Coming home in the 'School Bus'

It is a homecoming season for cinematographers who are big names in Bollywood. It all started with Rajeev Ravi, whose third Malayalam movie Kammattipadam has been earning praises from all quarters. Now, another biggie has debuted with a movie in his mother tongue, cinematographer C.K. Muralidharan.

One of the survivors of the film-to-digital transition, CK’s Mollywood debut is marked by Rosshan Andrrews’ School Bus, which also has the duo’s children in major roles.

Considering CK’s works so far, it is unusual to find one shifting from big budget B-town movies towards low-budget Mollywood.  But for him, every movie is a challenge. “Bollywood movies with its high production cost put more pressure on the crew, but I feel at home here. I wanted to do an ordinary movie, but all movies are challenging for me,” he says.

It all started with a phone call. “My acquaintance with Rosshan is over phone; he had asked me a number of times to work with him and every time, I was engaged. But this time, fortunately, I could be here,” he says.

However, he attributes his late entry into Malayalam to fate. He landed in Mumbai at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and later got sucked into the world of vast opportunities there. When the 35-mm film slowly faded into oblivion with the advent of digitisation, CK went along and embraced the change.

“I started studying from black and white. Camera is a technological tool for me. Some have a hangover with film. For me, it’s not about the medium, but what it has to convey,” a determined CK said, and went with the flow.

He was fortunate to be part of various movies that deviated from the conventional Bollywood style — like Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur. He went on to work with stalwarts such as Ashutosh Gowariker and Rajkumar Hirani.

After Sriram’s Agent Vinod, Hirani’s 3 idiots and PK — it is the last two that spilled more colour on his vivid career, CK’s latest work is Hrithik Roshan-starrer Mohenjo Daro directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The epic-adventure which tells the story of an untold Indian past has, apart from Gowariker and CK, a crew of big names — Oscar-winning costume designer April Ferry, Hollywood stunt master Glenn Boswell and our own legend A.R. Rahman.

And not only movies, he has left his mark on documentaries, music videos, tele-films (like Kagar, Cover Story, Suraag), short films (of Rajkumar Hirani, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Maya Rao and Umesh Padalkar) and ad films (Bajaj, Tanishque, Cadbury and Tata Sky). Colours Black, a documentary directed by Mamata Murthy, won the Grand Prix at the 9th Biennial Festival of Moving Images, Geneva, 2001. A Very Very Silent Film directed by Manish Jha won the Jury award at the Cannes film Festival, 2002. “Documentary demands a greater involvement from cameraman than feature films. The bond between director and cameraman is significant,” he opines.

His most challenging work was the single-shot song Raabta from Agent Vinod. The lightning, the set and the rehearsals were all under the constraints of budget and time. “Apart from editor Pooja, director Sriram and me, only three others from the crew were really interested in what we were doing. All others were waiting for us to quit and move into cuts,” says CK. Because of the time restraints, they were forced to wind up with the only take they shot. “Though the movie failed to woo audience and critics, the song stood apart. It was a perfectly shot movie that lacked integrity,” he remembers.

And he minces no words while speaking against the recent ban politics. “Establishments always fear art forms. We ban drug and alcohol, but neglect the core issue. The questions on why there is drug or alcohol abuse are unanswered. Abuse is what we should concentrate on. Banning a film for showcasing it or placing disclaimers every time an actor picks up a cigarette is not a solution.” However, CK is quite impressed by the amount of effort put in by Mollywood film-makers and the diverse themes each film follows. “I had watched Premam. The freshness of the story and the way they handled the film language was an altogether different experience for me. Malayalam cinema is improving their standards,” he sums up.