Abstract
The essay primarily deals with three of Adoor Gopalakrishnan's major films from the 80s: Mukhamukham/Face to Face (1984); Anantaram/ Monologue (1987); and Mathilukal/The Walls (1989). It also includes a discussion of his most recent film, Nizalkutthu/Shadow Kill (2002). The author first provides an overview of Gopalakrishnan's life and career and then focuses on the subject of the outsider and the related issue of otherness, both of which he claims are common to all the films. He shows how Gopalakrishnan's protagonists are men and women who have been physically and psychically displaced from mainstream society. Victims of choice and circumstance, they grapple with forces that are self-generated but more often than not unleashed by larger historical and social processes. He particularly focuses on the work of the eighties because it is here that Gopalakrishnan attempts to locate otherness within the interior workings of self, within a psychological space that is often associated with the creative process. The male protagonists in these films function in very different contexts and yet their status as outsiders is defined by their engagement with the imaginary which they achieve through their creativity.