Once Upon a Cinema: Beyond the Trinity with Ajoy Kar

When it comes to Bengali cinema, it is as if the world cannot see beyond the all-consuming Trinity of Satyajit Ray , Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen . Even the Bengalis, always at the cusp of an identity crisis, often seem to suggest that all they have to boast of in cinema is the trio. ‘Beyond the Trinity’ is a series-within-the-series where Amborish throws light on some staggering talents of Bengali cinema that the world needs to know about, and celebrate. There has been a plethora of successful romantic pairings in Indian cinema. Raj Kapoor – Nargis, Dilip Kumar – Vyjayanthimala, Dharmendra – Hema Malini, Shah Rukh Khan – Kajol, and some might even vote for Ranveer – Deepika. But Bengalis seem to have a special status for the on-screen pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. If one were to compare any of those others to these two, most Bengalis would shake their heads and violently disagree. The secret sauce behind this special status may be the handiwork of one man. His name was Ajoy Kar. If there were one man behind the most successful and iconic films that defined the veritable golden age of Bengali cinema, it would be Ajoy Kar. He was born as Achchidananda Kar. How or when he became “Ajoy” is lost in time. He was 18 years old when through his uncle Satishchandra Ghosh, he was introduced to filmmaker Priyonath Gangopadhyay of Madan Theatres. Ajoy became an apprentice under Jatin Das, the chief cinematographer of Madan Theatres. It was Jatin Das who introduced him to the processing labs of the East India film Company. This gave him a solid grounding in the art and science of cinematography. In just 5 years, Ajoy Kar had become the principal cinematographer of the famous Indrapuri Studios at Calcutta. He was working with legends like Hemen Gupta, Debaki Bose, Satyen Bose, Niren Lahiri and Premendra Mitra. The first time he was credited as an independent director of photography was for the film Pathik (1939), directed by Charu Roy. In that very first film, Ajoy introduced Bengali cinema to the technology of back projection (a filming technique where pre-filmed backgrounds are combined with foreground performances during shooting. Mostly employed during shots where the characters are supposed to be driving a vehicle). For the next ten years, Ajoy continued to build his oeuvre as a leading lens-man, known for his experimentation. By the late 1940s, he became friends with Harisadhan Dasgupta and his coterie of companions, including Satyajit Ray and Chidananda Dasgupta. A young Satyajit was, at this time, writing the screenplay for what was supposed to be his first film, Ghare Baire. At the time, the plan included Ray as the director and Ajoy Kar as the cinematographer. Ajoy was the only experienced lensman in the group. But history took its own course and this was not to be. Both Harisadhan Dasgupta, Ray and many others were doing some work for advertising. Dasgupta made an ad film called A Perfect Day for the Imperial Tobacco Company (which late became ITC, or Indian Tobacco Company), for which Ajoy manned the camera. It was 1949 and Ajoy teamed up with Kanan Devi and Binay Chattopadhyay to form a director’s troupe called “Sabyasachi”. In an earlier story about the late director Tarun Majumdar, we mentioned these directors’ groups which were an exclusive phenomenon in Bengali cinema. Several people, having different sets of expertise in cinema, would come together and form a group, making films under that name. All their films would be credited to the group instead of individual directors. Tarun Majumdar was initially part of a group called Yatrik. Under the group title Sabyasachi, Ajoy Kar was involved with the direction of at least three films, Ananya, Bamuner Meye (both 1949) and Mejdidi (1950). These films were his initiation into directing films. But he poured all that he had learned from his experience as a cameraman and as a filmmaker into Jighansha (1950), an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. Jighansha created waves. Nobody had seen anything like it. Ajoy’s skillful camerawork and direction created an eerie atmosphere and a world which existed almost entirely in the shadows. Very few Indian films have been able to match this atmospheric quality when it comes to thrillers. The only film that comes to mind is Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal (1949).  