Anna Ben has emerged as the new face of Malayalam cinema. This 27-year-old versatile actress from the recent batch of acting talents can breathe life into characters as different as a vivacious girl-next-door to a trauma-stricken autistic woman.
We pick five films starring Anna, who has recently been hailed by director Srijit Mukherji as “one of the leading faces of the Malayalam New Wave”.
Kumbalangi Nights (2019)
Anna Ben’s Babymol is a spunky young girl in the 2019 Malayalam film Kumbalangi Nights by Madhu C. Narayanan. In her debut performance, Anna portrays a young rebel who fights toxic masculinity at home and inspires and supports her aimless boyfriend to find employment.
Anna’s character is a breath of fresh air in a film that’s filled with flawed, broken characters trying to stay afloat. Her performance in the film gained her critical acclaim and catapulted her to instant fame.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Helen (2019)
Kumbalangi Nights was followed by Mathukutty Xavier’s survival drama Helen, where Anna played the title role of Helen Paul, a Nursing graduate who aims for a job abroad and is also into a romantic relationship against her father’s wishes. One day, Helen gets stuck in a gigantic freezer at the restaurant where she works part-time and struggles to stay alive in the abnormally low temperatures for almost five hours.
With the success of Helen, Anna proved that she is not a one-hit-wonder. Helen’s spirited fight for survival has recently been remade in Bollywood as Mili with Janhvi Kapoor in the lead role.
Watch it on: YouTube Rental
Kappela (2020)
Anna continued to impress with her performance as Jessy Varghese in Muhammad Musthafa’s Kappela. The social drama offers a twisted look at romance and its consequences. Jessy is a school dropout who helps her mother with household chores and her sewing business. She falls in love with an autorickshaw driver. After months of correspondence on the phone, Jessy travels to meet him, but fate has other plans in store.
Anna turned in an effortless performance which drew her critical acclaim; her chemistry with Roshan Mathew was a high point of the film too.
Watch it on: Netflix
Sara’s (2021)
After proving her mettle in serious films, Anna Ben starred in the romantic comedy drama Sara, opposite Sunny Wayne. Director Jude Anthany Joseph’s feel-good comedy touches upon the delicate topic of a couple’s choice in bringing a child into the world. Anna plays Sara, who is an associate film director and hopes to become an independent film director someday. She doesn’t want to have a child and marries a man who thinks like her. However, the couple has to fend off relatives and society to live life on their terms.
Anna showed off her comedic talents in the film, capturing the determination and dilemma of a woman in her mid-20s.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Naaradan (2022)
Anna plays Shaakira Mohammed in Aashiq Abu’s neo-noir psychological thriller Naaradan. Shaakira is an advocate with a strong moral code and faith in the legal system. She takes on the kingpin of a massive media house that manipulates public opinion just to improve its TRP rating. She takes the side of a social media star who gets caught in the middle of a fake narcotics case.
Naaradan also stars Tovino Thomas, Sharafudheen and Vijayaraghavan, but Anna steals the show with her gritty portrayal of Shaakira.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
