Latest news with #Piravi
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Film screenings as tribute to Shaji N. Karun in Thrissur
In a tribute to filmmaker Shaji N. Karun, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy in association with the IFFT Chalachitra Kendram in Thrissur will host special screenings of two of his landmark films on Saturday and Sunday at Sree Theatre, Thrissur. The critically acclaimed Piravi will be screened on Saturday at 9 a.m. On Sunday at 9 a.m., Olu will be showcased. The inaugural session will include a memorial event titled 'Shaji Ormakal' (Remembering Shaji), where personalities like Murali Cheeroth, chairperson, Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, film critics T. Krishnanunni, and I. Shanmukhadas will share their reflections on the filmmaker.
Indian Express
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How a 1989 Malayalam film examined the aftermath of the state's repression of a helpless individual
Hours before the evening bus is supposed to arrive, the old man has seated himself at his usual spot, waiting for his son to come home as promised. Raghu, the younger child of Raghavan Chakyar, is a student at an engineering college in a distant town. 'Isn't today the right day?' Raghavan asks his daughter while returning alone from the bus stop for the first time. 'It is probably just a day's delay,' a neighbour tells the old man on the second day that Raghu fails to turn up. On the third day, Raghavan goes to the bus stop in the morning, only to return — once again — alone. 'Did I not tell you the bus won't come in the morning?' comes the gentle chastisement from the boatman who has been ferrying Raghavan to the bus stop. Slowly, over the course of its 110-minute runtime, a terrible absence — a person-shaped hole — takes form at the centre of Shaji N Karun's 'Piravi'. Generally believed to be inspired by the infamous case of the disappearance of P Rajan, a student at the Regional Engineering College Calicut, during the Emergency, 'Piravi' (1989) was Karun's directorial debut. Already a lauded cinematographer, especially for his work with auteur G Aravindan (who also co-composed the music for his protege's debut), Karun won wide acclaim for the Malayalam film, including the Mention D'Honneur – Camera D'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. While the filmmaker denied being inspired by any specific story when making 'Piravi', saying that it was about the wider problem of custodial deaths, the parallels with the Rajan case are undeniable. 'Piravi' is set in 1988, 11 years after the Emergency had ended, but like Raghavan in the film, T V Eachara Warrier had set out on a dogged quest in 1976 to find out what happened to his son, Rajan. His long battle that finally unearthed the awful truth about his son's disappearance — wrongful arrest, torture and death in custody — resulted in one of the most well-known habeas corpus cases in India. It rocked the Kerala government, leading to the resignation of Chief Minister K Karunakaran a month after he led the Congress-led coalition to a landslide victory in the 1977 Assembly election. ALSO READ | Priya Sachdev called Karisma Kapoor-Sunjay Kapur's kids her own, said 'friendship' is the key: 'We have four children' Karun, in 'Piravi', was less interested in the legal and political aspects of the nightmare that Warrier endured, than he was in exploring, through the visual medium, the problem of depicting a disappearance: How do you show someone who is not there? Raghu's is an unfathomable absence and the film, as it delineates the anxiety and grief of the bereaved, takes shape around the vacuum that comes to represent the missing son. The film marks a visual and sonic challenge, masterfully tackled: Like Raghu, the rain announces its arrival — monsoon winds slam doors and windows, waves crash on the beach, the afternoon darkens — only to disappoint. The landscape is suffused with sound, both human and non-human — the gentle gurgling of the river, the susurration of the wind through the reeds, the tick-tock of Raghavan's wristwatch. Yet, what throws these into sharp relief, making each one ring out loud and clear, is the utter silence of the one who never returned home. Many films have been made about that dark period from June 25, 1975, to March 21, 1977, most of them focusing on the political machinations or stories of state repression. As its creator stated, 'Piravi' may not be explicitly about the Emergency, yet few other films have so effectively examined the haunting question of what happens after an episode of state repression. What happens to the ones left behind? Decades after Warrier trudged from pillar to post, desperately seeking out the truth and trying to hold to account those responsible for his son's death, 'Piravi' reminds viewers of other fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, haunted by the disappearance of their loved ones.
