Urvashi: Two National Awards and a Lead Worth Watching

Urvashi's performance in Aasha, which began streaming on ZEE5 on Oct. 16, has been the one point on which reviewers agree. The film itself drew mixed notices. Her career, by the numbers on record, explains why critics are so ready to praise her.

What the record says

Wikipedia describes Urvashi, born Kavitha Manoranjini, as an actress, dubbing artist, television host, screenwriter and film producer who has worked mainly in Malayalam and Tamil films, and also in Kannada and Telugu. In a career of more than four decades it counts two National Film Awards, six Kerala State Film Awards, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards South.

Both of her National Awards are for Best Supporting Actress. The first was for Achuvinte Amma (2005), which marked her return to cinema after a six-year break, and the second was for Ullozhukku (2024). She has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress a record six times, including three consecutive wins from 1989 to 1991. In Tamil cinema, she won a State Film Award Special Prize for Magalir Mattum (1994) and a Best Comedian award for Magalir Mattum (2017), according to the same entry.

She was a prominent lead actress of the 1980s and 1990s, mainly in Malayalam films, and has written the films Utsavamelam and Pidakkozhi Koovunna Noottandu, the latter of which she also produced.

Aasha in the reviews

The Hindu's S. R. Praveen writes that Urvashi lends an uncommon depth to a scene in which Aasha speaks to a doctor, and that the performance conveys both a mother's anguish and her already frayed mental state. He points to stuttered words, voice modulation and the way she fails to hold a pen steady. He says the actress is terrific as a mother battling her own anxieties, in a mystery that cannot translate its premise into a compelling whole.

Koimoi's headline says her outstanding act elevates a gripping revenge thriller despite a flawed climax. NowRunning's headline says the versatile actor steals the show. A summary of reviews says she is widely praised for an intense, convincing portrayal of an anxious, possessive mother.

The critic's career point

The Hindu's closing paragraph says the film again makes one realise how underutilised she has been recently in Malayalam cinema, and that if the film had something more solid to back her, it might have been a gem. This is the reviewer's view. The Wikipedia entry lists her work but does not rank how often she has been cast in leading roles in recent years, so we cannot test the claim.

The film around her

Safar Sanal directs, and Joju George plays Jeemon, the volatile man with whom Aasha has a road accident dispute. The cast also includes Aishwarya Lekshmi and Vijayaraghavan. The Hindu says the film teases an ego battle similar to Ayyappanum Koshiyum and then takes a darker turn, and that the screenplay fizzles out. It calls the ending abrupt.

The Economic Times and Dishalu list the film among the week's streaming picks on ZEE5 from Oct. 16, with Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada dubs. Dishalu also says the film is a Malayalam courtroom thriller, a description that differs from The Hindu's, which does not mention a courtroom.

Why it matters

Streaming lets a performance like this travel beyond Kerala. Dubs in four languages mean viewers who do not follow Malayalam can see what the reviews are describing. Whether the film holds up for a wider audience is a separate question that the reviews answer cautiously.

What we could not confirm

We have not seen the film. We read The Hindu in full and the other reviews through headlines and summaries. We could not verify the Wikipedia counts of awards against the awarding bodies. We could not reconcile the two descriptions of the film's genre.

Sources

*Cover photo: Asianet, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urvashi_%282022%29_02.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urvashi_%282022%29_02.jpg)* (CC BY 3.0).*