THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For a Malayali film junkie, who obsessively follows the parallel cinema to the core, Kumar Shahani is God. Shahani shares space with Ritwik Ghatak, Mani Kaul and Shyam Benegal in a film aspirant’s heart. The little known factor is that for Shahani, Kerala is an inspiration for many of his classic works. This filmmaker, who had taken the Hindi Cinema scene by storm with his ‘Mayadarpan’, a film that had no big names associated with it, frequents Kerala after his long tedious schedules to unwind. Shahani’s ardent adoration for Kerala, is being recorded in M R Rajan’s ‘When the bird became a wave’, a documentary shot on the shores of Kerala.
Shahani, who was Rajan’s teacher at FTII (Film and Television Institute India, Pune) often expresses his affinity towards Kerala to his disciples. Years later, Rajan decided to make a film on his mentor exploring the land Rajan calls his own, Kerala.
“I was extremely interested in Shahani’s world view and his beliefs while we were in FTII. And I had gathered as much from those conversations that he keeps a special place for Kerala in his heart. And that came as a surprise as he is basically from Larkana, Sindh (now in Pakistan). It was V K Narayana Menon, the then secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, who introduced him to Kerala in 1976 and since then he has been traversing the land,” says Rajan.
Shahani, who credits his unique film making style to Kerala, was easily swooned away by the myriad performing arts thriving in the state. He fell head over heels in love with Mudiyattam, Kathakali and the likes on his multiple visits to Kalamandalam, the cultural hub of Kerala. The film, which records Shahani’s journey through Kerala in the last 4 years starting from 2010, easily becomes Rajan’s tribute to his teacher as well as his land. He intertwines significant historical references, stories, arts, cinema and much more in his narration.
“Here is a non-Malayali, a famous one to be precise, who wants to come and settle down in Kerala from the busy lifestyle he leads in Mumbai. So I wanted to dig deep into that element of his personality while unraveling Kerala in detail,” quips Rajan. Rajan who accompanies Shahani to the lesser known areas of Kozhikode, Vadakara, Kollam, Alappuzha Thiruvananthapuram and many more, says there was more than 25 hours of recorded material for him to edit the film. At first Rajan wanted to pen down his experience as a book. “But later I felt that Malayalis should know what our world is all about. So a documentary is the best way to do it. Many relevant time periods such as the time of Vasco Da Gama’s is being discussed and revisited here. The film looks at different regions from different time periods and unearths stories and traditions from then” Rajan says.
Through his multiple discussions about history, cinema, music, performing arts, politics, growth of the market, traditional trade and human relations, Shahani is delving deep into the techniques of human survival. Through questions and debates he makes the travel intriguing and alive.
Rajan, who has an enviable repertoire, has several award winning documentaries to his credit such as ‘Cinemayude Kalpadukal’ (Footprints of Cinema ) 2008; ‘Minukku’ (Incandescence ) 2006 and’Nottam’ (Gaze ) 1999.
When asked what’s Shahani’s reaction to the final outcome Rajan says with a smile, “He felt that I was exploring Kerala through him”. The script was written by V Sasikumar. One major portion of the film was shot by renowned cinematographer Sunny Joseph.
The 72-minute-long film was screened for the first time in Kerala at Sahitya Akademy Hall Thrissur on Thursday.