The Hindu
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
50 years since the Emergency: 5 essential films that captured the moment
It's been fifty years since Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency in the country, suspending civil liberties, censoring the press, and arresting thousands without trial. For twenty-one months, the world's largest democracy turned brittle, as state-sanctioned control seeped into bedrooms, classrooms, and sterilisation clinics. While textbooks have often treated the Emergency with a careful detachment, cinema has offered a more visceral archive. Through satire, allegory, and personal grief, filmmakers captured what it meant to live under a regime that asked its people for silence and compliance. These five essential films document, interrogate, mourn, and even mock the Emergency period. Some were shelved, others destroyed, and a few slipped through the cracks of censorship. Half a century later, their resonance feels cautionary still. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003) Sudhir Mishra's Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi explores three young lives entangled in the political, emotional, and ideological turmoil of the Emergency. Set in the 1970s, it traces the intersecting paths of Siddharth, a Naxalite revolutionary; Vikram, an opportunistic fixer; and Geeta, a privileged woman torn between love and rebellion. Through their stories, the film delves into the disillusionment of a generation caught between the romanticism of revolution and the brutality of state power. Kissa Kursi Ka (1977) A blistering satire directed by Amrit Nahata, Kissa Kursi Ka is one of the most infamous victims of censorship during the Emergency. The film lampoons authoritarian politics and state propaganda through the character of Gangaram, a naive politician manipulated by the powerful and corrupt. With thinly veiled caricatures of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, the film's critique of dynastic rule and media control felt so pointed that all existing prints were ordered destroyed by the government. Aandhi (1975) Directed by Gulzar, Aandhi is a subtle yet potent film that uses a personal love story to reflect on political power and public perception. Though not explicitly set during the Emergency, it was released just as the political climate was tightening, and its protagonist — a strong, stoic female politician — bore such striking resemblance to Indira Gandhi that the film was banned midway through its theatrical run. Piravi (1989) Shaji N. Karun's Piravi portrays the loss and bureaucratic indifference during the Emergency. Inspired by the real-life disappearance of a student allegedly tortured and killed in police custody in Kerala, the film follows a father's futile search for his missing son. Piravi premiered at Cannes in 1989, where it won the Camera d'Or – Special Mention, and went on to garner acclaim at festivals in Locarno, Chicago, and London. Nasbandi (1978) I. S. Johar's Nasbandi takes direct aim at one of the most infamous legacies of the Emergency: Sanjay Gandhi's mass sterilisation campaign. A musical political satire, the film uses parody and slapstick to mock the coercive family planning drives, portraying a fictional India where every male citizen is hunted down for vasectomy. Johar cast lookalikes of major Bollywood stars to circumvent censorship, and the film's irreverence led to it being immediately banned upon release.
Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Opinion From ‘Piravi' to ‘Olu', the visual poetry of Shaji N Karun's films
The departure of Shaji N Karun marks the exit of a great master of celluloid cinema, whose cinematographic and directorial oeuvre holds a unique position in the history of Indian and Malayalam cinema. After graduating from FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), he collaborated with G Aravindan on a slew of films. These films had a distinct mood and pace, giving Malayalam 'new wave' cinema a fresh look and feel. For Shaji, cinematography was not merely a technique or a profession, but an all-engrossing art. As a director, he belonged to the post 'new-wave' generation of Malayalam cinema. His first directorial venture Piravi was made in 1988 when the art cinema movement was at its fag end and the television era was just beginning. But Shaji succeeded in carving out a niche for himself as an auteur through a series of significant films over the next few decades. His narrative world was dark. Tragic in outlook, his films mostly dealt with human suffering, pain, loss and longing. He only made seven films during his career, but they are all testimony to his unique cinematic vision; though their themes were deeply rooted in their respective milieu, they were universal in their appeal. All his films except Nishad (2002) are set within the Malayalee milieu and culture, most of them