At the start of the millennia, she captivated the minds of young audiences with her portrayal of the benevolent fairy Son Pari in the eponymous TV serial, which ran from November 2000 to October 2004. Now, Mrinal Kulkarni is back as a master weaver who takes life’s hurdles head on in the ZEE5 Global series Paithani.
The actress sat down for a virtual interview with Connected to India, where she spoke about her new show, her acting journey and her experiences of working on various mediums.
Paithani, which started streaming mid-November, is directed by Gajendra Ahire and produced by Zee Studios and Aarambh Entertainment. It explores the themes of tradition, resilience, and the bond between mothers and daughters. Paithani tells the inspiring story of Godavari (Mrinal), a mother and master weaver of traditional Paithani sarees. As she confronts the impending end of her illustrious career due to tremors in her hands, her unwavering spirit is brought to life by her determined daughter, Kaveri (Eisha Singh). With a heartfelt mission to honour her mother’s legacy, Kaveri plans to gift her the final saree Godavari weaves.
When asked about reason and significance of the title of the show, especially when the central theme is resilience, Mrinal tells CtoI: “I think my director has used it as metaphor. How we weave a paithani or anything on looms is one horizontal thread and one vertical. In paithani we use one silver thread, one gold thread and one resham (silk) thread. So, it’s a very intricate art, and such is life. Life is not always gold. At times it has silver borders, and at times it’s just resham… it is plain.”
“So, I think he has used it as a metaphor. Every woman goes through many difficulties in life, many hurdles come her way, but she tries to make a beautiful saree out of it… paithani out of it, maybe… a beautiful design of these threads which come her way. That is what he wants to say. I believe it’s a very nice metaphor,” she adds.
Asked if the show aims to look at growing the paithani business, Mrinal says she’ll be happy if it happens. Talking about her preparation for the role, Mrinal says she was keen to learn weaving to play the character convincingly on screen.
“I have gone through their patience and perseverance and their problems while they work on looms. When the script came to me, I was very keen that I must learn to weave, at least a little. So, I did a crash course, and I came to know how tough and difficult it is. So, my heart goes to the weavers who weave on looms. it is not at all easy. it is testing, it tries your patience. It takes a lot of time, months… a few months to make one paithani,” she says.
Asked, what’s her take on OTTs taking centre stage in the entertainment sector, while racing ahead of TV, Mrinal says change is the only constant and one should flow with it. “It goes in a circle and change in bound to happen. As an actor, I try to adjust with that. I try to cope with that and I also look forward (to it)… As an actor, we should learn just to flow, to go with the flow,” she adds.
