Adoor Gopalakrishnan: The Relentless Innovator Who Redefined Malayalam Cinema
In a remarkable journey spanning over five decades, Adoor Gopalakrishnan has redefined the language of Indian cinema with his uncompromising vision, artistic courage, and deep-rooted cultural sensibility. From the landmark Swayamvaram to the powerful Vidheyan, each of his films has not only pushed the boundaries of storytelling in Malayalam cinema but has also earned global acclaim, placing him in the league of world auteurs like Satyajit Ray and Akira Kurosawa. On the occasion of Adoor’s 84th birthday, this tribute by V K Cherian explores the milestones, methods, and the magical realism that mark Adoor’s unparalleled contribution to world cinema. V K Cherian is a seasoned journalist, communications professional, and author with deep engagement in Indian cinema and cultural policy. His writings reflect a lifelong commitment to documenting and analyzing the evolution of film culture in India. He has authored multiple acclaimed books, including ‘Celluloid to Digital: India’s Film Society Movement’, which chronicles the influential role of film societies, and ‘Noon Films: Magical Renaissance of Malayalam Cinema’, an insightful account of the recent resurgence in Malayalam filmmaking.
No two films by Adoor Gopalakrishnan resemble each other—each one stands apart in vision, style, and historical depth. From his groundbreaking debut Swayamvaram to films like Vidheyan, Adoor has continuously reinvented cinematic language in Malayalam cinema. His unique voice has earned him an unparalleled place among global auteurs, being one of only three Asian filmmakers—alongside Satyajit Ray and Akira Kurosawa—to receive the prestigious Sutherland Trophy from the British Film Institute. His films have been celebrated in retrospectives at iconic venues such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, and Lincoln Center in New York, and have been showcased at major festivals in La Rochelle, Pesaro, Freiburg, Lyon, Ljubljana, and Munich. Honours like the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the Sutherland Trophy, and the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters from France affirm his towering legacy as a creative innovator who placed Malayalam cinema on the global map.
His first film, Swayamvaram , made in 1971-72 and released on 24 of November 72 portrayed the huge uncertainty of the young educated people faced during those days . The film depicted the uncertainty and upheavals of the times in the most visual and realistic way. It starts as a romantic story of a couple eloping and trying to build a new life for them in a city and ends with one dying during his struggles and another, the woman left to face the uncertainty ahead with a kid. The experience of the lead character Viswam, holds the mirror to the Kerala society of those days. The ambiance of the hotels, the lower middle class dwellings, the tutorial college, the sow mills, the suspended worker, the ailing colleague and then the waiting wife and arrival of the kid is portrayed with the typical visuals of the period and ambience sounds that even today, the life of those times comes alive while watching the film.
Swayamvaram was no accidental film of a fortune seeker in films. Adoor, the 1965 batch Film and Television Institute of Pune, after having experienced the world film classics and done his diploma films, has been preparing himself and the Keralites for such a film from the word go. His Chitralekha film society which was flagged off by Governor Bhagavan Sahay in 1965 was nurturing the audience in Kerala for such a film, just as Satyajit Ray prepared the Bengali audience for his Pather Panchali. By 1972 the film society movement had spread to almost all urban centres in Kerala and the discerning audience was ready for a film like Swayamvaram. No producer of those times was willing to risk his money for such a film and hence Adoor and his film society friends formed a film co-operative to make the film. With the loan from the public sector Film Finance Corporation –FFC- predecessor of National Film Development Corporation, the first film cooperative of India was able to achieve its dream project. But at the initial release, the audience appeared confused to receive such an experiment, but after the film bagged four national awards, including that of best film and best director of the year, they embraced it wholeheartedly making it a box office success and giving the film the unique honour of paying back the FFC loan. It is said very few FFC financed films of the new wave have paid their loans back and Swayamvaram tops the chart.
Adoor the filmmaker continued his creative innovation with his second film, Kodiyettam-The Asent– in 1977. If Swayamvaram , as a struggle with harsh realities, Kodiyettam was a film of how a countryside person wakes up to his harsh reality amidst the cacophony of daily chores of life. No wonder the lead character portrayed by Gopi got the national best actor award of the year and Satyajit Ray became a big admirer of Adoor after seeing this film minus any background music. The film too was a huge commercial success in Kerala, even though Gopi the lead character is a balding middle aged man. Kerala audience embraced the authentic portrayal of their countryside and giggled over the many follies of the character Shankaran Kutty ensuring Chitralekha film cooperative laughed all the way to a box office success enabling them to build their own studio with equipment in late 70s.
