INDIAN DOCUMENTARY PRODUCERS’ ASSOCIATION
IDPA UPDATE July 18th 2007
223, Famous Cine Building, 20 Dr. E. Moses Road, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai 400 001
Tel: 24920757, 2496 1020
e-mail : idpaindia@gmail.com
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K K Mahajan passed away peacefully, early in the morning of 13th July with his wife Praba by his side. A biographical sketch and filmography chronicling his extraordinary career come to you in this issue.
To celebrate his life, please join K K’s friends and admirers on the shooting floor of Studio 2 at Mehboob Studios in Bandra from 4:30 to 6:30 on Saturday, 21st July. Neela Bhagwat will sing.
You would remember that IDPA had honoured K K with the Ezra Mir IDPA Lifetime Achievement Award in March 2006. For more on K K, please go to www.graftii.com and click on “24 gun salute: GraFTII pays tribute to KK” to see some beautiful personal tributes and photographs.
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K K Mahajan, cinematographer par excellence
K K Mahajan was one of India’s foremost cinematographers with a body of work comprising of 84 feature films, about 100 commercials and over 20 significant documentaries and several TV serials. A gold medalist alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), he graduated in Motion Picture Photography in 1966.
A four time National Award winner, his cinematographic contribution to both mainstream and art cinema has remained unparalleled. His prolific virtuosity has rightly been considered a major factor in the Indian New Wave. The early 1970s saw the emergence of path-breaking feature films like Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Basu Chatterji’s Sara Akash (1969), Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti (1970) and Kumar Shahani’s Maya Darpan (1972). The one common factor to all these classics was brilliant cinematography by ‘K K’, as he is fondly known.
Born in 1944 at Gurdaspur, K K Mahajan – a physics graduate from Punjab University – was one of FTII’s early graduates. He began his career at a time when the film industry was unwilling to believe that training in cinema could be imparted, apprenticeship being the traditional entry route right from the silent era.
In more ways than one, Mahajan was a trailblazer. As an independent cinematographer in Bombay, he first worked on ad films, documentaries and shorts with directors such as Shyam Benegal, Kumar Shahani and B D Garga. Some of his award-winning documentaries of this period include: Shyam Benegal's Child of the Streets (1967), A Kumar Shahani's Certain Childhood (1967), and B D Garga's Amrita Shergil and Mahabalipuram (1968).
Fittingly, his first break into feature films came from his FTII work with Kumar Shahani’s avant garde graduation film The Glass Pane. Mrinal Sen commented: “I loved the class-room exercise immediately…for its venturing to shoot in adverse conditions. In 1968, when I got a loan from the then Film Finance Corporation, happily with no strings attached, I formed a team, almost all having little or no ‘commercial’ content but with an abundance of verve and courage. I asked K K if he would do the photography as a sort of love’s labour, so to say. K K readily agreed and perhaps beamed inwardly.” That was the making of Bhuvan Shome and the beginning of a long journey.
Mahajan’s aesthetic use of composition and colour in the works that followed over the next four decades “…evoke impressionist painting, setting new standards in motion picture photography, which even today remains a source of inspiration for all aspiring cinematographers.” (From award citation, Mumbai Academy of Moving Images, 2000.)
K K Mahajan received four National Awards for Best Cinematography quite early in his career, for films directed by Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash (1969) Mani Kaul's Uski Roti, (1970) Kumar Shahani's Maya Darpan (1972) and Mrinal Sen's Chorus (1975).
K K’s cinematographic oeuvre is impressive not only quantitatively but also in terms of its qualitative variations. Even as he photographed for many “off-beat” film makers of acclaimed, albeit low-budget films more than any other cinematographer, he had no problems in adjusting to the so-called gap between art and commercial films, to the demands of mainstream Hindi cinema with film makers like Ramesh Sippy, Subhash Ghai and Mohan Kumar.