Jighansa was screened at the Indian film festival of Madras (now Chennai) in 1951, and Ajoy started getting offers to handle cinematography in Telugu and Hindi films. He lensed T. Prakash Rao’s Palletooru (1952), starring Telugu superstars N.T. Rama Rao and Savithri. This was followed by P. Subba Rao’s Vayyari Bhama (1953) which featured Akkineni Nageswara Rao and S. Varalakshmi. Ajoy also handled the camerawork for Hemen Gupta’s Kashti (1954), starring Dev Anand and Archana. He also briefly worked with Guru Dutt, possibly in the film Sailaab (1956), which was directed by Guru. He came back to the world of Bengali cinema with Griha Pravesh (1954), which featured the winning pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. But the first iconic Uttam-Suchitra film credited to Ajoy Kar was Harano Sur (1957). Extremely well-crafted, it is considered a milestone of mainstream Bengali cinema, and a definitive Uttam-Suchitra film. Ajoy had a specific way of shooting romantic scenes with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. He didn’t allow the light to move away from their faces, often employing different lighting set-ups to focus on the faces of Uttam and Suchitra. While being unrealistic, this lent an ethereal, luminous aura to the scenes. It was Ajoy Kar’s uber-sensitive filmmaking and the use of his proprietary lighting set-ups which gave this pair a unique look, rarely matched in Indian film. Harano Sur saw unprecedented success at the box office. Generations of Bengali filmmakers have attempted – and failed – to reproduce the euphoria surrounding Harano Shur. But Ajoy Kar surpassed that with the next film he made with this pair. It remains the quintessential Bengali romantic film. In Bengali pop culture and cinema history, Saptapadi was a watershed moment. During this period, Ajoy continued to make successful films with Uttam Kumar (Shyamali, Shuno Baranari) and Suchitra Sen (Sajghar). Saptapadi came out in 1961. It was based on a book by celebrated Bengali novelist Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay. The film was jointly produced by Ajoy Kar and Uttam Kumar, under the banner Alo Chhaya Production. A boy called Kirshnendu (Uttam Kumar), a medical college student, falls for a catholic, Anglo-Indian girl by the name of Rina Brown (Suchitra Sen). Theirs was a star-crossed love story, one for the ages. As always, religion plays spoilsport, but love does find ways to triumph. In a much-celebrated scene, Krishnendu and Rina are to play Othello and Desdemona in a college play. The extended sequence is characterized by a spectacular play of light and shadow, and Uttam and Suchitra’s voices are dubbed over by Utpal Dutta and Jennifer Kendall nee Kapoor. It is an exquisite sequence, breathtaking in its poignancy and artfulness. The other iconic sequence from the movie takes place in a song that goes Ei poth jodi na shesh hoy…Uttam aka Krishnendu on a motorcycle with Suchitra/ Rina behind him, is the single-most recognizable image of commercial cinema in Bengal. It was shot with the technique of front projection, which created the illusion of motion as the lead pair sang astride the motorcycle. Ajoy recreated movie history with Suchitra Sen in Saat Paake Bandha (1963). This time the lead was played Soumitra Chatterjee instead of Uttam Kumar. The film was a roaring success, earning rave reviews for Suchitra’s performance and Ajoy Kar’s direction at the same time. Suchitra Sen won the Silver Prize for Best Actress at the Moscow International Film Festival. The film was remade in Hindi as Kora Kagaz (1974), starring Vijay Anand and Jaya Bhaduri/ Bachchan. For the next twenty years, Ajoy Kar continued to make excellent (and successful) Bengali films, including the likes of Parineeta, Kayahiner Kahini, Malyadan, Datta, Barnali, Kanch Kata Hirey and so on. By the time he passed away in 1985, Ajoy Kar had made more than 20 films, most of which have stood the test of time. Ajoy Kar provided a whole new expression to Bengali cinema. His camerawork remains unparalleled, and his sensitivity as a director accorded a status to commercial, black and white Bengali cinema that no other filmmaker in the region has been able to match, let alone surpass. The much-deserved focus on the alternative cinema championed by the likes of Ray, Ghatak and Sen, has diverted attention from his path-breaking work which also often struck box office gold. Considering how landmark his body of work is, Ajoy Kar hasn’t been accorded the respect he deserves as a craftsman and as a popular filmmaker. Which is a shame. Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian. Read all the  **_Latest News_** ,  **_Trending News_** _,_  **_Cricket News_** _,_  **_Bollywood News_** _,_  **_India News_**  and  **_Entertainment News_**  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram