Jewel Mary: It was amazing to emote to Chithra chechi’s lullaby

Jewel Mary

is playing the lead role of a mother in newbie director Rajeev Rajendran’s

Kshanikam

. Speaking about the film, the popular TV-anchor-turned-actress says, “It was a bit difficult to work under the pandemic restrictions, but I was very interested when I heard the story.”

The film, a family drama, written by Deepthi Nair, is based on real incidents and is “a topic that has not been seen in film before” according to Jewel. “It is based on something that happened to a friend of Deepthi. It is about foster care and when I heard the story, I thought, ‘actually yes, it is something that needs to be considered and discussed’. It is about conflicts that can arise in foster care,” points out Jewel. The male lead is played by debutant Rupesh Raj.

It is the actor’s first lead role after a few years and she says she felt confident enough thanks to the support of the crew. “In fact, among a couple other film projects in discussion, there is also the prospect of working with the same crew on their next film,” she says. Kshanikam was shot in Thiruvananthapuram and Wagamon, and is now going through dubbing and post-production.
“The film has two songs; one is a beautiful romantic duet by Harisankar and Chithra, and the other one is a moving lullaby, also sung by the latter. It felt amazing to emote to this song, which is a heartfelt number by Chithra chechi. It brought tears to my eyes,” says Jewel.

The actor herself indulges in music and has released a few covers. “I had learnt classical music long back, but I used to get teased for having a nasal tone. And while I used to feel bad about that earlier, this gave me my distinctive voice, when I was anchoring and even in my songs. My friends, who are into music, have guided me and helped me a lot in my singing efforts,” she says.