Santosh Sivan turns the spotlight on himself with the Pierre Agenieux Tribute

MUMBAI: Santosh Sivan will be the first Indian cinematographer to receive the prestigious Pierre Agenieux Tribute during the Cannes film festival on May 24.

An official communication from the festival authorities states that he has been chosen for the honour “based on your amazing career and the exceptional quality of your work”, adding that this award was created to celebrate excellence in cinematography.

Over the years the award has gone, among others, to global legends such as Philippe Rousselot (France, most famously known for his Oscar winner ‘A River Run Through It’), Agnes Godard (France, Cesar award for ‘Beaches of Agnes’), Vilmos Zsigmond (Hungarian-American, Oscar for ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and Bafta award for ‘The Deer Hunter’), Darius Khondji (France-Iran, reputed for his work with Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, David Fincher), Christopher Doyle (Australia-Hong Kong, Grand Technical Prize at Cannes for ‘In the Mood for Love’) and Roger Deakins (Britain, two-time Oscar winner for ‘Blade Runner’).

Ahead of the tribute and the red carpet felicitation, Sivan will address a press conference and share is experiences with students in a masterclass on May 20. He intends to speak extempore at the ceremony “because everything I prepare beforehand flies like a sparrow out my head”.

“Naturally I am thrilled to be clubbed among the greats,” he tells Hindustan Times. “I’d always been hearing of this award given at the Cannes festival but never imagined that I would come anywhere close to it.”

Photography has been a natural vocation for Sivan’s family. His father, Sivasankaran Nair aka Sivan (1932 -2021), a film director also in his own right, ran a photo studio in Thiruvanthapuram, became a hub of cultural activity for Kerala artists. litterateurs and filmmakers. His eldest son, popular Bollywood and Malayalam director Sangeeth Sivan, who passed away at 61 after a cardiac arrest in Mumbai on May 8. His youngest son Sanjeev Sivan, 58, is a film director and screenwriter.

His father was his prime mentor -- ever since Santosh was a child, he would travel with him on documentary and still shoots. “That was an education better than going to any school; dad would answer all my questions patiently without an iota or irritation,” he recalls. They would travel through varied, sometimes difficult locations in and outside Kerala under inclement weather. That initiated the child’s fascination for nature and the purity of natural lighting.

Concurrently, his paternal grandmother, who used to teach painting at the Travancore Palace, would encourage him to sketch, inspiring him with calendars of Raja Ravi Varma. In sum, his father and grandmother stoked his obsession for visual language.

Subsequently, Santosh Sivan joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, for a course of three years where its archives introduced students to a vast collection of world masterworks. He narrates, “A cinematographer has to know all the aspects of filmmaking or he’s incomplete.”

After graduating from FTII in 1984, a Tamil historical, ‘Nidhi Yuthe Katha’, he shot for the first time, fetched him a National Award leading to the lensing of Aditya Bhattacharya’s ‘Raakh’, headlined by Aamir Khan. This followed his frequent collaborations with the auteur Mani Ratnam, prominently for ‘Thalapathy’, ‘Roja’, ‘Dil Se’ and ‘Raavan’.

Over the years, he has won 12 National Awards, six Filmfare Awards, four Kerala State Awards and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, besides receiving the Padma Shri. He has done 55 films and an equal number of documentaries.

Modestly, Santosh ascribes his success story to the directors and actors who have always placed implicit trust in him. “So did nature. Ever since I was a kid playing hockey, hours ago I could predict when the game would be interrupted by heavy rainfall. Honestly, I would have been a farmer if I hadn’t become a cinematographer,” he says.

He admits that his work may have become “a little more commercial because when the budget is big, the scale has to look larger than life”. But, he says, “I try to avoid artificial sets, over-lighting and unnecessary decorative elements. For me, light and shade are like a melody and the camera movement, the rhythm.”

He elaborates that he relishes picturising songs when they are relevant to the plot, “like ‘Chhaiyan Chhaiyan’ of ‘Dil Se’”. “Mani Ratnam wanted to convey that nostalgic feeling, the dread children feel when a train moves into a dark, endless tunnel,” he says.

Our conversation lengthens to the extent that it could fill up the pages of a thick book. Suffice it to say, Santosh Sivan, who photographed three of the films I directed – ‘Fiza’, ‘Tehzeeb’ and ‘Silsiilay’ – is a genius who can make a tiny cabin look as huge as a ballroom with a sleight of lighting and camera movement. And he is especially fond of close-ups through which actors can emote with their eyes instead off indulging in excessive dialogue.

At 60, he is in his element. If he has a slight stoop on his right shoulder, it’s because he often lugs the camera himself for hand-held shots.

Santosh Sivan will be accompanied to the Cannes festival on the French Riviera by his wife Deepa and son Sarvajeeth. The red carpet awaits.