Light has gone.....

The year 2010 seems to be particularly cruel to Malayalam cinema personalities by snatching away their lives at unexpected moments as described in MT's words – Death is a joker who enters the scene with no regard to the situation. The latest being Master Cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma who wrapped up his life at the age of 84, at Chennai on November 22, 2010.

Mankada Ravi Varma

It was in 1971 at the home of writer poet M. Govindan in Madras Egmore, along with Director John Abraham that I met Mankada Ravi Varma. M. Govindan was at that time publishing the literary Journal “SAMEEKSHA” and his home was the meeting place of many writers and artists. Graduates from the Film Institutes were looked upon as only “Theoretical people” and they were considered unfit when it comes to practical things like shooting a feature film. So they had to work on the fringes of the film industry as assistants or work in documentaries or seek employment in Films Division. Even though he passed out from the Madras Polytechnic in Motion Picture Photography and Sound Engineering in 1952, he got no break in the film industry and had to be content with being employed by the Films Division. He later resigned the job, bought a 16 mm camera and was doing documentaries for BBC and other foreign news agencies.

P.A. Azeez who became the very first Direction graduate from the Poona Film Institute ever to make a feature film “ AVAL” ( Malayalam ) in 1967, gave Mankada his first break as an independent cinematographer. Incidentally Santha Devi who passed away two days back had also acted in that film in which Madhu and Usha Nandhini played the leading roles. Then came the path breaking film “ OLAVUM THEERAVUM” (1969) scripted by M.T. Vasudevan Nair and directed by P.N. Menon in which Mankada broke the shackles and released the camera from the confines of the four walls of the studio floors and brought it to the wide outdoors and real interiors.

He says about his experience thus: "We exploited the available light. The framing and composition of the film were totally different from other feature films. I tried to accommodate all the tones that were available in black-and-white, and shot the film. As I had shot documentaries in very adverse conditions, I decided to make use of all those experiences in a feature film. Usually in poor light, a cinematographer stops shooting. What I did was use it to my advantage."

In 1971 at Madras another Film Institute venture VIDYARTHIKALEY ITHILEY ITHILEY was going on with the crew consisting of John Abraham ( Director), M. Azad ( Script writer), Ravi (Editor), Devadas ( Sound Engineer) and myself as Cinematographer – all from the Poona Film Institute. At Madras in those days, there were no Nagra Recorders in use as the Recordists had no trust in such a small portable tape recorder and preferred big machines running 35 mm magnetic tapes. Since we were shooting our film in Sync sound, Devadas used to bring Nagra from Chitralekha Film Co-operative, Trivandrum. At that time the work of Adoor's film SWAYAMVARAM was also progressing in Trivandrum.

Ravi Varma and Adoor

Starting from SWAYAMVARAM till NIZHALKUTHU, Adoor and Ravi Varma pair had collaborated in more films than Bergman and Sven Nykvist, or Satyajith Ray and Subrato Mitra, David Lean and Freddie Young Director-Cinematographer combination.

While Raja Ravi Varma used paints and brushes, Mankada Ravi Varma used to paint with light to create his visuals. He excelled in his Black & White films by judiciously mixing shadows and light, highlighting the faces of characters to focus on their emotions. His transition to the colour era was very smooth without compromises as seen in the internationally acclaimed film ELIPATHAYAM.

He always found time to interact with his juniors who seek his guidance and clear their doubts in cinematography. He gladly came over to Thiruvanthapuram to establish our Indian Society of Cinematographers and also became a Founder Member of ISC.

A light had gone from the World Cinematography , but I am sure that from the high heaven he will guide us with his leading light!

Judging a Fancy dress competition

Judging a Fancy Dress Competition is not an easy job as you might think especially if the participants are Kindergarten children. I took up the task when I was persuaded by my friend Indrabalan to be the Judge for the competition for Bodhi School run by his friend Jayan Krishnan at Palkulangara, Thiruvananthapuram. Only when I reached there and saw the tiny tots I was wondering how am I going to select the winner without hurting the feelings of other children. Fortunately I was told that that I only need to grade their overall performance and apart from the top three winners others will also be rewarded with certificates.

