Mamta Mohandas talks about life, Carbon
Mamta Mohandas talks to tabloid! about her new Malayalam film ‘Carbon’, out now, and how cancer is not holding her back from an acting career
S outh Indian actress Mamta Mohandas, who recently won the Pride of Kerala award at the Asiavision Movie Awards in Sharjah, has a lot to be proud of.
The star of the acclaimed thriller Carbon, out in UAE cinemas now, has a booming career in the Malayalam film industry and is valiantly kicking Hodgkin’s lymphoma behind her.
The 32-year-old lives out of a suitcase and ticks the ‘global citizen’ tag as she shuttles between Los Angeles, where she continues to be treated for the cancer attacking lymph nodes; South India for film projects; and Bahrain, the country where she grew up and is her haven for unwinding with family. So how does she look back on more than 10 years in movies?
“It has been an exciting journey for me. The one thing I am most thankful is that when someone takes a hiatus from their career to focus on their health for a year or two, they come back looking beaten and battered. But I am so thankful that my career is still rolling and I still get meaty offers,” Mohandas says.
The adjectives beaten and battered could never define Mohandas, who has spear-headed films such as Kadha
Thudarunnu in which she played a feisty widow grappling with a financial mess, and the comedy Boss, in which she played a snarky, mean corporate chief.
On the day of our phone interview, Mohandas had just finished a rigorous work out at her gym in Bahrain and was like a proverbial ray of sunshine. She was witty, self-aware and self-deprecating, a rare combination among celebrities. Mohandas knows that she may be missing a lot in terms of projects with her existing health condition where relapse is a constant reality, but she continues to count her blessings.
“What I reflect upon in my 12 years of my career is how I define success. To me, it’s about being able to stand tall and still have a career that is going well for me. I know I set the ball rolling once and I know that things can get a lot better once I have my health back because I can have a more feisty attitude,” she says.
Her nine-year battle with cancer, in which she has relapsed three times, has recalibrated her and nudged her to reassess her perspectives.
The Mamta Mohandas before 2009 [before cancer] was someone who was less understood as a person… but now I am here, alive and working.”