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Catcher in the Eye

He is not just another outstanding cinematographer from Kerala. With such celebrated films as Train to Pakistan (Pamela Rooks), Mankamma (T. V. Chandran), Kahni (Mala Bhattacharya), Vasthuhara (G. Aravindan), Piravi (Shaji N. Karun), and Sanabi (Aribam Syam Sarma) to his credit, despite having been ignored by the film juries, he has always remained in the limelight. A fact that was reiterated at the International Film Festival of Kerala-’98, held last month in Thiruvananthapuram, where he was the most sought-after cameraman and became the focus of attraction for foreign delegates.

Sunny Joseph has certainly hit the big time. Consider this: international filmmakers of the order of Vladimir Levin (Russia), Michael Heath (New Zealand), and Prasanna Vithanayage (Sri Lanka) have all chosen Sunny as their lenseman. And, perhaps for the first time for an Indian, Sunny has been invited by Polish maestro Krzystof Zanussi to assist him in his next venture, scheduled to take off in Poland later this year.

Sunny has come a long way from his FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) days – he graduated in 1983 – where his passion for the camera was manifest in the documentaries he shot in 16 mm. Sunny says he owes it to the late Malayalam director G. Aravindan who inspired him to join FTII in the first place.

Then Sunny went to the sets of Chidambaram, the Smita Patil-starrer, to assist Aravindan. The film’s cameraman, Shaji N. Karun, was in search of an assistant. That was when Sunny got his professional break.

But for the man who won the national award for best experimental film in 1984, making films remains the primary passion. And at present, he is engrossed in scripting his maiden directorial venture, which is based on Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu, a landmark novel by the Delhi-based Sahitya Akademi award-winning Malayalam novelist Anand. But the film will be in Hindi as the novel is situated in Rajasthan.

Sunny says he makes sure he chooses films, which are in tune with his taste. “Photography should be transparent,” he says. “It should reveal the internal essence of cinema without obstructing the interaction of characters and narration. You should not feel the lighting. Today, light falls so heavily on the viewer. That is part of the glamorization and commercialization of photography. Cinematography should be an element adhering to the visual language, to the philosophy of the director.”

What distinguishes this affable, introspective cinematographer from the rest of his tribe is the deep spin his attitude towards life and art. He says he approaches work with the basic philosophy that good films should be pro-life. “Life is a precious chance where we can use our faculties to create film, music, and paintings. I’m not a moralist. But I am bothered about the value system established by the work. If it asks people to accept the present system, I cannot associate with it. It should be creative and progressive,” he says.

He is all for the advances in imaging technology, though, for he says these only enhance the depiction of reality. “Sixty-five to 70 per cent of our knowledge of the world comes from visuals,” he says. And that, he feels, confers an important responsibility on the cameraman. “The experience and meaning of the world will be redefined by the images. And as a practitioner of imaging I have a responsibility. As Zen Buddhism says: ‘We are trying to reveal the suchness of things’. I also wish to do that through my work.”

Though he was born a Christian, Sunny is a firm Zen Buddhist. Says, he: “I am against two major concepts of Christianity. One is that of salvation is possible only through Jesus. The other is the concept of Pope –one individual being the representative of God.”

Perhaps his vision best illustrates the rapport between him and Zanussi. Their association flowered after Piravi, screened at about 44 film festivals around the world and winner of the Charlie Chaplin award at the Edinburgh festival in 1989 where Zanussi was chairing the jury.

Zanussi’s views on Marxism are unabashed but Sunny prefers to disagree with the Left’s cultural czars – though he has always voted for the Communists. “I will vote for the Communists. But that doesn’t deter me from lending an ear to Zanussi who seems to have rediscovered Christianity. I have also not forgotten Zanussi’s past and his quest of the mystical. Individuals, like nations, also go through stages of transformation. He might be passing through one such stage. “

He says the two domains of communism and religion are entirely different. And that dialogue would be impossible if the participants in the debate took extreme postures. “We are talking of the need to resist the homogenization of cultures by globalization. But by being unwilling to accommodate rival ideologies we are also sustaining this kind of culture,” he says.

 He adds: “God can be all powerful. But then our feeling towards Him will be similar to the fear of a dictator. The mystery surrounding God has only enhanced the individual’s freedom to do right and wrong. It also intensifies one’s responsibility to do the right thing. Only then will love and sacrifice emerge.”

For the moment, it seems, the consensus is that Sunny can do no wrong.

The Indian Express

Sunday Magazine

31 May 1998