The Ritual

Girish Kasaravalli (born 1949) (Kannada: ಗಿರೀಶ್ ಕಾಸರವಳ್ಳಿ) is a noted film director, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema in Kannada cinema, who has won National Film Award for Best Film four times, Ghatashraddha (1977), Tabarana Kathe (1986), Thaayi Saheba (1997) and Dweepa (2001).

A gold medalist from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Girish Kasaravalli started his career in films with Ghatashraddha (1977), over the next 30 years he directed eleven films and a tele serial. The film he made to fulfill his diploma Avashesh was awarded the Best Student Film. Avashesh also won the President’s Silver Lotus Award for the best Short Film of that year.

Girish Kasaravalli was born in Kesalur, a village in the Tirthahalli taluk in Shimoga district in 1949 to Ganesh Rao and Lakshmi Devi. He had his primary education in Kesalur and middle school education in Kammaradi. Hailing from a family of book lovers, he was initiated to reading good books from a young age by his father. His father was also a patron of Yakshagana, a folk system of dance, native to Karnataka. All this formed a basis for a life rich with creative aspirations. He was also attracted to the touring talkies which visited his village once in a while to screen popular Kannada films. This was his first exposure to the world of Cinema. Another relative who supported his love for creative arts was his maternal uncle K.V. Subbanna, a Magsaysay award winner who founded Neenasam, a critically acclaimed and popular drama company.

After completing his high school and college education in Shimoga, he enrolled for the B.Pharma course in the MGM College in Udupi. The college was a commonplace for many cultural activities and kept Girish Kasaravalli’s creative interests alive. After completing his degree, he went to Hyderabad for training. But due to his preoccupations in cinema and art, he found it difficult to manage his profession and interest together. He decided to quit his career in Pharmacy and join the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.

Girish Kasaravalli graduated from FTII Pune in 1975, with a specialization in Film Direction. The world of Kurosawa, Ray, Ozu, Fellini and Antonioni inspired him and his conviction in neo-realist cinema deepened. In an interview many years later, he recollected how he was inspired by these filmmakers, especially Ozu. While in his final year, he was chosen to be the Assistant Director for Sri B.V. Karanth for the film Chomana Dudi.

His first film as an independent director was Ghatashraddha in 1977, which won him the Golden lotus, and also won a few international awards. During the centenary celebrations of cinema, Ghatashraddha was the only Indian film to be chosen by the National Archive of Paris. For a short while, he also served as the principal of a film institute.

He won his second Golden Lotus for Tabarana Kathe in 1987. Considered as one of the best edited films in India, the film deals with the futile efforts of a retired government servant to earn his pension. In 1997, he directed Thaayi Saheba which won him his third Golden Lotus award. Thaayi Saheba is considered to be the most mature work of the director, dealing with the transition in the Indian socitey from the pre-independence to the post-independence periods. He repeated his success with Dweepa in 2002 starring late actress Soundarya. This film won his fourth Golden Lotus Award. Dweepa was different from his earlier films. One of his movies, Naayi Neralu dealt with a very intense and bizarre concept of reincarnation, based on the novel with the same name by S.L. Bhyrappa. Girish Kasaravalli has given a different interpretation of the subject.

The International Film Festival of Rotterdam held a retrospective of Girish Kasaravalli’s films in 2003. —Wikipedia