Men behind the sets

Actor Om Puri and director Priyadarshan at the exhbition on 'Landscape in Malayalam Cinema' organised as a part of the IFFK in Thiruvananthapuram.

The 16th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala has gone a step further in its attempt to enlighten the audience about what goes behind the making of a film. Landscape in Malayalam Cinema , an exhibition organized on the sidelines of the IFFK this year puts together the works of ten art directors of Malayalam Cinema, who have worked their magic to make location sets out of nothing.

The exhibition reveals the works of art directors like Sabu Cyril, Joseph Nellikkal, Santosh Raman, Prasanth Madhav and Gireesh Menon.

It was the idea of Sabu Pravada, president of Film Employees Federation of Kerala Art Directors Union, to exhibit the documented works of art directors in Malayalam Cinema at IFFK this year. “I have been organising exhibition for IFFK for three years. I thought the public should know about the unrecognized figures behind the making of a film. We have plans to conduct exhibitions on directors, script writers and cinematographer in the coming years,” he said.

The exhibition is being conducted in three segments. The first one includes the photographs taken by the art directors in the process of location hunt. The beauty of places like Munnar, Athirapally, Danushkodi and Vagamon has been captured in the photographs. The second segment includes the work done by the art directors in the process of set creation for films like

Bhramaram, Agathan, Shikar, Kerala Cafe , and Tamil films like Enthiran, Boys and Kavalan .

The third segment includes an image library of various historic landmarks from across Kerala, taken from the 1890s. “They can be used as a reference point by the art directors,” said Mr. Pravada.

Landscape in Malayalam Cinema also gives an insight into renowned art directors P. N. Menon, Bharatan, Radhakrishnan and S. Konnanat through their extensive filmography.

“Chalachitra Academy has given us an excellent platform to exhibit the making of films through photographs. In Malayalam Cinema, the audience is not aware of what happens during the making of a film. Hollywood and Bollywood filmmakers shoot the process of making film and show it to the audience through Television and DVDs,” said art director Santosh Raman, whose works in films like Manikyakallu, Indian Rupee and Akashathinte Niram are being exhibited.

The exhibition will be on till December 16.