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For cinematographer-director Santosh Sivan, the theme is more important than the image
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We always talk about the third gender. But don't try to find one actor from among them. I wanted to make a film where they can act
SMILE OF SUCCESS Santosh Sivan PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT
"A low budget film has to begin with the maker's conviction that the film must be made, whatever the circumstances. Pressure brings out the greatest potential in a filmmaker. Low budget films usually reek of limitations, compromises and so on, but greatness lies in transforming these shortcomings into advantages, making it reek of improvisation, flexibility, innovation and freedom instead."
These are some of the quotes displayed on ace cinematographer-film director Santosh Sivan's personal website. Coming from a man who has shot some of the most extravagant cinematic creations for other directors, they sound intriguing, until you get into the mind of the director in Sivan. And director Sivan is quite different from the cinematographer Sivan, at least when it comes to mounting imageries. When it comes to his own films, it is the theme that is more important than the image itself, something that has come out quite eloquently in his directorial ventures such as Halo, Terrorist, Malli and the latest Navarasa, which stand out in stark contrast to Asoka starring Shah Rukh Khan. Just back in India after completing the shooting of Paul Mayeda Berges' Mistress of Spices, starring Aishwarya Rai, Sivan is on the verge of completing Anandabhadram in Malayalam, which he describes as a "commercial" venture mounted big, even as he is getting ready to launch his English film in the latter part of the year.
But the mood of elation is because Navarasa, which won the Best Film in Tamil at the 52nd National Awards, for its exploration of the realities of the third gender.
"This is a different subject," says Sivan, comparing Navarasa with Kalpana Lajmi's Darmiyan, which also dealt with the third gender and was shot by him. The difference, as he says, is in the fact that he has used actors from among the eunuchs, instead of making a professional act like a eunuch. "I thought, we always talk about them, but don't try to find an actor from among them. I wanted to make a film where they only act. It, along with making a film, also adds to their confidence," he says. In fact, Gautham, the actor who plays the main role in Navarasa, belongs to the third gender and is working with an NGO in Bangalore.
Film for a cause
With a major part of the film shot during the Koovagam festival at Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, which sees probably the highest congregation of eunuchs at one single place anywhere in India, the film has a reality touch, and has been uplifted by a cherubic performance by Shwetha, Sivan's favourite since Malli. "I was able to shoot actually without anyone noticing that I was shooting, since I had actors from their community in my film. I even shot on 16 mm, so that I was a most unassuming presence. I like the whole idea of making such a film because it somewhere reflects our times and that things are changing," says Sivan.
On Anandabhadram, he says, "It is a commercial film mounted on a big scale. I like shifting genres as I believe it is good to keep shifting. In October, I am doing an English film."
How difficult or easy it is to keep shifting between genres? "I am comfortable with everything. It is like this... if I feel like reading a newspaper I read one, if I feel like reading a novel, I read a novel, a comic book... " he trails off. He says, "I think independent cinema is the most exciting form of cinema. Sometimes I feel these kinds of films are made with the feeling that these are the times I lived in, so I should be able to reflect them in some way or the other." Quite interestingly, India's most famous cinematographer is taking a break, meanwhile, from the camera.
"At least for the next three years, unless there is some really interesting offer like (M. F. Husain's) Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities.
B. BHATTACHARYYA
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