Monday, September 27, 2010

A Life in Cinema

Adoor Gopalakrishnan is not the easiest of subjects for any biographer. He is an intensely private man whose outstanding work over three decades does not always reveal its secrets easily. Gautaman Bhaskaran's A Life in Cinema delves into the man and the films with an enthusiasm and respect. We learn more about the work, generally from the director's mouth itself, and about the struggles Gopalakrishnan had to transfer his vision onto celluloid.

Though now regarded as India's best film-maker outside the commercial field, it was not always easy to gain a reputation outside Kerala, where he always had a faithful audience.Even now, the fact that Gopalakrishnan's films are seldom given a commercial life abroad shows how difficult it is. True, they are shown as tributes to  and retrospectives of a remarkable artist in Britain, America and at festivals all over the world. But one constantly feels that ordinary non-specialist audiences would appreciate films like The Walls and Rat-Trap too.

Full report here Hindustan Times

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