The eye of the audience

Cinematographer Indrajith S. on his learning curve and filming the hard-hitting 'Ozhivudivasathe Kali'

Indrajith S., cameraman of 'Ozhivudivasathe Kali'Photo: S. Gopakumar

Even as

Ozhivudivasathe Kali throws light on the unfair games people play, its finale, a long shot of almost 52 minutes, has been winning raves for the cinematographer of the movie – Indrajith S. A cine buff, Indrajith made his debut as an independent cameraman in Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s first feature film,

Oraalpokkam . They teamed up again for the dark and gripping

Ozhivudivasathe Kali that is drawing crowds all over Kerala for its terse and fine handling of the theme.

However Indrajith seems to be calm and collected as he talks about the shooting of the film in 15 days on the outskirts of the capital city. “Before we began the shooting of the film, Sanal ettan had given me a brief note containing salient points to be factored in during the filming of the movie. That gave me an idea of how he wanted the frames to be, the ambience and so on. So, I had a picture of what he wanted me to do during the shooting. I was assisting him to frame his screenplay and tell the story he wanted to narrate. And that is the way it should be,” explains Indrajith.

A resident of Kumarapuram, Indrajith, a post graduate in Malayalam from Mahatma Gandhi College in the city, always wanted to find his place in tinsel town. Following a one-year course in cinematography in the city, he began assisting still photographer Cherian before joining cinematographer Anil Nair’s crew as an assistant. The nine years he spent with him helped him understand the medium and how it worked. A chance meeting with Sanal on the sets of Viji Thampy’s Nadakame Ulakam evolved into a friendship and that was how Sanal called him over to work as his cameraman. “The first film that we discussed was Ozhivudivasathe Kali . But before we could really start working on it, we became immersed in Oraalpokkam . That was about a man’s quest to find himself, a kind of inner journey that was visualised on screen. We shot in the Himalayas and in all kinds of weather. It was a memorable experience. The shots focussed on the wide expanses of the Himalayas while the protagonist continued his frantic inner journey,” recalls Indrajith.

He followed that up with

Akashvani, which starred Kavya Madhavan and Vijay Babu in the lead. Once that was done, Indrajith became engrossed in the making of Sanal’s second film. If

Oraalpokkam was about the vastness of the Himalayas and its awe-inspiring terrain,

Ozhivudivasathe Kali was shot in confined areas where events unfolded during the course of a day. Shots of the wilderness of nature seem to be hinting at the unspooling of the protagonists’ basic instincts as banter and horseplay on a holiday changes into a sinister game of one-upmanship and subjugation. “The last shot inside a room is of 52 minutes. The camera was acting as the eyes of the audience. The entire film was shot from that perspective; of a third person viewing the sequence of events. Sanal

ettan wanted a certain kind of a setting and atmosphere. So before the shot began, we had to do a bit of work. The last scene is depicted as taking place on a damp day after the rain. All the places that had to be shot was marked out and soaked. It was a challenge and I am glad I was able to do it,” he says.

Once the camera began rolling, every little thing had to be in place: dialogues, actors, props and sounds. “If you see the film, you can feel and see the energy of the actors. We knew that it would be difficult to go for a retake and ask them replicate that. So everything had to fall in place in the first instance once the camera began rolling and we did it,” recalls Indrajith.

A keen follower of leading cinematographers of Malayalam cinema, Indrajith believes that his job is to understand the director’s vision and turn that into reality to go with the narration of a story.

Indrajith says he is looking forward to work with both veterans and leading directors of the new crop of filmmakers in Malayalam. However, he diplomatically refuses to name any one person’s name. “There are many and I enjoy watching and learning from their work.”