Swayamvaram Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s first film came in 1972. He has been making films continuously over the last 20 years. He has made just seven films, but he undoubtedly one of the most important filmmakers in the country today. His work has won him several national and International awards.
Adoor was In Bangalore last week. The Karnataka Chalanachitra patrakartara Vedike had arranged a meeting with him in the auditorium In Badami House. The auditorium can seat up to 100 people but there were just 30 of us. There were just two people from the film industry; Girish Kasaravalli and Nagabharana. (At one time, Adoor’s film Swavyamvaram had been a hit of sorts in Bangalore, Pattabhirama Reddy’s Kannada film Samskara had won the President’s gold medal the previous year and all of us were very enthusiastic about new wave cinema. Those days seem like a distant dream now…) After an hour of drab discussion, some one gave him a bouquet.
As the audience was trooping out, Girish Kasaravalli introduced me and the bearded friend who was with me to Adoor. We wanted to have lengthy talk with him, he invited us to his hotel. I walked after him. My bearded friend, who was enjoying a smoke, hastened after us.
It was 7 p.m. when we reached the hotel Stephen Hawking’s book Brief history of time lay on table in his room. Adoor must have bought it at Bombay airport that morning. ” It’s a very good book…reads like a novel. ” Adoor remarked. Perhaps everything Adoor reads appears like a story to him.
From here on, the conversation took the form of an interview.
You say every film you make is different from the previous one. You deal with feudal decadence In EIipathayam. In Mukhamukham there scene is the decadence of political values, Now as I gather from the reviews, you have again dealt with feudal decadence in Vidheyan. Don’t you feel that there has been repetition in your themes and narratives?
True, texturally they might look the same … but every new project is a new experience as far as I am concerned. So the outcome is different every time.
When we talk of a different approach for each film, I cannot but talk of our Girish Kaasarvalli. His films Ghatashraddha, Akramana, Mooru Daarigalu, Mane are all very different from one another, both textually and thematically.
They might seem that way on the surface. But when you look closely they are alike.
Do yon think there has been a shift In your mode of perception from your early films to your later films?… In your recent films you seem to have moved from a European way of moved from European way of expression to a more personal style.
We cannot classify our experience easily. Nor can we say what is molding our way of expression. As for myself, I can’t say what influences my mode of expression. I am not conscious of these influences.
What do you think of the argument that films shouldn’t be dependent on works of literature?
When I take a work of literature for filming, I ask myself whether II have anything to say beyond the work Itself, When I make the film, I depart from the story. For instance, when the hero of Mathitugal comes out of jail he stands in the street and gazes at the rose he is holding. But in my film the rose is shown flung skywards. When Basheer saw the film he asked me about this last scene. I told him I had not shot it.
When Karnad and Karanth made Vamshavriksha and when Puttanna Kanagal made Nagarahavu, basing them on novels, there were some controversies. Didn’t Basher object to the changes you had made?
When I announced that I was going, to make Mathilugal, the novel began to sell very well. Six new editions came out. I had decided to release the film only after showing it to Basheer. I then called a press meet and invited Basheer to address the reporters. Basheer didn’t criticise the changes I had made. On the contrary, he said he was so pleased that he was willing to allow me to film the rest of his work too.
Satyajit Ray was influenced not by Hollywood but by the schools of neo-realism and Renoir. When he received the Oscar on his deathbed, he said it was the greatest moment in his life. Wasn’t this a paradox?
Ray never criticised Hollywood. He viewed Hollywood with respect. So there Is no paradox in his receiving the Oscar…
The talk veered, to Kannada films. Adoor asked, “Is it true that they have given an award to “Veerappan” When we told him it had indeed won an award, he slapped his forehead in a gesture of disgust. “They shouldn’t have done it,” he blurted out.
“Can I quote you?” I asked. He didn’t say no. “I can’t talk about it, I haven’t seen the film. But this is the way one responds after reading about it in the papers. Weren’t there any better films?” he asked.
“Of course there were, what is your own experience with awards?”
“I have been in the jury … When there was no films which can be called the best, I succeeded In withholding the best film award and giving only a second best film award Bad, choices are not confined to Karnataka. They happen everywhere.”
I asked him whether there was any way to avoid wrong choices. -People who know about cinema should be on the panel. People like U,R. Ananthamurthy, for Instance,” he replied,
“This time there was YNK on the panel. YNK is well known in literary circles and perhaps he has greater exposure to cinema than even Ananthamurthy. Yet we have these controversies…”I mused
“Probably the chairman had no voice in the Selections” Adoor tried to explain the Veerappan incident away.
“In which case he could have resigned,” I pointed out. Adoor agreed,
It was nearing nine. When I asked for his autograph, he wrote: “With regards to Shekharpoorna for the anger and impatience”. Earlier, when a boy came into the room asking for his autograph, he had asked him his name “Ahmed ” the boy had said. Adoor wrote the boys name too in the autograph book. I contrasted his courteousness with Mahesh Bhatt’s indifference. When fans asked him for his autograph, I had noticed that Mahesh Bhatt never took the trouble to ask their names.
“I have heard about your short temper.” I told Adoor and reminded him of an interview he had agreed to give and then canceled. The interviewer was a Bangalore University professor who also happens to be my friend
“I respect him,” Adoor said. “But he asked me such convoluted and complex questions that I would have had to answer in a monosyllabic yes or no. If the interview had been telecast, I would have appeared ridiculous,”
I asked him whether he was going to the Calcutta film festival. “Yes. Are you?” he asked in turn. He must have thought I was a film Journalist or a big man in the editorial department “I’m just a proof reader ” I told him
*****
Published in ksc on: January 17, 2002