M.J.Radhakrishnan- a rare gem!

Jul 13 2019

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M.J.RADHAKRISHNAN

Seven time Kerala State Film Award winning cinematographer, M.J. Radhakrishnan suffered a cardiac arrest at his home and passed away while on his way to the hospital.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death of Radhakrishnan and said that the industry has lost a stalwart.

M.J .Radhakrishnan predominately worked in Malayalam films but his images from the films crossed states,nations and countries.

In a career spanning over a quarter of a century, he helmed 75 films, besides numerous documentaries and also worked for internationally acclaimed film makers  Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji .N.Karun and Jayaraj.

M.J. Radhakrishan started his career as an assistant to Shaji N Karun. He started as a still photographer in Shaji n karun’s movies. For him shaji n karun was his guru. In a interview with mathrubumi M.J.Radhakrishnan said the cons of not studying in a film institute was cleared under Shaji N karun’s guidance. He was his film institute.

M.J. Radhakrishnan worked a lot and have done many experiments for bringing natural light into the frames. All this helped and influenced other cinematographers also. While shooting interior scenes he used to remove the roof of old houses to bring in natural light. He was not keen in using artificial lights, he always opted for natural light and this opened new doors for the film industry and this became a habit. In Jayaraj’s film Kaliyattom most of the scenes were shot in night. No trolleys were used. Most of the interior scenes are shot with the help of mirror reflections.

He will use only minimal lights and it will be hard for someone to find where the camera is placed. Rajeev anchal’s ammanam kili was his first independent work. But the first movie which got released was Maamalakalk appurath.

His noted works are Marana simhasanam, pulijanmam, karunam, pappiliyo budha, kaadu pookuna neram, akashathinte niram, ottal, Naalu Penungal.

M.J. Radhakrishnan was  Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s cinematographer after Legendary  Mankada Ravi Varma.

M.J. Radhakrishnan’s latest movie ‘VEYIL MARANAGAL’ was about a family from kerala who migrated to himachal pradesh. This movie got outstanding artistic award in Shanghai international film festival. The shanghai film festival jury members and international magazines applauded about the work of M.G Radhakridhnan in the movie Veyil marangal.

Even in the digital era, his first preference was natural lights. It took 1 year for the making of Dr Biju’s Veyil marangal. without using Digitaly created or  artificial snow, rain, wind in himachal pradesh and other places in which were the film was shot, M.J. Radhakrishnan was able to bring all the feel which wind, monsoon, snow gives to the international audience. He was not able to attend the shanghai film festival. He had a strong bond with all the directors which he worked with. M.J Radhakrishnan was the cinematographer for all the movies of  Dr Biju.

M.J.Radhakrishnan got 7 state awards in which 3 of the movies was directed by Dr Biju. and also he got two International  awards.

M.J. Radhakrishnan worked as a cinematographer for  a Tamil Film ‘Sengkadal’ Directed by Leena Manimekalai and  he also shot a musical Doccu feature ‘Arar Asaipadar’ on Sanjay Subramaniam Directed by popular playwright Prasanna Ramaswamy.

AWARDS-  Source from Wikipidea

Kerala State Film Awards

Kerala State Television Awards

  • 2014 : Best Cinematographer – Thamaranoolu

International awards

SICA remembers M.J. Radhakrishnan ‘s body of work, his outstanding achievement and service to Malayalam Film Industry.

CJ Rajkumar

Author/Cinematographer

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