OF BRAWN AND MIGHT: A glimpse into the life voyage of RAJIV MENON

A glimpse into the life voyage of RAJIV MENON

by  ANISHA GAKHAR

Sitting in his quaint Chennai office last month, I felt a sense of inspiration surging through my veins whilst conversing with the veteran cinematographer turned-director, Rajiv Menon. The multi-award winner is a simpleton at heart with an insatiable quench for knowledge, and believes that learning never ends. His charismatic personality surfaced through his wit, intelligence and a never dying zeal for his work. The passion and enthusiasm oozed manifold during his photo shoot, owing to his patience and eagerness to pose for the pictures! With a career spanning over three decades, Rajiv Menon has been a stalwart in the media industry.

THE KICK-START
Menon was born in Kochi, Kerala, to the popular Malayalam and Tamil film playback singer, Kalyani Menon. His father was a naval officer, because of which Menon got the opportunity to live in variousnaval bases of the country, and attend many naval schools throughout his childhood. The Menon family eventually shifted to Chennai, and Rajiv completed the rest of his schooling there. At an age as tender as his then, he was always fascinated by science
and technology; which made him quiz everything happening around him. He recalled, “Those were the days when quizzes were purely visual. They’d show us a picture of a Western classical painting and we as kids, had to identify the same. Generally, not many people can look at a painting at identify the painter –say this could be Picasso and that could be Da Vinci? Exactly this curiosity proved catalyst in getting people attracted to art. This is how I started feelinga passion towards art forms, even though I was a science student.”
Menon was only in his tenth grade, when his father’s untimely demise made him realise how fickle and unpredictable life was, and if there was a time to do something – it was now. As he recalled, he got attracted to photography out of the blue, and went and joined the M.G.R. Government Film and Television Training Institute
to study cinematography. After graduating, he couldn’t manage an assistantship with a leading cinematographer, owing to his newness in the industry. He hence, started working on the steadycam, and the company Prasad Productions sent him abroad to deploy the same. “While deploying the steadycam, I’d gotten opportunities to work with Ashok Mehta, on Akhree Raasta, and various versatile productions. I witnessed various styles of work, in different languages – one day it’s a Kannada film and the other day, it used to a Tamil one. Sometimes it was art cinema and others, it was commercial. It served as a rapid course in film-making for me,” said Menon. He had
comprehended that it might be difficult to get into the film industry, and hence, focused his attention on industrial still photography.

During his leisure time, Menon used to work with an industrial photographer, Krishnan, to learn the nuances of printing and photography. Krishnan motivated Menon to try his hand at ad-making, since it was a booming industry in Mumbai.

Falling in love with ad-making at a young age, Menon kick-started his career in the field of ad-photography, and then went on to make umpteen TV commercials after. He fondly recalled, “While making commercials, one also ends making friends and creative associates. One young chap, by the name Dilip – who later on went on to become A.R.
Rahman, was doing the music for us. The first commercial he did was with me for Allwyn Trendy Quartz.” The ad for Asian Paints,Menon recalls, was close to his heart. It had the theme of ‘homecoming,’ which reminded Menon of his childhood days when he used to run to his grandmother’s arms when he saw her from a distance. The ad was a 60
second one, while the designated time for it was 30 seconds. The look and feel of the ad was so well-received that the team decided to go with the entire 60-second version. This particular ad garnered a lot of affection from viewers across the country, and was specially commended and popularised by Alyque Padamsee, the ad-giant. The chain of ads followed with some names like Dove, Bru and other national brands, on his list.

GOING STRONG
Menon started to laser his attention to how he could use real light and enhance the process of shooting. He started off as cinematographer with Prathap K. Pothan’s Telugu film, Chaitanya at the age of 17. However, he got his major breakthrough as a cinematographer with Mani Ratnam’s Bombay; Menon’s second film. “I had to study the still photographs of the Bombay riots, in order to recreate the scenes with a set in Chennai,” commented Menon.
Menon was given a chance to direct a film by a leading production company, accidentally whilst introducing Rahman to the director. As a return gesture, Rahman suggested Rajiv as the director of the movie which starred Prabhu Deva. Menon was surprised and found himself amidst something he never thought he’d do. “I was thinking of saying something weird and outrageous, so they’d throw me out. So I narrated a story that involved a handsome boy who falls in love with a beautiful girl. The girl wants to be a nun. The boy doesn’t know what to do, so he takes help of a barber. The barber, while trying to set his friend up, ends up being the object of love for the girl!” joked Menon. After having expressed this idea, he assumed he’d be left out of the production. But the reaction he got from the company was far from what he expected. They liked the story and asked him to develop the same into a script. This is how
Rajiv Menon was launched as a director.

At that time, Menon’s hands were full – with the movie direction, running his own production house for commercials and cinematography. His Tamil adaption of the movie Sense And Sensibility by Jane Austen, was called Kandukondain Kandukondain and garnered accolades across places, from movie halls all the way to film festivals. The movie brought recognition for Menon as a director that should be taken seriously. He still continued leveraging his love for cinematography in between directing movies.

Rajiv Menon’s latest venture, Sarvam Thaala Mayam, is and A.R. Rahman musical,
starring composer-turned-actor, GV Prakash. The shooting of the film wrapped up in Meghalaya in April this year, and it premiered at the 31st Tokyo International Film Festival before releasing in Indian theatres. The movie
is a coming-of-age saga of a young drummer played by Prakash, who succeeds against all odds to become a known Mridangam player.The musical drama employed live sync sound technology in the film. Along with being an
intriguing story, the movie also addresses the social barriers that exist in our society.

….to be continued