Children waiting for their turn

Bodhi School was established by Jayan Krishnan last year with the motive to provide ample opportunities for overall development of children in the most amicable way by keeping student teacher ratio at 10:1. In the clean atmosphere of the school I found the children to be very happy, bright and cheerful.

One of the cute contestants

It was really a fun event and the children enjoyed their make believe costumes and I had a nice time interacting with the kids. I wish the school all success.

For more photographs of the event, please Click HERE

Santha Devi

One more loss to the Malayalam Film Industry in 2010. Santha Devi, National Award winning Malayalam Actress of yesteryear passed away uncared on 20th November 2010 at Kozhikode. Her last days were full of misery and pain and for sometime she was in the care of an old age home.

Santha Devi at Old Age Home

Her son Sathyajith was an award winning child artiste in M.T. and P.N.Menon's film "Kuttiyedathi". Sathyajith acted in my first film 'VIDYARTHIKALEY ITHILE ITHILE' (1971) directed by John Abraham and Santha Devi who had accompanied him had also acted in that film. At times her husband Kozhikode Abdul Khadar used to come to Madras where most of the shooting was done. In those days we had a flat at Madras Mahalingapuram, as our office cum residence where John, Script writer M. Azad, Sound Engineer Devadas and myself used to stay during the shooting. Santha Devi's family were also accommodated in one of the rooms, when they came to Madras for the shooting.

She had acted in many of my films and in most of the films which had Kozhikode as their location. Finally time took its toll and the roles became lesser and lesser and the tragic death of Sathyajith also affected her much. As usual on her death a lot of "honour" was given by the Government and Film Industry organizations but while living no one bothered to help her in her time of need.

May her Soul Rest in Peace at last.

Comedy Actor Norman Wisdom takes the bow

The great British comedy actor Norman Wisdom passed away on 4 th October 2010, aged 95. Many of the younger generation in our country may not be aware of this great actor who was considered by none other than great Charlie Chaplin as his favourite clown.

Norman Wisdom at 92

It was while studying at the Loyola College, Madras (1963-66) that I happened to see his film On the Beat ( 1962) at Elphinstone theatre at Mount Road. It was a immensely funny film of Norman Wisdom trying to join the Police force inspite his short stature. I was hooked up immediately and became of a fan of him. In the next year the film A Stitch in Time (1963) was released and rushed to the theatre to see this film which made me an ardent admirer of his comedy.

Unfortunately I couldn't see any more of his films. It is said that he had done 19 films with Rank Organisation and had kept the company afloat when other major films flopped at the box office. The Rank films usually start with the title shot of a muscleman hitting a huge gong with a hammer. As the strong man is about to hit Norman Wisdom will enter and take the hammer from him and will hit the gong which will break in to pieces and the whole theatre will burst out with laughter.

Some time back from the net I downloaded the two old Black and white film and they still remain entertaining and funny. That shows the immortal nature of his performances. I bow before his memory for bringing me happiness.

For those who have not seen his films, please see his site to know more about him

Jnanapith Award for ONV

At last our poet par excellence ONV was yesterday conferred with the 2007 Jnanapith Award for his contribution to Literature.This award had been long overdue to ONV and comes to a Malayalam poet for the second time after G.Sankara Kurup had been honoured in 1965. This has come as a great honour to the Malayalam language itself.

I had personally come in to contact with him many years back when he had written the lyrics of the films I have been associated with. Since then I had maintained personal relationship with him on many occasions, the last on being at the marriage function of playback singer Aparna Rajeev, his grand daughter.

Given below is a photo taken at the Pooja Ceremony of the film MIZHIGAL SAAKSHI directed by Ashok R Nath, The occasion was the confluence three great personalities singer K.J.Yesudas, Music Composer Mastero Dakshinamoorthy Swami and eminent lyricist ONV.

