Into the visuals through Rathnavelu’s vision

In the movie-making process, there are 24 crafts involved. Though every craft plays a significant role in yielding a full-length feature film, there are few crafts that are vital as they enhance the art of storytelling. One such craft is ‘Cinematography’. Cinematography is a department that works close to the vision of the director as it translates his vision into visuals and brings life to the movie on the celluloid. There is a slew of cinematographers who imprinted their visual signature onto the celluloid with spellbinding artistic and technical imagery. DOP Rathnavelu is one of the recent lot.

After graduating from FTTI, Chennai (a reputed film school)and assisting P.C Sreeram in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay, Rathnavelu debuted with the movie Aravindan and rose to fame with the movies, Sethu and Nanda, both being directed by Bala. Post-Enthiran,he has become one of the most sought-after cinematographers in south India.

Rathnavelu started his career as an independent cinematographer after, Bombay, after doing a few commercials. After Aravindhan, Bala has asked him to work for a movie (Sethu). The realistic backdrop of the movie excited him and prompted him to give a nod to the movie.

Rathnavelu was introduced to Tollywood by Sukumar in Arya, in 2004. Later he collaborated with Sukumar for his forthcoming movies - Jagadam, 1- Nenokkadine, Kumari 21F. Sukumar actually hired him for Arya, after being impressed with his body of work in the movies Sethu & Nanda. Recently, Rathnavelu worked with Sukumar for the blockbuster Rangasthalam.

Rathnavelu believes he is a cinematographer and not a still photographer to just light up the frames and add colours to the visuals. He likes to study the physiognomy of the characters, scrutinize the surroundings, and understand the vision of the filmmaker to figure out the kind of lighting required for him to bring in the desired effect. Unlike others, he does not believe that the frame contrast, beauty and, back light magic works like a wonder. He likes to cover up the flaws of the actors and makes sure that the expressions of the actors too come out well while emphasizing on the beauty of the actors. Many actors have appreciated Rathnavelu for making them look brilliant . They thanked him for infusing a lot of confidence in them, by bringing out their best visual to the fore.He believes camerawork is not just about how the scenes look, but also about delving deep into the filmmaker’s vision, creating moods and bringing out emotions.

Rathnavelu coordinates closely with his directors and tries to give a different view of the lens. He avers he cannot work for a project without getting under the skin of the script and claims that he gives importance to the script as much as actors do. If the script does not excite him, he opts out of the project. The regular prototype of films bores him, he asserts. After Sethu, he turned down 13 offers to wait for Bala to launch Nanda.

In Sethu, the protagonist is dynamic in the first half and becomes a mentally retarded patient in second half. For this, he had to choose a different colour palette for the first half and second half. He has used dirty green colour for the scenes involved in the mental asylum backdrop that was appreciated and had won awards for cinematography. In Haridas, the changing confidence levels of the autistic child were articulated through varied tones of lighting. In Sethu, the asylum scenes were given a predominantly green tone for an intense psychological impact.

In Nanda, Rathnavelu has experimented with lenses and used wide-angle lenses extensively. Cinematographers actually use them to exploit vast backgrounds , he used wide-angle lenses so aggressively that he took extreme close-ups. Nanda had the best usage of the wide-angle lens in Indian films.

For Arya, Rathanvelu said he played with colours to make an impact. He used blue colour for the female lead, who is constantly subdued by a guy and used energetic colours to show Arya ‘s characterization. He used dark colours to show the dark side of Ajay’ s characterization. For the rest of the movie, he has used soft-lighting to make the entire film look pleasant to eyes.

For Nenokkadine, the biggest challenge was to show the real-illusionary scenes with a slight difference because even the illusion scenes should real. He has managed to capture the slight differences between real shots and illusionary shots by showing some nuances and intricacies. One example is the scene in which Goutham kills his enemy with a shard of a beer bottle which is an illusion. In that scene, you can observe light falling from the top which he interprets as the light from hell. Red Epic was used to shoot 1- Nenokkadine.

