Thiruvananthapuram: "I've been making films for the last 50 years now. I've been seeing the industry and the society all theses years and I cannot claim that our audiences' tastes have improved," said one of the greatest filmmakers in India, Adoor Gopalakrishnan. He was speaking at a felicitation ceremony organized by Chalachitra Academy to honor his contribution to the Indian cinema.
"Although we are a very literate society and we see great participation, our audiences' experience have not been improved," he said. "Last year, we had a number of good films across the country but none has been able to pull crowd like we see here to the theaters.”
"We see an overwhelming response from the audience in this festival. But they won't go to a theater to watch the same film when we release it commercially," Adoor said. "It's been an enigma."
"The very idea of such film festivals are to educate people about world cinemas. So that they will come to theaters for watching such movies," he added.
At a function held in front of a packed Nila theater, director Shyam Benegal, the chief guest of the function, presented the memento to Adoor saying he was not only one of the best, but also a people's director. He was all praise for the skillful director who took Malayalam film to the height pedestal in world cinema.
A book on Adoor and his cinema written by Parthajith Barua and published by Harper and Collins was released at the function. Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairman Kamal, director Saeed Akhtar Mirza, producer B.B. Matthew and veteran actors Madhu, K.P.A.C. Lalitha and Ashokan shared their memories of working with Adoor.