Interview with Director Harikumar

The brilliant film maker Harikumar who won state award for the best director for”Sukrutham”(1995) and “Pulervettom”(2002) is now doing the script work of his new film . He was a member of the national film award jury this year. Lets go through his viewpoints regarding today’s malayalam cinema.

Q: Sir, you are well known to the Kerala film viewers as a family film maker. Your last commercial film “Paranjutheeratha Visheshangal” came after 7 years gap in 2007 (after Swayamwarapandal in 2000). How do you analyse today’s malayalam cinema?

A: For the last ten years, a lack of interest is visible among the viewers towards the movies which depict the family relationships and values due to the changes in life styles. Especially in cities, economical growth has affected the relationships too. Another fact that affected the family movies is mega serials in television. The female viewers of family movies became addicted to low standard serials, and it ultimately affected the financial success of good standard family movies. This addiction to the serials can be compared with that of the immense popularity of “M” weeklys in the 80s. But I feel this addiction to serials has diminished a little bit since the last two years.

This television penetration affected all movie industries in different periods. Hollywood was supposed to be dead in the 70s due to the over poularity of television. The same trend has repeated at Mumbai in 80s regarding the Bollywood, and it affected malayalam industry in the late 90s. As like the recovery of Hollywod and Bollywood, Malayalam cinema will also comeback. This addiction to television is temporary, just like our affection towards a newly bought fancy item. Television became a member of majority kerala families in late 90s. That affection towards the newly bought good can last for a few years. So now people prefer to go to theater only for the films which are different from the serial formulas.

As like the collapse of “M” weeklys after the 80s, (almost 20 weeklys were there) this serial trend will also fade away as it doesn’t offer anything creative or related to life.

Q: So can we expect a big comeback of a prosperous malayalam cinema age?

A: Cinema will exist forever though whatever other temporary trends come in between. Cinema is the youngest art form, as its only a century old. But take the case of drama its thousands of years old art form, and still exist here. Its only 40 years since India’s ever best film is made by Satyajith Ray. The development in technology will contribute more for cinema’s future. Changes may happen in viewing methods and screening technology, but cinema won’t go away from the viewers.

Q: Do you think the themes of today’s malayalam cinema is competable with that of Tamil, Hindi movies? Do our film makers make enough experimental films as compared to other language films?

A: I was a jury member of last national awards and happened to see around 110 films from different languages in India. There were 15 films from Malayalam, 18 from Hindi, 10 from Bengali and 12 from Tamil in the first round. Only 30 films were selected for the final round. 8 films were selected from Malayalam and only 1 film from Tamil(Paruthiveeran). 7 films were selected from Bengali. I was surprised to see that only a single film is selected from Tamil, though we all say Tamil films are more experimental. Even Paruthiveeran was also constarined to all the boundaries of a commercial films and it has all the ingredients of a commercial. If there is a chance for a film like “Pulijanmam” to be made in any other languages, its only Bengali or Marathi because their govt gives a subsidy upto 30 lakhs. A film like Madambi’s first week share is 80 lakhs but Adoor’s “Naalu Pennungal” got only 3.5 lakhs in total gross.

But in case of commercial films, there are better films in Hindi and Tamil as compared to that of malayalam. Omkara, Lage Raho Munnabhai etc are good examples. Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Traffic Signal” deserves an applause, as its a very difficult one to picturise. Such efforts are not common in Malayalam. But Tamil is not upto Hindi in that respect.

The generation came after Bharathan, Padmarajan era is not having innovative thoughts like the ancestors. Its time for a new generation of film makers to come in to revolutionise malayalm cinema. They must be able to think away from the usual pattern. Today’s film makers are just folowing the predecessors’ path only for their own benefits. Thats one of the major drawbacks of today’s mainstream cinema.

Q: How do you consider the star dominance in malayalm cinema? is it positive or negative for our industry?

A: Ya its one of the major problems that our cinema is revolving around just two super stars, and its dangerous for our industry. It can adversly affect the viewers too that they wont accept the films which don’t give importance to the superstar’s stardom. There are superstars all around the world. But our major plus point is that both of our super stars are excellent actors too, can be called the best in India. But how many of the films are utilizing their talents? Do the films which utilize their talent get accepted by today’s viewers? Even Orekadal didn’t get a good run in boxoffice. Now films which are only made according to star’s pattern are accepted( like Annan Thambi). So the major crisis of malayalam cinema is the lack of confidence in the film makers for different thoughts and contracting into two stars. At the same time different themes of other languages are accepted here. The fans associations are never for the betterment of cinema.

Q: What is your hope about the upcoming film makers and actors in malayalam?

A: There are promising talents among the young film makers and actors. But it should not be constrained to one or two people. Today’s majority of actors and directors are still from 80s. We must get a group of talents in all the fields of cinema. Then only we can dream about a bright future for our cinema.

Q: Which is your next project?

A: Now I am working on a script. Its a superstar in the lead and it will not be based on the superstardom. Planning to start the shooting by the end of this year.

Nik: Thanks a lot for your time, and my best wishes for your future projects.