There is no stopping Madhu Neelakandan when he begins talking about
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Madhu’s work has come in for praise for the way in which he has let the frames enhance the narrative and at the same time tell a story that requires no words. Shot in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha, the ace lensman lets his visuals meld with the theme. “Rajeev was so clear in his concept that each frame was there in the script itself. It is easy for a cinematographer when the director has clarity about his film. In this case, Rajeev himself is a veteran cinematographer. Perhaps that is why each scene was so well etched out in the script itself,” says Madhu, who won the Kerala State film award for the best cinematographer for his work in Rajeev’s maiden directorial venture, Annayum Rasoolum .
Madhu points out that Kammatipaadam is a film that has been with Rajeev for a long time. Rajeev used to talk about it as a series of incidents. Madhu wondered how they would be able to turn it into a film for theatres since the duration that was covered was so long, about 25 years.
“There were many challenges; in the location, casting, narration and shooting of the film. But it was Rajeev’s clarity that helped the team work as a cohesive unit and visualise a film of this kind. It is actually the story of Kochi.”
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To distinguish between the past and the present, Madhu used two kinds of camera. While an Arri Alexa was used for filming the present, a Red Dragon captured the story in the present age. The two cameras were used to distinguish the two periods and give it a different look, feel and texture.
“We did a lot of reference work to get the colours right for all the props and costumes. I used as a reference point veteran still photographer Raghubir Singh’s work on Kerala and news photographs of the seventies and eighties. Most importantly, it was the same period that I grew up in. So I turned to my memory to complete the detailing of my work,” explains Madhu.
He is all praise for make-up artiste Roshan who also worked on the prosthetics of some of the actors to show them as ageing, after a span of 20 years.
Madhu feels that since he hails from a small town like Muvattupuzha, he was able to empathise with the theme of the movie and its protagonists. “This is what happened in Europe before legislation was enacted to curb haphazard development. And this is what is happening in many Indian cities as well. We know that many of the places that have now been turned into huge buildings complexes were fields. Where did the farmers go? What has happened to them? No one really knows,” he adds.
However Madhu points out that the film had to be drastically edited to make it a three-hour movie and he rues the fact that much of the detailing of the characters had to be left out on the editing table. He adds that the director’s cut, which the team is planning to release, will be more than four hours long and that will have the entire story as it was envisaged by the director. “Many scenes that described the transformation of Kammatipaadam and the bonding among the people there and also the profile sketch of Dulquer Salmaan’s character had to be chopped out. We also carried out the changes that the Censor Board wanted us to do. That is why I was upset when they still gave us an A certificate,” explains Madhu.
He believes that it has affected the viewership of the film as there are many cine buffs who would like to take their young teenagers to watch serious movies. “Perhaps Kerala is the only state where will you find parents instilling a love for cinema in their children by exposing them to the best of films. I am really proud of that fact,” says Madhu.
An alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India, Madhu has also worked with mainstream directors like Johny Antony, Ranjith, Ashok Nath and T.K. Rajeev Kumar. He says it has been a joyous experience for him to work with all his directors as they were all good human beings with whom he could relate to, excellent technicians who had remarkable command over the medium and a strong visual language.
He had also turned producer along his friends, making the critically acclaimed film ID . So when does he plan to turn producer again? “Soon,” he says, breaking into a smile. “There are some interesting projects we are exploring. In fact, Rajeev would like one of us to turn director. There is a film in me. I am not a multi-tasker. I need to be completely away from everything else and concentrate only on my creative work. Only then will it work,” he asserts.