HUNG UP ON THE WISDOM TREE

At the Film Institute of India ( before Television courses were started), from 1970 onwards we had a “Thought for Today” Notice Board near the canteen where the students were free to put up any interesting matter for the benefit of the student community. It was also a forum for the free expression of student opinion. IBy that time Navin Nischal, Shatrughan Sinha, and Jaya Bhaduri had started making their debut in the closely guarded Bombay Film Industry and were emerging as the future stars. This made the Acting students at the Institute to behave with their heads in the clouds as if they have already become Superstars. It was seen in their arrogance and attitude towards their fellow students. An exception was their friendliness towards Motion Picture Photography students, for they badly needed our help in getting themselves beautifully photographed for their portfolios! Their arrogance towards other students caused a lot friction and loss of good will between the Direction and Acting students. As a result of that many of the Direction students started excluding Acting students from their Final year Diploma films by casting outside artistes in their place. When the Institute authorities insisted that the casting should be done only from among the Acting students, the Direction students cleverly overcame that by selecting the subjects in such a manner, so that a child or a very old woman / man or a tight rope walking street acrobat ( as in my Diploma film - JEEVAN) etc has become the main character. Such roles certainly cannot be played by the acting students and they lost out their chances in the Diploma films. As a result four of the acting students - Raza Murad, Deepak Dhar, Sushil Bhatnagar and Imtiaz Ahmed Khan Pathan did not get to act in any of the Diploma films! Hence four additional Diploma films exclusively for them were sanctioned to accommodate them. But instead of entrusting the Direction department teaching staff to direct those films, all the four films were assigned to the Professor of Acting - Prof. Raushan Taneja.

This odd decision by the Principal Shri. Jagat Murari infuriated most of the students including me, for, some months earlier Prof. Taneja was assigned to do an one hour feature film with disastrous results. The film was planned as part of the programme to showcase the Acting talents of the Film Institute students for the sake of the Bombay film industry. It was an one hour featurette to be shot during the Christmas vacations. The story, screenplay was also handled by the Acting Professor. A lot of precious raw stock was wasted during a ten day shooting schedule in Madh island and there were reports of some of the acting girls missing from location who were later traced to the flats of their seniors cum successful stars in the Bombay film world. At that time I had put up a poster depicting Prof. Taneja shooting in Madh Island and a ship unloading film rolls into the sea. It created some commotion among the acting students but they didn’t know that I was the person behind it.

Now again assigning Four of the Diploma films to Acting Department and to the very same Prof. Taneja infuriated many people. While the discussions were going on, I did a cartoon depicting Prof. Taneja shooting the four diploma films with the four actors and with 4 cameras simultaneously and it was titled “BEWARE - WILD SHOOTER IN TOWN - SHOOTS ANY THING AND EVERY AT SIGHT!" This cartoon I did on my own, but once again left it unsigned and at midnight when no one was around I pasted it on the notice Board.

The Poster that caused the strike

Next morning there was a big crowd in front of the notice board. Some acting boys tried to tear it off but were prevented by some others who had collected there to see it. There were lot speculations about who were behind this sacrilege as the Acting students had given the demi-God status to their Professor. Was it not he who created super stars out of sheer clay - the rank new comers who were taught the art of acting! When the sun went down, in their drunken stupor some of them shouted the choicest abuses and created a big commotion in the Men’s hostel.

Warning for those who dared to tear it!

A complaint was made to the Principal Shri Jagat Murari regarding this by the Student’s Union and in the evening a General Body meeting of all the students was called. A few minutes before the commencement of the meeting I was sitting in the canteen thinking how to deal with the situation. Certainly the Principal will be asking, who had put up the controversial poster. I thought that I will need some moral support from my fellow students. So I told a few of my friends that, it was I who had put up the poster and when the Principal asks for the hand behind it I will be getting up and they should support me.

