Rare reel relevance

Widely acknowledged as one of India's finest filmmakers. Adoor Gopalakrishnan received the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema in 2004.

He will present his latest feature film, Four Women, at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Speaking ahead of the festival, Gopalakrishnan, who has received top awards and honours from around the world for his films and documentaries, discusses his craft and his latest film.

As a filmmaker, how do you view the differences (in terms of creative process, creative satisfaction and content) between a feature film and a documentary?

I enjoy making both feature and documentary films. In both cases, the process is creative.

The only difference perhaps is that fiction [feature] allows you to take off from the point of germination of an idea and lets you free to new experiences and visions that may not necessarily be in keeping with the original inspiration.

In the making of a documentary, you are bound by the subject, and to stray off from it is sinful.

Your film “Four Women'' looks at the subjugation of women in Indian society. Are films of social relevance, such as yours, screened at mainstream venues?

My films are always screened at mainstream venues and they compete with [not always with great success, though] the commercial films to win over an audience.

Back home in Kerala, I have a very faithful audience which invariably turns up to see my work.

I am very pleased with the audience response for Four Women in Kerala. It is doing quite well in the commercial cinemas of Kerala this time [the film was released all over Kerala on November 2].

India has been described as a country with many worlds and realities. Which world, reality or audience do you make your films for?

My first audience is the Malayali. No one can appreciate these films better than them. But it does not preclude the audience outside Kerala and India.

The universality of themes and the sophistication of treatment make them acceptable outside the country too. My films are for everyone who cares.

The Indian cinema movement has witnessed the birth of genres such as “art'', “festival'', “parallel'', “crossover'' and even “metroplex'' cinema. What are your thoughts on the direction Indian cinema is taking — both commercially and creatively?

I think Indian cinema has a future — a bright future although, as a nation, we do little to nurture or promote it. Look at the ad-film sector. It is as good as or even better than the best elsewhere.

One of the most-asked questions by your fans seems to be why you direct such few feature films (10 in 30 years)? Is it a conscious desire to ensure that there is no compromise on standards?

Yes, it is an often-asked question. As you may be aware, I prefer to work with my own ideas.

Adaptations from literature are only exceptions. It takes a long time to settle on a subject or theme. And then I keep rejecting my own ideas that seemed brilliant initially.

The rate of rejection tends to be high as some of the ideas do not have the inner energy to keep my interest from sagging. I am quite wary of repeating myself. It is exciting only when one has to come up with something novel and fresh.

Literary inspiration

How did the idea for “Four Women'' come about? What was your inspiration? Was it a sudden germination of an idea or the realisation of a long-cherished idea?

Doordarshan [DD], India's national television network, approached me to make a ten-part programme based on the works of the famed Malayali author, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. This was about two-and-a-half years ago.

I was not sure if I should take it up. What I feared was that the programme would be telecast once and forgotten.

It was not worth the trouble, I thought. When there was pressure brought on me to do it, I said yes, provided they allowed me to make a film or two from the material and I was going to shoot in optical format.

The precondition was that I would own the film and DD would have the ten-part programme. In the meantime, I was reading the literary works of Thakazhi in right earnest. After the first round of reading, I decided to adapt short stories [there were as many as 400].

The stories I liked best were shortlisted and I was amazed to find that out of the nine stories I had liked, six were about women. Of these, I chose four for this film. These are stories independent of each other. But together they tell one story — that of the woman.

How did you zero in on your final cast? As a director, how do you extract your desired performance from actors not native to the language of your film?

This time, I have two non-Malayalis in the cast — Padmapriya and Nandita [Das]. They were both very particular about working with me. Both of them are very sincere and focused. I had no difficulty in coaching them to speak their lines in Malayalam. Their voice was, of course, dubbed later for better intonation and diction.

Why do you think the story of “Four Women'' is relevant in today's India?

Although the stories are set in a specific period of time and place, the theme is relevant even today. From the response to this film from the audience, especially women, in India and abroad [Toronto, London, Warsaw, Nantes], it is clear that it has an appeal that transcends borders.

Four Women will be screened on December 15 at 20.15 at the Cinestar, Mall of the Emirates and on December 16 at 12.30 at the Souk Madinat Theatre.