I am yearning to do comedy films: Actress Tilotama Shome

Panaji: After being a part in a series of serious films, actress Tilotama Shome says she is eagerly waiting to show the comical side of her acting on the silver screen.

Shome, who started off her career in a small role in director Mira Nair's 2001 release 'Monsoon Wedding' said she is quite fed-up of her serious image carved through her films.

"I had done a film with Santosh Sivan (director) where I had danced under a waterfall but it never got released.. My only films that released dealt with subject of Independence or partition where I have played tragic or serious role.

"But that's not the point.. I can't tell you how I am waiting to do some slapstick comedy. I don't know whether I can do an item number because that chance has gone," Shome, told PTI on the sidelines of International Film Festival of India. The actress was last seen in Irrfan Khan-starrer 'Qissa', which was set in the backdrop of 1947 India-Pakistan partition.

Shome says people often call her 'torch-bearer' of cinemas dealing with partition, but she disposes the title. "I am very much open to do commercial movies. I don't want to be a torch-bearer of a particular kind of cinema dealing with serious issues because I feel my shoulders are very weak," she said.

In film 'Children of War', which was screened here at IFFI yesterday, the actress essayed role of a rape victim. Talking about her role in films like 'Qissa' and 'Children of War', she said that women victims of partition had the audacity to fight odds with grit despite undergoing sheer brutality.

"I feel rape is the only polite word in my vocabulary to describe the kind of atrocities and pain women went through (during partition). Their sufferings were unimaginable.. Hats off to them that they still had the courage to fight. I don't think I have such courage in real life," she said. Screening of 'Children of War' was banned in Pakistan.