Assured of their support I went inside to attend the meeting. After the usual introduction, the Principal took a pad and pen to note down the names and asked – “I want to know who had put up this Poster?” Slowly I got up and behind me others got up from different parts of the auditorium. The Principal stood agape frozen with a shocked expression. I turned back and what a scene! Except the Acting students all the other students including Foreign students stood in solidarity with me. I never expected that I will be getting such a massive support. It was just a spontaneous reaction of the suppressed anger of the student community over allotment of the films to the Acting Department.

Recovering from his shock, the Principal asked the students to be seated and then said, “I want to know, the talent behind this cartoon”. This time I stood up alone. Then there was mayhem by the acting students. At the top of their voice they shouted all sorts of things. To control the situation, I wanted to say a few words and I took the center stage. It was for the first time in my life that I was making a speech. I told the students “I know Prof. Taneja for the past three years. Many times I have worked with him in the Acting Practical as well as song picturisation classes. And he also knows me very well too. You are all saying that I have insulted Prof. Taneja. I want to ask Prof. Taneja one thing - Whether I have insulted him in my cartoon?” My strategy was if you ask such a question directly to the person concerned, he will definitely say that he was not offended. That was exactly the reaction I wanted from Prof. Taneja. He got up and told the students that he was in no way offended by it and saw it only as a humorous comment.

Hanging on to that point, I told the acting students that if Prof. Taneja is not offended, then why they are making such a hue and cry and concluded my speech. There was utter chaos and some one shouted that Prof. Gopal of Cinematography Department laughed at the cartoon. Then Prof.Gopal got up and replied that it was true that he had laughed. It was just a funny cartoon and so he had laughed and there was nothing wrong in laughing at it! Still they were not pacified and raised hell (in which department they excelled!).

Finally after much shouting by the Acting Students and some counter shouting by others, the Principal gave a big sermon on peaceful coexistence and ended the meeting by reciting the Shanti Mantra - Om Shanti, Shanti. Since no was action was taken on the erring acting students, it encouraged them more and that night the atrocities were repeated in drunken stupor more forcefully by beating up some of the students. The offending poster was also torn up into pieces.

This time the Student Union demanded stern action against those culprits. After due enquiry, the Principal Shri. Jagat Murari rusticated two students Deepak Dhar and Raza Murad and suspended Lakhan Pal and Susheel Bhatnagar . Immediately the Acting students went on strike protesting the action in front of the Principal's office. After a few hours the Principal withdrew the action taken against the acting students and their strike was withdrawn. This sudden and partisan decision by the Principal without punishing the culprits culminated into a longer strike which escalated to change the history of Film Institute for ever.

The strike went on for months. The students came out from the hostel rooms and stayed in the open, putting up their beddings on either side of the road near the Main gate of the Institute. For the junior students who were missing their education, classes were conducted by the seniors. All negotiations with the authorities were recorded on tape and photographs taken and press releases were sent on a regular basis. Some of the local papers wanted to publish my cartoon, but the original was torn away by acting students. But, I went to the office of a Marathi tabloid and redrew the cartoon for their publication. I was also given the charge of the publicity department of the striking students, to paint the walls with slogans and cartoons – materials courtesy of the Institute Art Department! Once while painting a slogan on a wall opposite to the Principal’s office, he noticed it and summoned me to his office through his peon. I sent back the peon by saying that I do not recognize him as the Principal!

News in The Indian Express

We also celebrated the Silver jubilee day of the strike which was widely covered by the print media on a daily basis. One of the paper cutting is still with me - the news item published in The Indian Express dated 17 March 1971:

FTII students “celebrate jubilee”

Express News Service

POONA, March 16

The united students' body of the Film and television Institute of India yesterday observed the "silver jubilee" of their 25 days old strike. They held their classes for the first time in the open and teaching was resumed as senior students took the classes instead of their teachers.

They continued to wear "Mr. Principal quit" badges and kept up their "lie in the open strike with beddings spread in the open.

That we want to attend the classes and are prepared to be instructed by our fellow senior students is a proof that we are interested in studies and want to appear of the examination and "are not shirkers or bad students" said a student leader.

