Jijo Punnoose: The man who was a film institute unto himself

TK Rajeev Kumar is a National award-winning director. Here, he talks of the influence of filmmaker Jijo Punnoose on his work

I never thought I’d end up becoming a filmmaker. Sure, I was interested in mono-acting and mimicry, Kerala’s popular pastime — while in school in Kottayam, I had participated in youth festivals and won many trophies in these events. But films were a whole other world.

In 1977, both my parents were transferred to Thiruvananthapuram and since then, Kerala’s capital city has been my base. I joined University College and took an active part in college theatre.

In 1978, the university organised an international film festival. This was my first experience with global cinema. Until then, I knew only of Prem Nazir, Sathyan and Madu. During the festival, I watched Akira Kurosawa’s Throne Of Blood. After this film, I realised that cinema has a language — a visual language.

Those days, Thiruvananthapuram had a number of film societies, and soon I became familiar with the likes of Bergmen, Polanski and Andrei Tarkovski.

In college, I toured Kerala with mono acts and stage shows. During one of these shows, we came across Mathew Paul, who took me to meet Jijo Punnoose, director of Padayottam, South India’s first 70mm film. He was on the lookout for a new face to cast in his upcoming film. I knew that I could not be an actor, and I told Jijo this. He was patient with me and told me about his new project My Dear Kuttichathan, India’s first 3D movie. I told him then that I would like to be associated in some way with the project.

Jijo hired me as an assistant director and I came to be associated with the film from its conception stage to the final production. It was like undergoing a comprehensive course in filmmaking: Jijo took me through all aspects of film, like story selection, scripting, location survey, shot division, planning and execution. And My Dear Kuttichathan was a landmark event in the history of Indian cinema.

What I learnt from Jijo, who himself is a man of few words, is to shoot the scenes with emphasis on visuals. Films made in India — whether in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or Malayalam — are all dialogue-oriented. Jijo taught me to think visually. For me, he was a kind of university. I never studied in a film institute but the experience I gained from Jijo was stunning. After working with him, I too started to convey feelings through visual signs. That’s why all my movies have few dialogues and a lot of signs.
Immediately after My Dear Kuttichathan, Jijo entrusted me with Chanakyan, a film with Kamal Hassan and Urmila Matondkar in the lead. I was surprised when it became a runaway success. Chanakyan had no bombastic dialogues. It was an action-oriented movie with tight close ups of the protagonists.

The next film, Kshanakathu, was shot entirely in Thiruvananthapuram, giving viewers a glimpse of another side of the city. The 1999 film Kannezhuthi Pottumthottu had the picturesque Kuttanadu as its backdrop, and the landscape itself was the most important character in the film.

The experience I gained from Jijo, who made scenes speak to the viewers, can be seen in all my films. Now, for me, more than dialogues, it is the facial expressions and the backdrop that matters. He helped me realise that what makes cinema different from theatre is that in cinema, one can convey feelings visually.
Looking back, I feel it was Navodaya, South India’s biggest production house, and Jijo that moulded me as a filmmaker.

Sadly, what we miss today are production houses that can identify young filmmakers with vibrant new ideas.

(As told to Kumar Chellappan)