interview: adoor gopalakrishnan Were you fond of films when you were a child? Not much. Actually I could have seen a lot of films if I wanted; my uncle had a couple of theatres at Adoor, Enath and Parakkode. But I was never an ardent cinema fan and I never ever thought that I would work in cinema. From the beginning I was more involved in theatre. Have you also acted? Yes. I first acted in a play when I was eight. It was during a school function (marking the birthday of Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal). The play was written by one of my teachers and I played the role of Sri Buddha in it. Outside the school we had a group of friends. We used to write and enact plays, usually in front of elders at home. They all used to come and watch our plays. They took us really seriously. For, in those days of joint families, it was not usual for children to get any serious attention of the elders. Now I think they get too much attention and are pampered. Maybe I owe it to Gandhi. For he taught us there is dignity in doing any work. Another element is that of self-respect. We have become a people who lack it totally. May be it is due to the national experience of the fifties when we lost all our morale-we were a country begging for alms all over the world. How did you get interested in plays? From childhood, I was interested in literature. During my schooldays I had membership in every library in our region. I used to read all kinds of books. We also started a library of our own and an arts club. What kind of plays did you do at school? At the primary level, most of the plays were imitations of the plays I saw. There was nothing original in it. We had a group of three boys of the same age. It was called the RNG Company (R for Ravindran, N for Narayanan and G for Gopalakrishnan). We met at the cashew grove on weekends. Each one will climb atop a cashew tree with a note-book and pencil and around lunch time, everyone will get down one by one with his creation-short story, poetry, play or anything. And then we would discuss them among ourselves. What kind of plays interested you while you were a college student? Mostly socials. We have staged the plays of Thoppil Bhasi, S L Puram etc. and I have got good many prizes while in school. While I was studying in Gandhigram, I did a play titled Aniyara. It even went on to win the best prize at a theatre festival. It was an interesting play about an amateur group, getting ready to stage a play. All the action is in the green room, and ultimately, the play fizzles out before it gets staged. What we see in the play is the green room and the stage is behind, unseen. It was a novel concept then, later a lot of plays came out with similar themes. I also wrote a few full length Plays during that period. Two of them got published: Ninte Rajyam Varunnu and Vaiki Vanna Veliecham, one was published while I was studying at the Film Institute, and G Sankara Pillai wrote the preface for it. Later, I felt I should never have published them. It was out of one's desire-typical of my age-to see one's works published, to win recognition as a writer. Theatre was my first love. And I had also staged a number of plays while in Trivandrum before I joined the film institute. Any memorable events in your college days? I used to do Plays regularly. I had even played female roles while in college! One good memory I have of that period is of poet G Sankara Kurup coming to our college and delivering a lecture. I have never heard such fluent, poetic speech. It still rings in my ears. It was a great experience. Were you involved in student politics? No. There was not much of politics in the campus then. What was the mood of the times before you graduated? It was a period of hope, optimism, nation building etc. I can't explain why. But from the beginning, I was attracted to Gandhi and I became a great admirer of the values upheld by him. Maybe it grew out of listening to the elders or reading newspapers. Another hero was Bose. There were always these speculations about him, "If only Bose were here, things would have been different". Nehru was not that glamorous then. May be because he was already in the seat of power. Gandhi finds a recurring mention in KATHAPURUSHAN. Has Gandhian philosophy influenced your aesthetic approach? I feel that one could glimpse such a strain in your films, for example in the economy of means employed, the stoic approach in the mis-en-scene, the avoidance of frills etc. It may also be the result of my theatre experience. As my cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma has observed, on the sets, I am ready to do everything myself, instead of just ordering others about it. Even today, I am not averse to do any work; in fact, I find pleasure in it. Maybe I owe it to Gandhi. For he taught us there is dignity in doing any work. Another element is that of self-respect. We have become a people who lack it totally. May be it is due to the national experience of the fifties when we lost all our morale-we were a country begging for alms all over the world. We are poor, poor in our attitudes. We repair the same drains and build the same culverts every year. This, I think, is a sign of poverty. Theatre-wise it was a period when playwrights like Thoppil Bhasi and movements like KPAC were dominating the scene. To become a Gandhian during that period sounds strange. Thoppil Bhasi arrived a little later. He was from my neighbouring village. He was a hero those days. It was only in my college days that I first saw a Play by Bhasi though. It was Mudiyanaya putran (The Prodigal son). And I remember having gone to see him in the lock up at the Adoor Police Station where he was detained in connection with the Sooranadu uprising. Clad in a single mundu, he looked unimpressive, like any other man, a common criminal or a petty thief. Not an image that suited a hero of contemporary legends! Later when I met Bhasi I told him about it. You were acquainted with Sankara Pillai during your college days? I was doing my BSc in Pandalam College. In the middle of it, I got admission for a course in Rural Administration at the Gandhigram Rural Institute in Madurai. It was a three-year course. G Sankara Pillai had just joined there as a lecturer. He was a great source of inspiration to me. He had single-minded devotion to theatre. His life and approach to art was a great lesson that one should not do things half-heartedly. Why did you switch to that course? There was an assurance that once you complete it, you will get job as a Block Development Officer. And I could not resist the temptation. I think it was 1957. Did you do Plays at Gandhigram too? No, but I could read a lot. There was a good library there (G Sankara Pillai was in charge of the library and he did the selections). Till then my reading was mostly limited to Malayalam. It was there that I was able to read plays and books on theatre in English. Till I joined the Film Institute I used to read a lot of Plays, that also in a very systematic manner. At that time I behaved like an authority on theatre. I had read almost all the available books on theatre. Were you able to watch theatre performances? No. There were no opportunities to watch Plays. I had chanced to read some of the manuscripts of Plays by G. Sankara Pillai. Even after I joined the Film Institute, my interest in theatre continued. For the whole of the first year, I was still reading Plays there. Waiting for Godot came out around that time. While you were in Madurai, did you watch movies regularly? I went to see movies, but not very frequently. I used to like Sivaji Ganesan films. I had seen most of his films during that time. Everyone admired him. All those films with names starting with 'pa' by Bhim Singh like Pasamalar, Pavamannippu etc. came out then. After you passed out of Gandhigram? Immediately after that, I was employed for two months in the Bharat Sevak Samaj in a slum service project. Then I got a regular job in the National Sample Survey as investigator. In Trivandrum? Yes, the zonal office was in Trivandrum, but I had to travel all over Kerala as part of my work. It was interesting work as it gave me an opportunity to travel and live in distant and remote parts of the State. Most often I used to stay in someone's house or in tiny rooms atop shops. The pay was good, about Rs 600/- per month. In those days a college lecturer used to get only Rs.120. Then slowly I started to hate the job and wanted to leave at the first opportunity. What I came to dislike was the lack of dignity that the job entailed. Even if I did a good job, my immediate boss the Inspector would find some fault, which irritated me. When it became routine, I thought it was time to quit and save my self-respect. Moreover, the job was also making my theatre work difficult. I would be preparing the production of a play when I am asked to go to Malabar. Above all, my mother fell ill at that time, and I wanted to be near her. And instead of posting me somewhere here, they sent me away to Malabar. My initial excitement of getting a job and becoming an earning member of the family was all gone by then. | Previous Page | Next Page | | Home | Mail | | History of Indian Cinema | Indian Parallel Cinema | History of Malayalam Cinema | | Malayalam Parallel Cinema | Malayalam Middle-Stream Cinema | | Malayalam Cinema Database |