It was the campus politics, literature, cinema and culture that made Lenin Rajendran, the film-maker who always stood for the downtrodden and marginalised sections of society, said V.K. Joseph, member of the general council of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.
Speaking at a commemoration programme in Kozhikode on Tuesday, Mr. Joseph said that he studied the past and combined it with the present in his films. “His were not political films, but he unearthed the politics in the problems faced by people,” he said.
Mr. Joseph, a close friend of the film-maker, criticised those who called Lenin Rajendran an advocate of the ‘middle stream’ cinema. “He stood for good cinema. Just because he had songs in his movies do not make them middle stream,” Mr. Joseph said. He said that strong female characters were a characteristic of Lenin Rajendran’s movies.
He also gave an account of the film-maker’s dejection for not being able to make a movie on Pazhassi Raja, as his years-long research on the topic was wasted when the MT-Hariharan team came up with a movie with the same title.
Actor Jalaja, who was the protagonist in Mr. Lenin’s first movie Venal , in her keynote address recalled how she was offered the role by chance. The role fetched her a State award that year.
Film critic O.K. Johny, scriptwriter Deedhi Damodaran, and State president of Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) Chelavoor Venu were present. The event was organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy in association with FSSI.
