User:Rahulmenoncinematographer

Rahul Menon is an upcoming cinematographer from South Indian film industry. With PG diploma in cinematography from the center for research in art of film and television,he has worked on various formats and genres related to cinematography. As a DOP, he has helmed short films [Chilling-an award winning short about drug abuse], advertisement films, documentary films, music albums and has been an assistant cinematographer on more than 10 Malayalam feature films. He takes inspiration from the time spent as a young boy in his native village located in north Paravoor, Ernakulam district, Kerala. It was there that he learned a lot from people, culture, festivals, temples etc. His inherent talent was recognized at an early stage of his professional career when he got a grant of Rs 30,000 from his alma mater Sree Sankaracharya university of Sanskrit to produce the documentary “Theeyattu” about the goddess Kali. Rahul Menon is quiet upbeat about his début film “Namaste India” on which he has imprinted a new visual style. He is getting good response for it. Rahul Menon holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the prestigious Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala. His début movie “Namaste India” is getting good response for his new visual style. In his frames, actors look more real as characters. His sensibility to understand the story and treatment is something what the director needs. He spoke to lalit Rao. Film Critics FEPRSECI, to discuss more about his work.

What kind of film is “Namaste India” ? Namaste India is a realistic fantasy genre movie. It demanded a huge amount of travel from Rameswaram to Himachal Pradesh covering Agra, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. For me, consistency in quality and managing the defensive situations and to use precious time to capture the sequence has been too difficult on this film rather than any other film on which I have worked. Namaste India is directed by R. Ajay and produced by Jossy Kanjirappally under the banner of creation movie house based in Cochin, Kerala. Please tell something about yourself. How did you make your entry in the field of art ? I was born in north Paravoor, Ernakulam district, Kerala. It’s a village named Karumalloor situated near by Cochin city. This village’s ambiance influenced me a lot. People, culture, festivals, temples all had a lot of impact on me. The thing about a village is that everyone knows each other very well. People know a lot of old stories and villages songs. They sing loudly while working in paddy fields. Some of them will take us to that world through expressions and dialogue delivery. They narrate fake ghost stories in a very realistic manner. From the age of 4th standard, I used to make drawings. After my schooling, I joined Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit at Kalady for its bachelor degree program in fine arts. It’s a 4 year specialized course in Kerala traditional mural painting. It originated 400 years ago and all things are made naturally. Colors, brushes and even the wall everything is to be made with wood, stones etc. in final year. I have done a documentary about THEEYATTU (Ritual performance happening in temples in the southern part of Kerala) with the help of my teacher Mr. Vijayakumar Menon (Arts history teacher). He loves movies and his classes are very interesting. He defines things and the directors’ stories as to why they made the films. In this context, he got this idea to make a movie. In 2009, I joined CRAFT film Institute, New Delhi for its cinematography course. A lot changed for me in that one year. Until that moment, we would talk or discuss about cinema may be 3 hours, 4 hours in a day. But Craft film school gave us the ambiance of 24/7 thinking, talking, watching cinema. It was as if one is always into Cinema. I made some good friends over there namely Harsh Joshi, Selva, Subhamji, Nishant. They were all are very much dedicated into cinema. Mr. Naresh Sharma sir has a huge collection of movies and books. He would always tell us to watch at least one movie daily. Later, discussions will start wherein everyone would get chances to express their opinions. What happened in your professional life after you finished your studies at CRAFT film school, New Delhi ? After the course, I returned to Kerala and worked with a renowned cinematographer Mr. Azhakappan Sir. I assisted him in 5 films. All were big budget star cast movies. A real “hands on” training is something which I got from him. His wide lighting patterns are very interesting especially in night sequences. I worked in 12 films with other cinematographers from Malayalam film industry. Later, I slowly started shooting brand advertisements and music video albums (Onam Ponthiruvonam) This Onam song became a huge hit all over Kerala and middle east. Now, “Namaste India” movie has happened. Next month, it will release in all cinemas. It features a well narrated story line with a very interesting Plot. In this film, things take place in 2 eras. It’s a kind of a mix of the present and the past. The incidents happen in real time. Time is a very important element in this movie. Lastly, could you please talk about the technical aspect of cameras used for this film ? ARRI ALEXA SXT, ALEXA MINI, RED EPIC Cameras were used with ARRI ULTRA PRIME LENSES and Optimo, Alura Zoom Lenses. I am of the view that Alexa gives more realistic images. It is also very useful in high speed 100 frames. Its open gate option gives more detail and depth. For lighting, I used Arri 4k par lights, Kino flows and tungsten lights. Digital intermediate is in DaVinci Resolve. Different places demanded different colors. I tried to make a celebration of colorful mood of tones and some portions have a periodic feel. It will come in cinemas soon. One has to just wait and see.