C. S. Venkiteswaran
The profession of a film critic is a lonely and thankless one. On the one hand, he or she has to face the wrath of filmmakers for being critical, and on the other hand, that of the readers if s/he is not critical enough. While the filmmakers blame the critic for not taking enough pain to understand what they were trying to convey, the readers, especially of weekly reviews, take and a ‘use-and-throw’ approach to it. As result, very seldom is film writing given its due.
Only critics who are driven by passion for both cinema and writing manage to survive and be remembered, which is what makes a critic like Vijaykrishnan special, especially in the context of film literature in Malayalam. He, along with Shanmughadas, was one of the pioneers of a resurgence in film writing in the 1970s, bringing into it a new vigour and excitement.
And it was a break from the past in terms of aesthetic approach, use of language, theoretical orientations and technical awareness. It was also a historic juncture marked by the entry of several auteurs and vibrant platforms such as the little magazine and film society movement. All these helped to nourish and enrich the critical and appreciative discourses around new cinema.
Vijayakrishnan was one of the most prolific among the critics of the time and someone who still sustains his intensity. His new book Chithrashala, a selection of his film writings during the last three decades, stands testimony to it. Chithrashala also marks the 30th anniversary of his first book on cinema – Chalachitrasameeksha.
The book is divided into three sections: the first two sections deal with eminent auteurs and landmark films. The first section includes major Indian and Malayalam filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, K.P. Kumaran, John Abraham, and M.T. Vasudevan Nair, and the second touches on world cinema and auteurs such as Eisenstein, Zanussi, Chabrol, Tarkovsky, Herzog, Kurosawa, Bergman, and Marta Meszaros.
The third section contains essays on various aspects of cinema – its links with literature, theatre and technology, and essays on the language of cinema and national cinema.
The book is jargon-free and eminently readable, and so accessible to readers. Trenchant in his criticism, Vijayakrishnan does not spare anyone; he passionately argues his case by citing evidence from the film text and comparisons with classics from India and abroad.
As a historian of Malayalam cinema (his Malayala Cinemayude Katha is the only scholarly historic account available), he is able to connect the films under review to the larger historic context of our cinema, drawing parallels and breaks in form and content. For instance, his essay on representation of women in Malayalam cinema spans and scans film history to foreground the changing patterns and orientations, and to highlight the landmarks and discontinuities.
Another aspect that adds charm to Vijayakrishnan’s writing is his attempt to link film narratives and aesthetics with Indian mythology, arts and aesthetics. He uses parallels and metaphors from the Upanishads, the Puranas and legends to illustrate a point or to illuminate a shortcoming.
For instance, his critique of Aravindan’s Kanchanasita begins with a summary of the philosophical underpinnings of the Ramayana story before zeroing in upon the film text. This aspect needs to be highlighted as one of the major problems with film criticism in India is its overdependence on Western theories and examples as master tools of understanding cinema. Such ‘international’ tools often fail to engage with the national and local imagination and limit the evolution of an Indian film theory.
Being a collection of film writings that span more than three decades, there are certain unavoidable repetitions in the book, but Chithrashala certainly is a representative sample and also a glimpse into the evolution of Vijayakrishnan as a film critic.
As the late P. Govinda Pillai remarks in his article, included as appendix, “Maybe Vijayakrishnan’s opinions are not shared by all, but no one can ignore him.”