Known for his reticence and subdued voice, Shaji N Karun often spoke of the unsaid and inexplicable pain, loneliness and human crisis through his films.
“It’s the human crisis that I tried to dwell deep into, and I always tried to find an expression for the same through my craft,’’ Shaji told me during our last meeting in Dec.
As a young child, Shaji was fascinated by the visuals of Ashamudi Lake on the banks of which his grandparents lived. His family moved to Thiruvananthapuram when he was in the seventh standard. He was enamoured of the quaint town and its architecture.
He used to join his neighbour-turned brother-in-law Krishna Warrier during his mountain expeditions and clicked catchy black-and-white photographs that impressed relatives and friends back home.
Had he not become a cinematographer, Shaji would have ended up as a medical practitioner. When he left for an interview at Pune film institute, his admission to Thiruvananthapuram medical college was already confirmed. “I was too homesick.
It was a long journey to Pune. Homesickness overpowered me during my first long journey, alone. I wanted to get rejected as much as I wanted to study cinematography. But the darkness inside the film hall turned out to be the best company for the homesick youth,’’ Shaji said sitting at his small officeat KSFDC during an afternoon ahead of the last IFFK. He passed with flying colours.
Many used to wonder how a reticent filmmaker G Aravindan and more reticent cinematographer Shaji communicated with each other.
Those who watched them work used to say there was something happening between the two, but others could not decipher it. “Our communication was a continuous process. We both had an idea of the scenes well before we started shooting. Formal communication was thus not much necessary,’’ Shaji once said.
It was a three-year suspension from KSFDC that came as a blessing in disguise for Shaji. During that period, Shaji moved out of Aravindan’s shadow and worked with other directors. An astute craftsman, Shaji was known for his knack to extract the best out of actors.
On the sets of Vanaprastham, when Suhasini said she was unable to go blank as demanded by Shaji, he asked her what she studied in college. She said physics and Shaji asked her to just wait for the moment when the proton and electron of an atom were to meet, so that she can go blank.
Shaji never got due recognition in the state. When his debut film Piravi got national and international awards, including at the Cannes, the film was adjudged only as the second-best film. He told me the govt must have chosen him for the JC Daniel Award out of guilt.—
“It’s the human crisis that I tried to dwell deep into, and I always tried to find an expression for the same through my craft,’’ Shaji told me during our last meeting in Dec.
As a young child, Shaji was fascinated by the visuals of Ashamudi Lake on the banks of which his grandparents lived. His family moved to Thiruvananthapuram when he was in the seventh standard. He was enamoured of the quaint town and its architecture.
He used to join his neighbour-turned brother-in-law Krishna Warrier during his mountain expeditions and clicked catchy black-and-white photographs that impressed relatives and friends back home.
Had he not become a cinematographer, Shaji would have ended up as a medical practitioner. When he left for an interview at Pune film institute, his admission to Thiruvananthapuram medical college was already confirmed. “I was too homesick.
It was a long journey to Pune. Homesickness overpowered me during my first long journey, alone. I wanted to get rejected as much as I wanted to study cinematography. But the darkness inside the film hall turned out to be the best company for the homesick youth,’’ Shaji said sitting at his small officeat KSFDC during an afternoon ahead of the last IFFK. He passed with flying colours.
Many used to wonder how a reticent filmmaker G Aravindan and more reticent cinematographer Shaji communicated with each other.
Those who watched them work used to say there was something happening between the two, but others could not decipher it. “Our communication was a continuous process. We both had an idea of the scenes well before we started shooting. Formal communication was thus not much necessary,’’ Shaji once said.
It was a three-year suspension from KSFDC that came as a blessing in disguise for Shaji. During that period, Shaji moved out of Aravindan’s shadow and worked with other directors. An astute craftsman, Shaji was known for his knack to extract the best out of actors.
On the sets of Vanaprastham, when Suhasini said she was unable to go blank as demanded by Shaji, he asked her what she studied in college. She said physics and Shaji asked her to just wait for the moment when the proton and electron of an atom were to meet, so that she can go blank.
Shaji never got due recognition in the state. When his debut film Piravi got national and international awards, including at the Cannes, the film was adjudged only as the second-best film. He told me the govt must have chosen him for the JC Daniel Award out of guilt.—
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