Once a while, celebrated cinematographer Santhosh Sivan directs his own film. But that doesn’t mean he gives up on squinting behind the camera eye piece. Currently shooting Urumi , a 20 crore mega historical project in Malayalam, starring Siddharth and Genelia D’Souza, he finds time on set to talk to The Sunday Standard on the film, direction and his inspirations.
Making a movie gives me the same thrill I had as a child making sand castles.
You try to see how far you can take it. And I can do it at my leisure, because I have another career to fall back on. So, I do it for that ‘living on the edge’ kind of thing.
Urumi is an interpretation of a historical event. It is an attempt to imagine how our ancestors dealt with the first white man on our soil. Ultimately, the empire did overcome all of us. Yet, there are other versions to the official history.
History is always written by winners. To the rest of the world, Vasco Da Gama is a discoverer. But, to us, he is an invader.
Urumi is a period war film. But there ends any comparison with Pazhassi Raja (another war movie in Malayalam). It is the journey of today’s man. It is structured in a way where characters play dual roles—that of an ancestor, and of someone in the present.
I don’t look for cinematographic possibilities of a theme per se while choosing a story, because I’d rather call it universal appeal. Visual language is universal.
If a story has a universal theme, I believe it can be have a visual interpretation that can be enjoyed worldwide, like Ravan .
On the other hand, Anantabhadram , my last Malayalam film, was based on a popular novel. A musician might make it differently. My way of making a movie reflects the vision of things a person like me has. What I do is what I know best.
I always related to tales about bygone eras. They remind me of the ones my grandmother used to tell me. She also introduced me to Ravi Varma. My films are tributes to her tales, which sowed seeds of visual language in me, and to the beauty of Ravi Varma’s art. My frames perhaps are an attempt to emulate that.
Directing and handling the camera at the same time never unsettles me. Both I enjoy. I occasionally stray into direction as it gives me freedom, though the excitement of filming on camera exceeds any physical strain. In fact, capturing moving images gives me a high. The camera becomes a friend with whom I go on adventures.
Notes from the set of Urumi
The lithe sword, ‘Urumi’— the weapon which lends Sivan’s movie it’s name, cut through actor Prithviraj’s limbs several times during the shoot. The vivacious Genelia “was asked to wear a serious expression during the shoot,” says Santhosh Sivan, director, cinematographer and producer of the film. “ Urumi is a result of my love for tales of bygone eras,” he says. “You normally know your lineage upto your grandfather, but what about his father and grandfather? They too were real people who responded to their time,” he adds. Urumi is a movie on Kerala’s inhabitants at the time of Vasco Da Gama’s arrival. “While shooting Ravan (also with Prithviraj), I told him Maharashtra’s virgin forests were ideal locale for Urumi.”
The elaborate cast and the exotic costumes were thrown in to accentuate the ‘clash of cultures’ in the movie.
“Genelia was impressive and willing to take the physical strain of learning horse riding and Kerala’s martial art of Kalari,” Sivan signs off.