A poet with camera and his cinema of humanism

Unscripted, he spun stories on the loom of time, evoking a cinematography that touched your soul. Space elasticised. Nuanced narratives nudged your nerves.

- Amrit Gangar

Unscripted, he spun stories on the loom of time, evoking a cinematography that touched your soul. Space elasticised. Nuanced narratives nudged your nerves. Cinematographer-director Shaji Neelakantan Karunakaran, better known as Shaji N Karun from Kerala, breathed his last on April 28 aged 73. Still a second-year cinematography student at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, Shaji, as I knew him, had started his filmmaking career at the age of 20, even before he shot his diploma film at the film institute. Once, while teaching at the FTII as a visiting faculty, the well-known Malayalam director Ramu Kariat (best known for Chemmeen, which won the national award for best film in 1965), found in his classroom a student who shared his language and land. Kariat asked the young Shaji to shoot an event at Thrissur. Bollywood star, Dilip Kumar, was visiting the cultural capital of Kerala to inaugurate a function. The year was 1972, the silver jubilee of India's Independence. Fortunately, Shaji had Deepavali holidays and could accept the assignment. After the shoot, he went to Chennai to process the black-and-white footage at the AVM Lab, where he met G Aravindan, who was there to process his debut film Uttarayanam. This short story led to a much longer one of a wonderful jugalbandi between Aravindan and Shaji that left behind one of the most enduring cinematographic legacies. A cinematography that, in its unique aesthetic, has warped human ethos in its wefts.