K K’s most recent documentaries have been with FTII alumnus Kumar Shahani, in close association with whom, across nearly forty years and against all odds, has emerged a significant body of work including Bamboo Flute a feature documentary (2001) and As the Crow Flies a documentary short on the work of painter Akbar Padamsee (2004).
A record that he particularly valued, considering the near-feudal conditions in which he started his own career, is that about twenty-five (at last count) of those who assisted him over the years are now cinematographers in their own independent capacity.
Says cinematographer Alok Upadhyay: “While working with Mahajan Saab, the films we did for Kumar Shahani and Mrinal Sen were the most rewarding. The working style reflected the trust these directors had in Mahajan Saab, as he was always so right in choice of lenses, scene lighting and so on. Working with him was a opportunity for assistants and crew both to be themselves and to take pride in doing good work as a team. “The capacity to show affection where it is due and to be intolerant where it is not acceptable, is a lesson we have all learnt from him as a team leader.”
Anup Singh, director of Ekti Nadir Naam, a film in which Mahajan has done extremely distilled work in colour, writes to him “You have shown us the beauty of resisting the visual cabaret that a lot of cinema is today. I’ve never known you to present the object to our eyes, but always a way of understanding the object in its context. You showed us the inner life that light and shadow create and thus gave us a curiosity to see more and the patience to see more…”
Over the years, along with his professional commitments, K K Mahajan continued his association with the FTII through workshops for students. He had been a member of the Governing Council and a member of the Society of the FTII. He was President of GraFTII, the alumni association of the FTII. He had also conducted workshops at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He had been on jury panels of several major film awards and on the script advisory committee of the NFDC.
In May 1999, he got together with a small group of cameramen to form Cinematographers’ Combine. Focused on the intrinsic contribution made by cinematographers to film making, the group aims “…to raise the standard of the image and to emphasis the interactive nature of cinema and its close relationship with other art forms, in the realms of painting, art, architecture, music, dance and theatre among others.”
In November 2000, the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) honoured K K Mahajan with the first Kodak Technical Excellence Award for his “Innovative Contribution to Cinematography and Enrichment of Indian Cinema.”
In December 2003, Mahajan was awarded the Honorary Membership of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC) for his “outstanding contribution to Indian Cinematography and excellence in professional work.”
In June 2005, Mahajan was conferred the Honorary Life Membership of the Western India Cinematographers’ Association (WICA) for “his outstanding contribution in the field of Cinematic Art.”
In March 2006 the Indian Documentary Producers' Association awarded the Ezra Mir Lifetime Achievement Award of 2005 to K K Mahajan in recognition of his contributions to the way Indian reality and light is pictured.
In June 2007, the Katha Centre for Film Studies presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to K K Mahajan as a “token of our reverence to you and your artistic rigour and commitment.”
