Film Career
His versatility as a cinematographer has received much praise, and throughout his career, he has worked with accomplished film-makers like Mani Ratnam (Bombay, Guru, Kadal), Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad (Cheluvi). His latest contribution is Mani Ratnam's Kadal.
Menon's first directorial venture Minsara Kanavu was not only a popular hit but also fetched Prabhu Deva his first National Award for Choreography. Also, A. R. Rahman received National Award for Best Music, S.P. Balasubramaniam won National Award for Thanga Thamarai Magale and K.S. Chitra won national award for the song "Ooh Lalala". His second directorial venture was the multi-starrer Kandukondain Kandukondain. In addition to directing the film, he also penned the story and screenplay. The song from this movie "Yenna Solla Pogirai" won singer Shankar Mahadevan his first National Award.
He has also set up Rajiv Menon Productions and Mindscreen Film Institute, which supplies equipment for documentaries, advertising films and cinema. One of his recent ventures was Kadal, an Indian film directed by Mani Ratnam. He has acted in a Malayalam film called Harikrishnans and has appeared for a few seconds in his own movie Minsara Kanavu.
His recent work includes a wonderful audio-visual delight about seven great Carnatic musicians. This documentary was made for the event of releasing the coffee-table book "Voices Within" by the contemporary musicians T.M Krishna and Bombay Jayashree. The book brings out the personality of seven great Gurus of Carnatic Music with some very rare photographs presented in great print quality. The documentary by Rajiv Menon captures the qualities of these music stalwarts with his gifted inimitable style.
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