Gopan Chithambaram On Storytelling – India Every day Digital
“I’ve at all times been drawn to interval tales as a result of they allow us to look intently at moments in historical past that also have loads to show us”: An Interview with Gopan Chithambaram by Aswin Prasanth and Aiswari A. V.
Dr. Gopan Chithambaram is an instructional, screenwriter, and theatre practitioner whose work bridges the worlds of scholarship and storytelling. With a eager curiosity in historical past, geopolitics, and broader cultural discourse, his narratives usually delve deep into the complexities of sophistication, labour, inequality and social establishments.
He’s greatest identified for his screenwriting contributions to acclaimed Malayalam movies similar to Iyobinte Pusthakam and Thuramukham, each famous for his or her wealthy historic contexts and highly effective socio-political commentary. Most not too long ago, he co-wrote the screenplay for the Amazon Prime net collection Poacher, which tackles problems with environmental crime and wildlife conservation.
At the moment an Assistant Professor within the Division of Theatre at Sree Sankaracharya College of Sanskrit, Kalady, Dr. Gopan holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Arts and a Postdoctoral Analysis Award in Theatre and Efficiency Research. He’s additionally the writer of books on theatre like ‘Theruv Yudhathinte Nataka Vedi’ and ‘Sadrushya Vakyangal’ and has contributed extensively to scholarly journals and standard media on theatre and cultural research.
On this interview, Dr. Gopan talks about his journey from theatre to cinema, his inventive course of, and the inspiration behind his tales.
You started your profession primarily in theatre. What prompted your transition to cinema, and do you end up extra drawn to the medium of movie or theatre?
I began my journey in theatre, which gave me a robust basis in storytelling, character growth, and stay viewers interplay. Theatre is such a uncooked and instant type of expression—there’s one thing actually particular about performing within the second and feeling that direct vitality from the viewers. That have formed how I take into consideration narrative and character, and it’s one thing I carry with me in all my work.
Transitioning to cinema felt like a pure subsequent step as a result of movie permits for a special form of storytelling—extra visible, extra layered, and with the chance to succeed in a wider viewers. Not like theatre, cinema affords the prospect to discover tales in a extra detailed and expansive method, utilizing visuals, sound design, and enhancing to create immersive worlds.
Engaged on tasks like Poacher—an internet collection with cinematic high quality and socially related themes—has made me admire how highly effective the display may be. The dimensions of TV/net productions at the moment is unbelievable, usually larger and extra formidable than many movies. Plus, with streaming platforms and binge-watching tradition, the attain and influence are huge.
Whereas I’ve immense respect for theatre and what it affords, I discover cinema extra rewarding now due to its capability to attach with a broader viewers and inform tales with such richness and depth over time. The mix of theatre’s emotional depth and cinema’s visible storytelling is what excites me essentially the most in my present work.
Iyobinte Pusthakam skillfully blends Munnar’s socio-political historical past with a gripping story. How did you employ characters and visuals to depict advanced themes like colonial hegemony, the rise of the Communist get together, and the autumn of feudalism?
In Iyobinte Pusthakam, I actually wished to inform a facet of Kerala’s historical past that doesn’t often get a lot consideration—particularly the struggles of plantation staff in Munnar. Most historical past talks about peasants and farm labourers in locations like Malabar or Kuttanad, however the plantation staff’ resistance is usually ignored. So, the movie focuses on that working-class motion, exhibiting their struggle inside Munnar’s distinctive political panorama.
An enormous a part of the story is Iyob himself. He’s just like the colonial Different who finally ends up imitating his colonial grasp, Harrison. After Harrison dies, Iyob takes over the mansion and plantations, turning into the brand new feudal lord. However as an alternative of breaking free, he turns into identical to the colonizer—oppressing the marginalized tribal and migrant communities. Iyob’s transformation from oppressed to oppressor reveals how colonial energy will get handed down and mimicked by native elites, making a form of colonial double. When his personal son, Aloshy, turns communist and challenges this technique, Iyob rejects him and even kicks him out.
The movie’s visible storytelling is impressed by all this—the ability struggles, the conflicts between landlords, tribals, and staff, and the rise of communism and commerce unions. It’s an alternate historical past of Munnar that mixes actual occasions just like the Kerala Renaissance and the Emergency with this fictional, however deeply symbolic, household drama. The narrator’s arrest close to the top hints at how oppressive regimes proceed even after colonial rule ends, pointing to a brand new form of autocracy.
I additionally took inspiration from traditional literature like The Brothers Karamazov and King Lear to discover these household and energy dynamics extra deeply.
What the movie tries to do is use Munnar’s historical past and panorama—the tea plantations, the communities, the struggles—as a method to problem the same old tales we hear. It’s a visible family tree that critiques not solely colonialism but additionally the postcolonial energy buildings that preserve oppressing folks. Ideas just like the colonial bourgeois or colonial double all play out on display as a part of this bigger critique.
So actually, Iyobinte Pusthakam isn’t only a interval drama—it’s an try and carry to gentle cultural recollections and histories that resist the dominant narratives and present how historical past isn’t simply in regards to the rulers, however about those that struggle again.
