Zinemaya Blog

This week zinemaya.com is featuring Nerkku Nere (Face to Face), a poignant humanist drama by acclaimed Indian director P.N Menon. Neo-realism to its core, that is this movie is all about, no actors, no make-up, no artificial lights, only human beings with a real story to tell.” What gave me confidence was the movies made by Vittorio De Sica” says P.N Menon, the famed Italian master of neo-realism and director of classics like Bicycle Thieves.

Born in a poor family in a small town called Vadakkancherry in Kerala, the young Menon found pleasure in visionary sketches. Sometimes his dreams took the form of verse too. But all those dreams were rooted in the tents that often found their way into the open village grounds, where films were shown.

P N Menon’s Olavum Theeravum based on M T Vasudevan Nair’s script released in 1970, still holds as one of the most realistic and sensitive films ever in Malayalam. Menon didn’t resort to melodrama or sentimentality, just narrated the tale of some characters plucked from real life.

All that, very realistically. “I’m proud to say we didn’t compromise at all. All of us worked in unison and it was the creative effort… We didn’t use a single light. There were no actors in it. We camped on the banks of Aluva river and the whole film was shot in a small hut. But we enjoyed the process. We did win some awards, including the Best Film award from the Kerala state. But even if we hadn’t won any awards, we wouldn’t have been disappointed; it was one film all of us enjoyed making.

Menon’s boldest film is Kuttiyedathi (Eldest Sister), again based on a short story by M T Vasudevan Nair. Kuttiyedathi was about a girl who goes through hell just because she isn’t attractive. Menon was courageous enough to cast a heroine who wasn’t really good-looking in the title role. And that made it a poignant film. “I don’t like to tell stories in films. Stories strangle me. I like to take an incident and develop on it through images. I feel that is true cinema. Films should not be used to narrate stories. We have several other media to tell stories.

“I’d never ever thought of making money through films. I don’t consider it a way to make money. To me, films are creative. And I feel pure creative work can never be appreciated by all. If you look at the history of any creative art, you will understand that. So, I actually feel contemptuous if films are big commercial hits.

If a film of mine is a hit, then I know it is not a good creative work. I feel ashamed if a film of mine runs for 100 days. I can’t even think about that. Personally, I’d feel disappointed if a film of mine is a commercial success. I don’t like my film liked by an illiterate. I like it only when my film is appreciated by an intellectual, someone who has a good idea about films…”

Very Interesting revelations by a film maker.

Click here to preview Nerkku Nere (Face to Face) at zinemaya.com

Trivia – Did you know P.N Menon is uncle to the famous director Bharathan?

Courtesy for P.N Menon’s interview Rediff