The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Photography without sunshine
By Subhash Sapru

COME winter and most of the photo enthusiasts would not gather courage to get out of the bed early morning to click photographs as they would do in other seasons to shoot in the best available morning light. But contrary to the fact that sunshine helps in shooting excellent photographs, shooting without sunshine also helps in clicking equally rewarding pictures, especially during winter.

We have no control over the weather, but we can try to capture the best out of the available conditions. The fog of the winter morning and snow at hill stations provide us ample opportunities to take unusual pictures — pictures that would be different from the usual rut. There are a few who wait for months together to click pictures in fog or would visit snowclad areas to shoot without sunshine despite several odds. They carry along all necessary photographic equipment besides belongings that one may need to protect oneself or the cameras in such a wet weather.

Before planning such an excursion, one must carry a good number of medium speed films as fast speed films would produce grainy pictures in these situations when one would like to have creamy effect of snow or fog. Some people choose black and white photography for snowbound areas forgetting that a little colour would help in yielding a startling effect on the colour film. Take along enough material to keep yourself warm and protect the camera from cold and rain as low temperature would create many problems.

Take out the camera only when required. Low temperature would make the batteries drain out fast, the shutter may work slow and the film may become brittle and difficult to roll in the camera. And one may find it difficult to change film and lenses frequently with fingers turning numb. Better keep extra batteries and load the camera with a fresh film before clicking shots. Use a lens hood to avoid the glare from the snow or the sun, which may play hide and seek. Ensure that your fingers do not turn numb. It would be better in case the camera has both manual as well as auto mode and you carry wide angle and zoom lens. As photography in the areas of snow is not confined to landscapes, both macro and zoom lenses would help in taking some startling close-ups, for instance those of frost crystals.

Do not forget to take along a tripod to use not only because of the slow shutter speed of the camera, but also because it would be handy when one starts shivering as a result of the low temperature and finds it difficult to properly press the shutter release button with numb fingers.

While a bit of bright colour perks up a winter scene, if it does not dominate the picture. Lightly falling snow softens the background. Diffused light of a rainy day or that of fog creates an aura of mystery and one remains curious to see beyond the captured subject. Fog is considered as a friend of the photographer as it helps him in controlling the background. At times it eliminates the background completely. One must work quickly while shooting frost crystals, which melt easily with a little increase in temperature. Rain-streaked windows of one’s home or car or the moisture on the windowglass with someone looking through it produces a dramatic effect. To learn winter photography and to know how to take pictures without sunshine, one has no alternative but to shoot in similar conditions and see the results.

In rural areas, one may be able to capture milkmen peddling their bicycles with drums full of milk hanging across the carriers, or farmers carrying their bullocks to the fields on a foggy morning. Equally good pictures can also be taken in urban areas. For instance, securitymen guarding sensitive locations even on foggy winter mornings or children with their heavy bags going to their schools can be captured. The snow-laden trees and huts or roads cleared of snow or vehicles stranded due to heavy snow may be inconvenient to many, but these are worth capturing on the camera. There can be several other compositions that one can capture, but these should reflect the atmosphere and the mood.

If you like to capture with the camera, this winter has ample to offer you. I had enjoyed taking photographs at Kufri during last winter when I accompanied some of the local photo enthusiasts to the hill station. Although the chill was not as biting as I had experienced at Gulmarg over a decade ago, yet this excursion provided me another opportunity to not only refresh what I had experienced earlier, but also to test how effectively one can make the best out of the numerous tips on winter photography.

Shooting without sunshine is as exciting as in the soft sun light. If you like taking pictures, try this time without sunshine and make this winter a memorable one.

Dhaulpuri speaks of special bond
By Varinder Singh

Harmonium maestro Mehmood Dhaulpuri has developed a special bond with Punjab and Punjabi people and he does not lose a single moment in admitting it passionately whenever he comes face to face with any Punjabi. “Aap logon ne itna pyar baksha hai jo bas ibadat ke kabil hai,” he says.

Rated as one of the few best harmonium players of the country, Dhaulpuri, who has accompanied artistes known as contemporary pillars of classical music like Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi, Praveen Sultana, Pandit Mallikarjuna Mansoor, Pandit Jasraj and Kishori Amonkar, has been a regular participant in Jalandhar’s famed Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan for the past 22 years.

Working as an accompanist in the Music Department of Delhi University, Mehmood Dhaulpuri belongs to the Gwalior Gharana and has been honoured by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former President R. Venkataraman for his valuable contribution to Hindustani classical music through his medium harmonium — which till recently was not recognised as an instrument in harmony with the style of Hindustani classical music. He has also worked with versatile music director R.D. Burman and was part of his orchestra when he created the tune of the famous Praveen Sultana song, Humein tumse pyar kitna”... a Rajesh Khanna number.

Apart from the magical tunes he is known among music lovers for his inimitable style of performing created by his swift body movements and broad smiles, which itself explain various finer undercurrents and hues of a “bandish” rendered by a vocalist whom he is accompanying. Unlike others, he is too humble to realise the real role of an accompanist like him.

“Accompaniment does not consist in following the vocalist like a docile dog. The accompanist should show his own spark. But at the same time he should not ever dream of outshining the main artiste. Rather, he should play second fiddle. Actually, it is happy blend of restraint and abandon, of imitation and imagination,” says Dhaulpuri during a chat with The Tribune at Jalandhar.

Turning emotional he says he is grateful to the people of Punjab for bestowing love on him and that is why he has been coming here as and when stumble upon a chance to do so. “Itna pyar to mere Rajasthan waalon ne mujhe nahin diya, wahan ki sarkar ne nahin diya. Yahan jis se milta hoon voh mujhe gale laga leta hai. Aise ehsaanat kaise chukaunga main garib aadmi,” murmured Dhaulpuri who has made his native Dhaulpur town in Rajasthan famous.

