Meeting of old friends

Today, along with my Director Shashi Paravoor and Art Director Krishnan Kutty, I happened to go to Chitranjali Studios to see the floor for erecting a set for the shooting of a song sequence of our Malayalam film KADAKSHAM. On the floors, a film shooting was in progress, a film about Raja Ravi Varma directed by Lenin Rajendran and Cinematography by Madhu Ambat a good old friend of mine. Acting as Raja Ravi Varma was none other than Cinematographer Santosh Sivan!

From behind the camera he had come before the camera in a new role as performer and I found him really enjoying it, memorising his dialogues like a student preparing for his examinations! He is taking it as a challenge and is working hard. I am sure that he will really leave his imprint in this new field too and wish him all success!

It was also rare meeting of old friends and journalist Pallissery was keen on recording the occassion for posterity, this meeting of three Cinematographers - all FTII graduates.

Santosh, Myself and Madhu Ambat


Santosh as Raja Ravi Varma


In a Romantic Mood!

A rare Group Photograph

Towards the end of the Second year, after a student gathering at the Institute some one hurriedly organized a group photo session, which resulted in a rare photograph containing a large number of students. (1970,1971 and 1972 Batches)


My place is 7th from the left ( in the second row standing)

I think that it was taken by none other than K.K.Jaiswal as he is missing from the photo. The light was fading as it was quite late in the evening and some more photos were taken, one of which is given below.


Vice Principal Mushir Ahmad (with tie) and Principal Jagat Murari are sitting with their spouses. Sitting second from left is Students Union President Chaturvedi, Baba Majgavkar ( standing first from left) Surendra Sahu (centre with glasses)Deepak Dar (tall person in the back row) are among the few in this smaller group.

Film Archives and P.K.Nair

The presence of National Film Archives in the Institute campus itself was a great blessing to the students of Cinema. Many days a number of films new and old arrive there from countries around the world. All the films were screened and assessed about their contents as well as their physical condition before being sent to the storage vaults by none other than P.K.Nair. The students were permitted to attend the archives' screening conducted in the Institute theatres after the class hours. It was a rare opportunity for the students to see such a large number of films from such a variety of film making countries and that too right in their campus. I do not know of any other Institute in the world which had this kind of access to world cinema, at that period.

Sometimes when films arrive in large numbers the screenings will be held early in the mornings and even on holidays too. Nair saab never sat alone in the theatre even at unearthly hours, for there will be always a faithful crowd of students around him to give company. Only it thinned when the films were some very old Indian films from silent era or early sound period.

An interesting thing happened during our time at the Institute. In the height of winter I woke up early in the morning due to the extreme cold and looked out of the window from my hostel room. I saw a large crowd of students in front of the class room waiting for the projectionist to come and open the theatre doors. Later I came to know the real reason for the sudden interest of the students in the screening in spite of the extreme cold climate. The Madras Regional Film Censor Board was wondering what to do with the accumulating collection of censor cuttings from the regional films censored their from their very inception. Finally some one higher there had decided to send this huge collection of tidbits to the Archives! All these bits of objectionable material was joined together and projected for cataloging purposes. Even though the details of screening was kept a secret and the timing was fixed at odd hours, some of the students smelled it and thronged the theatre. They had their eyes full with glimpses of gyrations and exposure of flesh by sexy sirens from the south! Unfortunately I missed the show as I was feeling too lazy to come down from my room because of the cold outside!

An amazing thing was that when some of the cans were opened in the archives, it was found to contain bricks and stones etc instead of film clips. Obviously some body in the censor office returned the cuttings back to the producers for clandestine joining in the films and filled the cans with some weight!

I should also mention about the great support Nair Saab got from the dedicated staff who worked there day and night, especially Kurien, Varghese and Parvathy Nair (a former Editing alumni). Beautiful Parvathy Nair with her elegant demeanor, was the centre of attraction amongst the students. While I was in the final year I had an opportunity to do the cinematography work in a documentary film directed by her. The film was shot in Bombay and I had my maiden travel in the legendary Deccan Queen train.

After the Archives screenings Nair saab used to discuss the viewed films with the students and explained the aesthetics of cinema. It was a kind of informal education which contributed for the development of cinematic sensibility amongst the student community. All the students showed much respect to Nair Saab even many years after leaving the Institute.

I used to meet him often at the International Film Festivals at Chennai or Thiruvananthapuram all of which he very religiously attended. Later on when he built a house and settled there, we used to meet in film functions. Once I happened to be a member of the Film Preview committee of the International Film Festival of Kerala and for a week viewed hundreds of films and selected entries for various categories. Because of his extensive and exhaustive knowledge of Cinema he was much respected by the film makers of Kerala.

When I was the General Secretary of Malayalam Cine Technicians Association ( MACTA) during the Guru Pooja I had the privilege of honouring Nair Saab by conferring the Honourary Membership of MACTA. Though he was just recovering from an accident injury in Pune, he had travelled all the way to Ernakulam to attend the function.

