Maamanan: Cinematography Theni Eswar

Theni Eswar is a renowned cinematographer who has created classic images in films Nan Magal Nerathu Mayakam ( Malayalam) and Maamanan.

His other works include many acclaimed feature films like National Award winner ‘Alagar Samiyin kuthirai’ ,director Ram’s ‘Peranbu’ (2018) and Lenin Bharathi’s movie ‘MerkuThodarchiMalai'(2016). MerkuThodarchi Malai was produced by actor Vijay Sethupathi, which was released in 2016 and was one among 19 films to get selected for a 21st International film festival of Kerala.

Theni Eswar shares his visual journey of recently released Maamanan to SICA.

* Eswar within few days of Maamanan your cinematography is receiving lot of appreciation?

Very happy to get this kind of response, especially Pc Sreeram sir appreciated both the film and my cinematography.

Earlier many Dops appreciated my work in Nan Magal Nerathu Mayakam, Ace DOP Nirav Shah called me shared his happiness over my visuals.

* After reading the script of Maamanan what are things came into your mind.

First thought was to give a classical approach to the film…keep frames very simple with strong composition, concentrate on natural skin tones.

*what was composition like?

Since Maamanan had lot of interiors, I decided to shoot exteriors as wide as possible to create strong landscape feel into audience mind.

Next was to keep camera height close to eye level.

*Eswar can you brief about your Lighting plan ?

First thing was to achieve tonal seperation…so I thought that even interiors should have like ambient light feel.

For Maamanan house I used many daylights like par HMI and m 40 lights which was kept outside the house diffused it and directed into the house interiors through windows, most importantly I avoided top light source for Maamanan house to keep emotions grim like feel.

For Antagonist house ( Fahad Fasil) I did very softer source of light to give rich feel.

For sequences happening at  traditional Martial arts ( Adimurai) I wanted to create a stronger shaft of light still it should not dominate the frame..so I kept nearly five 4×4 mirrors and punched sunlight into the interiors,idea was to achieve a vintage feel.

*Your light package for this film?

I used 4kv Par lights, 9kv lights, M40, Sky panels ,Dino lights and then Tungsten series Babu,junior and senior lights and few LED lights.

* How did you achieve realism and also a contemporary feel to the visuals?

For realism I concentrated more on make up for artists..tried to avoid make up techniques instead went for their original skin tones.

Especially I want to present Vadivelu sir in a more emotional way…so I took efforts to convince him not to go for his regular makeup.

* How was Director Mari Selvaraj approach to the film.

Director Mari Selvaraj was a visionary his success started right away from Casting best actors for the role and also giving surprise to audience through it.

* You had also given black and white treatment for the film…why?

I wanted to create a high contrast feel for particular portion of the film…so I thought black and white would be the right choice.

*How was your background as journalist photographer supported film making ?

Being a journalist photographer earlier helped me to handle strong contents based on social life.

Main thing Journalist photography helped me was to choose the point of view in a right way.

Here in Maamanan I shot a key sequence of small boys attacked by older people in a VICTIM point of view.

* Cameras and Lenses?

I shot Maamanan with Arri Alexa LF format with Arri signature prime lenses.

* What was your working aperture?

Mostly I choose to work with T 1.4 for the most of the sequences….and for some sequences to create tremendous depth I shot with T22 also..

Your most used Focal length of lens?

It was not any conscious decision but it happened in a way I shot between 35 to 50mm it gave normal eye vision.

For final scenes I used 18 mm wide to create wider perspective.

* Coming to your previous venture Nan pagal nerathu mayakam your composition was unique?

The story and the setting needed a symmetry feel..so I composed almost all scenes with single point perspective.

And not to use any close ups for Protoganist Mamooty until the last frame where he comes back to reality.

SICA wishes Theni Eswar to continue his visual journey into making very good narrative feature films.

Article by

CJ Rajkumar

Author/ Cinematographer