# Lijomol Jose says she wants lighter roles after Unmadham 2026-08-05T22:52:10+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Actor Lijomol Jose, introduced a decade ago in Maheshinte Prathikaaram and later known for playing Senggeni in Jai Bhim, told CinemaExpress that she wants to move toward lighter, more carefree roles after a run of emotionally heavy characters. In her latest film Unmadham, she plays Soumya, wife of an aspiring screenwriter and police officer played by Kunchacko Boban, and said she agreed to the project largely because writer Shahi Kabir builds characters with such empathy that actors want to inhabit his world. She said director Kiran Das and Kabir kept explaining the reasons behind Soumya's anger so that every outburst had a cause, describing the character as a primary earner who runs her household almost single-handedly while her husband chases his dream. Kabir had told her after the narration that some situations were drawn from his own married life, though she said that does not mean Soumya is based on his wife. The film reveals late on that Shelly has lived with depression and been on medication for four years. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Jose's account draws a clear line between a character shaped partly by a writer's own experience and a literal portrait of real people, a distinction she says she kept in mind even while building Soumya's anger scene by scene. Her account of Soumya as a woman carrying the household's financial and domestic load largely alone is what she says she built the performance from, with Das and Kabir supplying a reason for each outburst. Jose's next announced project after Unmadham is where the stated preference for lighter, more carefree roles would first show. ## Coverage - CinemaExpress Tags: Lijomol Jose, Unmadham Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/lijomol-jose-i-want-to-play-lighter-characters/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/lijomol-jose-i-want-to-play-lighter-characters/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.