The great
filmmaker, who turns eighty on 3 July, says he never made films just to please
his audience or producers and has no regrets.
Arvind
Das
03 Jul 2021
Ace filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan turns eighty on 3 July. Independent
journalist and media researcher Arvind Das speaks with him about his creative
process, the future of cinema, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on films and
his relationship with the filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal
Sen. Gopalakrishnan says he cannot wait for the pandemic to end so
that audiences return to see films the way they are meant
to be watched: on a big screen and as a collective. Edited
excerpts from a phone interview.
From Swayamvaram in 1972 to Sukhayantam in 2019, it
has been such a long journey from your days at the Film and Television
Institute of India (FTII) in the early sixties. Now, at eighty, how do you
reflect upon your life in cinema?
Normally, I don’t look back, because it took me
seven years to make my first film and then there was an interval again. In
fact, there have been long intervals in my film career. My professional career
started in 1965 and I made twelve films in these 55 years. It takes me a long
time to settle on a subject. I was not a part of the so-called [film] industry.
When I was making a film I was an insider and when I was not making a film I
was an outsider.
People ask me why I made very few films. Many in
the industry made fifty or sixty films in that period. Once Satyajit Ray asked
me, (he used to like my work) why don’t you make at least one film every year?
I told him it was my dream too, but because of the way I work, proceed with my
idea and script, I cannot. Before I make a film and even after it is made, it
lingers on with me. It takes me time to come out of the influence of an idea.
So, it takes a long time to work on an idea and get out of it also. I often
joke, most of the time I am not making films [laughs].
So, the gestation period for each film is almost
five years?
Yes. Even seven or eight years. But it is not
intentional. Those who ask me why I made so few films, I ask them, how do you
manage to make so many films! Because you are working in an industry where
everything is against you. It is [what they call] variety entertainment kind of
cinema. And then, here is something that is very austere, which I think is very
important for my audience to watch. It talks about their life, my life, the
society. It is very difficult in that sense.
Fortunately, I had a fairly good audience. My films
were released in regular cinemas and never rejected. My films were released and
given the same publicity as other big productions. I was very particular about
that. It has been very important for me. I had good audiences outside Kerala
and even outside India. This gave me enough confidence to carry on. And I was
lucky, in that sense. I made no compromise in any of my films. This I can tell
you very clearly: I never make a film just to please my
audience or producer. As a filmmaker, I have complete control over what I do.
For me, to be happy about what I do is important. I have no regrets. Every film
has been very dear to me.
What kind of relationship did you share with other
noted filmmakers, such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen, who had
started making films in the decade before your first film?
Satyajit Ray was like a guru. He always said good
things about my work. He was very kind. I did not have a personal relationship
with Ritwik Ghatak, but he was my teacher. I learned a lot from him. He was a
remarkable filmmaker. Because of him, I read a lot about films at the FTII.
Mrinal Sen was like my elder brother. I had a very warm and close relationship
with Ray and Sen. I had these three great masters of Indian cinema before me. I
consider myself lucky.
Which one of these masters’ movies do you like the
most?
Ray’s Apu Trilogy. I have a special liking
for Aparajito, Mrinal Sen’s Ek Din Pratidin and
Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara. These are my favourite films.
You wrote in the foreward to Adoor
Gopalakrishnan: A Life in Cinema by Gautaman Bhaskaran that most
of your films “do not lend themselves to simple paraphrasing. Their
ambition extends beyond mere storytelling”. Could you please elaborate? Also,
what according to you is the most important element in a film?
For me, a film is basically an experience shared
with an audience. This experience should be worthwhile [for it] to be shared
with the audience. My films reflect my culture. I am very much part of my
society, not an outsider. Filmmakers have to say new things and say them in a novel
way. [They have to find] new ways of looking at things for the audience. I do
not repeat in my film, that is boring. I do things that interest me. Cinema
developed as an aspiration of great artistic work. We cannot be ignorant about
what is happening around us.
There are autobiographical elements in your movie.
Is this conscious or incidental?
As an artist, one cannot create anything outside
himself. If it has artistic integrity, necessarily, it has to have
autobiographical elements. It goes through a certain mutation in a new form
when you create something.
Freedom and emancipation are the main themes in
Swayamvaram [One’s Own Choice, 1972], Elippathayam [Rat Trap,
1981] and Mathilukal [Walls, 1990], but your Anantaram [And Thereafter,
1987] is apart from these. Tell me about this movie: How did you visualise the
real versus the imaginary in this movie? The line gets blurred in it.
Anantharam is a film about the process of creation.
The idea is, how do you create? At the initial level, you work on experience
and then you fall back on that experience. If you are an artistic person, you
have to arrange this experience in some way and then comes imagination. So, it
is a combination of all these things. Experience does not come as it is. It
undergoes a kind of organic change. We all have an introvert and an extrovert
within ourselves. Here is a character, Ajayan, if you look at
the two stories told by him, they do not contradict each
other. Rather, they are complementary. Here, the audience fills the gaps
in between and makes the story for itself.
Jeo Baby, director of The Great Indian
Kitchen, told me recently that your films have influenced him. To
me, The Great Indian Kitchen brought your
film Elippatahyam to mind…
[Laughs] Actually, Elippathayam started
off from a thought. I used to ask myself why people do not react the way they
should about things around them. I was mulling over the idea. Then I got the
answer—if you start reacting to things around you, it creates inconveniences
for you. Then you want to believe these things don’t exist. I chose the
character of Unni from the post-feudal joint family system in Kerala from the
fifties and sixties. These people were landed gentry. Unni is incapable of
facing what is happening around him. He just pretends it does not exist. He
withdraws from the surroundings.
Have you ever thought of making a film in another
language?
No, I have never thought about it. Language is not
just a medium of expressing ideas. It is a flower of a certain
culture...Language evolved out of life. Languages may be similar,
but each has nuances. In cinema, the nuances of living and culture are very
important. Even suppose I wish to make a movie in Hindi, I will not be able to
do it. I will not be able to direct actors. I will not be able to understand
the dialogue-delivery, because I don’t know enough Hindi.
What future do you see for cinema, when you
see things in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic?
During the pandemic, people are watching cinema on
laptops, cellphones etc., but cinema has to necessarily be seen in a hall. It
is a communitarian experience. When you watch a movie on television, there are
so many things happening around you, so much distraction.
I want my audience to concentrate on the screen.
The TV has such a small screen. You miss a lot because cinema is made for the
big screen. You miss a particular shot, hear only the middle voice. High and
low sounds are not heard. My work is lost on my audience. It is a big
compromise. So, the cinema has to come back again to the halls.
Any films that have had an
impact or influenced you in particular?
As a student of cinema I have been watching films
from the very beginning. I watched all the great masters’ works in the last
several decades. I have been inspired by everything I saw. My vocabulary is
derived from all that I have experienced in cinema, theatre and other art
forms. What I have learnt is you have to develop your own language, your own
method, and your own approaches.
Any plans you would like to share with readers?
I have no immediate plans. I have not come across a
worthwhile idea. I don’t force one upon myself...
(Published on Newsclick website)
