The screen drowns in the angst and despair emanating from the pounding rain. With eyes shadowed in longing, he sat there, on his easy chair, beholding the cascading rain. When Shaji N Karun in his directorial debut, Piravi, essayed a father’s yearning in such simple imageries, Sunny Joseph, his cameraman donated a new life to it with his rustic yet proficient camerawork. The sheer rawness or naturalism as professionals call it, exuding from Sunny’s frames, is what makes him a favourite among prominent filmmakers like Pamela Rooks, Shaji N Karun, M T Vasudevan Nair, T V Chandran, Aravindan and even Adoor Gopalakrishnan. “I have never gone and asked any one for a chance. All the films were offered to me. There are times when I have even refused films of big names just because I felt that it wouldn’t suit me,” says Sunny.
From signing the tiny flip books he made in his school days to becoming a projectionist at a local theatre to watch movies, this film buff, ate, slept and breathed cinema even during his early days. Any moving image that said a story caught his attention; hence he was not bound to any particular tastes or language. While attending a cinema appreciation course in his teens at Cherthala, his hometown, his awe towards the magnificence of celluloid world turned into oodles of respect for the medium and his resolve to be a part of it got stronger.
Sunny first touched an Arriflex camera, when he was fourteen years old. It was during renowned poet/lyricist Vayalar Rama Varma’s funeral that he had his first tryst with camera. Sunny who was an onlooker to Vayalar’s tête-â-tête with his uncle, who was a friend, attended the funeral for the pure adulation for the great man but there he met with his destiny. He stroked the device with a filmmaker’s grit.
“I want to be a director, even though it has not happened yet. I will direct the moment I get a producer,” says Sunny. Sunny has directed few short films and two popular serials over the years.
With his adeptness in filmmaking Sunny awed his tutors at Film and Television Institute in India, Pune, (FTII)in no time. His diploma film, The clown and dog, a 45-minute-long film had won many accolades in the international scene. “We had an enlightening tree in our FTII campus. When I was sitting underneath it, one of my professors advised me to try cinematography as well. So i took up cinematography,” says Sunny.
In 1987, Sunny got his first chance to pan his camera for prominent Malayalam director Mohan. When Sunny saw the initial rushes of Theertham he has taken, all he wanted was to commit suicide. While all set to jump from the edge of the terrace, he mercifully remembered the face of his pregnant wife. Restraining himself from taking that drastic step, he decided to step back from cinema itself. But later Theertham turned out to be a critically acclaimed film with stunning cinematography to boast of. Even then, Sunny was not convinced. He went to see his mentor Shaji N Karun to convey his decision to quit film. But there waiting for him was another surprise.
“I went to Shaji sir’s house to let him know that I am quitting cinema but there I met with the director of Eenam Maranna Kattu, Thomas J Easaw. They were discussing about me when I entered Shaji sir’s house. He wrote me a cheque then itself as an advance for his film,” says Sunny.
In 1988, when Shaji N Karun decided to make his directorial debut, he did not have to look any further for his cameraman. When Shaji called Sunny for his shoot, Sunny was under the impression that he was assisting Shaji, but when Shaji asked him to light the set, he knew it was a life altering moment. Piravi had garnered him, a state award for cinematography. Though accolades have always eluded him, Sunny does not think much of it.
“I have always received recognition from my peers as well as film fraternity. And most of the national award jury thinks that Sunny has had as many as ten national awards in his kitty so he doesn’t need any more,” he says with a laugh.
Though he is a firm believer of naturalism in cinematography, he makes sure to update his craft with modern technology. He thinks that development of technology will not make anybody a filmmaker. “Without having passion or talent how can one make a good film. Even Santhosh Pandit is making films, does that make them good,” Sunny probes. The current project he is working on is the biopic of Srinivasa Ramanujan being directed by Gnana Rajasekaran.
