K.P. Kumaran

K P Kumaran has been at the vanguard of the parallel cinema movement and his films reflect his deep commitment to female empowerment. All his films from the landmark Athithi (1974) to the National award winning Rugmini (1988) and Thotram, recipient of Suvarna Chakoram Award for Writing at the International Film Festival Of Kerala 2001 have female protagonists at the core of the film. His first independent venture - the 100 second Rock won the coveted gold medal at Asia 72 Film Festival. Athithi his first feature film as director based on the breaking free of a strong woman from her indecisive and weak husband to chart her own destiny has often been described by critics as one the best films ever made in Malayalam. Several films followed, all based on social issues that impact the lives of women. His film Rugmini based on Kamala Das's famed short story Cages on the life of a child prostitute won several awards all over. Thotram was an attempt at capturing the incomparable lyricism and lucidity of a primordial dialect in narrating an ancient tribal drama in the contemporary idiom. The film is the story of a strong willed young woman who resists tyranny and her martyrdom gives her a halo of being a deity amongst the tribal people. A poem never written, passed through generations by word of mouth forms the plot of the film. An outspoken critic of the entrenched social biases; Kumaran made his mark with his fiery plays on social evils as part of the organized literary movement of Kerala in the sixties.