MAN-TURNED-WOMAN to star in a film

The name of the film is 'Paal' and is directed by D. Sivakumar. The movie's mission is to show facts of life keeping in mind that every single individual has a right to peaceful life immaterial of gender ' male, female or transsexual.

Most of Indian Cinema has always depicted transsexuals in a rather shabby vein in order to tickle the funny bone of 'insensitive' people. Barring a few short films and documentaries, the lives and emotions of transsexuals have always been underplayed and even exploited. This is where director D. Sivakumar steps in. His film 'Paal', meaning 'gender' in Tamil would explore the hitherto unexplored terrain of the lives of transsexuals in mainstream commercial Tamil cinema for the very first time.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines transsexual as follows'."a person born with the physical characteristics of one sex who emotionally and psychologically feels that they belong to the opposite sex"

Many transsexuals undergo surgeries in order to fully relate with the sex that they emotionally and psychologically are attached to.

D. Sivakumar zeroed in on Karpaga, a middle class lady from Erode, Tamilnadu, who was born a boy and at age 17 went away to Mumbai only to return back a woman after five years. Her parents were reportedly shattered but then came to terms with reality and accepted her.

"'Acceptability' is what the film is going to talk about in detail" says the director. 'How many people are ready to accept?' he asks. According to the story, Karpaga plays an intellectual short filmmaker who happens to fall in love and is terrified to reveal herself to her lover.

The debutante has been taking acting lessons and is also training to be a dancer.

Actress Revathy will play Karpaga's mother and this role is a very vital part of the film. The director of the film is hopeful that the message the film comes out with will be well received by the general public.

Karpaga, it seems, is being approached for other films as well. She has been offered to play heroine in a film and villain in another. However, Karpaga is keen on seeing 'Paal' released first.

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