I am not a person who has intense admiration for a celebrity on a personal level. I do admire many celebrities for the work that they do, and I do see updates of their personal lives when they come up on my newsfeed or social media feed. But feeling admiration for the people they are – it rarely happens. And one of those rare instances of my personal admiration is towards Manju Warrier.
As an actress, I do not know if I hold the same level of love for her as I did before she took her break after her wedding. Somehow, ever since she came back, I have felt a level of undue restraint or inhibition and artificiality in her acting and dialogue delivery, in stark contrast to the absolutely natural, firebrand, no-limits performance she used to portray pre-break. Whether that is intentional or not, I do not know. But I have always hoped that she goes back to loosening up and letting herself go completely as a character, just like in old days.
But I digress from my topic. With anyone else, I would just hold what I feel about their work as the only parameter of judgement of whether I like or dislike the person, or maybe enter the grey area of indifference. However, with Manju, despite how I felt about her as an actress before or how I feel about her as an actress now, I have come to have a great admiration for her as a person, even when I do not know her at all. I must admit that it is a feeling that I resisted for a long time because I did not want to be one of those “blind fans.” But I have to accept now that, while I wouldn’t brand myself a fan, I definitely do admire this woman deeply for what she is and how she conducts herself.
Manju’s life is not an example of one being infallible and doing only what is right. Her life is a lesson on how one can make mistakes, multiple ones at that, be the target of ridicule and absolute hatred from all directions, and still go on with her work silently and rise like a phoenix. Maybe it is because of that silence that a lot of people love her so much and want to see her successful. Because her silence is not a sign of her weakness, but one of her grit and strength – one that was born from losing everything she held close in the most heartbreaking, disparaging way and having to start from scratch at a time when she didn’t even know if the audience would ever accept her back and, more so, despite the active lobbying against her efforts to come back to work after more than a decade. Yes, she was lucky enough to find support from a few who were strong in the fraternity, but the opposition was from a stronger side. Yet she prevailed.
And while the mighty opponent who literally ruled the industry at the time kept giving interviews one after the other, stooping to the level of using a child as a pawn in the power game, Manju’s response was nothing but silence – a silence that was much more powerful than a million words, a silence that was laden with strong dignity. And that dignity and class were what people embraced in her. In spite of the active PR work against her, she never felt the need to call a press conference or write a post on social media explaining her side – which is a level of courage I aspire for but can never achieve.
Wouldn’t all of us want to scream out our truth when put in a situation like this? Wouldn’t we want to try at least once to say that everything that is said about us is a lie, at least for our peace of mind that we said something? I don’t know if Manju ever felt that way – she must have, being human. But whether she did or not, she never surrendered to that urge. She chose the path of silence and dignity when faced with cheapness and mudslinging from the other side. And that is a strength that comes only from one who is very sure of herself and her truth, one who needs no external validation, one who is a class apart.
It is for this reason, Manju, that I will always admire you. It is for this reason that I want you to reach all heights of success – because your only retort to anything that’s thrown your way is a genuine smile that comes from your heart. For every single person trying to pull you down, you go a step higher, only because your weapons are kindness and humility that are seldom seen in a person of your stature. For people who fall and struggle to rise, you are an inspiration who shows them how to learn from their mistakes and push themselves up, even if the entire world is against them. And for them, you are Manju WARRIOR! (Sorry, but not sorry).
And I am sure she will need to be an even stronger warrior in the days to come. Because it is very clear that a conspiracy against her is brewing as revenge for her bold words that ultimately led to the investigation in the actress assault case. From a man, who has, from the beginning, shown his desperation in wanting to see her fail and fall, it wouldn’t be shocking if evidence is cooked up to make her the villain in this story, with the pathetic “logical argument” of how she orchestrated the assault to frame him already making the rounds among die-hard fanboys of the now-free opponent. In a case where evidence kept vanishing to protect the mighty, I worry that made-up evidence will keep coming up soon, now that it is time for their revenge. And even if that does not happen, more and more obstacles will be thrown her way to stop her from soaring high. I sincerely hope that truth and the support from thousands who love Manju will see her through this difficult time that she will soon encounter.
Also published on Medium.
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