A uteur G. Aravindan and Shaji N. Karun shaped a new sensibility and idiom for Malayalam cinema. Shaji worked as the eyes of the path-breaking director who seamlessly infused poetry, music and art into cinema. Shaji goes back in time to reminisce about his long and fruitful association with the master filmmaker.
Poet and musician
Aravindan chettan was a poet, musician and artist who created a new aesthetics in Malayalam cinema, one that wove into its warp and weft the beauty of music, lines and verse. He was that rare man who was master of different streams of artistry and knew how to give shape to a sensibility that derived inspiration from all the arts.
Travels with the auteur
During our long years together, I got the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him. It was during our travels, while locating hunting or during some film-related work, that he would talk to me about his projects, ideas and thoughts. It would never be about his recent work but always about his future projects. In those days, we would usually share a room and early in the morning, we would get some together. Then he would dwell upon his experiences, work and so on. Since I was not much of a talker, I would listen while he held forth on different topics.
Visualising the film in his mind
You know, which was the film with the longest script? Chidambaram … all of 21 pages. He was not the kind of person who would sit and write each and everything down. The entire film was in his mind and brain and he would tell me what he wanted. I had to visualise that. For Thampu , because I insisted, he gave me four pages. He told me that the film would be about a circus troupe that comes to a sleepy village during a festival and it would be about the lives of the circus artistes and their interactions with the villagers and vice versa. The beauty of our relationship was that there was never an occasion when there was any miscommunication in our work. I was able to give what he wanted and he was happy with what I had filmed. For instance, during the making of Kanchanasita , my first film with him, he told me that though Sita was the lead character in the film, she would be conspicuous through her absence. Nature was Sita and Nature would be the lead in the film. I had to grasp that concept and proceed accordingly. There were only moments of happiness during our work together.
Keen observer
Aravindan was a keen observer of life and people, which is evident in his cartoons. That is why he was able to work on diverse themes and give such indepth sketches of the characters in his films. That ability to observe and visualise helped him in his movies as well. There were never any villains in his works. Circumstances and socio-political reasons impelled certain characters to give in to their base nature. It is the same with his delightful cartoons, which was a study of life itself.
Favourites
Chidambaram was undoubtedly one of his favourite films of his. But his all-time favourite director was Tarkovsky. I remember how articulate he became after watching Sacrifice . It remains one of my favourite films too. He could not stop talking about the film and its making. What did I learn from him? Undoubtedly, his sense of aesthetics and the way he developed his theme.
