In 1984, a year before the Bechdel test to measure the representation of women in cinema was first devised, K.G. George made Adaminte Variyellu, which ended with a group of women breaking the fourth wall, toppling the camera, effacing the filmmaker and running free.
Women in his cinema were not just admiring sidekicks of the hero or victims waiting to be saved, as is the case even now in some films, but they had their own mindscape and agency. Yet, they were not perfect beings either.
But then, the feminist gaze in his cinema or the powerful women characters he created is just one aspect of his oeuvre, which would always be remembered for the rawness and complexity of the lives that he depicted and the sheer variety of the themes he handled. Whichever viewpoint one takes to analyse his career that spanned just over two decades, K.G. George, who passed away on Sunday, appears as someone who stayed ahead of his times and had a perceptive understanding of Malayali society across social classes, which has caused his cinema to acquire new meanings and relevance with every passing decade.