What motivated you to adapt your father Okay.M. Chidambaram’s play Thuramukham into a movie, and the way do you hope its themes of labour wrestle and social justice join with audiences at the moment, particularly inside the context of latest India?
The unique play targeted on the tough “chappa” system in Mattancherry, the place staff scrambled for copper tokens simply to get each day wages, main as much as the tragic Mattancherry firing of 1953. Once I tailored it into a movie, I wished to carry this hidden piece of historical past to extra folks, exhibiting each the dignity of labour and the energy of the working class who endured such hardships.
I’ve at all times been drawn to interval tales as a result of they allow us to look intently at moments in historical past that also have loads to show us. Historical past isn’t simply in regards to the previous—it’s a method to perceive the current higher. The struggles in Thuramukham aren’t simply tales from one other time; they mirror ongoing issues in labour and social justice at the moment. Sadly, many staff nonetheless face comparable exploitation and unfair therapy.
By telling this story, I wished to focus on how vital it’s to maintain these conversations alive and remind folks that the struggle for staff’ rights and collective motion may be very a lot related now. The movie actually brings residence the message that these previous struggles nonetheless resonate and proceed to form the best way issues are.
Additionally, I feel interval narratives have a particular energy—they join us emotionally to actual occasions and folks, making historical past really feel alive and pressing. With Thuramukham, I hoped to not solely honour my father’s work but additionally encourage audiences to suppose critically in regards to the social points we face at the moment.
How does writing for a TV/net collection like Poacher differ from writing for cinema? Do you take pleasure in one format greater than the opposite, and what distinctive challenges or alternatives does every medium give you as a screenwriter?
Engaged on Poacher was a improbable alternative as a result of it’s a daring and impressive TV/net collection tackling a really related situation—ivory poaching in India. The collection is about in 2015 and relies on true occasions from the Malayattoor, Vazhachal, and Munnar forest divisions of Kerala, involving transnational crime syndicates just like the Triad and Yakuza, and the federal government’s Operation Shikkar response.
The primary three episodes premiered on the 2023 Sundance Movie Pageant, which was an enormous honour, and the collection formally launched on Amazon Prime Video in February 2024 to optimistic important evaluations.
TV productions like this have actually grown in scale and high quality—they’re usually extra cinematic than many movies at the moment. Plus, the binge-watching tradition and robust advertising imply TV/net collection can attain a a lot larger and extra various viewers than conventional cinema. This longer format additionally provides us the prospect to dive deeper into advanced themes and character growth, which is extremely rewarding as a screenwriter.
General, it’s thrilling to be a part of this new wave of storytelling the place the boundaries between cinema and tv are blurring, and the place critical, socially related tales can discover a huge viewers.
Drawing out of your educational background, which playwrights, literary works, or theatrical traditions have had the deepest influence in your inventive imaginative and prescient and storytelling method?
My educational background has given me a deep appreciation for a variety of influences, however just a few stand out as significantly formative. Bertolt Brecht’s theatrical custom, for instance, with its deal with epic theatre and the concept of partaking the viewers critically slightly than emotionally, has formed how I take into consideration storytelling. That matches effectively with my curiosity in highlighting working-class struggles and social points.
I’m additionally drawn to avenue theatre as a result of it’s so uncooked and linked to actual folks’s lives. It’s a robust method to carry consideration to social injustices and attain audiences who won’t at all times see their tales informed on larger levels.
On the literary facet, writers like Dostoevsky and Shakespeare have been large influences. Dostoevsky’s exploration of ethical dilemmas, psychological depth, and existential questions helps me carry layers to my characters, making them extra human and conflicted. Shakespeare’s mastery of language, tragic themes, and complex household dynamics conjures up me to weave wealthy emotional and thematic threads into my tales.
By mixing these influences—the political fringe of Brecht, the immediacy of avenue theatre, and the storytelling depth of Dostoevsky and Shakespeare—I attempt to make work that’s not solely partaking but additionally makes folks take into consideration historical past, society, and the continuing struggle for justice, particularly from the perspective of on a regular basis folks.
What new tasks are you presently engaged on?
I’m presently within the early levels of growing a brand new script, and I’m fairly enthusiastic about it. It’s a undertaking I’m engaged on with Rajeev Ravi, who additionally directed my earlier screenplay, Thuramukham. We’ve collaborated effectively up to now, so it felt pure to workforce up once more for one thing equally formidable.
This new script will delve into the historical past of medication in Kerala—one thing that’s turn out to be a significant subject of debate within the media and public discourse currently. However slightly than approaching it from a conventional perspective, I’m hoping to supply a extra layered, alternate tackle the topic. The story will discover how drug commerce and utilization intersect with themes like migration, geopolitics, and social change.
Like my earlier screenplays, it’s a interval piece, rooted in a selected time and place, which permits me to discover broader historic and cultural shifts by way of the lens of private tales. I’m nonetheless researching and shaping the narrative, however the concept is to current a nuanced perspective that goes past the headlines or gossip columns and appears on the deeper forces at play.
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