dealing with particular art forms, artists and art practices like kathakali, chenda or chavittu natakam. It is the protagonist-artiste who embodies and enacts the most elemental of human dramas, full of conflicts within and without. In a way, the artistes in Shaji's films are blessed with art, but also 'cursed' by it — through its power to entice the artiste into vanity, lure them with fame or money; or binding them in the chasm between the life of an ordinary human being and the persona of an admired actor. Being a cinematographer par excellence, what would strike a viewer immediately in his films would be their visual compositions. No other filmmaker was so fascinated by the watery expanse of Kerala: the vastness and mystery of water loomed over most of his narratives that unfolded near rivers, lakes, backwaters or the sea, with rains as a perpetual presence. Thematically, his basic concerns were human predicaments driven by certain instincts, artistic or otherwise, that eventually get caught in tragic situations. His most talked-about movie, Piravi (The Birth/1989), won the Camera d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1989. It was based on a real incident that happened in Kerala during the Emergency, when an engineering student was taken into custody by the police and tortured to death. His whereabouts were never found, nor was his body recovered. Though several films have dealt with the theme of missing persons or people who are made to disappear, Piravi remains the most poignant and haunting human document of such dark times anywhere in the world. It also stands apart because of the great performance by the veteran actor Premji, who plays the aged father waiting endlessly for the return of his only son. His next film, Swaham (One's Own/1994), was again a tragic story about a mother who loses her son, the only hope in her life. His next film Vanaprastham (The Last Dance/1999) featured one of the most celebrated actors in Malayalam cinema, Mohanlal. He performed the role of a kathakali actor whose life falls apart, despite talent, fame and empathy. Though he overcomes hurdles like caste and lineage through his art, he is eventually forced to sacrifice himself at its altar by the ghosts of his own actions and passions. Nishad (Octave/2002), set in a north Indian border town during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, is the story of a couple — a government doctor (Rajit Kapoor) and a teacher at a Tibetan school (Archana) — who despite several tragedies in their life, try to hold on to their faith in life and the world. On the one side, their life at the placid Himalayan valley is troubled by the war waged at the border and, on the other, illuminated by the calm spiritual atmosphere of the Buddhist monastery. But the world responds cruelly to their personal virtues with another tragedy, this time the death of their son at the battlefront. Kutty Srank (The Sailor of Hearts/2010) featured the other superstar of Malayalam cinema, Mammootty, in the lead role. In the film, he plays three different characters in three different storylines and locales. The story of his life unfolds through the memories of three women who were part of his life at different places. In Swapaanam (The Voiding Soul/2014), Shaji portrays the conflicts and dilemmas in the life of an artist-couple, a chenda player and a Mohiniyattam dancer. Like in Vanaprastham, here, too, the protagonist is haunted by several ghosts, including the mystery that surrounds his parentage and the passions generated by his art. He is caught in the swirl of emotions and events that finally push him from artistic ecstasy to personal doom. Shaji's last film Olu (She/2019) also revolves around an artist, a painter living in a remote island, who betrays his muse for the sake of fame and money, and realises his mistakes too late. One of the finest celluloid cinematographers, Shaji was instrumental in the making of great cinematic works by Aravindan like Kanchana Sita (1978), Thampu (1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1980), Chidambaram (1985), Pokkuveyil (1982), Oridathu (1986) and Marattam (1988). Other memorable films include those by eminent directors in Malayalam like M T Vasudevan Nair, Padmarajan, Lenin Rajendran and Hariharan. Shaji also made several documentaries on luminary artistes like G Aravindan, K G Subramanyan and Namboodiri. Apart from being a cinematographer and director, he also played a key role in conceiving and establishing the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the International Film Festival of Kerala. He also headed the Kerala State Film Development Corporation and was the chairperson of Progressive Arts and Literary Organisation. Shaji's cinematographic images and narratives, and the universal human predicaments he grappled with, will continue to enthral cineastes across the world for decades to come.