We will conclude with K K’s own words: “I am lucky to be in this beautiful profession. I meet and work with a lot of people. You travel a lot. The best thing about this profession is that I am learning every day… there is no end to learning. Nobody is the master of his craft. It changes every day and you have to learn…”
Article courtesy IDPA, July 2007
K K Mahajan FILMOGRAPHY
FEATURE FILMS
Directed by Mrinal Sen
BHUVAN SHOME / 1969 / Hindi
ICCHAPURAN (The Wish Fulfillment) / 1970 / Bengali
INTERVIEW / 1970 / Bengali
EK ADHURI KAHANI (An Unfinished Story) / 1971 / Hindi
CALCUTTA '71 / 1972 / Bengali
PADATIK (The Guerilla Fighters) / 1973 / Bengali
CHORUS / 1975 / Bengali
MRIGAYA (The Royal Hunt) / 1976 / Hindi
OKA OORIE KATHA (The Outsiders) / 1977 / Telugu, Hindi
EK DIN PRATIDIN (And Quiet Flows the Dawn) / 1979 / Bengali
AKALER SANDHANEY (In Search of Famine) / 1980 / Bengali
CHALCHITRA (The Kaleidoscope) / 1981 / Bengali
KHARIJ (The Case is Closed) / 1982 / Bengali
KHANDAR (The Ruins) / 1984 / Bengali
EK DIN ACHANAK (Suddenly One Day) / 1988 / Hindi
Directed by Kumar Shahani (All in Hindi)
MAYA DARPAN / 1972
TARANG / 1984
KHAYAL GATHA / 1988
KASBA / 1990
CHAR ADHYAY / 1996
Directed by Mani Kaul (All in Hindi)
USKI ROTI / 1969
ASHADH KA EK DIN / 1971
Directed by Mohan Kumar (All in Hindi)
AVTAAR / 1983
ALL ROUNDER / 1984
AMRIT / 1986
AMBA / 1990
Directed by Basu Chatterji (All in Hindi)
SARA AKASH /1969
PIYA KA GHAR /1971
RAJNIGANDHA / 1973
US PAAR /1974
CHHOTI SI BAAT /1975
CHIT CHOR /1976
SWAMI / 1977
SAFED JHOOTH /1977
PRIYATMA / 1977
DILLAGI / 1978
TUMHARE LIYE /1978
CHAKRAVYUHA / 1979
DO LADKE DONO KADKE / 1979
MANZIL / 1979
APNE PARAYE / 1980
MAN PASAND / 1980
JEENA YAHAAN / 1981
SARA JAHAN / 1982
SHEESHA / 1986
Directed by Ramesh Sippy (All in Hindi)
BHRASHTACHAAR / 1989
AKAYLA / 1991
ZAMANA DEEWANA / 1995
Directed by Raj Tilak (All in Hindi)
MUKTI / 1977
CHEHRE PE CHEHRA / 1980
JEEVAN SAATHI / 1988
Directed by Mukul Dutt (All in Hindi)
CHHALIA / 1973
AAJ KI RADHA / 1979
Directed by Kantilal Rathod (All in Hindi)
PARINAY / 1974
RAMNAGRI / 1982
Directed by Ambarish Sanghal (All in Hindi)
AATISH / 1979
AAP TO AISE NA THE / 1980
DOOR DESH / 1981
AADAT SE MAJBOOR / 1982
Directed by Krishna Shah
CINEMA CINEMA / 1979
AMMA /1986
Directed by Ravi Tandon (All in Hindi)
WAQT KI DEEWAR / 1981
JAWAB / 1985
Other Feature Films (In Hindi, unless specified)
KUNWARA BADAN / Director: Vimal Tiwari / 1973
DOOSRI SITA / Director: Gogi Anand / 1974
KAALICHARAN / Director: Shivendra Ghai / 1974
KISSA KURSI KA / Director: Shivendra Sinha / 1976
KARMAYOGI / Director: Ram Maheshwari / 1978
KASTURI / Director: Bimal Dutt / 1979
SAMEERA / Director: Vinay Shukla / 1981
YEH KAISA NASHA HAI / Director: D S Sultania / 1981
NADANIYAN / Director: Ved Rahi / 1984
SURKHIYAAN / Director: Ashok Tyagi / 1985
SHESH / Director: Amit Khanna / 1986
EK PAL / Director: Kalpana Lajmi / 1986
MANGAL DADA / Director: Ramesh Gupta / 1986
YAAR MERI ZINDAGI / Director: Ashok Gupta /1987
AAJ KI TAAQAT / Director: Anil Nagrath / 1990
SAHIBAAN / Director: Ramesh Talwar / 1993
TUNNU KI TINA / Director: Paresh Kamdar / 1995 (In other languages)
