KG George
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Briefly
Sep 25, 2023: The New Indian Express
KOCHI: Born into a poor family in rural Tiruvalla, a young K G George used to travel to Kottayam to watch films, spending most of what he earned doing sundry jobs. “Those days, I dreamt of making great films like the ones I used to watch in cinemas. It took me several years to achieve my dream. I went to the film institute and met several people in the journey to realise it,” George says in the documentary ‘8 1/2 Intercuts — Life & Films of K G George’.
George was a master storyteller who defined an era in Malayalam cinema.
Kulakkattil Geevarghese George left behind an oeuvre of 19 films, each distinct in its narrative and content, that attempt to capture social and gender tensions like none before him. George, who considered Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini as his biggest influence, burst onto the film scene with his debut movie Swapnadanam (1975), which went on to win the national award for the ‘best feature film in Malayalam’.
“Swapnadanam amazed us all. The film gave a new grammar to Malayalam cinema. His grasp of the medium was there for all to see,” said filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan in ‘8 1/2 Intercuts’. A slew of films followed, which are still considered essential reference points for upcoming filmmakers and students of cinema.
Some of his critically acclaimed films include Ulkadal (1979), Mela (1980), Yavanika (1982), Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback (1983), Adaminte Vaariyellu (1983), Panchavadi Palam (1984), Irakal (1986), and Mattoral (1988).
“At a time when Kerala films were drifting towards the razzmatazz of Tamil and Hindi movies, KG (and later Bharathan and Padmarajan) placed narrative as the keystone. To this day, Malayalam movies differentiate because of the edifice these maestros built in the 1980s,” writer N S Madhavan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Panchavadi Palam, which tells the story of village politicians plotting to construct a new bridge after razing down a perfectly serviceable bridge, is considered one of the best political satires of all time in Malayalam. As an investigative thriller, Yavanika, starring Bharath Gopi and Mammootty, has few equals Malayalam. The film, known for its gripping script, won the Kerala state award for ‘best film’.
His films were a blend of reality, wit and brazen self-indulgence
Irakal, an in-depth exploration of the psychology of violence, tells the story of a ruthless rubber-estate baron, Mathukutty (played by Thilakan), who flouts prevailing mores and spawns criminal sons as well as a promiscuous daughter, is known for its craft and story-telling. Irakal resonates even today. George used a new narrative technique in Adaminte Vaariyellu to tell the story of unhappy marital lives and oppression suffered by three urban women.
His films are known for their strong female characters. Through his movies, he tells us that they have the same virtues and vices as men, as depicted in Adaminte Vaariyellu, Mattoral and Irakal. After completing his diploma from the Pune Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), George started his film career as the assistant to renowned director Ramu Kariat. If the Pune Film Institute exposed him to the magic of cinema, his stint as assistant to the legendary Kariat in the celebrated film Nellu instilled in him that quality to jell cinematic norms with commercial elements.
His film Kolangal, also released in the 1980s, depicts the common romantic concept of an interior village in Kerala, with its virtues, happiness, as well as wildfire jealousy. With hints to the real-life suicide incident of a popular south Indian actress, Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback became controversial even before its release.
George won nine Kerala state film awards, leaves his own inimitable mark on Indian cinema, and his films were a blend of reality, wit and brazen self-indulgence. His last movie was released in 1998, Elavamkodu Desam, a period movie released when mimicry movies ruled the roost.
==Bridging mainstream and parallel Malayalam cinema K B Venu, Sep 26, 2023: The Indian Express
“I firmly believe that dreams are inseparable from realism. For me, dreams are real. Even when I deal with the harshest realities of life, in my heart of hearts they remain dreams. When I start thinking of a new movie, my mind will be filled with dreams. I just need to shoot them. Shooting, for me, is the process of fulfilling my dreams,” said K G George, the legendary Malayalam filmmaker, in an interview in 2015 on his 70th birthday.
