MUKHAMUKHAM (Face to Face) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

MUKHAMUKHAM (Face to Face)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1985.107 min
Cast :  Asokan, P. Ganga, Vishwanathan

The film starts in the early 1950s showing Sreedharan, the protagonist, as a very popular communist leader and trade union activist. He is forced to go underground after his name is associated with the murder of the owner of a tile factory. He is considered to be dead by his party and they even erect a memorial for him. But he makes an unexpected comeback almost 10 years later, after the first communist ministry gained and lost power in Kerala and after the Communist Party of India has split. On his return, he spends his time sleeping and drinking. His comeback is first a puzzle and then an embarrassment to his comrades and family. As the disappointment on his new face grows, he is found murdered. The film ends when both the communist parties jointly celebrate his martyrdom. A discussion was carried out about this movie in Russian Parliament.

MATHILUKAL (The Walls) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

MATHILUKAL (The Walls)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1990.120 min
Cast : Mammootty, Thilakan, Karamana

Confined to the narrow space of a prison cell, Bashir falls in love with a woman in the neighbouring prison compound. They are separated by a high wall so that they never see each other and have to devise ingenious ways for communicating. Narayani, Bashir’s love is presented as a female voice and never appears in person in the film.

On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, Forbes included Mammootty’s performance in the film on its list, “25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema”.  About casting Mammootty as Basheer, Adoor says: “To play someone when he is living is no mean challenge, and the Malayalam star rose up to it”.

KODIYETTAM (Ascent) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

KODIYETTAM (Ascent)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1977.137 min
Cast :  Gopi, Lalitha, Thikkurisi Sukumaran

The film captures the ascent of the protagonist, Shankaran Kutty, from a carefree individual to a mature responsible adult. The opening sequences, canned by the director himself, shows Shankaran Kutty- attending a temple festival. The film proceeds to show the irresponsible and often nomadic life style of Shankaran Kutty.  Shankaran Kutty, though seemingly at the beginning of middle age, spends most of his time playing around with children, joining political processions and helping the villagers when he is not attending temple festivals. He is provided for by his younger sister who works as a house maid in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. His sister in an attempt to get his life organized arranges a marriage for him. But to the dismay of his new wife, Shankaran Kutty continues his life style often staying away from home for weeks. The already pregnant wife soon leaves him, and Shankaran Kutty does not make any attempt to have her back at home.

KATHAPURUSHAN (The Man of the Story) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

KATHAPURUSHAN (The Man of the Story)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1996. 107 min
Cast : Vishwanathan, Mini Nair, Aranmulla Ponnamma

Kathapurushan is an award-winning feature film directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film is in Malayalam. It stars Vishwanathan, Mini Nair, Aranmula Ponnamma, Narendra Prasad and Urmila Unni. It won the Golden Lotus Award for Best Film at the National Film Awards in 1996. Kathapurushan is a journey exploring the recent history of the state of Kerala in India.

Kunjunni’s parents separate soon after his birth, and he’s left to be cared by his mother, void of paternal care and affection. He is brought up by his mother with the help of his grandmother, an estimate manager and his friend Meenakshi, the daughter of a maid servant working in Kunjunni’s house. Inspired by his Uncle, who was initially a Gandhian, and eventually a Marxist, Kunjunni finds himself drawn to left-wing ideologies during his studies at college, believing that communism is the answer to heal all social hardships and inequalities. Eventually he joins an extremist Marxist group, and his affairs land him in trouble. After an attack at a police station, Kunjunni is arrested and taken to court, but later acquitted of all charges.

ELIPPATHAYAM (Rat Trap) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

ELIPPATHAYAM (The Rat Trap)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1982. 120 min
Cast : Jalaja, Karamana Janardanan, Rajam Nair

Elippathayam is a 1981 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It is critically considered by many to be one of the most outstanding pieces in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s filmography.