The campus-canteen walls run riot with slogans and proverbs adopted to suit their present agitation.

Some of them read "worn out engines become efficient breaks but we want a dynamic accelerator" or "this is not a struggle for the present, this is a homage to the microscopic good" or puns like “Mr. Principal we feel that you have to be replaced by a man of principle"

In spite of all our efforts the Principal remained adamant and stuck to his earlier decision and the students had no other option but to continue the strike. To break the strike, the Principal sent notice to the parents to take their striking wards back to their home immediately. Alarmed by the letter, my father arrived at Poona to take me home as soon as possible. I explained him about the strike and after pacifying went home with him. But when the classes were restarted, the strike also began with renewed strength!

One day there was a small crowd of acting students making a big noise under the Wisdom Tree. They were holding five large card board effigies – with the names Vinay Shukla, Surendar Chawdhary, K.G.George, Baba Majgavkar and Ramachandra Babu.written on them. They were beating the cut outs with slippers and brooms and were condemning us to be hanged by neck till death. Thus five of our effigies were hanged on the Wisdom Tree. (Though Vinay Shukla, Surendar Chawdhary, K.G.George and Baba Majgavkar were in no way associated with the Cartoon incident, it was presumed by the acting students that they must be the brains behind it). All their attacks were targeted at the five of us, and we were thus given the rare honour of being hanged on the Wisdom Tree!

Well, that was the story of our hangings and to the best of my knowledge no further hangings ever took place under the hallowed Wisdom Tree. The strike went on for some more time and ultimately brought a lot of changes to the curriculum of the various courses at the Institute!

Update 26-July-2017:  

A recently found photo from Surendar Chawdhary's  Blog:

Effigies hung up  on the wisdom tree...

Vinay Shukla, T.N.Mohan, Nirad Mohapatra  and Surendar Chawdhary

Bye Dear Ramu…..

It is with a painful heart that I write these words on learning that my dear mentor and friend Ramu (Cinematographer S. Ramachandra) had left this world on the 10 th January, 2011. He was one of the first few persons with whom I came in to contact at the Film Institute of India in 1968, when I joined in the Motion picture Photography course. He was then studying in the second year Motion picture Photography course and was the room mate of M. Azad (Screenplay writing Course). Hailing from Kerala, my seniors Azad and Kabeer Raother (Direction) took natural interest in me and was always there to help me to cope with the new environment at the Institute. Being the room mate of Azad and a fellow South Indian, he joined them to become my local guardians at Poona. Ramu, as I used to call him, was a charming personality with attractive eyes and long hair. He was very much attached to his friend and room mate, M. Azad and vice -verse.

When Azad got his first break as Script writer for John Abraham’s maiden Malayalam film “VIDYARTHIKALE ITHILE ITHILE”(1972) , he had in mind to engage Ramu as its Cinematographer. During the pre-production days they asked me whether I was willing to work as assistant to him in that film and I readily agreed with their offer. But later on finding too many scenes to be shot in the streets with hand held camera they thought Ramu might find it difficult to cope up with his Polio affliction. Ultimately they asked me to be their Cinematographer and I got my first break in the Malayalam film industry. Since John and Azad never had any previous discussion regarding the project with Ramu, he never came to know about it!

Myself and Ramu used to get in touch with each other through letters – he writes long and interesting letters –which arrive after long intervals. We also used to occasionally meet with each other at some of the International Film Festival venues. I remember one occasion, when he came to International Film Festival of Kerala with the film DWEEPA (1982) along with Director Girish Kasaravalli and the late Actress Producer Soundarya. We had a wonderful time catching up with each other's activities. The last time I met him was at Bangaluru in 2006 when he was felicitated by the Suchitra Film Society for being honoured with Karanataka Government Lifetime Achievement Award. At that time I was attending the Bangalore International Film Festival where my short film “CINEKU” was being screened. Afterwards at the party at the Cricket Stadium we renewed our friendship by filling up missing details regarding our work and news about mutual friends.

