D.Gautaman , Genius away from the limelight

When I joined the Film Institute, Poona in 1968  one of the Diploma Films from the earlier batch which impressed me most was " A Love Tale" which was Directed by D.Gautaman. The way a car accident sequence's  shots were edited was a real eye opener of how shots can be taken and used to create an impact much like the famous shower scene in PSYCHO directed by  Alfred  Hitchcock. The film went on to win many awards Nationally and Internationally. His  student Documentary " The Builders" also won a few awards.

D. Gautaman, as student at Film Institute

 A brilliant student, Gautaman passed out from the Film Institute with Gold Medal along with Prem Sagar ( Motion Picture Photography) and Navin Nischol (Acting)  who both became stars in their respective fields.

At the Convocation -  Front row, extreme right is Gautaman and next to him is Prem Sagar

I was sure that Gautaman will definitely  become a great feature film maker in the Indian Film scenario. For some time he had worked in the Institute as part time lecturer and had also directed a Diploma film "A View from the Fort" in which Radha Saluja did the lead role and I think cienematography was done by Bala Mahendran. It was during his sojourn at the Institute I had the the opportunity to get acquainted with him.He was quiet by nature, with an unassuming personality.It was he who proclaimed that John Abraham was a Genius, says his friend and alumni Kabeer Rowther.

Gautaman later on joined Shri Ramu Kariat to assist him in the Malayalam Feature film ABHAYAM. It ws he who recommended Bala Mahendran as a talented Cinematographer to Director Ramu Kariat  and brought him to Madras from Ceylon. In those days except for Acting students in Bombay few of the Institute Graduates could get a break in the film industry. He found it hard to face  life's insecurities at the Film Industry and sought security of Government job at the Films Division. I was told that he was selected for the job of Producer by none other than the great V. Shantaram. He was much impressed when during the interview Gautaman recollected from memory a long list of films directed by Shantaram !

For Films Division he had produced many Nationally and Internationally award winning Documentaries and rose up to the top as the Chief Producer and retired. Though he ws a native of Kerala, he settled with his family in Bangalore. After retirement  he became a Member of  Advisory Committee of U.P.S.C. While on duty in Delhi for conducting an interview he had  massive heart attack and passed away on 18 th February 2013.

D.Gautaman

He was 73, and  is survived by his wife Saramma and son Soumendhu.

It was a great loss to the Film Industry that he did not attempt to make any Feature film though he was one of the most talented Directors of our time. But Films Division becme the winner by having him at its helm and Documentaries became his forte. Film Industry's loss became Films Division's gain!

Unfortunately his passing way was not given its due importance in the media since  he chose to  work away from the limelight. All I could find only was a  small obituary note in Mathrubhumi Malayalam Newspaper.

 

He really deserves much more recognition than this. I do hope that his friends and well wishers would  come out with their memoirs and fill the void. I was told that even  on the night before his death he was talking of his time at the  Film Institute  and reminiscing about his fellow alumni who made it into the film industry.

My heartfelt condolences to his bereaving family.

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)



To see the names of the persons, please check the List against the numbers marked on the photograph:

1.A. Swami Nathan, 2.Arun Kumar Nigam, 3. Madhusudhan, 4. Desh Gautam, 5. Balbir Sharma, 7. Page, 8.Mushir Ahmed, 9.Mrs.Mushir Ahmed, 10. Mrs. Jagat Murari, 11 Jagat Murari ,12 B.K. Chaturvedi,13. Sudhartha Basu, 14 Imtiaz Ahmedkan Pathan , 16.A.S.Kanal,17, J P Singhal (SPW), 18. J.K.Patra, 19 Akki Hame Chander, 20 Venugopal K Thakkar, 21 Surendra Sahu, 22 . Kumar Nayak, 23 T.N. Mohan, 25 Baba Majagavankar, 26. J. P. Dikshit, 27 Vinay Shukla, 30. HarishChawla,31. Harish Gupta, 32 S,K.Jolly, 36. M.Azad, 37 Harbhajan Singh, 40. Bhaskar Unni, 42. Amrit Lal Lakhanpal. 44. Manoj Kumar(SRSE), 45, Ramachandra Babu, 47. Deepak Dhar,48. Baburao Tanajee Rokade 49. Raza Murad, 50. Subhash Soin, 51. Anil Jain Satish Aima, 52. K.R.Mohanan, 53. G,R,Menon, 54. Krishna Ragahav, 56. Faisal (Jordan)58 .Surendra Chowdhary, 60. Peer Mohammed, 62 .Venkataswami Naidu Jatla, 64 Kasturi Ramachandra Murthy, 65. Paulose,66. Umesh Bihari Mathur, 69. Shyamal Krishna Ghosh, 71. V.N.Raina ,72. Satish Kumar Gupta(SRSE), 75. Kabir Rawther. 76. S K Srivastav (SRSE)

