Mammootty as a Gandhian doctor: After a decade, Adoor walks again with ‘Padayatra’

Adoor Gopalakrishnan is shooting his latest film Padayatra after a gap of 10 years, which may be the longest creative gap between films of his 71-year-old career in films. The shoot itself is one of the longest schedules for the 86-year-old, with a month-and-a-half in various locations, like Ernakulam, Pooyamkutty Thiruvananthapuram and ending up in Wayanad. “My film will answer many questions of our times and to me personally”, Adoor was candid in the early stages of writing the film. The film produced by Mammootty Kampany with Mammootty as the lead actor has all the making of yet another Adoor classic, going by the scenes one witnessed in the first week of the shoot.

Mammootty, the lead character, is Dr Devadas, who goes back to a tribal area (Wayanad) leaving a successful career in medicine in urban centres. His role model is Gandhi as the picture reveals in front of his consulting room of the residence-cum-hospital. He does not take any fees, but puts a box for donations outside the room. He has a nurse played by Grace Antony and a medical assistant in the character of Indrans.

The Padayatra core team

The doctor’s presence is a boon for the adivasis of the area, as he can treat even the worst blow of wild bear in their own village and not have to undertake a painful trip to the nearby town. The tribals celebrated the inauguration of the hospital (aathuralayam) with a song of their own, but the MLA of the area was not so pleased. The landlord who gave the land for the doctor’s hospital-cum residence is also not so happy that there is a new public figure emerging without any vested interests in the area. The Maoists of the area and their attack on the landlord’s house adds to the situation, where the vested interests entangle the doctor to get him arrested.

“I wrote the basic story inspired by the memoir of Prof Saibaba, the physically challenged Delhi University lecturer who was arrested for Maoist links. But Adoor changed my story a lot to give it a strong visual and thematic impact”, KV Mohan Kumar, novelist and a retired civil servant said.

After witnessing the first shot of Mammootty as Dr Devadas, hoisting the photo of Gandhi treating an old man, one quipped, “so it is your Gandhian take on the contemporary issues. Adoor smiled. One doubted even when he tackled the issue of communist split of 1964 in his film Mukhamukham, one felt there was a Gandhian touch of empathy and compassion to the people caught in the dilemma of the split. Adoor has never hidden his affinity to Gandhian thought in any of his films. In his semi-autobiographical film, Kathapurushan, there is a boy who weeps uncontrollably hearing the killing of Gandhiji. Many see the boy as the filmmaker himself. And it appears that the little boy has not left the filmmaker who is in his 80s now.

The uniqueness of Adoor’s filmmaking style is the advanced planning for its execution and his eye for details. The colour of the shirt of the doctor needs three different options, depending on the situation, which the doctor is in. The maestro does not leave anything to chance in his set and the art director knows it and he keeps an army of assistants around him to ensure the ambience of the film is what Adoor has visualized. No one ever can make out that the hospital-cum-residence of the doctor is a set built exclusively for the film in the green belt of a fertilizer plant in the outskirts of Ernakulam town. They created a new approach road to the hospital to make the area look like a Wayanad forest area. This may be the first occasion Adoor is shooting in a set made for a film of his, as his earlier films were existing buildings, chosen as a character for the film by him, like in Elipathayam or Pinneyum to showcase the period and also the characters plight. For Adoor’s filmy vision each of the living and inanimate objects which appears in the film is a character, so is the buildings too. They convey a character in this film, in this case the down to earth attitude of the doctor, who is on a Gandhian outreach among the tribals.

Adoro with Adivasi Choir | Photo VK Cherian

The master craftsmanship of Adoor is in his visualization. Be it a simple act of placing a photo or a doctor examining an old lady or police man verifying the doctors certificate, Adoor’s placement of camera captures the attitude of various characters not just the drama of the scene. The young cinematographer Shahanad Jalan being a talented visualiser is all ears to Adoor’s demands on him with almost an army of assistants to realize Adoor’s vision. Adoor's narratives move on the point of view of characters and each visual is carefully chosen to convey a forward movement of his story. So is the sound recordist who is trying to make syn-sounds almost perfect, though there will be some dubbing and ambience sound added later in a typical Adoor style.

The director’s team lead by Meera Sahib, his associate from his 2nd film, and Santhosh, his assistant plan the schedules and daily requirements for the shoot to the details well in advance. Mammooty Kampany’s army of various departments prepares them in advance so that Adoor can go about his daily plans like clockwork. Only three of them know what is being executed in a day completely and they move the clogs of the wheel of production. There is no excitement or surprises in the set as it all goes as planned by the director.

“We generally shoot till the lights are out in a day”, Adoor quipped when he could declare pack up on one day by 5 pm. Yet another day he saved a day by shooting up to 9 pm, as the scenes had a night sequence like a Maoist raid on the landlord’s house. Though the shoot is planned upto March first week, there is a strong possibility it will be over in the first few days of March itself. “This is one of the longest schedules I have as there are few different locations, unlike my earlier films, where we were shooting in an area”, he explained.

For Mammootty,, Padayatra, is the fourth film with Adoor. The two started their association with a character role in Anantharam and they continued their collaboration in Mathilukal and Vidheyan as the lead character, bagging the actor national awards of the year. Here too Mammootty is the lead character, Dr Devadas. The actor –director’s personal rapport is felt in each of the shots, as they both can read each other’s minds. Many times, Adoor repeats a shot just for a safe option while editing the film.

Grace Antony and Ancy, the stylist |Photo VK Cherian

The new feature of the 13th film is that Adoor works with an entire new technical team, many who were not born when he made his first film Swayamvaram. 1978 born Cinematographer Shehanad, Editor Praveen Prabhakar Menon and sound recordist, are all in their 30s and 40s are new to Adoor. So is the entire support team of Mammootty’s production unit. I am told the film has a new young music director too, though it will just be the background music. They all fall into Adoor’s tunes like that in an orchestra. Adoor. the master craftsman, is the conductor of the orchestra, out to create another world class film in Malayalam. The orchestra team appears to be in awe of its conductor and keen to learn a thing or two from the old maestro.

Going by the theme of the film, it is definitely Adoor's creative statement on contemporary times. Till two years back he was a filmmaker who kept telling friends that the time is not ripe to make a film. As the title of the film indicates, he is undertaking a long march, Padayatra, to his inner self with the film and inviting his audience to join him in his march. Padayatra, the Sanskrit word has not just political or pilgrimage associations, but it is also the earliest forward movement of humans to the future, that too in tandem with the laws of nature. The film definitely is the foot march of the filmmaker Adoor to his roots of creativity, that too with a team of young crew bustling with energy. A rare combination of old and new generation creativity will be at work in this film which will be another golden chapter in Malayalam films.

(The author was in the set of Padayatra over a week)