JYOTI / Director: Shabd Kumar / 1988 / Hindi & Bengali
ANUPAMA / Director: Beena / 1999 / Bengali
EKTI NADIR NAAM (The Name of a River) Director: Anup Singh / 2001 / Bengali
Under Production
DHADAK / Director: R S Vikal
SHORT FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES
Directed by Kumar Shahani
THE GLASS PANE / 1966 (Graduation film: official entry at several international student film festivals)
A CERTAIN CHILDHOOD / 1967
RAILS FOR THE WORLD / 1970
OBJECT (for a psychoanalyst’s thesis) / 1971
BAMBOO FLUTE (feature length documentary) / 2001
AS THE CROW FLIES (on the paintings of Akbar Padamsee) / 2004
Directed by Shyam Benegal
CHILD OF THE STREETS / 1967
INDIAN YOUTH: AN EXPLORATION / 1968
Directed by B D Garga
AMRITA SHERGIL (Best Documentary Film, National Awards, 1969) / 1968
MAHABALIPURAM / 1968
IRON ORE EXPORTS / A Short Film for United States Information Service / 1969
OTHER DOCUMENTARIES ON FILM
ST. XAVIER'S COLLEGE CENTENARY YEAR / Director: Anil Srivastava / 1969
FERTILISER CORPORATION OF INDIA / Director: Mukul Dutt / 1969
THE INDIAN TIGER (for a US TV Channel) / 1969
A HAPPENING IN CALCUTTA / Director: Bansi Chandragupta / 1970
INDIAN OIL CORPORATION / Director: Jagat Murari / 1987
THE FLYING BIRD / Director: Vishnu Mathur / 1989
AKANKSHA / Director: Ashok Ojha / 1994
FICTION AND DOCUMENTARY WORK IN VIDEO
BUNIYAAD (104 Episodes) / Director: Ramesh Sippy / 1984 to 1985
CHHAPTE CHHAPTE (13 Episodes) / Director Sudhir Mishra / 1985
APNE AAP (26 Episodes) / Director: Naina Dasgupta & Anju Daswani / 1985
DHAT TERE KI / Director: Narendra Goel / 1987
WHAT’S COOKING (an interactive video) / Director: Amit Khanna / 1988
BOLTE KAHANIYAAN / Director: Raj Tilak / 1988
NAMASKAR (The first nationwide interactive programme on Indian Television) / Director Amit Khanna / 1990 to 1991
SAMOVAR (A Celebration of 25 years) / Director: Imtiaz Dharkar / 1991
BADLTE RISHTEY (42 Episodes) / Director: Chitraarth / 1994 to 1995
OPEN HOUSE (24 Episodes) / Devised by Amit Khanna / 1999
DASTAAN (8 Episodes) / Director: Faroukh Masoodi / 1995
RISHTEY (2 Episodes of one hour each) / Director: Seema Kapoor / 1998
QAIDI KI KHAT (6 Episodes) / Director: Ambarish Sanghal / 1998
SAHASRARA (Thousand-Petal Lotus), India’s official film, at EXPO 2000 World Fair in Hanover, Germany / Director: Hrishikesh / 2000
KHAJURAHO: BEYOND EROTICA / Director: Sophia Ojha / 2001
TOTAL MASALA SLAMMER / Director: Michael Laub / 2002
HARBOUR LINE STORIES / Director: Amrit Gangar / 2002
HEALING WITH A SPIRITUAL TOUCH (A report on The BSES MG Hospital, Andheri) / Director: K K Mahajan / 2006
MONTHLY VIDEO MAGAZINES
BUSINESS PLUS (business videomagazine) Producer: Amit Khanna / 1991 to 1993
PEOPLE PLUS / Producer: Amit Khanna for PLUS CHANNEL / 1991 to 1993
ECC CHANNEL (Video Magazine for Larsen and Tourbo Ltd.) / Director: Ashok Ojha / 1996 to 1998
ADVERTISEMENT SHORTS
K K Mahajan has shot over 100 advertisement shorts in the early years of his career, too many to list here.
Complied by
Prabha Mahajan, March 2006
Reproduced from Catalogue of Indian Documentary Producers' Association Awards, 2005
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