P. Baburaj always desired to sensitise people to social struggles and went on to make four films with C. Saratchandran. The award winning Chaliyar, the Final Struggle about the peoples' movement against the pollution caused by Gwalior Rayons Factory at Mavoor earned him fame.
“We made this documentary because we felt the struggle had to be documented and the message had to reach out,” he says.
Baburaj’s penchant for making documentaries was embedded in him even as a teenager. When he was in class IX, he wanted to join Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Chitralekha Film Society to study different kind of cinema. But he was kept out for his age and joined much later. “I was always interested in movies and was happy to get introduced to films which compel you to think.”
Born to C. Unniraja, one of the founder members of Kerala Communist Party, Baburaj was tuned to politics from beginning. “I am not a communist,” he is quick to act. Though he says, early on in life he understood the imbalances in society where the top 20 per cent get everything and for those at the bottom, it is a continuous struggle. How undemocratic, he always thought.
As he grew older he wanted to go to the Film Training Institute at Pune, but he came under the tutelage of renowned filmmaker K.P. Sasi and worked with him for 14 years. Baburaj scripted Ilayum Mullum (Leaves and Thorns) a Malayalam feature film directed by Sasi that was screened at 14 international festivals.
They formed a group called Alternate Communication Forum which specialised in making documentaries on socially relevant issues. The forum screened not only their productions but also films made by other people with similar interests. Baburaj met another aspiring filmmaker Saratchandran in Sasi’s camp and both decided to work together. Sarat was the cameraman for a film on radiation hazards in Aluva and asked Baburaj whether he would be interested in working with him. “I accepted,” he says.
Chaliyar struggle was the first documentary they made together in 1999. Then the duo followed it with Kanavu , Kaippuneeru (Bitter drink) and Only an Axe Away .
Chaliyar received a special mention at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2000 and won the Bronze Tree Award in Vatavaran 2002.
“We were able to work together as we believed that cinema has a definite role to play to bring about social change in the country. We made documentaries on anti-people development themes. Our work did not end with just the screening, we lobbied with the government to bring about a change,” he says.
Till Sarat was alive, both of them made four films together. After Sarat’s death in a freak train accident four years ago, Baburaj completed the documentary Piragotulugiyanadhi (The River Which Flowed Backwards). He is now planning a film on tribulations of filmmakers who touch upon political issues.
Baburaj feels digitisation of light and sound has made it easy for filmmakers to carry their movies to a mosaic of audience far and wide. “I still remember the days when we used to carry big television sets and video cassette players to screen documentaries for people living in the tribal areas. Nowadays everything has become impersonal,” he says.
He has 80 films and documentaries to his credit, including Candles in the Wind a film on the Gujarat earthquake. An activist’s role, he believes, begins where the filmmaker’s role ends. “A filmmaker completes the film and an activist takes it to the people to initiate a dialogue. Here, the whole exercise of making films becomes a political activity,” he says.