Nair Saab at MACTA Function
Myself making the introduction speech

Film Processing Laboratory and Library

Though we had to study the theoretical aspects of film processing, only after we actually started filming that we understood the intricacies of the chemical process and how it affects the density of the negative etc. Of course the man who was most helpful to me there was Raman Nair (Editing 1966 Batch), the younger brother of Film Archives P.K.Nair. For reasons unknown, after completing the editing course he had been working in the film processing laboratory. Years later we were associated in the Malayalam film "AEKAKINI" directed by G.S.Panikkar.

The Library at the Institute was one of the finest in India with regard to books on Cinema and collection of journals. Many a hours were spent in the library reading the latest issues of Sight and Sound, American Cinematographer etc. It was there that I became deeply attached to the American Cinematographer magazine that for many years I continued reading it to keep up with the latest technologies in Cinematography. After leaving the Institute , I was in Madras working in films. I became a member of the American library where I used to visit often to borrow books on cinema as well as to read the latest issue of AC magazine. The air-conditioned comfort of the library in the scorching summer months at Madras and the proximity of the drive-in-woodlands hotel was an added attraction. Later on when I could afford it I became a subscriber and continued reading it to update on the emerging technologies.

It was a great joy that an interview of mine was published in that great magazine when I did an English film BEYOND THE SOUL Directed by Rajeev Anchal. Please click HERE to read the interview published in September 2002 issue of American Cinematographer Magazine.

The Library at the Institute had played a major part in my film education shared only by the National Film Archives. I think most of the Institute Alumni will definitely agree that the Library and the Film Archives had contributed much to their film education.

Subrata Da's Box Lights

In the studio there was this strange looking wooden box one side of which was covered with translucent tracing paper. We were told that it was the invention of none other than the great master Cinematographer Subrato Mitra himself. It seems that when he was shooting PATHER PANJALI the West Bengal Government helped Satyajit Ray by providing some lights which turned out to be Police search lights ! Subrata Da adapted them for his movie work by bouncing the light on to white boards to soften the harshness of bright search lights. He also devised an inexpensive and ingenious soft light by fixing a number of house hold bulbs in a wooden box and covered one side with translucent tracing paper. Using that light he was able to create very soft and shadowless lighting effects. When he visited the Institute earlier ( around 1967 or so) he got two lights made for demonstration purposes.

Box Lights

We used those lights christened "DUBBA" ( Hindi word for Box) lights during our practicals and found them to be very useful for soft and naturalistic lighting effects. Bala Mahendran ( Balu Mahendra) carried the idea to Madras and got the Box lights made for his films. When he started colour film work he replaced the house hold incandescent bulbs with photo-flood lamps and used them in his films for many years. He even had an assistant appointed only for carrying his personal light to the location and back. Many in Madras thought that Box lights were Balu's invention but the fact is otherwise as seen from the photograph below!

Subrata Mitra with students

Bala Mahendran near window , Naresh Bedi( with beard)

Subrata Da had conducted the workshop at the Institute before I joined there and hence I did not have the opportunity to meet him or to attend his classes for a long time. Years later, I had the honour of meeting him when he came to Thiruvananthapuram to inaugurate the Indian Society of Cinematographers in 1995. He gave an excellent talk during the function and later interacted with the Cinematographers present. As President of the ISC, I shared the stage with him when he was conferred the Honourary Membership by eminent Film Director Shri.Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Subrata Da, Adoor and Me

Though the Box light was very useful I found that carrying it to location and back is cumbersome. So when I started working in films at Madras, I got 4ft X3 ft wooden frames made on to which I stretched translucent thin plastic sheets ( shower curtain material) and placed them in front of lights to achieve similar soft light effect. In the later years it was replaced by white acrylic sheets, grid cloth etc.

Practicals with Acting students

As part of our training we had combined practicals with acting students who enacted small scenes which we will light up and shoot. Professor Roshan Taneja or Asrani (who was working as Part time lecturer) were there to direct the acting students and to supervise the whole thing.

Myself, Venu, Murthy ( Focus) and Prof. Taneja

Apart from doing small sequences we also did a few song picturisation exercises in which we used to take the sound track of popular Hindi films and the acting students will enact giving lip movements to the songs. This was done with the intention of showcasing the talent of the acting students to the Bombay Film Industry. Below is a still from one of the song sequences starring Jaya Bhaduri and Danny.

Jaya Bhaduri and Danny

Our outdoor exercises were done in the hilly wooded area, called forest near the swimming pool which had different kind of landscape and trees so that a variety of shots can be tried without leaving the campus. The only thing is collecting the equipments from the camera department, loading it on the trolley and pushing it up hill. But the return downward journey is much easier, you just keep a hold on to it so that it won't pick up speed and go too fast and unstoppable!