Veteran Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has decided to donate his ancestral property under the new scheme of the Kerala government, which proposes to build houses for the poor.
Three Malayalam feature films are are among the 12 Indian movies that will be screened in a special section dedicated to Indian New Wave Cinema at IFFI (International Film Festival Of India). The eight-day event opens at Panaji, Goa, on 20 November. Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Swayamvaram (1972), and G Aravindan’s Thampu (1978) and Utharayanam (1975) will be screened in this section. Filmmaker John Abraham’s Tamil language film Agraharathil Kazhuthai (Donkey in a Brahmin Village) is also part of this section.
In the final scene of the film, a young Gandhian nonchalantly steps into a black robe and proceeds to perform his first duty as a state hangman, filling in for his father who collapsed in panic minutes before the execution.In an interview, Adoor puts forth his version: “In fact, the second part of the film is a nightmare of the Hangman in a state of delirium – about his fear of having to go back to another execution… at one level the film is about experience, memory, and imagination”.
Apart from writing his own stories, Adoor has adapted storylines from two of Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai’s short stories, Vidheyan is from Zacharia’s novella Bhaskara Patellar and Mathilukal from Vaikom Muhammad Bashir’s novel of the same name. “All these characters in the films which I’ve directed still explore the questions I’ve been asking myself.
Filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan and G Suresh Kumar have reportedly come out in support of Malayalam actor Dileep, who is currently facing jail time after being accused of orchestrating the abduction and assault of an actress in February this year. The two filmmakers believe the actor is being framed.
Veteran Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan recently expressed his opinions on why regional cinema seldom gets representation while Hindi cinema represents India at various film festivals. Speaking at the Gateway LitFest in Mumbai, the filmmaker lashed out at Bollywood and the government in the panel discussion titled ‘Bollywood is Not the Indian Cinema’.
Speaking at the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) this Wednesday, iconic director Adoor Gopalakrishnan described the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) as a white elephant that had strayed far from its original purpose of supporting low-budget indie films. He was speaking at a discussion on the future of low-cost filmmaking in India.
Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, in a recent Malayalam television interview, spoke about the new generation of film critics flourishing on social media networks. “Social media is being used in the worst possible way,” said Adoor.
Director Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s latest film, Pinneyum, which was released in the theatres on August 18, has been selected for the ‘Masters’ section of the 41st Toronto International Film Festival to be held from September 8 to 18 in the Canadian city. According to a The Hindu report, there will be five screenings of the film at the festival between September 12 and 16.
Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan feels that Bollywood is ‘badly stereotyped’ and does not represent Hindi cinema. According to a PTI report, the auteur said that Bollywood cinema represents a different world.
The world has changed but the attitudes at the top have remained archaic. These days, you can download anything and everything from ‘clouds’. While there is an open gate on television from everywhere why does the administration go about with an axe to punish the film producer? After all, we have a great constitution that takes care of any word or deed that is anti-social and dangerous.
Legislation will be drawn up, based on the recommendations in the reports of Adoor Gopalakrishnan and the Hema committee, to ensure the protection of women in the Malayalam film industry, Culture Minister Saji Cherian said on Thursday, while speaking at the inauguration of the renovated Kairali-Nila-Sree theatre complex in Thiruvananthapuram.
The minister’s announcement comes close on the heels of the Kerala High Court order directing production houses to institute Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) PoSH Act, 2013. The order was passed in the PIL filed by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), demanding the establishment of grievance redressal cells in film bodies.
Jeo’s film is highly political for its insertion of contemporary issues (the Sabarimala dispute and the idea of impurity associated with menstruating women) into a domestic drama and its head-on approach to the question of gender equality within traditional families.Thematically, the film shares a commonality with Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Elippathayam, where Rajamma (Sharada), an unmarried Nair woman, is condemned to lifelong imprisonment in the kitchen by the patriarchal order.
Forty-nine filmmakers, actors, researchers and doctors, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Revathy, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan and actors Konkana Sen Sharma and Kani Kasruti, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for action against lynching of Muslims, Dalits and minorities and expressing concern over the increasing religious identity-based hate crimes and intolerance towards dissent.
Filmmakers such as Padmarajan and Bharathan held their own at a time when New Wave creators such as Aravindan, John Abraham and Adoor Gopalakrishnan worked their magic, supported by strong screenplays by MT Vasudevan Nair.Actor Jagathy Sreekumar said in the documentary Kadalkkaattiloru Dooth that “it will take only four lines to sum up the entire story of a Padmarajan movie; only his brilliance can elaborate it into a two-hour film”.
Malayalam filmmakers such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, IV Sasi and PA Backer brought alive stories of disharmonies in the lives of the working class. This Labour Day, Silverscreen explores five films from Kerala that speak of the labour class and its myriad dilemmas.The script makes the audience feel for the characters, and you wait for their emancipation. The film also stars Meena, who puts in a good performance as someone who decides to help the family lead a better life.
His thoughts were reprised by Sanju Surendran, the moderator: “There might be a dominant section of filmmakers who come under the light of New Generation, but two heavyweights of Malayalam cinema, Adoor Gopalakrishnan {also a guest at the Festival} and M.Talented, offbeat filmmakers and screenwriters such as Vinu Abraham, PF Mathews, Prem Lal and Sanju Surendran discussed the possible genesis of this genre of cinema, and what it really is about.
The blame, by far, lies on Mammootty, the larger-than-life star whose humongous fan base is what motivates insipid filmmakers like Ajai Vasudev and writers like Udaya Krishna to dish out one distasteful potboiler after another. After building up a robust acting career and a superstar status by collaborating with auteurs such as Aravindan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, KG George and IV Sasi for many years, Mammootty is now involved in creating a rather dangerous stream of films in Malayalam that passes racism, sexism and insensitivity for humour, and celebrates the lack of intelligence. Masterpiece has a song number, “Wake up, you gotta wake up now”.
Earlier, Silverscreen had reported that Dileep had been feeling unwell in jail, and that Malayalam cinema veterans Adoor Gopalakrishnan and others visited him. Thus far, these veterans have issued no public statement of support towards the actress who was abducted and sexually assaulted.Celebrities including Akshay Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar prayed for Dilip’s speedy recovery and sent the legendary actor their wishes through social media.
The campus has been tense ever since the Information and Broadcasting Ministry appointed a lesser known B Grade actor and a member of the BJP, Gajendra Chauhan, as the institute’s chairman on 9 June 2015, a post earlier held by film makers like Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
A draft law to address concerns of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry will be ready within a month, Kerala Minister for Culture Saji Cherian told The Hindu.
Veteran writer T Padmanabhan urged the Kerala government to publish the Hema committee report while speaking at the closing ceremony of the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala on Friday.
P Jayachandran, the veteran playback singer has been selected for the JC Daniel Award, the highest award in Malayalam cinema presented by the Kerala government. The singer has sung over 10,000 songs in various languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu in a career spanning over five decades. He has been the recipient of one national award, five Kerala State Film Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards among several others.
Even as cinemas are slowing recovering from the pandemic’s blow following the release of big-banner films like Sooryavanshi and Annaatthe on the occasion of Diwali, movies continue to premiere online as well. Jai Bhim was recently released on Amazon Prime Video, while Meenakshi Sundareshwar premiered on Netflix.
Kurup, directed by Srinath Rajendran, whose debut directorial Second Show (2012) introduced Dulquer, the handsome son of superstar Mammootty, to the big movie world, is the dramatisation of the life of Sukumara Kurup, the infamous Malayali fugitive, who, in 1984, burned to death a young film representative, and faked his own death to evade the police.