Is Trisha retiring or is she thinking of getting married? Why on earth should she do that, she seems to be ruling the roost in Kollywood and Tollywood. Well, she might not exactly be the undisputed No.1, but at least she is in contention for the queen's throne. So, what gave the idea that Trisha might be planning to take VRS from Kollywood? The simple reason that she seems to be taking up a few performance oriented roles with substance in them rather than just the song and dance routine. That is certainly a good thing and must be appreciated and encouraged. But looking at the career graphs of all the former queens of Kollywood, a common pattern can be noticed. They start looking for and taking up strong and substantial characters when they are no longer in the race to be the top heroes eye candy in commercial movies. Look at the graphs, it is all the same. They begin slowly, take off in style, hit the crescendo with glamour and then gracefully land with an award winning role or two in their kitty. By the time Khushboo did K.B's Jathimalli, she was no longer being considered for lead roles opposite Rajini or Kamal, it was going to the Rojas and the Meenas. When Roja took up Maayan, she had already passed on the mantle to Jyothika, Simran and the likes. When Meena took up Kalaignarin Kannamma, she was at best being paired with Sathyaraj or in a few Malayalam movies. So, as you can see the characters take precedence only when the star value faces a decline. That is not a written rule but something that has been followed for quite some time now.Remember Simran doing Kovilpatti Veeralakshmi somewhere in 2002, a year before she decided to call it quits. She also dubbed herself for the first time in her career believing that it was a potentially award winning performance. Then there was Jyothika who after all the years as lead heroine gave us a jolt when she signed off with Mozhi. We never even imagined that this lady had such a sensitive actress within her and that it took the sight of an impending retirement to bring it out. That has been the case, it has taken a glimpse of the sunset to make the latent actresses within Kollywood's heroines bloom. But that blossom is engulfed in the darkness that takes over after sunset, their true colors are never seen, maybe rarely in case of actresses who decide to come back and are fortunate enough to get some great roles, not the kind that Simran got in Seval. Actresses have made it a habit to reveal their full potential only months away from their retirement and this does not give directors enough time to tap them or fans enough time to appreciate them. As a result most Kollywood heroines are grossly underutilized and remain so forever.
Coming back to Trisha. We hope she is not into any VRS plans as yet. But the symptoms are there to be seen in the form of Abhiyum Naanum, Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikkalam and a compelling eagerness to be part of Marmayogi (which unfortunately is not happening). The good thing here is that Trisha has not taken these quality conscious decisions in the face of a decline in her career. She is still very much hot property amongst fans and directors. The fact that a leading lady has made such decisions makes us reflect back to the days of Revathy, Nadiya and Suhasini who never gave preference to any one kind of role. They did all kinds of roles fearing neither image nor relegation and that is why we could see their acting skills and enjoy them for a lengthy period and still remember them as complete actresses. They gave themselves the room to experiment and pulled it off with ease. That is what Trisha may be attempting now and we sincerely hope that it comes off marvelously so that others of her generation, the likes of Nayanthara and Shriya, feel secure to leave behind glamour and go for something special. It's time for change.
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