Directed by Sena Hegde, the hilarious family drama is winning accolades for performance and production
it’s raining applause thinkclazcha nishayayamFamily drama of Sena Hegde and team. The OTT-release has won the hearts of fans for the story, humour, direction and performances. The film’s cinematographer and co-screenwriter Sriraj Raveendran is enjoying success.
The hilarious, well-crafted film set in Kasaragod’s Kanhangad revolves around a middle-class family where a girl runs away just before their engagement. The area was not familiar to Sriraja, a resident of Irinjalakuda in Thrissur. “It was not an issue because the themes and sentiments were universal,” says Sriraj. The film has won the Kerala Film Award for Second Best Film and Best Story.
The camera work has been greatly appreciated. Sreeraj has explained it all on social media – style, look, location look, camera and lens, lighting and color correction. “The project had its challenges. I documented everything in hopes of sharing it with everyone, provided the film did well. I also thought it might help low budget projects,” Shreeraj says.
An alumnus of director-cinematographer Rajiv Menon’s Mindscreen Film Institute in Chennai, Sreeraj says he was probably influenced by the sessions where Rajiv and other stalwarts of the field expounded their craft. “I follow many cinematographers’ social media pages where they talk about their work and also listen to some podcasts. So I felt that I should also talk about my work on the film.”
His fascination for cinematography started with Amal Neerad’s Mammootty-starrer big b (2007). He said, ‘The film was a different experience for the audience. Till then I didn’t even know the cinematographer.” Sriraj did some research on the courses and after graduating in animation, joined Mindscreen.
She started working in short films before cinematographer Vishnu Sharma joined her in Tovino Thomas. iguana as the second camera operator. producer of iguana gave him his first independent project, lily, directed by Prashobha Vijayan.
relationship with the military
It was through the same producer that he got in touch with Sena who was looking for a cinematographer for his Kannada film, Katheyondu Shuruvagide (2018). “We were destined to work together. When my first short film, Shubham, was released, Sena sent me a message on my page saying that he loves night shots and wants to work with me in his Kannada project. Even though we didn’t discuss it after that, this project eventually came to me. Now he is like a brother to me and I hope this association continues for many years to come.”
He . became co-screenwriter of thinkclazcha nishayayam On Sena’s request, “When he sent me the first draft of the script, I gave some suggestions. As work progressed on the script, he took my opinion. Eventually he said that instead of writing someone else, I should do it.
The organic scenes and dialogue delivery, that too in the local dialect, have given freshness to the story. “A cinematographer is the first person to capture a performance and it is a privilege. I am lucky to get to see some great performances up close. This is the best takeaway for me from the film. ,
The film was shot in sync sound and the actors were given full leeway. “He was not given a script. Before each scene, we will give them an overview and a rough frame of the dialogue.”
camera as a character
Sena’s brief for Sriraj was that the camera should give the opinion of a third person. “We didn’t have those tracks/cranes/drone shots that make the scenes cinematic. I went for handheld shots and, in some cases, stationary-cams or tripods. ,
This was easy to do, as Nayak Vijayan’s house had small rooms. “The house had a character and beautiful premises. The interiors became a nightmare. Sena turned down my suggestion to shoot those scenes in another house. So I used anamorphic lens, that very old Hawk anamorphic lens because Sena wanted the overall mood of the film to remind us of classic Malayalam family dramas of the 90s, but with a modern approach. ,
A color palette was maintained throughout the film. “It is difficult in a low/medium budget film, especially when you are shooting outside. However, here all the action was happening inside and around a house. So we made a color chart. Art director Ullas Haidur and costume designer Manu Madhavan made sure we stick to that palette. ,
For illumination, they used smart bulbs in which you can change the colour, temperature, brightness using an app on the smartphone. “The army works very fast and I only had 15 to 20 minutes to set up my lighting after a scene. We went with smart bulbs that were hung inside white sugar balls in the rooms used for the shoot. All I had to do was instruct the team to change the temperature and brightness of the light depending on the mood of the scene. ,
The creative director of the project Shreeraj takes special care of actor Rajesh Madhavan. “He managed the actors, created a script for the background action, and choreographed those scenes.” The shooting was over in 23 days.
He is working with Army in two upcoming projects. “He does not interfere in the technical aspects. His focus is on performance. He is comfortable on the sets and has control over everything.”
Sriraj mentions that he has been influenced by the works of Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. “I love handheld shots and the inspiration has been his work amores perosOne of his upcoming projects is a Telugu film, stand up rahul,
thinkclazcha nishayayam Streaming on SonyLIV.
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