G. Aravindan was the son of humorist and lawyer M. N. Govindan Nair, who was also one of the founders of the
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society, a writers co-op established in Kottayam in 1945. Aravindan had early exposure to the art and literary world through writers who visited his parents' home, and the home of writer
Karoor Neelakanta Pillai, his neighbour and mother's relative. Aravindan has said in an interview he used to read syndicated comic strips like
Blondie,
Sad Sack,
Donald Duck and
Punch magazine his father would bring for him and his siblings. Many of his fellow students at the University college in Trivandrum also later became artists and writers; like painter
A. Ramachandran and writers
N. Mohanan,
Sugathakumari,
Thirunalloor Karunakaran,
O. N. V. Kurup et al. They were also part of his friend circle in their later years. Aravindan started his professional life in 1956 as an officer at the Rubber Board, a Government of India organisation and was involved in Kerala's film society movement soon after
Adoor Gopalakrishnan started his
Chitralekha film society. In the late 1950s, he occasionally drew cartoons in periodicals like Kerala Bhushanam, Deshabandhu (both literary magazines published from Kottayam) and
Mathrubhumi weekly (published from Kozhikode / Calicut). In 1960, the then editor of
Mathrubhumi weekly,
N. V. Krishna Warrier, invited him to publish a cartoon series in the weekly. Subsequently, starting 22 January 1961, Aravindan began his 6-column, single-page, narrative cartoon series
Cheriya Manushyarum Valiya Lokavum, (Small People and a Big World) which dealt with the social encounters of its central characters Ramu and Guruji, mingled with political and social satire. The film garnered wide critical praise and several awards, including five
Kerala State Film Awards upon release. Aravindan's second film
Kanchana Sita (1972) was an adaptation of C. N. Sreekantan Nair's play of the same name, which is a reworking of
Valmiki's
Ramayana. The film is credited with the formation of a new stream called
independent filmmaking in Malayalam. While
Kanchana Sita dealt with mythology, Aravindan's next film
Thampu (1978) dealt with realism and told the story of suffering in a circus troupe. It was shot in black and white in a direct documentary mode. Aravindan won the award for Best Director at both
National Film Awards and
Kerala State Film Awards. His 1979 films
Kummatty and
Esthappan also ran through different streams.
Kummatty is a Pied Piper-like figment of Malabar's folklore about a partly mythic and partly real magician called Kummatty (bogeyman).
Esthappan blends together the Biblical story of the deeds of Christ and the way society responded to him, with the life of Esthappan, whose life mystified others. Indefinability of the human mind was the theme of his next film
Pokkuveyil (1981). The music for this film was composed by flautist
Hariprasad Chaurasia. According to legend is, the visuals of this film were composed according to musical notations, without any script. The protagonist of the film is a young artist who lives with his father, a radical friend, a sportsman and a music-loving young woman. His world collapses when his father dies, the radical friend leaves him, the sportsman friend gets injured in an accident and has to give up sports and her family takes the woman away to another city. The lead role was played by poet
Balachandran Chullikkadu. His next film
Chidambaram came after a gap of four years. The 1985 film was an adaptation of a short story by
C. V. Sreeraman and was produced by Aravindan under the banner
Suryakanthi. The film explores various aspects of relations between men and women through the lives of three people living in a cattle farm in the hilly areas on the border of
Kerala and
Tamil Nadu. Themes of guilt and redemption are also dealt with. Unlike earlier films directed by Aravindan, Chidambaram featured a cast consisting of many popular actors:
Bharath Gopi,
Smita Patil,
Sreenivasan and Mohandas play the lead roles. Released in 1986,
Oridathu can be seen as a continuation of Aravindan's earlier film
Thampu and his cartoon series
Cheriya Manushyarum Valiya Lokavum (The Small Man and the Big World). The story is about the problems faced by the people of a hamlet with no electricity when electric supply finally reaches them. The film reaches a conclusion that life is better without electricity. Though the film is discussing a serious issue, the treatment of it is very simplistic. Humour and intensity characterise the film that is set in the mid-fifties. The film is different from many of Aravindan's earlier works as it deals with a broad range of characters and lacks a clear-cut linear story. The theme of
Oridathu demanded a caricature treatment so Aravindan made it that way. When asked about this deviation, Aravindan stated, "There is an element of caricature in all the characters. A little exaggeration and lot of humour was consciously introduced to make effective the last sequence, which is the explosion. In fact the whole film moves towards the climax — the clash on the day of the festival and the breaking out of the fire." The film is complex in that it has many characters and many incidents and therefore does not have a single motif. Hence, Aravindan had to use a number of shots in the film. The usual type of music is also absent. Instead, the sounds of the incidents are used to the maximum. In the film, different characters speak different dialects of Malayalam, for example the villagers speak pure Valluvanadan Malayalam of South Malabar, the overseer uses the Trivandrum Malayalam the fake Doctor uses Travancore Malayalam etc. In this period Aravindan did a number of documentaries and short films. He composed music for films like
Aaro Oral,
Piravi and
Ore Thooval Pakshikal. Aravindan's 1989 feature film
Unni was an international co-production loosely based on experiences in Kerala of a group of American students, who played themselves. Aravindan's final project
Vasthuhara (1991) about refugees in
Bengal was based on C. V. Sreeraman's short story in the same name. The film had
Mohanlal and
Neena Gupta in major roles. Aravindan died on 15 March 1991, before the release of
Vasthuhara. The cause of death was a heart attack. He was aged just 55 when he died. The Kerala Chalachitra Film Society awards the
Aravindan Puraskaram every year in the memory of G. Aravindan for the best debutant director in Indian languages. ==Awards==