::: THE HIGH NOON OF MALAYALAM CINEMA :::

The winds of change were already creating ripples in the

literary scene. These young filmmakers, some of them from

the film institute, and others inspired and sustained by the

film society movement, went on to produce a series of

films that flouted all norms. They boldly did away with the

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linear narrative modes the audience were addicted to and

worked with new faces in front of the camera and behind

it. And they introduced a host of new talents – actors,

cinematographers, editors, scenarist etc, who were to

dominate Malayalam cinema in the coming decades.

Some of them like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, KR Mohanan,

John Abraham, G S Panicker, KG George, Devdas etc came

from the film institute while filmmakers like Aravindan, KP

Kumaran, TV Chandran, Pavithran, Raveendran etc came

from other art and progressive movements. Some of them

like PA Backer, PN Menon, Padmarajan, Bharathan, M T

Vasudevan Nair etc came from the industry itself. And there

were brilliant technicians like P R Nair, Ravi, Mankada

Ravivarma, Madhu Ambat, Ramachandrababu, Vipindas etc

and film critics like Kallikkad Ramachandran, Vijayakrishnan,

Shanmughadas, Neelan, TMP Ned

ungadi, Koya Muhammed

etc, and publications like Film  Magazine, Drisyakala, etc to

support and sustain these films and filmmakers and to

transform it into a movement.

Through their films, writings,

publications, screenings and discussions, they thus also

created an audience for their kind of cinema.

They all shared a kind of revulsion towards the existing

aesthetic of commercial mainstream cinema and tried to

work with new themes, and techniques, actors and

technicians. Their inspirations were not incestuous but

drawn from the various movements and waves that were

rocking cinema all over the world.