All of Sudevanta’s films are a clever expression of the new era. Your film ‘Cheers’ is a humorous narrative about how corporate encroachment is controlling our intelligence in global life. What’s New…
All of Sudevanta’s films are a clever expression of the new age. Your film ‘Cheers’ is a humorous narrative about how corporate encroachment is controlling our intelligence in global life. What has been the reaction to the new movie-Cheers?
Corporations have played a major role in controlling power over time. Looking at the history of India itself, the East India Company was a trading company. They came to India to start business. Profited from it. Later he took over the administration. Corporations have always been here. There will be in the future. At some point we have to say hello to them. It is a crime. As a common citizen, when we call a strike against the corporate, when we gather people, the media like Instagram and Facebook, which we gather for propaganda, are also corporate. You have to stand by this and shout at other corporates. Knowingly or unknowingly, we all say cheers to this.
The films ‘Planning’, ‘Varoo’ and ‘Rand’ express the vagaries of human life by thematizing some seemingly trivial situations in life. Similarly, every planning goes beyond what we think and expresses human dilemmas. What is Sudevan’s vision of life through this?
The movie Planning has many layers. In it, both recent events and beyond have a timeless perspective. Coming to this period, the financial crises of middle class people, debt problems and mass suicides are seen in recent newspapers. Liars like this go without saying in planning. Likewise the condition of the house where thieves come to steal. Visually, we present ourselves and our house in front of the society in a different way, but at the bottom another layer is hidden. The real thieves are the outsiders in planning. The film tells the contrast between the person who is showing and the real us. When you look inside in this way, you can understand from the letter that he is broken. Here we see the contrast between the life we live without informing anyone and the life we display in front of others as a duality. What the movie Planning tries to say is about contingency. We cannot predict exactly what will happen in the next second. In the case of man, each man does not pass through a fixed stigma, a fixed method, or a fixed missionary. That is the thrill of life. All we have to do is solve the problems of the present and move forward. Only then can you move forward. Otherwise we will be stuck in problems. Planning is the story of trapped people.
In the ‘Vridhan’ episode of the movie ‘Aakhat or Pahai’, the loneliness of death is shown without showing the dying person. This movie takes on a philosophical dimension as it talks about how lonely a person lives. What about these movies?
The film Aakath or Baath is a film made with the intention of empowering everyone to ask himself whether he is in or out. After this movie helps me to know myself from where I understand and know things. The film asks the audience a question: do you see things from the inside or from the outside? The movie implicitly says that if you stay inside yourself, you will be a hopeless human being. When we are trapped within ourselves, the ego of I is formed. By considering all living things beyond that, including humans, we get an idea of how vast the interior is. It causes a change in our views and behavior towards other people. This is what the movie ‘Inside or Out’ says.
As an artist who believes in the subtleties of vision, how do you see the world as a filmmaker?
People who don’t think too deeply when it comes to worldviews can experience big changes. But, on closer inspection, things are not very different from the earlier times. There has been no fundamental change in terms of facilities. There are superficial changes like the Internet and WhatsApp. It is shadowed in life. The speed has increased. But basically the process of living has not changed from the beginning to the present time. There are people who are still hungry. There are still people who are starving. There is only a difference in its methods. After the next 50 years, things will change. Still, it is likely to remain essentially unchanged. Humans’ right to life should be recognized and everyone should have the sense that they deserve to live.
Are you a photographer as well as a filmmaker? Can you share photography experiences?
Photography is meditative. Cinema is a noise. The film is full of minor irritations as well as mental ups and downs. The mind will wander till the end of the movie. There are all kinds of feelings during the making of the film. Photography gives me a meditative state. We are in the field, in the field or we wait for hours watching the movement of a very subtle creature, a plant, or a bird flying, a small insect flying, water moving. It is a meditative state. Photography has helped me stay in the mental compactness and precision of developing myself as a person.
What about the transition from Varoo to Cheers?
From the first film Varoo to the film Cheers, one can understand a lot of differences. The change can be seen in technology and shot accuracy. Each film has the sharpness of the first film in terms of film content. Conceptually, there are no major differences. But, technologically with each era, there have been changes according to the economy.
How does technology influence artistic expression?
No one can stay away from technology. We should always be updating. It is very important for any human being to live in that era and keep up to date. Otherwise no one will address you. Technology divides man precisely. In India, there are billions of people living without phone, Facebook etc. Such people go out of the mainstream and divide the society as a society that does not use any of this. This affects all art forms.
Cinema is a costly medium as a contribution of technology. How parallel cinema overcomes the visual challenge posed by commercial cinema. What is Sudevan’s experience?
I am not competing with anyone. Cinema is my expression. We have some things to say and think about what medium to say them. By our ways, views and behavior we realized that thought goes to sight. Visual language is the easiest to understand because of the habit of drawing. That is why I use the medium of film in my expressions. Different people take different kind of movies. There are also variations in the printed word book. This variety can be found in visual media as well.
In your film Thatumpurathappan, there is a man who is transformed into a god. This is a film that questions our religion and faith. What about this still-relevant movie?
In 2010, the film Thatumpurathappan is being shot. At that time, gods were not so powerful in Kerala. Ten years later, the gods became very powerful. Humans cannot move forward unless they are committed to something. It can be in individuals, religion or God. Amidst this, Thatumpurathappan is a film about who takes advantage of your trust, or exploits it. The film also explores how this affects society. Here the faith of men is not rejected. What priests do is exploit the faith. The biggest tragedy is that the government supports it.
What about twenty years of film experience?
Living thinking about cinema for so long. Personally, I am happy to be able to express myself in this medium. It was during these twenty years that I experienced the most mental happiness.