Last year while I was working in the Malayalam film “INGANAYUM ORAAL” for the first time with our old mutual friend Director Kabeer Raother, he inquired about Ramu’s whereabouts. From the shooting location I called Ramu at Bangaluru and handed over the phone to Kabeer as a surprise. That was the last time I had talked with him. I never had any hint that he was fighting a deadly enemy like cancer and it came as a big shock to me that he had passed away so suddenly. I felt as if I had lost somebody from my own family, for he was so close to my heart as friend, philosopher and guide.

I convey my heartfelt grief and condolences to Ramu’s bereaved family members and friends and pray for his soul to Rest In Peace.

A brief Bio-data :

S. Ramachandra (Shivaramaiah Ramachandra Aithal ) passed out from the Film Institute of India, Poona in 1970. He along with Directors like B.V.Karanth, Girish Karnad, G.V.Iyer and Girish Kasaravalli were the architects of the new wave Kannada cinema movement which took the Kannada film industry to heights during the seventies. S.Ramachandra started off his career as a cinematographer in films with SANKALPA directed by Nanjaraja Urs.

He won the Best cameraman award five times and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Karnataka State government in 2006. He won National Film Award for Best Cinematography in 1977 for Kannada film RISHYA SHRINGA. He had worked as a cinematographer in many films directed by Girish Kasaravalli which brought him much appreciation. He started off working with Girish in his first Swarna Kamal award winning film GHATASHRADHDHA. Later he worked in MANE, KROURYA, NAAYI NERALU, HASEENA and GULABI TALKIES. He was one of the pillars of the New Wave cinema movement in the Kannada film industry. His work in the TV series MALGUDI DAYS (1987) translated in to visuals the writings of the great writer R.K.Laxman and made millions of viewers from all over India to stay glued to their T.V sets feeling as if they were living in the village of Malgudi!

Even a few days before his death, he worked in BETTADA JEEVA directed by well known award winning director P. Sheshadri. This is perhaps his last film as a cinematographer.

Filmography;

This is a partial list of films:

Chomana Dudi (1975)

Rushya Shringa (1976)

Ghatashraddha (1977)

Akramana (1979)

Malgudi Days(1987) TV series

Mane (1991)

Deveeri (1999)

Mukhaputa (2009)

Pallavi,

Grahana,

Kankana,

Rushya Shringa,

Anveshane,

Banker Margayya,

Santha Shishunala Sharief,

Gandharva Giri,

Hombisilu,

Bettale Seve,

Nya Geddithu,

Mudhudidha Tavara Aralithu

Mane

Krourya

Naayi Neralu

Haseena

Gulabi Talkies

JEEVAN - My Diploma film

For his Diploma film “JEEVAN” , my Director Baba Majgavkar had chosen as his subject a family of wandering street performers who live a precariously balanced life. For a morsel of bread, they perform on the tight rope, balanced between life and death. And death does strikes one of the family members, But private grief has no place in public life. The show must go on.

Taking a Low angle view

Since the story was about a family of street acrobats we could not cast any of our acting students for playing the main roles. A family of real acrobats, Gangaram, his wife, daughter, and son played the leading roles. Jagadish Sodhi, Lakhanpal and Jameela Malik completed the supporting cast.

Myself, Director Baba Majgavkar, Akki Hame Chander (Sound) & M.A.Singh (Editor)

Our unit also consisted of Akki Hame Chander doing the sound and M.A.Singh, the Editing. I was assisted my Kasruti Murthy and Ram Agarwal on the camera. The outdoor shooting was done in a crowded chawl with local people used as onlookers. Since Baba was a Maharashtrian he could communicate with them in Marathi and easily got things done.

Murthy near camera & Baba (with glasses) sitting on right

Crowd of onlookers

Standing on top of the old unit van

The interior of their hut was erected in the studio with thatched grass, bamboo and other materials. Some time earlier, at the Institute I had watched a screening of the Japanese film SUNA NO ONNA ("Woman of the Dunes" -1964) Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and Written by Kobe Abe. I was very much impressed by the stark B&W contrasty photography by Hiroshi Segawa, especially in the Interiors scenes.

