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A retrospective of films by Subrata Mitra, who is often considered one of the greatest of Indian cinematographers, was held in Italy recently.
Vandana Shukla reports "We Indians do not celebrate our genius, that’s why we need a Richard Attenborough to present our Gandhi to the world. And, we do not appreciate technology as an art, that’s why Subrata Mitra’s retrospective is celebrated in Italy, not here" — Ashok Mehta,
National award-winning cinematographer of films like TWO highly gifted technicians, who turned their technical skills into a fine art without any formal training, find themselves at a strange confluence. In 1950, the great Jean Renoir had come to Calcutta to shoot The River when Subrata Mitra (1930-2001) could barely manage to get permission to watch the shooting. The world of cinema fascinated him. A couple of years later, he was picked by Satyajit Ray to create his now immortalised Apu trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar). During 15 years of his association with Ray, Mitra created history in the world of cinematography by inventing bounce-light.
"In India, we used light the way Americans and Europeans used to — in a calculated way, which was very artificial. Mitra created history by working on the source — light, I picked it through my home work and it metamorphosed my work with realism," he says. The retrospective on Mitra’s films was organised by a cultural association called Performing India at Trieste, in Italy. Through the four weekends of February, his films — The Householder (James Ivory), Teesri Kasam (Basu Bhattacharya), Shakespearewallah (James Ivory) and Jalsaghar (Satyajit Ray) were screened along with seminars and presentations.
Joseph is a graduate from FTII (Films and television Institute of India, Pune) where Mitra revealed and concealed his secret magical skills for using light in a true guru-shishya parampara, after much testing of his dedication and patience. Before Joseph could have the complete formula for using light as musical notations — in varying degrees of pitch, his guru passed away. To many, the true genius behind Satyajit Ray’s films like Devi and Jalsaghar lay in the finely textured cinematography that evoked empathy for the characters — a creation of Mitra, who fell apart after a 15-year-long association with Ray. "Two geniuses cannot work together, one had to leave. After years of experience, he had become as powerful as a director," commented another cinematographer. Mahesh Aney, National Award winner cinematographer of Swades, says that Mitra’s invention has become part of the filmmaking gene, no one can escape it. "The indirect lighting source that he created offers a large surface, so, if you wanted to catch a certain amount of light, it would reflect back on the subject —soft and enveloping — like you would see in Teesri Kasam." Bijon Dasgupta, art
director of about 150 films recalls Mitra for his genius in light as
well as for his legendary temper, who would neither take mediocrity
nor nonsense. "Unfortunately, our blood stream has this narrow
mediocrity, which does not allow us to appreciate the genius in
others, it’s a pity that we did nothing to commemorate Mitra’s
genius," concludes Mehta.
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On
Subrata Mitra’s 10th death anniversary, a retrospective was
organised in Italy, which unsettled cinematographers like Mehta, who
learnt many things from Mitra the Eklavya way. Greatly influenced by
Mitra, Ashok Mehta ran away from home at 12 to be a cameraman.
Starting his journey as a canteen-boy, he became one of the most
celebrated cinematographers of our times.
As
a testimonial to his living legacy, Shaji N. Karun’s much-acclaimed
film, Piravi, was screened in March, whose cinematographer
Sunny Joseph, is a disciple of Mitra. Joseph could not travel to
Italy, but, feels pained by the fact that this could not happen in
India. "His calibre and genius is proven by the fact that
bounce-light was used for the first time by him and was recognised and
adapted for its poetic beauty by the best cinematographers of the time
like Sven Nykvist and renowned Spanish cinematographer Nestor
Almendros."