--- title: 'Ajmal Sabu Keeps Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’s Camera Close, Then Cuts Away' type: 'blog post' section: 'Craft' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'In a Cinema Express interview published September 9, the cinematographer-editor explains how tighter lenses, mapped daylight and footage from trains, highways and sets built Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’s visual grammar. The film’s result is unseen here; what follows is a report of Sabu’s stated methods and the responses published by other outlets.' author: 'Vera Lindqvist' published: '2026-09-10' updated: '2026-09-10' about_people: - 'Mamitha Baiju' - 'Nivin Pauly' tags: - 'Ajmal Sabu cinematography Bethlehem Kudumba Unit' - 'Bethlehem Kudumba Unit visual style explained' - '85mm 100mm lenses Nivin Pauly close-ups' - 'Bethlehem Kudumba Unit train chase filming' - 'Ajmal Sabu editing Scene in Chennai' sources: - 'https://www.cinemaexpress.com/malayalam/interviews/2026/Sep/09/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-dop-ajmal-sabu-i-dont-see-myself-switching-between-editing-and-cinematography' - 'https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/others/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-review-nivin-pauly-mamitha-baiju-are-note-perfect-in-a-sweet-wondrous-gift-of-a-film-101787420407252.html' - 'https://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/regional-cinema/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-x-review-is-out-social-media-users-react-to-nivin-pauly-and-mamitha-baiju-film-2026-08-21-1052049' - 'https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/movie-reviews/bethlehem-kudumba-unit/movie-review/133402475.cms' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-trailer-nivin-pauly-mamitha-baiju-navigate-a-secretive-tumultous-romance-in-this-film/ar-AA2a79D1' - 'https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/nivin-paulys-bethlehem-kundumba-unit-hits-theaters-on-august-21/article71237329.ece' - 'https://www.aninews.in/news/entertainment/bollywood/nivin-pauly-reveals-first-look-poster-of-bethlehem-kudumba-unit20260606172235/' - 'https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Entertainment/20260606/4459256.html' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/ajmal-sabu-keeps-bethlehem-kudumba-units-camera-close-then-cuts-away' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Ajmal Sabu Keeps Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’s Camera Close, Then Cuts Away *In a Cinema Express interview published September 9, the cinematographer-editor explains how tighter lenses, mapped daylight and footage from trains, highways and sets built Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’s visual grammar. The film’s result is unseen here; what follows is a report of Sabu’s stated methods and the responses published by other outlets.* By Vera Lindqvist, 2026-09-10 · Craft Ajmal Sabu says he does not think of his work on Bethlehem Kudumba Unit as a choice between editing and cinematography. In an interview with Cinema Express on September 9, the film’s director of photography said he has always edited alongside camera work, from trailers and music videos to features. He is now cutting Suriya and Jithu Madhavan’s Scene in Chennai while Bethlehem Kudumba Unit continues its theatrical run after opening on August 21, 2026. That overlap matters because Sabu describes the camera in terms of duration and connection. He thinks about how long a shot must last, how it should move into the next one, and how to avoid leaving an editor with unusable material. The film’s reported visual design therefore begins before the edit: in lens choice, camera distance and the amount of footage gathered at each location. ## Ajmal Sabu redraws the frame after Premalu Cinema Express reports that Sabu and Girish AD approached Bethlehem Kudumba Unit as a larger spatial problem than Premalu. The earlier film, Sabu said, used handheld and wide-lens shots close to its teenage characters in an urban setting. The new film contains more people, houses and a whole locality, so the first task was to make its geography legible. For the opening 20 to 30 minutes, the team wanted viewers to understand where houses stood, how spaces connected and who belonged to each part of the neighbourhood. Sabu also tracked sunrise and sunset at every location, seeking at least one usable natural-light shot each day. To hold the larger world together, he added tighter lenses to the wides. That change has a physical consequence. A wide lens can place bodies inside a network of rooms, lanes and neighbours; a longer lens separates a face from that network and gives it weight. Cinema Express says Sabu used lenses around 85mm to 100mm for the close-ups of Nivin Pauly, while Mamitha Baiju’s expressions were allowed to carry the frame without visual distraction. ![Nivin Pauly latest](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/468811d3-810a-44ec-8313-7d8517f6dff2.webp) *Photo: Nivin Times · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nivin_Pauly_latest.jpg)* ## Rain, green and the limits of real locations Sabu told Cinema Express that the film begins and ends with rain, so the wet quality had to persist between those points. The colour plan used dark olive green, navy blue and maroon, with lemon and pastel yellow as lighter notes. Green entered through