I was highly inspired by the film's cinematography that I wanted to emulate that lighting style in my Diploma film. I wanted the day exterior portions seen through the gaps in the thatched hut and windows to burn and wash out completely with no details against the gloomy dark lit interiors. I asked the Art department to paint the background pure white instead of the normally painted Grey colour. I boosted up the maximum lights on the background to make it so bright, as if it was like shooting in scorching sun. My results turned out excellent, but when the marks came out it was disappointing as the external examiners thought it was shot in real interior locations and not as lighting being done in studio interiors!

The film "Woman of the Dunes" still haunted me for a long time, that years later, I wrote a poem which was published in "Youth Times" Magazine 17-24 November, 1977 issue, selected by well known Poet Kamala Das.

Sunset Sand Diggers

Under the undulating dunes
Desires lie buried
My soul sleeps imprisoned
Somewhere in a bottomless pit,
To each his own
He himself being one.

Ours might be billion light-years apart
Or just a sand wall away.
Above in the gray sky
Under the blinding sun
Circles a lone vulture.
I dig my agony to unearth lost ecstasy.
In constant work, do I exist
My universe — this pit.
Destination unknown,
This journey a one-way trip.
Perhaps our tunnels may meet in the sunset
We may then discover
What we have lost
Or what we have not yet.

Remarkable Friendship

This is a story of a remarkable friendship between two persons hailing from opposite ends of the Indian Subcontinent, I from Kerala in South India and Sudhir Choudhary from the Northern most part of India, Jammu. Though Sudhir was my junior by a year in Motion Picture Photography we became good friends very soon. Whenever he returned from his home in Jammu after holidays, he used to bring a sack full of dry fruits like almonds, pistachios etc and distribute it amongst his friends. Handsome looking and debonair, Sudhir can be usually found in the company of acting students. While in his second year he wanted to buy a 16mm camera, preferably a Bolex reflex for his personal use and found that a few used cameras were available at Delhi.

Being a senior student he sought my advice regarding the choice of camera and wanted me to go with him to Delhi for testing the cameras before buying and to do the selection. Since it was Christmas vacation time I readily agreed. So we left for Bombay by train and were joined there by Romesh Sharma and M.S. Sandhu ( Both from Acting) and Nitin Mukesh (son of legendary playback singer Mukesh). We all flew from Bombay to Delhi by an Indian Airlines flight. That was my first ever air travel and my ticket amount (we were entitled to student concession) was borne by Sudhir himself. On reaching Delhi we stayed at a house belonging to Mukesh’s family.

Myself and Sudhir went to various dealers and found three or four Bolex cameras both non-reflex and reflex ones. We tested the lenses and checked the camera body and movement for any flaws. Finally we settled on a Reflex model camera in good condition and at a reasonable price. We also purchased a few 100 ft rolls of 16 mm Kodachrome reversal film for testing and for Sudhir’s personal use.

From Delhi along with Sandhu, Sudhir and I proceeded to Chandigarh and did a bit of sight seeing of the well planned and designed city for a day. Sandhu took leave and we both left for Shimla, where Sudhir’s sister was studying at that time and he wanted to meet her. It was the month of December and was quite cold in the evening and we warmed ourselves with some gimlet and nice sizzlers at a bar. To pass time we went to see a John Wayne Western film running in a nearby theatre though we both had seen the film much earlier at Poona. The show started around 5.30 PM and only a handful of persons were in the audience. But the show ended abruptly by 6.45 PM as one or two reels in between were not screened. Since we had seen the film earlier we demanded an explanation from the theatre manager. He admitted that the Projector operator had done a little bit of “Editing” so that he can finish the show and go home early as they don’t have any night shows in winter. The manager apologized and offered to refund the ticket amount but we didn't take it and being Cinema students we gave a stern warning to him not to chop a creative work according to their whims and fancies in future.