Gulf Today
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
A gentle auteur
Shaji N. Karun's standing as a Malayalam cinema doyen does not rest upon a huge body of work. Quality over quantity was what he strove for and achieved. The handful of narrative features that Shaji directed had a profound impact on cinema in Kerala. His films, marked by a unique sensibility and elevated by a delicate and distinctive visual palette, were not only rooted in specific cultural ethos but were also driven by a deeply humanist vision. Shaji also influenced cinema and its dissemination in his home state as the founder chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. He was among those who were instrumental in giving shape to the International Film Festival of Kerala, which quickly evolved into the country's most-loved event of its kind. Later in his life, Shaji served as the Kerala State Film Development Corporation. His passing at the age of 73 at his home in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday has left a void that will be hard to fill. Shaji made only seven feature films in a career that began in the mid-1970s. His first three features – Piravi (1988), Swaham (1994) and Vanaprastham (1999), made over a period of a decade and a bit – were all selected for the Cannes Film Festival, a rare feat for an emerging filmmaker. In 1989, his debut film, Piravi (The Birth), about an aged father who waits in vain for his missing son to return home, won the Camera d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the Cannes Film Festival, besides a large number of other awards at festivals across the world. A still from the movie 'Piravi' by Shaji N Karun. In 1994, Swaham (My Own), about a boy who seeks an job to help his mother and sister tide over the family's financial troubles but loses his life in an incident at the military camp, competed for the Cannes Palme d'Or. Vanaprastham (The Last Dance), which revolves around a lower-caste Kathakali dancer who has an affair with an upper-caste woman, made it to the festival's Un Certain Regard section. Shaji's subsequent films may not have flown as high on the global stage, but every cinematic essay that he crafted, notably Kutty Srank, starring Mammootty, and Olu, his last feature, bore testimony to his exceptional technical and storytelling skills. His filmmaking style and artistic credo were firmly rooted in the land of his birth and the idiom he employed sprang from a creative space entirely his own. It is understandable why the soft-spoken, self-effacing Shaji would often lament the derivative methods that some of Kerala's younger filmmakers adopted. Shaji (right) with G Aravindan during a shoot. Shaji's own roots lay in the cinema of the iconic G. Aravindan, with whom he collaborated over a long period. Before he became a director, the Film and Television Institute of India alum worked as the cinematographer for eight of Aravindan's films, including Kanchana Sita (Golden Sita, 1977), Thampu (The Circus Tent, 1978), Esthappan (1980) and the absolutely exquisite Chidambaram (1985). One of the most remarkable collaborations between Aravindan and Shaji was Pokkuveyil (Twilight, 1982). Aravindan recorded the film's background score first with Hariprasad Chaurasia on the flute and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan disciple Rajeev Taranath on the sarod. He and Shaji then composed the visuals on the basis of the musical notations. A consummate master of his craft, Shaji also cranked the camera for films helmed by other noted Malayali filmmakers like K.G. George (Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback and Panchavadi Palam), MT Vasudevan Nair (Manju) and P. Padmarajan (Koodevide? and Arappatta Kettiya Gramathil), starring Mammootty and Suhasini in her Malayalam debut, and Lenin Rajendran (Meenamasathile Sooryan). Shaji went on to work with both actors after he turned director, with Mammootty heading the cast of Kutty Srank and Suhasini playing a key role in Vanaprastham, which starred Mohanlal as the male lead. Shaji also shot a couple of Hindi films, Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986) and Antim Nyay (1993), both directed by Sukhwant Dhadda, who subsequently produced the only Hindi film that Shaji directed, Nishad, starring Rajit Kapur and Archana. One of the most ambitious films of Shaji's career never got made due to budget constraints — Gaadha, an international co-production based on a T. Padmanabhan short story. The film was to star Mohanlal. In his director's statement for still-born Gaadha, Shaji wrote: 'Music is a miracle, where enchantments attain silence. Such mystery is also an important sensation to understand the beauty of human life. We miss such kind films in our time.' He added: 'For the first time in Indian film history, this film will explore Indian classical music intermingling with western opera and symphony.' Gaadha was in the works for several years before it was abandoned. It would have been his magnum opus, the crowning glory of an illustrious career that deserved another global breakthrough to round it off. That was not to be, but even if Shaji had not made anything after Vanaprastham, the benchmark he set with his first three films would have assured him immortality. The writer is an award-winning Indian film critic.
