R.I.P Jeeva

The beauty will save the world - Dostoevsky from The Idiot

Right from a very young age I was fortunate to be part of various groups that loved to engage in animated discussions over movies. Some groups used to focus on screen writing, with Jayakanthan, Balachander, Mahendran, Sujatha, Anuradha Ramanan etc. to name a few that dominated our discussions. Some others were into more technical aspects of film making, more notably cinematography, with the likes of P.C. Sriram, Balu Mahendra, Ashok Kumar, Madhu Ambat etc, featuring in them. One of the young turks in cinematography, along with Rajiv Menon, Ravi Chandran etc., to make a name for himself over the last decade was Jeeva. Despite starting out with 2 big hits in Gentleman and Kaadhalan, Jeeva stood out in his third movie Indian. The vision, the color, the angles, the lighting were so good that Jeeva made headlines and held his own. Now thats no mean feat for a youngster when you compete for headlines with heavyweights like Kamal Hasan, Shankar, A.R. Rahman, Sujatha, Thotta Tharani, Lenin and Vijayan. Sadly, Jeeva passed away few days back at a relatively young age, with expectations unfulfilled. He was only 44.

Jeeva must have been an humble person in real-life too. After 2 blockbusters with Shankar, Jeeva donned the hat of camera assistant to Rajiv Menon for Manirathnam's Bombay, while Shankar was busy working out details for his next movie with Kamal. Now thats a big climbdown from stardom to just another boy under flashlights.

If Dostoevsky was true as to what he meant, the world needs to find a new savior. Rest in Peace Jeeva.