Till a few years back, the average filmgoer of Kerala perhaps knew very little about art direction in films. He didn't care to think of this department of filmmaking. But the last decade saw, due to many obvious reasons, our filmgoers becoming increasingly aware of the various aspects of filmmaking, including the technical ones that were hitherto rather unknown to them. And as part of this, art-direction too started getting noted. Art-directors, who have a great deal to do in the making of a film are now getting their due recognition.

Art-direction has always been an integral part of films. As regards Malayalam Cinema, there has been a long line of illustrious men handling this department down the years. But only those of the new generation, however, got the due recognition. Of these new generation art-directors, Sabu Cyril is perhaps the most acclaimed and most popular, of course due to a host of reasons. As an art director, he has been able to establish himself on the national scenario, working in about 50 films in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada and at times taking up other assignments too like doing the stage-design for the Miss.

World Contest in 1996 etc.Born as the son of Cyril Arthur in a small town among the picturesque hills of the Western Ghats, Sabu Cyril found himself attracted to the beauty and the grandeur of nature that he was exposed to. Cyril Arthur, who worked in a tea estate, was interested in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering design and arts too. This was one of the primary influences on young Sabu. Moreover art and artistic pursuits had been there in his family itself. His maternal grand father George Vincent was well known in Kozhikode as an artist-cum-photographer. He was known fro his portrait making.

George Vincent's eldest son and Sabu's uncle A.Vincent is an established cinematographer and one of the veteran filmmakers of Malayalam. A.Vincent's son and Sabu's cousin Jayanan Vincent too is one of the prominent cinematographers of Malayalam films. So, it is all there in the family.While Sabu was a middle school student in Coimbatore, he came under the influence of Rev. Edward, a Priest-Warden who inspired him to take part in artistic and cultural activities. This helped Sabu gain a great amount of confidence.

After schooling, when he got a lot of opportunities to pursue higher courses in science at the university level, he decided to tread on a different track. He decided to join the Madras School of Arts and Crafts. Earlier, he had got a chance to see a shooting at the famous Vauhini Studios in Chennai and he was indeed fascinated by the artwork involved. Anyhow, with able guidance from Uncle A. Vincent, Sabu took up the course for Visual Communication and Design. While doing the course itself, Sabu got assignments.

He rendered his services as a freelance artist and designer to many established companies, including Multinational ones. He offered his services to the Taj Group of Hotels, Welcome Group Hotels, TVS, Madura Coats etc. He was even declared the Best Outgoing Student in his final year. Meanwhile he had worked on special effects for Videos and films. After his course, he started getting involved in ad films. It was in 1988 that started working as an Art-director.
Sabu's first assignment in films was a really challenging one. He got the chance to work with reputed director Bhadran as the second unit Art Director in Iyer the Great. But Sabu did the work with utmost dedication and perfection and proved himself. This bagged for him the chance to do the artwork in Bharathan's Amaram, which again was a challenging job. Bharathan himself was an artist and so Sabu had to put in a great amount of effort. But he came out with laurels.

And then on there was no looking back for this talented young man. He has done about 50 films till date. He worked in many Malayalam and Hindi films by director Priyadarshan, including Advaitham, Minnaaram, Thenmaavin Kombaththu, Kaalapaani, Chandralekha, Muskuraahat, Gardish, Viraasat, Saat Rang Ke Sapne etc. He also did the art work of Girish Karnad's Hindi film Cheluvi and many other films like Kalaignan, Puthiya Mugham, Pasa Malargal (Tamil) Gandeevam (Telugu), Chinna (Kannada), Sainyam, Pavithram, Manthrikam (Malayalam), Major Saab, Raja Ko Rani Se Pyaar Ho Gaya (Hindi) etc.,

His also did the art work for tele-serial like Bible etc. So, this young and enterprising art director has more than 200 ad films, about 50 films in different languages and 3 tele-films to his credit. He is also a visiting lecturer at FTII, Pune.Anyway its only too natural that awards and recognition came seeking such talented artist. National awards, State Awards, Filmfare awards, Kerala Film Critics Award, Kalavedi award, Kerala Film Journal's Award and many more awards that came seeking him.

And above all, it was the recognition that the filmgoers all over the country accorded him, that took Sabu Cyril to such heights.And even now when many established art-directors are sitting rather idle, this young and gifted art-director seems to be very busy, really busy, with a lot of assignments in hand. His current projects include Kamalhassan's dream project Marudhanaayagam (Tamil), Priyadarshan's Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar (Hindi) etc. And with so many projects in hand and an unending store of talent in him, Sabu is sure to take art-direction and Indian Cinema to unforeseen heights.