“If the television channels don’t have to go through the censor board, why should movies be censored,” reasoned Dada Saheb Phalke award winning Indian film scriptwriter, producer and director Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
He was in Guwahati recently to receive the coveted Bishwaratna Dr. Bhupen Hazarika International Solidarity Award.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi conferred the Bhupen Hazarika award to Adoor Gopalakrishnan on behalf of Asom Sahitya Sabha.
Gopalakrishnan is the second recipient of the biennial award, named after the great humanist, musician and revolutionary legend from Assam. Well-known Bangladeshi researcher-danseuse Lubna Marium was the first recipient of the award. The award carries a citation, a memento, an Assamese traditional shawl and cash reward of Rupees five lakh.
Gogoi cited the similarities between Bhupen Hazarika and Adoor Gopalakrishnan both of whom bridged the gap between geographically far off states like Assam and Kerala and contributed to the cultural unification of the whole country.
“Kerala and Assam are geographically apart, but the people are emotionally very close,” Gopalakrishnan said. He went on to point out other similarities between the two states like green landscapes, abundant rains, growing vector-borne diseases and lifestyle of the people.
“I am not in favour of censorship, the viewers should decide what to watch and what not. In a democratic country like India such practices should be avoided,” he said.
However at the same time he expressed concern at the increasing trend of sex and violence in the regional South India cinema that is copying the Hollywood trend.
According to him parents should discourage their children from watching such violent films as unlike the western societies, Indian society is non-violent a whole.
“The Indian society would never be violent,” asserted Gopalakrishnan, who has made eleven feature films in Malayalam language. These include ‘Swayamvaram’, ‘Elippathayam’, ‘Mukhamukham’, ‘Anantaram’, ‘Mathilukal’.
He has won sixteen National Film Awards times, seventeen Kerala State Film Award and several international film awards including the prestigious British Film Institute award for Elippathayam. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1984, Padma Vibhushan in 2006 and Dadasaheb Phalke Award the highest cinema award of India in 2004.
Adoor’s first film Swayamvaram heralded an era of new wave cinema in Kerala.
Apart from these he has also scripted some 30 short films and documentaries.
His last feature film ‘Oru Pennum Randaanum’, was released in 2008. Gopalakrishnan is these days busy preparing for his next venture.