The list is incomplete - I request my friends to provide me the missing names so that I can complete the list.

I think the picture 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.



Baba Majgavkar ( standing first from left) Surendra Sahu (centre with glasses)Deepak Dhar (tall person in the back row) are among the few in this smaller group.


I found another photograph , which was slightly out of focus with a slight rearrangement, this time I am sitting down in the front row ( second from left) flanked by K.K.Jaiswal on my right and Baba Majgavkar on my left.


( My thanks to K.K.Jaiswal for filling up some of the missing names)

Farewell to Seniors from Kerala

At the time the Institute was teeming with lot of Malayalis –John Abraham, Devassy (Direction – 1969) P.Bhaskaran Unny, G. Sadasiva Panickkar and A. Kabeer Rawther (Direction – 1970) K.G.George (Direction – 1971) M.Azad ( Screenplay writing – 1970) C. Murlidharan (Sound recording – 1970) and C. Ravindranath Menon ( Ravi Menon) ( Acting – 1970)

Though I, George and Ravi Menon were in the first year we had good rapport with our seniors from Kerala. Azad and Kabeer Rawther were always willing to act as our Godfathers and filled us with their worldly wisdom. One most unassuming person whom I met at the Institute was Raman Nair, who at that time was working at the Film processing laboratories. He was a very mild and soft spoken person who was always ready to help you with his worldy wisdom. He was such a low profile person, I was surprised to learn much later that he was the younger brother of Film Archives P.K.Nair and had passed out from the Institute in the Editing 1966 Batch! Years later while we both settled in Thiruvananthapuram we had opportunity to work together and meet occassionaly. Unfortunately he is no more as he had died a few years back unsung and to me it is still a mystery as to why he worked in the film processing after doing the Editing course?

The most notable person at that time was none other than John Abraham. Many of my encounters with John always ended with my parting with some money for his daily need of “Tarra” the local brew. Most of the time he will be high and with his long hair and beard and unwashed clothes he was a real Hippie! Out of fear, I always avoided crossing his path. But I had to face him on the day when we juniors gave our seniors a farewell party.

Azad and John Abraham

To beard the lion in his den, I thought that I should also have a few drinks at the party so that I will be on par with John! But I was just a novice when it comes to consuming hard liquor. Earlier, I had never taken more than a peg and that too just to feel the taste of it. In the party I gulped two or three pegs of rum and joined the fun. But I soon passed out resulting in a hangover and severe head ache next morning!

Myself and Kabir Raother - 40 years later in 2008

The above photo was taken recently at the get together of FTII Graduates in Thiruvananthapuram. ( Note the change in the spelling of Kabir's name)

Friends from Kerala

Having come from the South and with little knowledge of Hindi, I was looking forward to find birds of the same feather. As I have studied in Tamil Nadu I was more familiar with Tamil Language and was looking for some Tamil sounding names. There was Bala Mahendran ( who later changed his name into Balu Mahendra) from Ceylon in Motion Picture Photography and he appeared to be a Tamil guy, but in his French beard, he was found to be mostly mixing with the Foreign students. I tried speaking to him in Tamil, though he understood it, he mostly replied in English. Then there was Swaminathan in Editing from Calcutta with whom I used to strike up some conversation.

Of course there were many Keralites and since my mother tongue is Malayalam I could easily communicate with them all, even though I could not read or write the language.

We even presented a group song on stage, on some special occasion


Standing from L to R : John Abraham ( Direction) M.Azad ( Screen Play Writing), Ramachandra babu ( Motion Picture Photography) , Kabeer Rowther ( Direction), K.G.George ( Direction), Suresh Babu ( Editing), Bhaskar Unni ( Editing & Direction) and G.S Panikkar ( Direction)