Shaji N Karun: A life lived illuminating Indian cinema

As a rookie cameraman, Karun shortly earned the respect of Indian movie trade heavyweights together with his works in Mumbai and again house in Kerala. “Hearken to what that younger man says,” Hema Malini would inform her administrators on the set in Mumbai when the inexperienced FTII graduate used to trigger a stir together with his unusual options on lighting.

Wizard behind digicam

Born on January 1, 1952 within the port city of Kollam in southern Kerala, the celebrated Malayalam filmmaker was a magician in imagining the impact of lighting on folks and objects on the film set. Karun’s digicam magically reworked a lethargic earth on the banks of Kerala’s well-known river Bharathapuzha in Malappuram for the black and white movie, Thampu (1978), directed by G Aravindan.

Karun’s exceptional work with Aravindan in such formidable movies as Kanchana Sita, Kummatty and Esthappan within the late ’70s and with director Ok G George in Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback and Panchavadi Palam within the early ’80s introduced the arrival of Malayalam cinema as a creative and aesthetic drive within the international movie trade together with the works of such filmmakers as John Abraham and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

“Shaji defined to us concerning the lighting scheme and composition of the beautiful black and white imagery of Thampu after we determined to revive the movie that was mendacity in tatters,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, whose Movie Heritage Basis was behind the restoration of the movie, which was screened within the Cannes Classics part in 2022. “He stated the movie had been shot on Indu inventory, which was an indigenous movie inventory manufactured in India,” provides Dungarpur.

Piravi, Karun’s directorial debut in 1988 based mostly on the police excesses in Kerala in the course of the Emergency from 1975 to 1977, displays his sharp deal with creating photographs with the dearth of sunshine. Piravi, an official choice on the 1989 Cannes movie competition the place it received a Digital camera d’Or Particular Point out for the primary movie of a director, uncovered the mind-numbing human tragedy of the Emergency via the movie shot virtually solely in pouring rains to exacerbate the fact.

When Swaham, his sophomore characteristic had its world premiere, once more in Cannes in 1994, “Shaji selected to put on a dhoti and shirt to stroll the purple carpet”, recollects Malti Sahai, the then-director of the Worldwide Movie Competition of India (IFFI). The final Indian movie in Cannes competitors for the celebrated Palme d’Or, earlier than Payal Kapadia’s All We Think about As Gentle in 2024 broke Indian cinema’s jinx within the French Riviera, Swaham additionally revealed Karun’s simplicity and dedication to succeed in the very best ranges in opposition to all odds.

Excessive creative requirements

After Swaham completed its last touches on the Nationwide Movie Improvement Company lab in Mumbai, Karun and his buddy Sukhwand Singh Dadha from FTII lugged a heavy metal field containing its reels to the Mumbai customs workplace in Santa Cruz for switch to Cannes. A buddy in Thiruvananthapuram booked Karun’s flight ticket to the competition and he stayed in a tiny room of a finances resort in Cannes ready for the world premiere. On the competition, he spent his time talking with different filmmakers from Asia vying for the Palme d’Or, like Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.

When Kapadia broke his document for the final Indian movie in Cannes competitors final yr, Karun was among the many first to congratulate the Mumbai-born filmmaker, a fellow FTII graduate. His reward acknowledging Kapadia’s increased requirements of cinematic philosophy, giving her a uncommon sense of aesthetics and visible language, was notable for its emphasis on lighting. “Payal has the uncommon capacity to recognise the disappearing gentle and sound in entrance of her to make cinema enlightening,” Karun stated. “Payal’s gender interpretations in her works permit them to face out in Indian cinema,” he added.

Karun received many Nationwide Movie Awards, starting with Piravi, adjudged the Greatest Movie in 1988. Karun additionally received the Greatest Director prize for the movie. His Vanaprastham, a fierce critique of caste politics within the artwork, received the Nationwide Award for Greatest Movie in 1999 and he received it once more for Kutty Srank ten years later. Karun directed seven movies, his final, Olu, a shocking underwater fantasy, coming seven years in the past.

Realising his extraordinary understanding of cinema’s energy, Karun was somebody the central authorities turned to for management when it arrange committees for selling Indian cinema. He was usually requested to chair the technical committee of IFFI, the showcase of Indian cinema and its expertise. He by no means refused and would convey the very best projectors from Belgium to enrich the prime quality of Indian productions.

Affirmative motion in cinema

When the Worldwide Movie Competition of Kerala (IFFK), the preferred movie competition within the nation, took form in 1994, it was Karun who led its competition administration. After the Hema Committee report on sexual harassment in Malayalam movie trade rocked the state final yr, Karun got here to rescue of IFFK in December 2024 because the Chairman of Kerala State Movie Improvement Company (KSFDC), honouring feminine actors in Malayalam cinema from the ’60s and ’70s and creating an version centred on girls professionals within the trade.

When the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Entrance authorities in Kerala appointed him as KSFDC Chairman in 2019, Karun determined to do one thing by no means tried within the nation earlier than. He labored with the federal government to provide 5 first characteristic movies of ladies administrators. It was the primary time a state authorities had initiated affirmative motion within the Indian movie trade and the primary state-funded inclusion initiative wherever on this planet.

“There’s a right away connection between violence in opposition to girls and lack of alternatives,” French producer Sandrine Brauer, co-founder of Paris-based Collective 50/50 of movie and tv professionals worldwide that promotes gender equality within the audio-visual trade, then stated welcoming the transfer.

Karun adopted up the funding for ladies administrators with manufacturing funds for filmmakers from backward communities, together with from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. To date, KSFDC has produced ten movies beneath its affirmative motion initiative. To assist first-time filmmakers discover exhibition alternatives for his or her films, Karun constructed and upgraded cinemas owned by the federal government in Kerala. “There are 9 state-owned film halls having 17 screens at this time in Kerala,” says Vidya G of KSFDC. “After he (Karun) was recognized with liver most cancers in January final yr, he would come to the workplace straight from his hospital classes,” she provides. “He was in his workplace even final week.”

Karun is survived by his spouse Anasuya Warrier, a philanthropist, and their two sons.