It’s a marriage of convenience - Pooja Kumar

It’s a marriage of convenience says Pooja Kumar about her role in Viswaroopam and on-screen hubby Kamal Haasan

The actress begins on a very karmic note about her role in Viswaroopam stating that ‘you will ultimately get what you have been destined for’. “For me, what matters the most is the challenge that the role poses for me as an actress,” she quips.

Pooja plays Nirupama, a nuclear oncologist in India, who marries Viswanath, who runs a Kathak dance school in the US, only to further her career. After enduring three years of this ‘marriage of convenience’, as she puts it, she decides to break the relationship and hires a detective to rake up some dirt in her husband’s character. Obviously, the character has shades of grey and the actress says it was quite the dream role.

“It is not often that the plot of Indian films unfurl through the point of view of the heroine. But Kamal sir’s films have always had strong female characters and this film is also about the internal journey of Nirupama,” she reveals.
So, how does the terrorism angle come into this seemingly domestic relationship tale? “Well, that is where the real brilliance of the script lies in. Kamal sir’s films always have subtexts within subtexts and you’ll have to watch the movie to find out how the tale of Nirupama and Viswanathan ties in with burning global issues like terrorism and world peace,” she says.

Quiz Pooja about the similarity the plot shares with that of James Cameron’s True Lies and she just brushes them off as mere coincidence. “Such comparisons always arise, but having read the script of the film, I can safely say that the plot is certainly something that hasn’t been attempted in Indian cinema, or world cinema, for that matter,” she insists.