Elipathayam–The Rat trap-, Adoor’s third film made in 1981, after his parting ways with Chitralekha film cooperative, is described as a “classic” by not just the British Film Institute, but by Cuban Filmmaker Thomas Alea during a visit to India in 80s. The first colour film of Adoor broke the style of all his other films and he portrayed a man caught in the web of tectonic changes around him, equating his plight as that of a rat in his own traditional house whose doors crack like that of a rat trap. The intertwining of characters with the theme of the film and the rat with haunting theme music put Adoor firmly in the list of global auteur filmmakers.
In Mukha Mukham– Face to Face, released in 1987, he handled a political subject, but without making it a political essay on the split of the communist parties of Kerala. Despite the strong adverse response of Kerala‘s communist parties, he insisted that it is not about the politics of the Left, but on the plight of leaders after the split of 1964. The film was noticed the Eastern bloc counties of 80s and a leader almost like a lead character of his film visited Adoor one fine morning giving a huge surprise to the film maker. Leftist veteran of arts Thoppil Bhasi was the only one who admired the film, saying the film was a call for introspection of the communist leaders about their goals and the process of achieving it. Here too Adoor’s choice of the subject and portrayal of the period of communist uprising in Kerala and their plight after the split of the communist parties in a humane way makes the film unique and original.
Anantharam– Monologue- made in 1987 for many is a psycho-analytical film, going to depth of an adolescent man. But for Adoor it is his imagination of an abandoned boy growing up in a hospital into his adolescent days and beyond. The doctor who adopted him gives all physical support, but his mind travels to unknown places as he starts growing up. Adoor portrays this increasing realization of the character through different angles of Ajayan , the leading man, making it a unique experience of watching films. Though he says it is telling a story from different angles, the angle itself becomes an analytical tool to trace the various phases of the protagonist’s growth as a boy to a man. Many consider it as one of Adoor’s most difficult films, but connoisseurs consider it as brilliantly structured one.
Mathilukal –The walls- the 1990 film added yet another golden touch to Adoor ’s oeuvre . The story of Vaikkam Mohammed Basher, the iconic writer of Malayalam and a brilliant performance by Mamootty as the incarcerated writer himself, during pre-independence days enabling the actor to bag his first national award for acting, was yet another touch of creative innovation by Adoor. The films’ heroine was an invisible prison mate, whose seductive voice is heard, making the hero and the prisoner forget his lack of freedom. When he is released from prison, the writer wonders about the meaning of freedom, as he has started enjoying his prison days and a longing to see the lady love. Adoor, thus made a statement of the wider concepts of political freedom and that of the individual, immortalizing the great writer Basheer and actor Mammooty who portrayed him in the film.
Videhayan –The Servile– the 1993 film is yet another innovation of Adoor, the auteur, based on a novelette of Paul Zacharia, the Malayalam writer. The film as Adoor says is with a wild energy with its theme and characters, was shot entirely outside Kerala and had Mammootty as the cruel Patelar , the tax collector of erstwhile British ruled South Canara. The Patelar is caught in the past and still continues to impose his feudal powers on the poor farmers, but the new law and system of free India catches up with him after he kills his wife, who pricks him like his unidentified conscience. Finally he succumbs to the bullet of the killers sent by his brother in laws and the man who considered himself as a slave of the Patelar finds himself being treated equally before his death. This leaves the servile man whether to celebrate his freedom or mourn his master’s death. The film is full of action unlike other Adoor films and Mamootty excels as a Patelar to bag yet another national award for himself.
Though Adoors six films from Kathapurushan –The man of the Story– to Pinneyaum-Again– has his distinct style and craft, his creative innovative approach appears to bear some wear and tear. Going by the critical acclaim and excitement the films created in Kerala, nationally and internationally in terms of appreciation and honours, one can witness a certain creative fatigue setting in the master film maker. Though Adoor says, at a given time he made the best film he could and each of his films as his best, for those who are used to his creative innovation, in the first six of films, the rest of the six is a growing disappointment as the expectations created by the first six were sky high. The only solace is that creativity of an auteur is a dynamic process, not a mechanical one which can be manufactured or created out of external factors. Adoor remains the best creative innovator in films of his prime age and time period of his first film till today. And the fact that he has made only 12 feature films and about 25 shorts and documentaries in 50 years stands to the testimony that every film was a huge creative effort from his side. The results of these efforts may be uneven, but the first six has put him on the global map of the auteur filmmakers, a first for any Malayalam film maker in such numbers. One can easily conclude that in the last 50 years, Adoor’s innovations in films have put Malayalam films, along with not just other Indian films of creative nature, but of the world, making him the worthy successor of the other global film maker from India, Mr Satyajit Ray.