A middle-aged man, Unni, and his three sisters struggle as the feudal way of life becomes unviable in Kerala. Eventually, succumbing to the adverse conditions surrounding him, Unni becomes helpless like a rat in a trap. The ‘rat trap’ is a metaphor for a state of oblivion to changes in the external world, such as the disintegration of the feudal system, in which some are caught and which leads to destruction.

Gopalakrishnan says in his interview that the movie was inspired by the feudal characteristics of his own family. Silence is a huge trope in the move, with large swathes of silence in dialogue.

Keeper of swing (Andrea Barrionuevo) Spain

Keeper of swing
Andrea Barrionuevo
Spain. 2016. 61 min

For over forty years located inside a University Halls of Residence in Madrid, existed an important and influential venue for music, art and culture, known as “El Johnny”. This documentary is a trip through memory lane of “El Johnny” as seen by Alejandro Reyes.

Andrea Barrionuevo. Besides studying a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, Audiovisual Communication and a Masters in Management of the Film Industry in 2015 at the Carlos III University, Andrea had international experience in the field of
production in different companies such as EGEDA US ( in Los Angeles and Miami) , Malevolo (Madrid) , Future Films and Hanway Films in London. In 2013 she created with Marta Longás her own production company where they make their own projects. Currently she combines her work in Pocket Rocket Films with her position as production assistant in Morena Films. ” Keeper of Swing ” is her debut as a producer as well as a director .

Homage to Gita Sen

Films Selected at Imagineindia 2017

CALCUTTA 71 (Mrinal Sen) India

KHARIJ (Mrinal Sen) India

Gita Sen was born in a small suburb of Calcutta. She started acting at a very young age in political plays with some of the stalwarts of Indian theatre.  Gita started acting in films from the late 1940s. Her first film role was in a film called Dudhara, where she met the writer of the story, Mrinal Sen, and later married him in 1953. During this period she also acted in Nagarik, the first film made by her friend, Ritwik Ghatak. She dropped out of acting after her son was born in 1954 but resumed theatre acting again in 1966 with Utpal Dutt. She came back to film acting in Calcutta 71, a film made by her husband, Mrinal Sen. She continued to work in films until her last acting role in Mahaprithibi (1991), During this period some of her memorable roles were in films like Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhaney, Aarohan, Chalchitra, Khandhar, and Mahaprithibi. Even though her acting career was relatively limited in number of films and plays, she gained the respect of the audience and fellow actors through the depth of her emotional performance. Almost all of her roles were to portray lower middle class women, struggling to survive, and she portrayed them with unprecedented dignity and depth.

Text by Kunal Sen

Calcutta 71 (Mrinal Sen)

Calcutta 71
Mrinal Sen
India.  1972.  132 min.
Cast:  Ranjit Mullick, Utpal Dutt, Geeta Sen.

This film is considered to be the second of Calcutta’s trilogy of Mrinal Sen, the others are Interview and Padatik. Calcutta 71 is a collection of stories that represent the seventies and shows the naxalite activity, the hunger of ordinary people, and social and political corruption. The first story is about a low-middle-class family staying in a cabin in a slum area. On a rainy night they are forced to leave the house and move to another safe haven, but they find that many others have already taken refuge before them. The second story is about another middle-class family of mother and two mature daughters who could not cope with hunger and poverty and succumbed to prostitution. Their cousin Nalinakhya, who lives in Delhi, comes to visit them and knows the hard reality. This story is based on a real story by Probodh Kumar Sanyal called ‘Angar’. The third story is a middle-class rural family where the eldest son of a family is involved in smuggling rice into the city, leaving his school and his education. It is a criticism of the way of life and the attitude of the rich. The fourth story is about the upper-class society of Calcutta, singing and listening to a concert of music with cocktails and without any exposure to ordinary people. A high-class man talks about philosophy and says he is very disappointed about the condition of the poor in India. He is actually a hypocrite, who exploits the poor employees of his factory and makes money by torturing them. Continue reading Calcutta 71 (Mrinal Sen)