Producer Das, Yesudas, Dakshinamoorthy Swami, ONV and me

During the shooting of the Krishanattam sequence at the Mugathala Murari Temple , he visited our sets to witness the picturising of the song written by him and sung by his grand daughter Aparna Rajeev.

Anil Mughathala, Ramu Mangalapally, Kochu Preman, ONV, Ashok R Nath, Vineeth, Sukumari and me

I wish him a very long and fruitful life with many more honours being showered upon our own Poet Laureate ONV.

For old times sake .....

Yesterday on the occasion of a mutual friend's daughter's marriage a unique meeting of old time associates from SWAPNADANAM days took place took place. Mohammed Bappu (Parsi) who was based in Bombay wanted to produce films in Malayalam and had contacted K.G.George to Direct it. All he wanted was a good film and never interfered in the project and gave full freedom to go ahead. P.A.Latheef was in charge of the production and the film SWAPNADANAM became a reality and the rest is history. It won many Awards in the State and National level and had become a landmark in Malayalam films. Mohammed Bappu wanted his friend, Jitin Shyam, a Malayali but working in the Hindi film industry as Music Director to compose songs for the film. But ultimately there were no songs in SWAPNADANAM and he could not be accommodated in the film. Kabeer Raothar's first film LUBNA (Hindi) was also produced by Mohammed Bappu. While we were doing the film SWAPNADANAM, Sankaran Kutty the all-in-all person in Malayalam film Industry was working in the Vijaya Laboratory at Madras .

Though we used to meet each other individually, this was the first occasion that we all were together and it was recorded for posterity in the photo given below!

Producer Mohammed Bapu, myself, Sankaran Kutty, K.G.George,
Kabeer Raothar & Jitin Shyam

Yet another loss - VENU NAGAVALLI

I had just finished posting my memoirs about Tamil Actor Murali, this morning and picked up the newspaper only to find the headline that my friend Malayalam Actor, Writer & Director Venu Nagavalli passed away around 1.30 AM ! What a tragedy of losing friends one after another and to write about them in continuation! But only by sharing your grief, letting it out you can unburden yourself and remain sane. I just returned from the VJT Hall where his mortal remains were kept for people to pay their respects and last farewell.

Ever since he had acted in K.G.George's film ULKADAL, I had known him but he had acted in my three films only, that too all Directed by K.G.George and outstanding ones : KOLANGAL, YAVANIKA and ADAMINTE VARIYELLU. Because of his image as forsaken lover image in his first film ULKADAL, people think he is a sad person. Though he is soft spoken and calm by nature he opens up his humorous side in the company of friends. Even though we haven't worked together for a long time we used to meet on several occasions and renewed our friendship. In 1983 , he attended my marriage at Kollam along with P.A.Latheef ( who is also no more, now) and given below is a photo taken on that occasion.

Myself, Venu and P.A.Latheef

In the end scene of KOLANGAL, the character played by Venu sets fire to his hut and departs the village. The hut was erected in the Chitraleka Film Co-operative studio complex and the scene was planned to be shot late in the evening so that the fire will be dramatic against a darkening sky. Being the end shot of the film, the camera was set for a long shot to show thw whole hut and the scenery behind. The hut made of palm leaves and straw had to be sprinkled with petrol so that it will catch fire when lighted, immediately without any time lag. The art department guys in their enthusiasm sprinkled a whole can of petrol all over the hut.

With camera rolling, Venu put a lighted torch on to the hut and there was a fire ball and the hut exploded in flames! Fortunately Venu backed off in time, otherwise he would have been badly burnt by the fire. What had happened was the petrol was sprinkled much in advance and had vapourised in to an inflammable mixture and the moment it was lighted it turned into a fireball. We then re-erected the set the next day and re-shot the scene with care!

Thus he had a miraculous escape many years back and managed to give us many memorable Malayalam films. But now death had caught up and snatched him away.

I very much miss him and his films.

I pray for his Soul to rest In Peace along with his family and friends