Kulathoor Bhaskaran Nair, one of the pioneers of the film society movement in Kerala and co-founder of the country’s first film co-operative which ushered in new wave cinema to Malayalam, passed away here on Monday.
He was 83. In the early 1960s, he along with filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, floated the Chitralekha film society, which introduced Malayalis to world cinema and played a key role in shaping the film tastes of a generation.
Dream
But, their dream was not just to screen good cinema, but to produce and distribute such cinema, for which the Chitralekha film co-operative was formed in 1965, with 25 members pitching in ₹100 each. After producing a few documentaries and short films, they ventured into feature films, producing Adoor’s landmark debut film Swayamvaram in 1972, which garnered four National Awards.
The film made at a cost of ₹2.5 lakh, with the Film Financing Corporation providing ₹1.5 lakh loan and the film cooperative pitching in with the remaining, managed to recover the cost in the theatres. The co-operative then produced Adoor’s second film Kodiyettam, which also won awards at the national level.
“We studied together at the Gandhigram Rural Institute in Tamil Nadu during 1957-99. But, we became friends only when we got back to Thiruvananthapuram, where we worked together in a drama troupe. Later, when I was in FTII Pune, he used to visit me frequently, as he was studying for a public relations course in Bombay. Back then itself, we started the planning to form a film society and to make films. We were close friends back then and he was actively involved in all aspects of the film society as well as the co-operative,” says Adoor.
Setting up Chitralekha
Soon after Swayamvaram, Chitralekha cooperative set up a sprawling film production studio near Akkulam, with architect Laurie Baker providing it one of his much-talked about designs. “Kulathoor was known for his exemplary organisational skills, in setting up the film society as well as the co-operative, and in connecting with the right people to get things done. But, more than that, he will be remembered for his love for good cinema and his efforts to inculcate a different film viewing habit in the public,” says V.K. Joseph, film critic and secretary of the Federation of Film Societies of India.
After two decades of frenetic activity from the 1960s to 80s, he slowly withdrew from the scene, as creative differences led to the parting of ways between the members of Chitralekha. But, by that time, the fire that they lit was taken up by many others, as more film societies sprung up across the State and parallel and middle cinema flourished, and even intertwined.
