Adoor Gopalakrishnan Films: Where to Start

Short answer: start with Elippathayam (The Rat Trap, 1982), then watch Mathilukal (1990) and Swayamvaram (1972). Those three show the whole of Adoor Gopalakrishnan in about six hours: the decaying Kerala household, the precise sound design, the long silences that do the talking, and characters who cannot change while the world around them does. After that, follow your taste using the guide below.

Adoor, born in 1941, has made only 12 feature films in more than five decades, which makes him one of the easiest great directors to watch completely. It also makes the order matter. Some of his films reward patience you have not built yet, and a wrong first pick is why many viewers decide "art films" are not for them.

Why Adoor matters to Malayalam cinema

After training at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, Adoor came back to Kerala in the mid-1960s and, with friends, set up Chitralekha, the state's first film society, and a film co-operative to produce and show films outside the commercial system. That co-operative produced his debut, Swayamvaram, on a budget of about Rs 2.5 lakh.

Swayamvaram won the National Awards for Best Film and Best Director and is usually treated as the start of the Malayalam "new wave". The film societies and the co-operative helped a generation of directors, among them G. Aravindan, K. G. George and P. A. Backer, make films that did not follow studio formulas. If you have read our story of how Malayalam cinema got its voice in 1938, this is the next big turn: the moment the industry learned it could be personal.

The record is unusual even by Indian standards: 16 National Film Awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2004, the Padma Vibhushan in 2006, and the FIPRESCI critics' prize for six films in a row. Most of his features premiered at Cannes, Venice or Toronto.

The three films to start with

1. Elippathayam (The Rat Trap, 1982)

Unni, a middle-aged man, lives with his two sisters in a crumbling tharavad (ancestral home). The feudal order that supported him is gone, but he will not work, decide or even leave his chair. Each night the household sets a rat trap. You do not need the metaphor explained to you, and Adoor never does.

Why start here: it is his most controlled film and the easiest to read. Every frame, from the colours each sibling wears to the sound of rain, tells you something. It won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival and the British Film Institute award for the most original and imaginative film of 1982. Karamana Janardanan Nair's performance as Unni is one of the great studies of paralysis in Indian cinema.

2. Mathilukal (The Walls, 1990)

Based on Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's autobiographical novel, it follows the writer in prison in the 1940s, where he falls in love with Narayani, a woman in the women's jail on the other side of the wall. We hear her (voiced by K. P. A. C. Lalitha) but never see her.

Why second: it is warm and often funny, and it shows the other side of Adoor, the director of tenderness rather than decay. Mammootty plays Basheer, and the role won him the National Award for Best Actor. If you only know Mammootty from mass entertainers, this is the performance to see.

3. Swayamvaram (One's Own Choice, 1972)

A young couple (Madhu and Sharada) leave their families to marry and build a life in a new town. Jobs fall through, money runs out, and the romance meets rent. It ends on one of the most debated final shots in Indian cinema.

Why third: it is the historical starting point, and its realism felt radical in 1972, but it makes more sense once you have seen how Adoor's style matured. Sharada won the National Award for Best Actress for it.

If you liked those: the next five

• Kodiyettam (The Ascent, 1977). A carefree, aimless man slowly grows up after marriage. Gentle, episodic and full of village festival life; Bharat Gopi won the National Award for Best Actor. A good pick if Swayamvaram worked for you.
• Vidheyan (The Servile, 1994). Adapted from Paul Zacharia's novella, it follows a migrant labourer, Thommi, who becomes the servant and accomplice of a cruel landlord in South Karnataka. Mammootty plays the landlord, Bhaskara Pattelar, and won the National Award for Best Actor. Adoor's darkest look at power; not a first film.
• Mukhamukham (Face to Face, 1984). A communist trade union hero goes underground and returns a decade later, silent and drinking, to a party that had already turned him into a legend. It was criticised in Kerala on release because of its politics, which is exactly why it is worth watching now.
• Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill, 2002). An ageing hangman (Oduvil Unnikrishnan) learns that a man he executed may have been innocent. It premiered at Venice and became the sixth Adoor film in a row to win a FIPRESCI critics' prize. Short, at about 90 minutes, and quietly devastating.
• Kathapurushan (The Man of the Story, 1995). One man's life from childhood to middle age runs alongside several decades of Kerala's political history. It won the National Award for Best Film. Watch it after Mukhamukham, because the two talk to each other.

For completists

• Anantaram (Monologue, 1987) is his most experimental film, telling one life twice from different angles. Rewarding, but save it for later.
• Naalu Pennungal (Four Women, 2007) and Oru Pennum Randaanum (2008) both adapt Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's short stories, and work well as an introduction to Thakazhi as much as to Adoor.
• Pinneyum (2016), his most recent feature, starring Dileep and Kavya Madhavan, was loosely inspired by the 1984 Sukumara Kurup case. It divided critics and is the weakest place to start.

He has also made more than 30 documentaries and short films, including works on Kerala's performing arts such as Krishnanattam and the Kathakali artist Kalamandalam Gopi, both of which won Kerala State awards.

How to watch an Adoor film (and enjoy it)

• Use good sound. Several of his films won National Awards for audiography. Footsteps, rain, crows and long silences carry meaning, so headphones beat phone speakers.
• Read the house. Doors, walls, verandas and courtyards keep coming back as images of who is trapped and who is free. Elippathayam and Mathilukal are almost built around them.
• Do not wait for a speech. Adoor rarely lets a character explain the theme. The ending usually is the argument.
• Watch with subtitles you trust. Look for official releases, restorations, film society screenings and festival retrospectives. Poor fan subtitles flatten his dialogue, and pirated uploads are often cut or badly transferred.

Where Adoor fits in Malayalam cinema today

The directors who made the 2010s new wave, from Lijo Jose Pellissery to Dileesh Pothan, work in a very different, faster style. But the habits Adoor's generation built, strong writing, local settings and actors allowed to underplay, are visible in the films that now travel abroad (see how Mollywood became global). For the contemporary names to watch next, read our list of Indian directors to follow, and for more on how Indian films have fared at festivals, see Indian movies at international awards.

Quick answers

How many feature films has Adoor Gopalakrishnan made?

Twelve, from Swayamvaram (1972) to Pinneyum (2016), plus more than 30 short films and documentaries.

Which Adoor film is best for beginners?

Elippathayam, for its clarity, or Mathilukal if you want something warmer and lighter.

Which Adoor films star Mammootty?

Anantaram, Mathilukal and Vidheyan. He won the National Award for Best Actor for both Mathilukal and Vidheyan.

What awards has Adoor Gopalakrishnan won?

Sixteen National Film Awards, 17 Kerala State Film Awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2004), the Padma Shri (1984), the Padma Vibhushan (2006) and Kerala's J. C. Daniel Award (2016), among others.

Sources: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Swayamvaram, Elippathayam, Mathilukal, Vidheyan, Mukhamukham, Nizhalkuthu and Pinneyum (and the National Film Awards records they cite).