Adoor Gopalakrishnan, (b. 1941)

Malayalam director born in Adoor, Kerala. Stage début as actor aged 8. Graduated from Gandhigram Rural University (1960) having produced over 20 plays, including ones he wrote himself. Notable among these was Godothe Kathe, adapting Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, with Gopi. Resigned from government job and graduated from the FTII (1965). Founder and president of the Chitralekha Film Co-op in Trivandrum (1965), the first of its kind in India, set up by FTII graduates as a production-distribution centre for personal films outside the commercial sector. In the mid- 70s, a laboratory was added to the Trivandrum studio. Writes his own scripts, two of which (Elippathayam and Mukha Mukham) were published in English by Seagull Books in Calcutta (1985). Films show an emphasis on psychology depicted through gesture (cf. [[S. Ray]]). Theorised his approach in Cinemayude Lokam (1983). The reformist dimension of his work achieves an extra edge given the relative absence of that tradition in Travancore’s literature. Travancore’s delayed entry into the nationalist mainstream and its sudden transformation from a feudal state ruled by Dewan C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyer into one run by a CPI government, created a break in Kerala’s history which animates his films: e.g. his portrayal of the Nair community of former rent collectors in Elippathayam and of the Communist movement itself in Mukha Mukham and Mathilukal.

FILMOGRAPHY: 1965: A Great Day (Sh); 1968: And Man Created (Doc); Danger At Your Doorstep (Doc); 1969: Towards National STD (Doc); 1972: Swayamvaram; 1974: Guru Chengannur (Doc); 1975: Past in Perspective (Doc); 1977: The Myth (Doc); Kodiyettam; 1979: Yakshagana (Doc); 1980: The Chola Heritage (Doc); 1981: Elippathayam; 1982: Krishnattam (Doc); 1984: Mukha Mukham; 1987: Anantaram; 1989: Mathilukal; 1993: Vidheyan; 1995: Kathapurushan.

Director