Colors of Life: Mahesh Muthuswami (Kaatrin Mozhi)

Kaatrin Mozhi  is a recent Tamil film that speaks about the need to allow married women pursue what they are passionate about. Stuck between their dream and domestic demands, many housewives end up sacrificing their dream.

A remake of Tumhari Sulu, the Tamil version stands tall an engaging entertainer,  Kaatrin Mozhi sticks to its core theme and Director Radha Mohan has made it watchable, adding right dose of humour at appropriate places, striking right emotions in a subtle manner works out well.

The plotline is the same. The actor’s characteristics are the same. The feeling that the scenes wish to evoke is the same. And yet, Kaatrin Mozhi is unique and different from Tumhari Sulu, especially look of the film, here we get to see a Two different films same theme but approach towards cinematography different yet both succeeds and compliments their respective films on their own.

Tumhari Sulu Cinematographer Saurabh Goswami treated his visuals mostly with a hard light strokes, stark colors revolves around the house and Colorful at radio station sequences. Where realism and seeing beauty in simplicity plays  a key role.

Speaking to Cinematographer Mahesh Muthuswami (Kaatrin Mozhi) he says that “I approached it as if I’m shooting an original film. Its always so much of pleasure to shoot for a director like Radhamohan. His level of clarity , in what he wants and what he doesn’t want is amazing. And the kind of responsibility and freedom  he stows on you for the look of the film , is  reassuring”.

Mahesh who is familiar for his raw images in his past films tries different from his previous outings and also Tumhari Sulu…Tamil Version he  sees house interiors as soft light a source from the sky ..his vision is to see this film theme as ‘celebration’ ..so he had tried to have a look which is softer in lighting and vibrant in colors.

Sharing technical details on his own words to SICA 

The challenges were that :for most part , the film happens in two locations , Viji’s Flat and her FM station. And its strength is narrative and emotional connect driven by dialogues.

So , visually there was a need to let audience soak in the space the narrative happens. Reflecting , Viji’s state of mind  and her character arc through the film.

The capture format chosen was Alexa SXT-W.

A basic , visual difference , was achieved by using Cooke S4 i , spherical lenses to capture Viji’s flat  and an old-refurbished Kowa Anamorphic Lens to capture her time at Radio station. This gave a very subtle but firm  difference in the kind of compositions and tonal gradations possible.

Shooting with Anamorphic lenses , in  not-so-large -interior spaces , yields  interesting possibilities in framing. Always been a fan of Anamorphic lens possibilities.

Viji was always treated with a soft , soothing , mould of light on her; but the spaces she is present , is captured with a good contrast thrown-in in. The Flat had a interesting range of tones , whereas the FM station , was treated zone wise to achieve the visual contrast.

Liberties were taken to use , the color of the light which falls on Viji , depending on  her character arc. If one keenly notices , the source of these color-tone light is not established openly to the audience ;

But nevertheless it was used in a credible way, so as to let audience feel it as if coming from an assumed source. The scene , when she gets up very late in the morning , for the first time ; and the scene when her son comes back home after being lost ; or in the song when they enter the bedroom and she starts to sing ; are examples for this.

Also , when Viji is on her voice-booth table , she is treated with colored light , which accents her cheeks , one side a blue and one side a red , as she lovingly speaks into the microphone.

Some of the light filters used were LEE Cosmetic Highlight , Soft Amber Key , AS Golden Amber , Special Lavender , Just Blue , Pale Navy Blue , Lagoon Blue and Plasa Red. No filters were used on the camera.

For the first time , I had the opportunity to use the SWIT range of Foldable LED lights. They were very handy , in many shots , throughout the film.  Sometimes , in extremely low ceiling spaces , ( the JimmikiKammal song ; ) , couldn’t imagine using any other light to replace these foldable LED lights.It could be rolled into like  a small hand towel. This form factor was a major plus.

At the DI stage ,colorist Rajasekhar , pushed the film towards a loving subtle blue hue ; and properly accentuating the saturation of every shot’s color , without popping out for attention ; thus completing Viji’s  visually interesting world.

The other, challenge was that ,KaatrinMozhi is a remake of the hindi hit film , Tumhari Sulu. So the film always had this obvious weight of being compared with the original. Be in VidyaBalan’s terrific performance , or the nuanced visual presentation of a Mumbai suburban flat and a Mumbai FM station. I saw the original and loved the film. But never, once when KaatrinMozhi , was being shot , that visual world was in my mind.

Going by the audience response, the film has turned out to be a lovely , emotional , enjoyable one for the audience. Its always very reassuring , when the film one shoots , finally … works well with the audience.

Kaatrin Mozhi is running successfully all over Tamilnadu Produced by National Award Winner Dhananjayan BOFTA Media Works, in association with Creative Entertainers.

CJ Rajkumar

Auhtor/Cinematographer