To his credit are 11 long playing records with artistes like Parveen Sultana by HMV and two solo cassettes. In addition to countless performances in foreign countries like the erstwhile USSR, Turkey, the USA, Pakistan, Nepal and France he has also represented India at the Festival of India in France.

Dhaulpuri did not have very good experiences in Bollywood, where he feels, it is the name which sells and not the performance. “Bade log aapki bandish ko apni bana kar pesh karte hain,” he narrated in a single but meaningful sentence.

‘Dukhini’ — sad plight of women
By Sudha Gandhi

“DUKHINI” is the story of young Bangladeshi woman who was trafficked to Pakistan and highlights the plight of nearly 2,00,000 such women forced into the sex trade.

Dukhini, the first-ever theatre project between Pakistan and Bangladesh, is a play about the evil practice of trafficking where young Bangladeshi women are lured, deceived and abducted from poor rural areas and brought to Pakistan, mostly through India.

The play which was staged in Nepal, Bangladesh and India was later filmed. It was screened in Kathmandu recently at the second SAARC People’s Forum. The play highlights the need for urgent state intervention to end the exploitation of women and children who become “stateless”.

“I did a lot of research for this project as I felt the need to expose this nexus between the traffickers of these three countries which otherwise have antagonostic relations at the state level”, said the Pakistani playwright, filmmaker and activist Shahid Nadeem.

“The play which was written by me but directed by Sara Zaker of Bangladesh shows through its characters how women are trafficked for prostitution, illegal cheap labour like house maids or for marriage to unwanted or old husbands. Some women are also used as bonded labour and the organ trade”, he said.

He said in the play Dukhini kills herself as she has no place to go. “These young girls sometimes never know till the end that they have been trafficked as they believe that they have just been married to these men. It’s only when they reach the auctions houses in Karachi that they realise their pathetic situation.— UNI

Year of the Big B, but focus on Hrithik
By Amita Malik

BY all accounts it was the year of the Big B, but the year-end saw the camera focussed, to everyone’s embarrassment, on poor Hrithik Roshan. Anyone who watched his TV interviews with Simi Garewal and Karan Thapar realised soon enough that Hrithik is a very nice, uncomplicated, normal young man, has naturalness and modesty untouched by instant fame. He displayed enough humility and modesty to earn good wishes for the future from all of us. Not to mention his pretty little bride, who looked as young and vulnerable as he did. They made a charming pair and we sent them off on their honeymoon with love and blessings. It shows the influence of politics, the mafia and our shaky diplomatic relations with our smaller neighbours, that Hrithik, of all people, should have sparked off a dangerous international incident marked by malice, ill intentions and hostility from those very fans who had adored him a moment ago. How could they believe, and without any documentary evidence, that he could have attacked Nepal and the Nepalese. It would have been too silly and tragi-comic for words had it not become so dangerous.

There is surely a lesson in this not only for our film industry, some of whose elements have been playing with fire, but for those who see television only as a medium of filmi entertainment for our neighbours. The power of TV for good or for evil is immense. Surely DD’s international channel should be accessible in such crisis situations and not just for DD’s annual report to Parliament. We heard enough from the Chief Ministers of the North-East during the launch of the 24-hour North-East channel to find out what they think of DD in their areas, and these are responsible Indians talking. There is a moral in all this and the sooner this sinks in for the government media the better. We must improve our international broadcasts, including subtle counter-propaganda, so that our neighbours don’t fall for the first mischievous rumour that comes along.

For the first time in my experience, Doordarshan had a competitive and entertaining programme for the new year. In fact, what with Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee on KBC, Salman Khan and Govinda strutting all over the screen on different channels and Asha Bhonsale queening it on still another channel, the viewer had a wonderful choice. For the sophisticated, politically savvy viewer, the mature in-depth and balanced year-end interviews of L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh by Prannoy Roy, followed by the inimitable satirical programmes which are the forte of Star News, with highly irreverent caricatures of everyone, from top politicians to Veerappan, with apt lyrics from filmi songs heightening the fun, made for great viewing. Pity this happens only at election time and during New Year festivities. May I suggest tapes are sent to the politicians so delectably lambasted so that they come down a peg or two?

Incidentally, the new 24-hour Aaj Tak channel did not take off, at least on my screen. The cable operator couldn’t care less because he says all this is no longer his baby. He roundly blames Spectranet and looks the other way. Since his 65 new channels include repeats of the Maharishi and two other religious channels, of Deutsche Welle and sundry other dispensable channels, while refusing to give Tara Bengali, the new Urdu channel and other more interesting channels, the viewer is kept wondering why Spectranet cannot ask its viewers what they want and at least erase the redundant repeat channels off the screen and give viewers a choice. Or do they not care either?

I make no apologies for not writing about the new BBC series Hospital and many other programmes for the obvious reason that power was off, the house in darkness and the TV screen silent. Friends who had longer power cuts said they had to dig out their old transistor radio for the news and since its batteries were not in very good condition they had to wait for the morning papers as in the good or bad old days. But speaking generally, although I do not understand either language I watch for their sheer professionalism. Italy’s Rai (what impeccable visuals and artistic sense) and DD’s Malayalam channel, which in its more understated serials, seems to have some of the finesse of the Malayalam cinema. And for sheer exuberance and attractive entertainment, professionally satisfying as well, reminiscent of the early days of Channel V and MTV, I enjoy B4U every time I watch it. And always National Geographic, for getting away from the rat-race and feeling soothed and relaxed when city tensions get one down. Which they do most of the time.