`Making a film on Kathakali was tapas'
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Adoor Gopalakrishnan's `Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair' offers a close up of two visions: of the thespian and the auteur. GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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MANY MEMORABLE FILMS: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
``Elipathayam," ``Mukhamukham," ``Anantaram," ``Vidheyan," ``Nizhalkuthu"... Adoor Gopalakrishnan has made some of India's most memorable films, with unwavering conviction and consistency.
But not many have seen the other side of Adoor, as the recorder of the magnificent theatre traditions of his State. From the 1970s, his films on Kathakali, Koodiyattom and Krishnanattom have paralleled his features. These documentaries show how the master's style is influenced by Kathakali, a form negating western notions of time, space and action, using unique devices to frame, focus, shape character and context. The world premiere of ``Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair" at Satyam Cineplex recently profiling the octogenarian guru, offers a close up of two visions: of the thespian, and the auteur. The screening, incidentally, was part of `Lights On' organised by the Cineplex featuring film celebrities.
Adoor decided to profile Ramankutty Nair as he felt that he had been unfair in making a film on the disciple (Kalamandalam Gopi) first. Produced by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (its first film after a gap of 30 years) the `Maestro's Memoir' uses direct sync sound, special cameras and lenses, to profile the greatest living exponent of Kathakali, who has merged completely with the art he performs.
Belonging to a family of Kathakali patrons, weren't you steeped in the art from childhood?
GETTING UP FOR THE ACT: Ramankutty Nair
My grand father got my aunt married to Nilakantha Unnithan, because he loved the way he sang the Kathakali librettos! He'd come home and sing mother's requests, exclusively for us. I grew up watching Kathakali from my mother's lap, listening to her explain its nuances to other women. In those days rich landlords maintained Kathakali troupes in their villages, their granaries providing space for training and practice. My first documentary was on guru Chengannur, a member of my grandfather's kaliyogam.
So you had an instinctive bond with Kathakali.
(Laughing) Took me some time to figure it out! I was enamoured of western theatre — Ibsen, Strindberg, Pirandello. I wrote, produced and acted in my own plays. (Laughs) In the 1960s Kerala had a vibrant theatre tradition with Krishnan Pillai, Sankaran Pillai, C. J. Thomas. When I joined film school I realised that cinema demanded exclusive attention. So theatre was a stage in my evolution, though today I don't attach value to the dozen plays I wrote. I'm immensely grateful to Appukuttan Nair, who made me return to my heritage. He insisted on my attending Friday Koodiyattom at the Margi theatre, sit next to him as he explained the subtleties.
How did you break the restrictions to shoot Koodiyattom within the temple theatre?
It was the first time a camera was taken into the koothambalam. UNESCO commissioned the film as part of its series on the great oral traditions of the human race. I'm happy to think that the film, three hours long, played a part in winning world recognition for this great art form.
In ``Kalamandalam Gopi" a still, poignant frame holds the artiste, his wife, and his male colleague who was his life long female stage partner. How did you arrive at this kind of subliminal insight?
It's not enough to know cinema. You have to be an insider with familiarity, knowledge and taste in the art form. A rasika. I'd grown up with Kathakali, but making a film on it meant long study, preparation, clearing of a hundred doubts. Total concentration, tapas. Immensely rewarding! I understood my culture, my background, myself.
Surely you have a conscious approach to performance traditions when you film them.
The filmmaker can't encroach into the complex, disciplined space or the highly accomplished, evolved style of an art form. I don't dare to violate it. I respect that space and time in my efforts to recreate.
How do we get to see such films?
A problem! Show them before a feature and the attention is never total. That's why I think `Lights On' is a remarkable programme, reaching out to an audience which exists, but has no access to films of this kind, feature and documentary, and in a commercial multiplex too. A first step towards regular screenings...? Something positive has started in Chennai, let other cities emulate it!
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