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'Artistic films are my passion. Commercial films are my need'

Two movies shared the Golden Peacock award for best film by an Asian director at the recently concluded 31st International Film Festival of India. One was by a director who came from God's own country, the other from the land of Akira Kurosawa.

Both Karunam, by Malayalam film-maker Jayaraj and Poppaya, by Japanese film-maker Yasho Furuhata are simple tales of people in the twilight of their lives.

The making of Karunam was, for its young director, the fulfillment of a long-cherished ambition. "It was a passion for me." he says. "Now that I have made the film, I am content as a director."

The film is a simple but cruel tale, which follows a strict narrative without losing any of its emotional chords. It is a moving story of the loneliness and suffering of an old couple, Vavachan and Eliyamma.

But then, Jayaraj has always been an unusual director. He has always been at ease with both the sublime and the ridiculous, the classic and the crap. Rarely do film-makers who scale artistic heights venture into directing raunchy song-and-dancers or horror stories on screen. Yet, Jayaraj is the baton behind some of Malayalam cinema's most banal commercial films.

No wonder, then, that while international film critics were raving over Karunam in Delhi, another Jayaraj venture, the overtly commercial Millennium Stars was running to packed halls in Kerala. This has always been Jayaraj's hallmark -- acclaimed films like Desadanam, Kaliyattam and Karunam coexist with commercial entertainers like Highway, John Walker and Thumboli Kadappuram.

In an exclusive interview with Associate Editor George Iype, Jayaraj reveals the kind of passion that went into the making of Karunam and explains why he is at ease with both commercial and artistic cinema.

Did you expect Karunam to bag the Golden Peacock award at the International Film Festival of India?

I knew Karunam will win awards because the making of that film was one of my honest attempts at portraying life as it is. The subject of the film had been churning in my mind and heart for many years. Now that I have made the film and it has bagged the Golden Peacock, I am happy and satisfied.

It was a low budget venture. The award for Karunam, which is a film on the lonely world of old age, is a recognition of the honesty with which I have treated the subject. That the foreign delegates could identify themselves with the film points to the universality of the subject.

What was it that attracted you to this subject?

The subject -- the suffering and loneliness of old people -- is not an isolated incident. All the characters in the film are real life characters. Therefore, the making of the film was a unique convergence of honest minds.

The hero, Vavachan, was an odd-jobs man in my house. The heroine, Eliyamma, had never seen a movie camera before. Mariamma John, a class IV employee at the St Berchmans College, Changanassery, is a rich repertoire of folk music; she rendered the songs. All of us joined together to make the film.

What is the message of the film?

The message is simple. Old people are lonely these days, especially in a state like Kerala. With their sons and daughters away in the Gulf or the United States, most of them are caged in old age homes. No one is there to look after them.

The loneliness of old people has, till recently, been a western phenomenon. But now, it has become a reality in our land also. Look at the increasing number of old age homes sprouting in the central Travancore areas. Look at the five star mortuaries with sprawling gardens and devotional music where dead parents wait for weeks for their children to arrive from far-off lands and give them a grand burial.

Our traditional society, where each of us cared for the others, is fast changing, disappearing even. If my film changes the life of at least one person, my mission will be fulfilled and I will be content.

But the paradox is that you churn out classics like Karunam and commercial films with equal ease. You rub shoulders with giants like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji Karun, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani one day and, the next day, you embark on a commercial film like Millennium Stars?

I am not ashamed to say that I am completely at ease with both artistic and commercial films. In fact, I am proud of declaring that I will continue to make classics like Karunam and commercial mainstream cinema that caters to the tastes of the audiences.

There is no contradiction in making commercial and art movies at the same time. Let me be very frank. When I make a mainstream movie, my honesty and sincerity are to my viewers for whom I make it. When I make films like Karunam, it is for me.

Don't you feel you are devaluing yourself as a director by straddling both the commercial and artistic film worlds.

Absolutely not. Artistic films are my passion. Commercial films are my need.

Are you planning another film like Karunam in the near future?

My life's biggest ambition is to make a great film out of M Mukundan’s Malayalam classic novel, Mayyazhipuzhayude Theerangalil. It will be made on epic proportions like a David Lean or Cecil B De Mille film and, in all probability, will be a co-production with a foreign partner.

Have you talked to Mukundan?

Yes. I have already talked to Mukundan and he has given me the green signal to depict his classic tale on celluloid.

What other projects are you planning?

My immediate venture will be a mega-television serial in Hindi based on the life of Kalidasa. It will be telecast on the Doordarshan. I am also planning a series of films based on the nava rasas against the backdrop of rain.

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