Celebrated littérateur MT Vasudevan Nair’s directorial début Nirmalyam went on to bag the national award for the best feature film. The P J Antony-starrer released in 1973 is now deemed a Malayalam classic. Incidentally, its title, which roughly translates to “previous offerings”, perhaps best captures the archival endeavour of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy that houses the restored original 35 mm print of the iconoclastic movie among its prized possessions.
As you navigate through the institution’s new building that opened last year at the tree-lined Kinfra Film and Video Park campus near Kazhakkoottam, you come across neatly framed photographs of legends, greats and a galaxy of stars of Malayalam film industry adorning the walls. Located on the first floor is P K Nair Archives and Library, named in honour of the late Thiruvananthapuram-born pioneering archivist and film scholar who founded the Pune-headquartered National Film Archive of India.
Considered a one-of-its-kind repository of film lore in the State, the facility holds over 5,000 books on films and close to 10,000 movies and counting in multiple formats such as CD, DVD, Blue-Ray and a compact but valuable stock of 35 mm reels of Malayalam movies, says Gopeekrishnan S, academy programme manager. One can see a collection of select screenplays by American comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen sharing shelf space with scripts by M T and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, while Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player is accorded the same primacy as the evergreen classic Chemmeen , underscoring the diversity on display.
Kamal, filmmaker and chairman of the academy, says the treasure trove is the result of painstaking efforts spanning over 20 years, since the inception of the State-funded film body. “Currently, the academy is working towards bringing out comprehensive volumes about the history of Malayalam cinema. It’s a mammoth task and, in fact, is being undertaken on a film-by-film basis.”
- The archives holds a collection of movies by some of the eminent names in world cinema such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Seca to name a few. It also categories movies under path-breaking film movements like the French New Wave, Italian Neo-realism etc.
Mahesh Panju, secretary, says a sizeable portion of the collection is crowd-sourced. “We have been soliciting material for the pool from movie lovers from across the State. Some have donated for a fair reward, while many other have made contributions out of shared love for the medium,” he points out, adding that the institute has also been collecting film magazines and song books.
Also, joining the repertoire are entries from around world for the various film festivals organised under the aegis of the academy such as the popular International Film Festival of Kerala and the European Union Film Festival. “Such entries that used to reach us in CD or DVD formats would become part of our archives. But, for the past few years, international entries are accessed online largely from cloud storage platforms for screening,” points out Gopeekrishnan.
Conceptualised as a memorial for yesteryear actor Sathyan, the academy’s Centre for International Film Research and Archives (CIFRA) serves as an expanding “single-point source” to aid researchers. “The primary resource material is always the film itself, and one of our key objectives is to create a large collection of Malayalam films. This is being done by keeping in mind that academics and researchers working on film studies should not hit a roadblock due to non-availability of films,” says N P Sajeesh, deputy director of programmes. Panju says a digital server for the cinematheque is also in the pipeline, where archived works are fed into.
However, the jewel in the crown is the stock of about ninety 35 mm Malayalam films stored in stacks in a ground floor room. Sheathed in labelled metal cases pressed “neither too tight nor too loose” to ensure maximum protection, the surviving list boast titles such as Odayil Ninnu , Yavanika , Chemmeen, Agraharathil Kazhuthai and Thriveni acquired from respective producers.
“We used to possess a lot more but lost some to the passage of time,” says Kamal, pointing out that the adverse weather conditions expedite damage of the film stock. The delicate reels are periodically dusted, oiled and rewound to prevent mold. ‘We have already converted some of the films into digital formats and are in the process of digitalising others. It’s an expensive and time-consuming process,” adds Kamal.
The centre also opens its door for anyone wishing to simply watch a movie in the archives by enabling access for ₹50 per sitting in a designated console in its cubicle with networked computer systems. Other facilities include a mini projection room that doubles up as a ‘home theatre’ for a nominal charge and ‘Ramu Kariat Screen’, a full-fledged, modest-capacity theatre with 7.1 sound system that can be availed of on rent.
For the academy, it’s never a wrap with its archival project.
