Girish Kasaravalli: A legend of parallel cinema

by Noopur Bora | 20,363 views | Add comment

A name that has grown from a very humble beginning in the interiors of Karnataka to a director of international repute. One of the contemporary legends in the world of cinema due to his Kannada films. A person every aspiring filmmaker looks up to. Girish Kasaravalli.

DSC0290After three decades in the world of cinema, an envious track record of films and four national awards, Girish Kasaravalli still has the hunger for more. “It’s just my passion that keeps me going”, said the legendary director. Right from his first feature Ghatashraddha, which won the Golden Lotus in 1977, he has been outdoing his previous work.

In these times of a terror attack a month, when communal riots and terror have become a part of our daily routine, Kasaravalli's latest venture, Gulabi Talkies feels like a look in the mirror. At the Pune International Film festival for the screening of his latest feature , the director had a lot to share about what went into making this film.

The film is based on a novel by same name by Kannada writer, Vaidehi. Unlike my earlier films, where the story focused on the central character, this film talks about the community and the people of the village as a whole. The environment and the situation was as important as Gulabi herself.

He hasn't stuck completely to the original source though,

The film is not totally based on the novel, but influenced by it. The novel by Vaidehi is a great literary piece, but I made a lot of changes when I converted it to a film script. It has created a big controversy in Karnataka, though.
GulabiTalkies1.

Gulabi Talkies differs in many ways, when compared to the director’s earlier works. 

Yes, the style of filming is very different. I believe the plot of the movie decides the way it has to be shot. In this film we created a notion of an invisible director. As if the director, the cinematographer, and the camera don’t exist. Many a time, people in the frame didn’t even realize we were shooting.

A perfectionist, who works on his script and screenplay for months before taking it to the floor, was thrilled at the response the film was garnering. The movie just won the Karnataka state award for the Best film and Kasaravalli was awarded as the Best Director. Umashree, the lead actress of the film was also awarded the Best Actress Award. The master filmmaker was all praise for the upcoming directors.

They don’t follow the age old conventions of filmmaking and are coming up with new ideas and new styles. Some would call it ‘Imperfect Cinema’, but for me it’s the ‘New Age Cinema’

Talking about regional cinema the director said,

Most of the people relate Indian Cinema only to Hindi films. Indian cinema is much more than only hindi films. There are some great movies made in regional languages and people should take a note of it.

The veteran director is a gold medalist from the Film and Television Institute of India, which is based in Pune.

I learned a lot at the institute. It exposed me to world cinema. I owe a lot to Pune.

This article is by guest author Noopur Bora.

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