For Kumari 21 F , Rathnavelu played with lighting. He shot the film with minimal equipment and mostly used natural light. He intended to communicate the emotion of scenes through visuals using light & composition. The climax of the movie is the best part where his vision is correctly communicated to the audience. He insisted Sukumar to shoot the film in places away from the hustle and bustle of the city to make them look lively.

For Jagadam, he used warm and rusty colours to show the rusticity and atmosphere grimed with violence. He used the Super35 camera for that for the first time to the shallowness of the surroundings under any lighting conditions.

Rathnavelu says there is a significance in lighting and frames in a movie but people would hardly notice that. All they relish are beautiful silhouette shots, sunrises and mountains. Such shots do not require any great skill, he chuckles. He also laments how, with easy access to technology today, everything is being confused with graphics. Although he has put an effort to achieve that natural look in the Neelo valapu… song (Robo) that was shot in the real sense, people thought it was graphics. Rathnavelu proclaims that he is not in the industry for fame and money. He has done a 3-crore budget movie Haridas, soon after magnum opus Enthiran. For this, he had to cut down his remuneration drastically. After Sethu, I turned down 13 offers to wait for Bala to launch Nandha. Also, he turned down the Hindi remake of Sethu as he felt he did not have anything new to showcase for the same story.

It was Rathnavelu who advised Sukumar to make the film with the 80s theme. That’s how Rangasthalam happened. For Rangasthalam, he didnot want to show the same visuals covering the beautiful river, the blue sky and the fields. He wanted to capture the Godavari in summer when it turns deep brown and the sky doesn’t look blue anymore because of that when one gets to witness its rustic beauty. The village looked glossy in Shathamanam Bhavati, the natural beauty is there anyways, why make it look more beautiful? , he opines. So, he tried shooting in harsh sun light.He shot them , in April and May during a time where the river appears dry, and sand looks burnt. The same river looks different, romantic if the treatment is different. People haven’t seen Godavari , in an angry mood so far. Although the movie is a period drama, to steer clear of clichés , he did not show the visuals in typical black-and-white, sepia or de-saturated looks, to get a different tone. He kept it visually vibrant with the use of costume and planning to be in sync with the background colour in such a way that it blends with the film. For the night field sequences, he rigged his own light set-up and placed it atop a 200 ft industrial crane to give the fields a moonlight effect.

For Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, he insisted on using warm tones. Even while showcasing the British, he chose muted colours, because psychologically, that makes them seem cold-blooded. He used a lot of maroons, browns, and off-whites for the costumes. The colour palette changed when the story went deep into the forest. He avoided strong primary colours that would distract viewers. Also, while shooting at Georgia, he did his research about how cinematographers in Hollywood shoot such intense action sequences, and he had to choose the MoVI Pro/XL heavy duty gimbal and a black arm, and attached them to an ATV (all-terrain vehicle). To showcase the movie’s grandeur, he wanted to show the audience how big the action sequence is from a distance( when you see a 100 galloping horses approaching you, it’ll give you goosebumps).

When asked what it was like while working with big stars like Chiranjeevi and Amitabh Bachhan & Rajinikanth he says each one of them is a top star, and it’s his job to give each them importance in a scene. It boils down to getting them under the right lighting set-up, and a close-up or a suggestion shot to make the audience feel their presence in the scene even when not in front of the camera. He believes that no matter what, one shouldn’t lose sight of the film’s vision. As a cinematographer, its his utmost concern is to strike a balance between the film’s grandeur and realism.

Rathanvelu owes every bit of his success to his mentor Rajeev Menon. He said I was quite determined to assist him when I started out because he’s an amazing technician. His thoughts were ahead of the time. I also worked on many ads because they let you tell a story in less than 30 seconds. That’s where I equipped myself. Even top heroes in Telugu cinema check if he’s willing to give them dates before considering another cinematographer. But Randy still remembers his excitement when he first saw his name on the rolling credits twenty years ago. It was priceless.

Excerpts from Idlebrain, The Hindu & Film Companion