Sunday, June 18, 2000		Article

His films speak for him

BROWN kurta long white hair and bespectacled, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of India’s finest film-makers, is quiet, soft-spoken and unobtrusive as he weaves his way in and out of the crowd (like his films) during any film festival, that is if he is not surrounded by a host of admirers. He can be spotted easily and the sheer adulation of his admirers, is amazing.

The other day we had lunch at a comparatively unknown restaurant in central Mumbai when the chief steward came up to him for an autograph: "My father is a great admirer of yours, he’s seen all your films," he told him. Adoor obliged, again unobtrusively, but addressing it to the admirer whose son must have been too young to see Adoor’s Swayamvaram when it was released in the early 1970s.

"Yes, I showed Kalamandalam Gopi to a group of Kathakali dancers at the first screening to get their reaction... they loved it, but were sad when it ended, they could do with a longer film," Adoor says smiling broadly, something he doesn’t do too often. The film which was in the competition section of MIFF 2000 was made four years after his last feature film Kathapurusham.

"I generally make a film every three years, but since I did not make one I thought I’d at least make half a film," he says about his latest documentary. Yes, like a writer’s urge to write, so too film-makers get this urge to make a film. But for Adoor it is not conforming with time. "It is a process which has to germinate," he says. "I read, do some writing and like to lie fallow for a while, then it comes. When people say finish your film in a month so that it can be entered for next years panorama, I just smile away. I can’t make films to order," he adds sweetly.

At the moment he is reading about the other Kerala dance form Mohiniattam and in good time he’ll make a film on that but before that will be his next feature film which he doesn’t like to talk about in advance. He likes to do films on the traditional art forms and is obviously close to his Kerala roots. When he speaks of his village, Adoor, and the river flowing near his house his eyes light up. But then aren’t most creative folks lovers of nature?

Not unexpectedly, Adoor is an admirer of Kalamandalam Gopi of whom the script says, "he has only to think of an emotion and it is there, all over him." Then they speak of his eyes, expressive as ever and his captivating stage presence. No, he deliberately broke up the dance sequences with snatches of Gopi’s life. "One must think of the viewer, he shouldn’t get bored," says Adoor and don’t we all know that the Kathakali is a specialised art form and only those who know all the nuances can fully appreciate it.

That make-up is important has been depicted by showing the process, even Gopi himself doing some of the paint job. "It was the opening film at the Cinematique in Paris," says Adoor who was only the second Indian (the first was Satyajit Ray) to have a retrospective of his films in that hallowed institution. Six of his films were screened.

Ask Adoor which is his favourite film and like a good father he says, "all , I did as good a job as I could at the time. I have no regrets and no favourites." He admits one grows with the years but then one must look at a work in the time frame in which it was made, he says. I tell him my favourite film is Mathilukal, as it is the most sublime and is reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman and he only smiles. I also tell him that probably the best sequence in his films is the one in Elipatayam in which the landlord wanting to go for an outing sees a puddle covering the whole road and therefore returns and Adoor smiles again, appreciating one’s appreciation, but saying nothing. One could say his films speak for themselves.

Talk to him about the Delhi festival and its lack of identity, he says, "they must work hard enough to forge an identity, they don’t." Adoor may be soft-spoken and takes time to open up but he has his own views on things and he is not afraid to air them. When I spoke of Gautom Ghose’s Paar and how good it was, he didn’t hesitate to say the first half was very weak, the second brilliant.

And with all his success, Adoor has not lost his simplicity. As for the adulation he gets everywhere, "I take it lightly, after all if one thinks one is great that will be the end," which means Adoor has his head on his shoulders (sling bag and all) and his ears close to the ground. Which incidentally is the hallmark of all great men. — E.M.