Internationally acclaimed Indian filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will be appearing at MATC’s Downtown Campus’ S-120 March 22 at 6 p.m. for a free viewing of his award winning film “Four Women”. The appearance will begin with a 15 minute introduction before the film and conclude with a question and answer session.
“Four Women” is one of Gopalakrishnan’s latest ventures that focus on four different women and the raw realities of their daily lives, and follows his Parallel Cinema style in which psychology, realism and sociopolitical circumstances are relevant. This is in contrast to the more common, and commercialized Bollywood cinema. Gopalakrishnan, who has won many Indian national and international awards, including best director five times and best film twice, is known for being a master of the unsaid.
Prior to Gopalakrishnan’s appearance at MATC he will be attending “maximum INDIA” at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. which starts on March 1 and runs through March 20. The 20 day event is focused on the diversity of India’s arts and culture. He will appear on March 15 as part of a panel discussion about the portrayal of Indian women in film along with four other prominent figures in the Indian film industry.
Gopalakrishnan has made over 25 documentaries and 8 feature films since 1965. Gopalakrishnan said during an interview on India TV’s Night Vision, “Life itself, it’s so colorful, so many layers as you watch it, it’s not really humane life, everything around you has a lot of things to tell you.” This is representative of Gopalakrishnan film style that portrays the realism of life in India rather than glamorous and commercialized films.
Gopalakrishnan further explained that when he makes a film, he asks “Why should anyone come to see this film? What should motivate them?” Gopalakrishnan feels he first has a responsibility to entertain and secondly, to expose viewers to new experiences.
He says his “films should empower them (audiences) in fact, to face the world, to make a better life,
to look at the world in a different way, a little more understanding way.