K G George, revered by Malayali filmgoers as a filmmaker of unique talents, always tried to bridge the gap between mainstream and parallel cinema. None of his works can be branded as pure art house films. He never adhered to the so-called parallel cinema movement in Kerala. Even though George was a trained filmmaker and a great scholar who studied cinema around the world deeply, his works were never burdened with intellectual pomposity. He had a slightly Westernised mindset from his college days, influenced by turbulent political events all around the world, especially in Europe. But he always identified and addressed himself as an ordinary Keralite. It was with roots that ran deep into his own land and language that George conceived his major works. After graduating from FTII, Pune, George worked with ace filmmaker Ramu Kariat in two films. In 1976, his pathbreaking directorial debut Swapnadanam was released. With Swapnadanam, George established his space in Malayalam cinema. The movie, which told the tragic tale of a broken marriage through several flashbacks, satisfied academic critics and ordinary film buffs alike because of its deft analysis of the psychology of average Keralites in the 1970s. The protagonist of Swapnadanam, a medical practitioner, represented the rebellious, vulnerable youngsters of that volatile era.
The next five movies George directed were inferior compared with his scintillating debut. George himself didn’t speak much about them except Rappadikalude Gatha, penned by legendary writer-director P Padmarajan. The film was an attempt to examine the fragile world of a girl addicted to drugs and the hippie culture.
The next five movies George directed were inferior compared with his scintillating debut. George himself didn’t speak much about them except Rappadikalude Gatha, penned by legendary writer-director P Padmarajan. The film was an attempt to examine the fragile world of a girl addicted to drugs and the hippie culture.
In Mela (1980), George’s protagonist is a dwarf, a circus clown by profession, who marries a beautiful girl from his village. Unable to face the humiliating gaze of society, he bids farewell to life. Kolangal (1981) delves deep into the darker aspects of rural life, which is commonly believed to be serene and innocent.
Yavanika, George’s most celebrated work, came out in 1982 and shattered all conventional concepts of investigation thrillers. The movie is about the sudden disappearance of an alcoholic, sadistic tabla player associated with a professional drama troupe and the police investigation that follows. The carefully crafted script, with its many emotional and psychological overtones, closely examines the claustrophobia that crushes the lives of theatre performers who travel from place to place, spending most of their time in rehearsal camps and on the stage, with feigned identities that bring up existential questions about their true selves. The hugely influential movie and its meticulously prepared text are invaluable for film students and researchers.
George then gave a rude shock to the entire South Indian film industry with Lekhayude Maranam: Oru Flashback (1983), a movie loosely based on the suicide of Shobha who was one of the most sought-after artistes of the 1970s. The movie was a commercial flop and a section of people in the industry strongly condemned George for “tarnishing” the image of South Indian cinema. But he had no regrets about this lavishly mounted film and always held it close to his heart.
The same year George made one of his truly experimental movies, Adaminte Variyellu (Adam’s Rib). It is among the strongest feminist films in Malayalam. In this film, he examines the tragic fates of three women from different strata of society, brought on by patriarchal men in their lives. Alice, the wife of a ruthless businessman, is forced to sleep with several influential men as part of her husband’s attempts to amass wealth. She leads a solitary life in her palatial house and eventually, realising that no one, including her children and her handsome paramour, considers her as a human being worth loving, kills herself. Vasanthi, a government employee, is tortured both by her alcoholic husband and his mother. Vasanthi finds herself sinking into a deep sea of delirium and ends up in a lunatic asylum. The third character, Ammini, is a resident servant in Alice’s house, who is sexually assaulted almost every night by Alice’s husband, only to be abandoned when she gets pregnant. In the climax of the film, George has Ammini emerge from the rescue home where she is sheltered, along with other inmates, pushing away the camera shooting the sequence, the cameraman and the director himself, as if to reach out to the wider world beyond the screen.
Panchavadippalam, released in 1984, is a brilliant political satire. An unusually loud film, it mercilessly dissects the hypocrisy of political parties in the country. Irakal (Victims) which came out in 1986, two years after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, analyses the politics of violence rampant in Indian society.
