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The Master Craftsman of the Malayalam Parallel Cinema, Adoor Gopalakrishnan has become the right choice to be bestowed with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 2004 for his outstanding contribution to Indian Cinema. His contribution to the Indian Cinema is not mere nine Feature Films he made in a career spanning 35 years ; but rather he showed the new generation film makers a path which only a few like Satyajit Ray did earlier in India.
Adoor’s career spreads from his first film Swayamvaram, which won a national award to Nizhalkuthu the latest that won the Global Film Critics Award. Swayamvaram was a new experience for the Malayalee film viewers. It was a revelation that changed perceptions for ever. This was followed by eight more, each depicted life in an entirely different perspective, which only a Master Craftsman like him could fulfill. The classical touch he gave to each of his work imparted a distinctive character.
The films Swayamvaram, Kodiyettam, Elipathayam, Mughamugham, Anantharam, Mathilukal, Vidheyan, Kathapurushan and Nizhalkuthu-dealt with the deepest feelings and emotions of individuals and each of his works won some national awards. Some of Adoor’s films were highly acclaimed by the international audience too. His latest film Nizhalkuthu brought him international laurels including the Global Film Critics Award. Many a new generation Film Director has admitted that he has been influenced by Adoor one way or other.
Adoor was born in a family of Kathakali patrons and actively involved with the theatre since a very young age. His deep observations of the crisis the middle class face and the struggle of man against institutions and feudal structures made his films depictions of day-to-day realities without deep colours of imagination and romanticism. None of his character is a romantic hero.
After graduating in Political Science and Economics he joined the Film Institute, Pune in 1962. Equipped with formal training in script writing and direction he went to the field of script writing as well as direction. He made more than two dozen short documentaries besides nine feature films.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s contributions from Swayamvaram to Nizhalkuthu helped the Malayalam film to acquire a place in the world map of films. Swayamvaram, first of his films won President’s Gold Medal in several categories. Kodiyettam and Elipathayam gave him garlands of acceptance as well as stones of criticism. Adoor’s deep faith in his talent and language inspired him to create great works that mapped Malayalee life and culture in the post independent era. His observations of the minute details of culture specifically gives his shots a universal appeal. This basic nature of his films gives each one a classical touch. Situations and characters in his film never go out of place.
Adoor is one of the few Indian film makers who took the Indian film to the international arena. Satyajit Ray revolutionised Indian Cinema during 1950s through his film Pather Panchali and in the same way Adoor’s Swayamvaram pioneered a new trend in the cinema movement in Kerala. The plot of Adoor’s films is deeply rooted in Malayalee culture and history. At the same time it deals with the eternal agony and traumas of humanity.
It is for the first time that the top honour in the Indian Film Industry comes to a South Indian Film maker. The cultural enigma, the society faces, is rightly depicted in several of his films. The degeneration of the socio-economic and cultural values of the society and the physical and mental agony which causes it is his subject. Who can forget the agony of the hangman in Nizhalkuthu, who grapples with the noose around his own conscience?
In 1982 the British Film Institute had honoured him as one of the greatest living film makers and in 1983 Padma Shree was conferred on him. His book, The World of Cinema won a national award. Adoor is one of the leading lights of the Chithralekha Film Society in Thiruvananthapuram, formed with an objective to promote, produce and distribute non-commercial Art Films. He has also been on the international jury for a few major International Film Festivals including The Venice Festival.
*Information Assistant, PIB, Cochin
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