Kerala ace cinematographer Ravi Varma dies

Thiruvananthapuram: People from different walks of life joined members of the film fraternity in paying tribute to well-known cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma, who died on Monday at his sister's house in Chennai. He was 84.

Varma, who remained a bachelor all his life, had been keeping indifferent health in recent times.

He had distinguished himself through his work for top directors. He twice won the national award, notably for Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film Swayamvaram. The state film award sought him out no less than six times. His career coincided with the emergence of a number of eminent directors in Malayalam cinema who handled serious topics.

Fruitful associations

Ravi Varma shot into the limelight through his work in the movie Olavum Theeravum, in which he introduced novel cinematography techniques to Malayalam cinema. His association with people like director P.N. Menon and literary giant M.T. Vasudevan Nair took the technical quality of Malayalam movies to a new high.

His career also coincided with the time that Malayalam movie production was making its way out of studio sets to open locations, and he contributed in good measure to introducing movie-makers to the potential for experimenting with varying exposure levels.

Ravi Varma will also be remembered for associating with Adoor in the latter's films like Swayamvaram and Elipathayam. He took an interest in motion picture photography at an early age and studied cinematography and sound engineering in Chennai.

Ravi Varma also tried his hand at direction with films like Nokkukuthi and Kunjikoonan, both of which won the national jury's special mention.

The Malayalam Cine Technicians Association had also saluted his skill by conferring on him an honorary membership of the association.