Cinema in posters

For C.V. Harindran (53), the ultimate aim in life is to become a filmmaker. Every little thing he has done is a step towards that goal. Born in Haripad, Harindran realised his passion for cinema during his pre-degree days and started working towards it since 1998. Though he knew about acclaimed directors like Padmarajan and Sreekumaran Thampi, who hail from his place, he didn’t know how to reach them. 

One day, a path opened up before him in the form of a vacancy for a cinema poster designer. A self-taught artist, he embraced the opportunity and did a paper ad for a Hindi movie first and then designs for the Malayalam movie Annakutty Kodambakkam Vilikkunnu. He continued the stride and designed posters for 200 movies  in Malayalam and Tamil including Padheyam, Avaram Poo, Highway, with the last one being Kattu Vannu Vilichapol.

Meanwhile, he handled the art direction department for three movies. Though he tried to direct a movie, it didn’t happen. Then there was a break. He turned to ad filmmaking and writing, both books and dialogues for other language films. 

“When I was in Madras, I met John. He introduced me to translating other language movies,” says Haridran. Payya, Kuruvi and Aadhavan are a few he has done. His first book Renovation came out in 2010. 

“I was staying at Azad Road in Kochi during that time. Writer C. Radhakrishnan’s son was my neighbour. One day I went to his house when Radhakrishnan Sir was there, I gave him my story and asked him whether he could go through it. He said he would. He called me back and asked me to publish it. That ignited the writer in me. I wrote a few more stories and published it as a collection of stories,” Harindran recalls. One of the stories — Perumbavoorile Pettikada —from Renovation bears some resemblances with the recent murder case that occurred in Perumbavoor. He later wrote another book — Kurinji. Harindran is now working on his third book.   

In all these years, Harindran had forgotten his drawing skills. That was brushed up when he gifted writer K.L. Mohana Varma, a portrait of his, on his 80th birthday. He was impressed by the gift and asked Harindran to continue with drawing. His upcoming exhibition of portraits is an outcome of that. 

“The show will have 54 pencil drawings of Malayalam writers, both dead and alive. I was born in 1964. I have only taken writers who became prominent after that year,” says Harindran, sitting at Durbar Hall, where his exhibition will happen from July 26 to 30.  It is his return to drawing after a long sabbatical. In Harindran’s words, it is another step to filmmaking. “I still dream of cinema. It is all about luck. Some get in quickly, others take time. The time will come,” he says, beaming with confidence.