Eleven feature films in 37 years – the filmography of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, the head of the Cairo International Film Festival’s international competition jury and renowned Indian filmmaker, may seem an anomaly in this era of highly prolific directors. But as he puts it, “I cannot make a film without real inspiration. I do not want to repeat myself.
His debut feature film “Swayamvaram released in 1972 was truly inspirational for the Malayalam language film industry of India, which until then was, in the words of Gopalakrishnan “theatrical. Since then, awards have come his way with regularity, including the British Film Institute Award for the most original and imaginative film for “Elippathayam (Rat Trap, 1981).
Despite such a long and illustrious career, even today, the question on Gopalakrishnan’s mind, while making a movie is “Why should anyone come to see my film?
“Any good film has to survive the period of its making, said Gopalakrishnan. He cites the example of his debut feature film that was screened as part of a retrospective of his films conducted at the French Cinematheaque, Paris in 1999 and then at the Munich Film Museum, earlier this year. Decades after its release, the audiences were still bowled over by the film.
“Naalu Penuungaal (Four Women), directed by him is being screened at the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival. The movie is based on four short stories set in the 1940s to the 1960s in Kerela, India. But they could be the story of the contemporary woman belonging to any city in the world.
Gopalakrishnan describes each story as a full-fledged film. Each part narrates the story of women from different strata of society. “They are all independent in one sense but then they are connected. There is this theme of the progression of awareness of oneself, through the passage of stories, explains Gopalakrishnan.
The first story titled “The Prostitute is about a prostitute who tries to live a life of dignity by working as a laborer and also enters into an informal marriage with an orphan. But society is unable to accept her in this way. She and her husband are falsely implicated for living in sin and are asked for proof of their marriage. When they are unable to produce any, they are imprisoned.
The Virgin’s protagonist shoulders the responsibility of running the household at a very early age. After marriage, her husband ignores her completely and avoids any kind of contact with her. After a customary visit to her parents’ house, he leaves her there and does not return to take her back.
The third part of the film titled “The Housewife is about a childless married woman whose former classmate returns home for a visit. He tries to tempt her into resuming their earlier amorous relationship, luring her with the promise of a healthy offspring.
In all the three stories, the inherent strength of the female characters comes across, whether it is the virgin who emerges from the house when her father is quarreling with the neighbor who had played the matchmaker and declares that her marriage was never consummated or the housewife who boldly refuses the advances of her former classmate, overcoming her moment of weakness.
The last in the series, “The Spinster, revolves around the eldest of three sisters who watches silently as her younger sisters and elder brother get married and she is left alone with her widowed mother. After her mother passes away, she stays for a few days with her younger sister, but ultimately eschews staying with any family, and decides to live alone.
Goplakrishnan does not make any external effort to connect the four stories and yet they blend seamlessly without any jarring discontinuity. He fondly calls “Four Women his ‘festival movie’ since its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007, it has already been screened at 40 festivals. “The response everywhere has been excellent. The women seem to be owning it. I have been repeatedly thanked for making this film, he says.
The thematic and the chronological order of the film is borne out by the dress worn by the women and Gopalakrishnan’s attention to the minutest detail with respect to the customs, the houses and the settings, giving an authentic feel of the decade of 40s to 60s. The lush cinematography of the film shows off the natural beauty of Kerela. In “Spinster, the rowing of the boat on the backwaters is used beautifully to mark the progress of the story through the passage of years.
There is no compulsion to fill every frame with verbose characters or frantic activity; the virgin has a montage of the gluttonous husband going through all the courses of a Malayalam lunch, without any dialogue.
Despite the huge international audience that Gopalakrishnan’s movies enjoy, he has never ventured to set a movie in any other milieu, other than in his home state of Kerela.
“I am making films in a language and syntax that I understand. After all, cinema is a cultural expression. How can I make a film in a culture that I have no knowledge of? he asked.