costumes as well as lighting. Reference colours went to the art and costume departments before the shoot. Real locations prevented total control, so the work became a process of excluding unwanted colours and finding the right tone through lensing and grading. The palette was not a surface added after the fact; it was a negotiation with whatever the camera found in the houses and streets. Rain had its own practical rule. Sabu said afternoon rain looked artificial, while evening light came closer to the real thing. The decision fixes the weather to a particular time of day and gives the wet streets a light source that can plausibly belong to them. ![Nivin Pauly at the premiere of Richie in 2017](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/9306c800-91ba-445c-897d-85ffe11ba7c1.webp) ![Nivin Pauly, Sivakarthikeyan and Vikram at Iru Mugan Audio Launch](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/a95e6646-6006-4547-9c73-99fc18b03125.webp) *Photos: Dani Charles Silverscreen Media Inc. (https://silverscreen.in) · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nivin_Pauly_at_Richie_premiere.jpg), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nivin_Pauly,_Sivakarthikeyan_and_Vikram_at_Iru_Mugan_Audio_Launch.jpg)* ## How the train chase was assembled The jeep-and-train sequence was built from mismatched physical situations. Cinema Express reports that the crew waited for real trains, filmed portions with the actors prepared, and mounted a camera on a bike moving parallel to the train. Shots that appear to take place inside a moving carriage were filmed on a highway with a pickup vehicle; the window was added in computer graphics, while actors were filmed separately on a train set. Sabu said the team had doubts while combining these materials. His preferred response now is the question viewers ask about how the interior train shots were made. He named that passage, along with the interval sequence near the church in Chalakudy, as the work he is proudest of. The method makes the frame a record of several spaces at once. A window becomes a manufactured boundary, separating the actors from the road, the set from the moving landscape and one camera position from another. ## Transitions belong to the cut as much as the set Some transitions were written before filming; others emerged at locations or during the shoot. Sabu cited the first introduction of Justin, played by Nivin Pauly, through Ashley’s guitar strum as an early plan intended to create curiosity with a light touch. He also credited editor Akash Joseph Varghese with deciding how such transitions should enter the finished film. Cinema Express reports Sabu’s view that the editor must place them within the whole without making them feel forced. The distinction is practical: an idea can be prepared in advance, but its duration and impact only become clear when shots meet. Reviews published by Hindustan Times and The Times of India also singled out the film’s framing, including faces seen through windows and characters held inside enclosed rooms. Those observations come from the outlets’ critics, not from first-hand viewing here. ## Sabu’s next cut stays beside the camera Sabu told Cinema Express that Jithu Madhavan first asked whether he wanted to edit Scene in Chennai before mentioning that Suriya would star. He agreed immediately. Managing a full feature timeline is new for him, but he describes the process as a continuation of the same visual storytelling he pursues behind the camera. He said he hopes to be known as a good storyteller and plans to direct one day, with a subject he has been developing for years. Nothing is fixed, he said. For now, his working room contains both the camera’s distance and the edit’s clock. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Mamitha Baiju](https://cinepixo.com/people/mamitha-baiju) - [Nivin Pauly](https://cinepixo.com/people/nivin-pauly) ## Sources - https://www.cinemaexpress.com/malayalam/interviews/2026/Sep/09/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-dop-ajmal-sabu-i-dont-see-myself-switching-between-editing-and-cinematography - https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/others/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-review-nivin-pauly-mamitha-baiju-are-note-perfect-in-a-sweet-wondrous-gift-of-a-film-101787420407252.html - https://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/regional-cinema/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-x-review-is-out-social-media-users-react-to-nivin-pauly-and-mamitha-baiju-film-2026-08-21-1052049 - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/movie-reviews/bethlehem-kudumba-unit/movie-review/133402475.cms - https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/bethlehem-kudumba-unit-trailer-nivin-pauly-mamitha-baiju-navigate-a-secretive-tumultous-romance-in-this-film/ar-AA2a79D1 - https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/nivin-paulys-bethlehem-kundumba-unit-hits-theaters-on-august-21/article71237329.ece - https://www.aninews.in/news/entertainment/bollywood/nivin-pauly-reveals-first-look-poster-of-bethlehem-kudumba-unit20260606172235/ - https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Entertainment/20260606/4459256.html Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/ajmal-sabu-keeps-bethlehem-kudumba-units-camera-close-then-cuts-away Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.