with ‘B 32 Muthal 44 Vare’. Interestingly, acting was never part of her original plan.

“After completing my degree, I joined a postgraduate course in Film Studies at Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University because I was always more interested in working behind the camera,” she reveals. “During my school days, I was active in extracurricular activities like monoact, but I never seriously thought of becoming an actor. When the auditions for ‘B 32 Muthal 44 Vare’ came up, a friend encouraged me to apply. I did, and I got selected. Even then, I didn’t imagine that I would continue acting.”

That trajectory slowly changed. She was later called for an audition for ‘Falimy’ and bagged that role as well. Alongside acting, she continued nurturing her interest in the technical side of filmmaking. After completing ‘Pennum Porattum’, Raina moved behind the camera as an assistant director for filmmaker Devadath Shaji’s debut film ‘Dheeran’, which also features Rajesh Madhavan in the lead.