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Opinion From ‘Piravi’ to ‘Olu’, the visual poetry of Shaji N Karun’s films

The death of the auteur marks the exit of a great master of celluloid cinema, whose cinematographic and directorial oeuvre holds a unique position in the history of Indian and Malayalam cinema

Shaji N Karun had started his career as a cinematographer in 1974 (File)

May 1, 2025 11:30 AM IST First published on: May 1, 2025 at 11:29 AM IST

The departure of Shaji N Karun marks the exit of a great master of celluloid cinema, whose cinematographic and directorial oeuvre holds a unique position in the history of Indian and Malayalam cinema. After graduating from FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), he collaborated with G Aravindan on a slew of films. These films had a distinct mood and pace, giving Malayalam “new wave” cinema a fresh look and feel. For Shaji, cinematography was not merely a technique or a profession, but an all-engrossing art.

As a director, he belonged to the post “new-wave” generation of Malayalam cinema. His first directorial venture Piravi was made in 1988 when the art cinema movement was at its fag end and the television era was just beginning. But Shaji succeeded in carving out a niche for himself as an auteur through a series of significant films over the next few decades. His narrative world was dark. Tragic in outlook, his films mostly dealt with human suffering, pain, loss and longing.

He only made seven films during his career, but they are all testimony to his unique cinematic vision; though their themes were deeply rooted in their respective milieu, they were universal in their appeal. All his films except Nishad (2002) are set within the Malayalee milieu and culture, most of them dealing with particular art forms, artists and art practices like kathakali, chenda or chavittu natakam. It is the protagonist-artiste who embodies and enacts the most elemental of human dramas, full of conflicts within and without. In a way, the artistes in Shaji’s films are blessed with art, but also “cursed” by it — through its power to entice the artiste into vanity, lure them with fame or money; or binding them in the chasm between the life of an ordinary human being and the persona of an admired actor.

Being a cinematographer par excellence, what would strike a viewer immediately in his films would be their visual compositions. No other filmmaker was so fascinated by the watery expanse of Kerala: the vastness and mystery of water loomed over most of his narratives that unfolded near rivers, lakes, backwaters or the sea, with rains as a perpetual presence. Thematically, his basic concerns were human predicaments driven by certain instincts, artistic or otherwise, that eventually get caught in tragic situations.

His most talked-about movie, Piravi (The Birth/1989), won the Camera d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1989. It was based on a real incident that happened in Kerala during the Emergency, when an engineering student was taken into custody by the police and tortured to death. His whereabouts were never found, nor was his body recovered. Though several films have dealt with the theme of missing persons or people who are made to disappear, Piravi remains the most poignant and haunting human document of such dark times anywhere in the world. It also stands apart because of the great performance by the veteran actor Premji, who plays the aged father waiting endlessly for the return of his only son. His next film, Swaham (One’s Own/1994), was again a tragic story about a mother who loses her son, the only hope in her life. His next film Vanaprastham (The Last Dance/1999) featured one of the most celebrated actors in Malayalam cinema, Mohanlal. He performed the role of a kathakali actor whose life falls apart, despite talent, fame and empathy. Though he overcomes hurdles like caste and lineage through his art, he is eventually forced to sacrifice himself at its altar by the ghosts of his own actions and passions.

Nishad (Octave/2002), set in a north Indian border town during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, is the story of a couple — a government doctor (Rajit Kapoor) and a teacher at a Tibetan school (Archana) — who despite several tragedies in their life, try to hold on to their faith in life and the world. On the one side, their life at the placid Himalayan valley is troubled by the war waged at the border and, on the other, illuminated by the calm spiritual atmosphere of the Buddhist monastery. But the world responds cruelly to their personal virtues with another tragedy, this time the death of their son at the battlefront. Kutty Srank (The Sailor of Hearts/2010) featured the other superstar of Malayalam cinema, Mammootty, in the lead role. In the film, he plays three different characters in three different storylines and locales. The story of his life unfolds through the memories of three women who were part of his life at different places.
In Swapaanam (The Voiding Soul/2014), Shaji portrays the conflicts and dilemmas in the life of an artist-couple, a chenda player and a Mohiniyattam dancer. Like in Vanaprastham, here, too, the protagonist is haunted by several ghosts, including the mystery that surrounds his parentage and the passions generated by his art. He is caught in the swirl of emotions and events that finally push him from artistic ecstasy to personal doom. Shaji’s last film Olu (She/2019) also revolves around an artist, a painter living in a remote island, who betrays his muse for the sake of fame and money, and realises his mistakes too late.

One of the finest celluloid cinematographers, Shaji was instrumental in the making of great cinematic works by Aravindan like Kanchana Sita (1978), Thampu (1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1980), Chidambaram (1985), Pokkuveyil (1982), Oridathu (1986) and Marattam (1988). Other memorable films include those by eminent directors in Malayalam like M T Vasudevan Nair, Padmarajan, Lenin Rajendran and Hariharan. Shaji also made several documentaries on luminary artistes like G Aravindan, K G Subramanyan and Namboodiri.

Apart from being a cinematographer and director, he also played a key role in conceiving and establishing the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the International Film Festival of Kerala. He also headed the Kerala State Film Development Corporation and was the chairperson of Progressive Arts and Literary Organisation. Shaji’s cinematographic images and narratives, and the universal human predicaments he grappled with, will continue to enthral cineastes across the world for decades to come.

The writer is a film critic and documentary filmmaker