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Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Indian film director (born 1941)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ366242
Source-derived summary

Mouttathu Unnithan Gopalakrishnan (born 3 July 1941), known professionally as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who works in Malayalam cinema. With the release of his first feature film Swayamvaram (1972), Gopalakrishnan pioneered the "new wave" in Malayalam cinema during the 1970s. In a career spanning over five decades, Gopalakrishnan has made 12 feature films. His films often depict the society and culture of Kerala. Nearly all of his films premiered at Venice, Cannes and Toronto film festivals. Along with Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, Gopalakrishnan is one of the most recognized Indian film directors in the world cinema.

For his films, Gopalakrishnan has won 16 National Film Awards, next only to Ray and Sen. He also won 17 Kerala State Film Awards. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2006. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2004 for his valuable contributions to Indian cinema.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Adoor Gopalakrishnan” as indian film director (born 1941). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1972, 1984, 2006—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-07-03. The account is most persuasive where Adoor, Gopalakrishnan and Indian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as indian film director (born 1941). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q366242. VIAF identifies the subject as 19986007. The Library of Congress control number is n85195031. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1972, 1984 and 2006.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Adoor Gopalakrishnan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Adoor Gopalakrishnan primary sources, Adoor Gopalakrishnan archive and Adoor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Adoor Gopalakrishnan”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Adoor Gopalakrishnan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.