Next day we met Sudhir’s sister and left for Jammu and reached Sudhir’s home for a warm welcome. His father had a nice Cinema theatre in Jammu which was an artistically built building with lots of curving ramps. They were also having a logging business in a mountainous forest area from where they supplied wooden sleepers for the Indian railways. Their camp was situated deep in the forest, a few hours drive from Jammu. Sudhir and I planned to go there and try our newly acquired camera to shoot a short documentary on the subject of sleeper making. The ride in the jeep through the mountain roads was a hair rising experience especially if you are seated on the side of the jeep. Beside the wheel you can see only inches of solid ground and then the deep ravine with the river flowing deep in the distance as the jeep is driven at breakneck speed. Of course the drivers are expert persons knowing the winding roads just as the back of their hands but persons new to these places like me are bound to get frightened.

At last we reached a place where the road ended and then it was a long trek up the hill and through the dense forest. It had also some exciting moments such as walking at the edge of the mountain and crossing deep ravines walking on fallen trees by balancing like a tightrope walker.We reached the camp situated at a picturesque location surrounded by tall trees.

Near the Camp

The tents were comfortable to stay with all necessary requirements but the nights were quite cold, which we warmed up with a few drinks around a camp fire and enjoying the nice food prepared by the staff.

The entire operation of producing the wooden sleepers was done there in the deep forests. First the big trees were felled and then using machines they were sawed in to sleeper sized pieces. The sleepers were transported by a unique method by using the force of water flowing there. A specially built channel winding down the mountain is constructed using wooden sleepers and the water from the river is diverted through it. The cut sleepers are then floated down to their destination easily by the swift moving water.

A view of the channel of wood

Sudhir with his newly acquired Bolex went around and we filmed the entire procedure of making wooden sleepers, right from felling of the trees, cutting it to sleeper size and transporting it down to the plains etc.

Sudhir with Bolex

We spent a few days in those sylvan surroundings exploring the forest and filming the activities. It was time to return back to Jammu. There I enjoyed a few days of great hospitality at his home with fine food mixed with affection. I took leave from their lovely family.The smell of pure Basmati rice still lingers on in my mind. Nowadays you don't get that kind of rice any more!

The return trip was by train and Since Sudhir wanted to stay home for a few more days, his father had asked the manager to book a ticket for me to Bombay. When I arrived at the Pathankot Railway station I was handed a First Air-conditioned class ticket and I was allotted a separate Coupe in the compartment. The manager said there was no vacancy in First class due to holiday season rush and only First A/C was available.It was really a luxury in those days and only very rich people traveled in First A/C class as it was more expensive than even air travel.There were only a handful of passengers and the compartment was practically empty through the journey. I was alone in the coupe till I reached Bombay with occasional intrusion by often pampering liveried waiters seeking orders for food and beverages. To fight the boredom of the two days of traveling alone, I started writing a long interesting letter to my father about my trip. Finally I reached Bombay and then went to Poona.

After passing out from the Institute, once in a while we used to correspond with each other but the link got broken sometime. I lost his address and could not contact him either for a long time. But sometime back I managed to get his phone number from his batch mate Anil Jain from Delhi whom I also got in touch after many years through the net. I phoned up Sudhir and had a long chat after so many years. He is planning to visit Kerala in the near future and I hope to meet him once again to strengthen the bonds of Friendship!

A Short Assignment

While still a student, I got an opportunity to work for a day for as Cinematographer for a short documentary film. At that time Ms. Parvathi Nair was working in the National Film Archives after completing her studies earlier at the Film Institute. I think she did the Editing course there. She was directing a short film for the Films Division which was shot by one of my seniors and had almost completed the film. But she needed some more shots to be taken and so requested me to do a day’s shooting for the film.

The shooting was to take place at Bombay and some kids were the actors. We went on a Sunday Morning from Poona by the Deccan Queen train finished the shooting and returned by the evening Deccan Queen. The equipment was hired from the Institute and the film was shot using 35 mm Black and White film.