The art of the matter

Krishna Roy,Sudhendu Roy’s wife,displays multiple gigantic photo-albums that show Roy’s genius in sketching and painting sets. “He had no computer,he drew each and everything himself,” she says with a broad and proud smile.

As one enters the Roy residence,the passage is studded with dozens of brilliant photographs,all clicked by the man who embellished over 150 Hindi films with his sets and production design. Sudhendu Roy directed some films as well,but clearly the world lost a great professional still photographer,if not a cinematographer,when he chose to concentrate on the most important part of the make-believe magic of movies — the sets and backdrops.

Recalls Mrs. Roy,“My husband’s early films were all in Bangla in Kolkata,the first being Anjangarh for New Theatres in the early 1940s. During that phase,he worked with the biggest names like Tapan Sinha and Hiten Choudhary. He came to Mumbai with Bimal Roy in the early ‘50s,and his first Hindi film was Biraj Bahu in 1954. We met because my brother,the well-known art director Ganesh Basak,who did films like Do Bigha Zameen,New Delhi and Nagina,was his close friend.”

Mrs Roy adds that in the beginning they would discuss his work,since she was an artist herself. “But I rarely went on the sets. My husband was a very private person and also never entertained anyone at home. Abhi Bhattacharya,the famous actor,was his only close friend.”

Why did she think that he turned director? “I think he had the aptitude and Tarachand Barjatya of Rajshri Productions sensed it and offered him a film as director! He was an avid reader of books and his collection was huge. He had loved Rabindranath Tagore’s story that had been made in Bengali by Satyajit Ray. That’s how he made Uphaar,which was a Silver Jubilee hit and Jaya Bachchan’s first solo lead. He later made Saudagar for them,and though the film starring Nutan,Amitabh Bachchan and Padma Khanna was not a hit,it got great critical acclaim. His only film as a producer as well was Jeevan Mukt,which was a flop too but won rave reviews in Kolkata. That film and Sweekar,which did well,were based on his own stories.”

For the record,the fifth movie that Roy directed was the Vinod Khanna-Rekha romantic comedy Aap Ki Khatir,which is still remembered for the iconic Bambai se aaya mera dost song. “My husband had a great sense of music too,” says Mrs. Roy. “Uphaar,Sweekar and Saudagar all had very popular songs too.”

Roy’s father was a doctor hailing from East Bengal. But when he insisted that his son become a lawyer,the future art director took the money for admission in Kolkata’s law college but ran away with it. “He never went back,” says Mrs. Roy. “He struggled on his own,doing anything connected with art and befriending Parimal Roy,Bimal Roy’s brother and cameraman,with whom he was even binding books for a while! Parimal introduced him to his famous filmmaker brother,who noticed the backdrops and sketches my husband was making.”

The couple’s daughter Sharmistha Roy,though now dividing her time between USA and India,is a leading art director. Their son Krishnendu has his own animation studio,while one daughter,Sumone,is married and lives in Canada.

She adds that Roy was looked upon as a pioneer in the industry. “His sets were very realistic and true-to-life. He pioneered the concept of walls of sets made from jute that cut down expenses sizably. He would mix the material with maanjarpaat,a grey cloth,” she says proudly.

Roy also trained other big-name art directors like Desh Mukherjee and R.Varman. “He was honoured by the industry but never by the nation,” concludes Mrs. Roy as she displays his trophies.

A daughter’s memories

“My father was not at all keen that I take up his profession,” smiles Sharmistha Roy,whose repertoire includes a lot of work for Yash Chopra and Karan Johar besides films like Koi…Mil Gaya and Yaadein. “But mom was keen and she forced me to take up Interior Design,as she was a Fine Arts student herself. Both art direction and my field were about dealing with spaces,usually large,and when my father was not keeping well,I began drafting for him. He was working on Yash (Chopra)-uncle’s Parampara and Rajen Kothari’s offbeat Purush then,and from Aaina,I officially became his assistant. Yashji noticed my work and gave me my debut film,Yeh Dillagi.”

Sharmistha remembers her father coming on every set of hers till he was active. “I never went ahead without his approval or feedback. The last film he was around was Chhupa Rustam,which was delayed and finally released in 2001. My father passed away in 1999 at the age of 78.”

Roy’s greatest strength,she says,was that he was not just an art director. “He was like today’s production designers. Being a very good photographer,he could visualise a frame and his drawings would often indicate to directors where to place the camera! He would even suggest camera angles and shot breakdowns because his study of lighting a set was tremendous. Yes,some people would be upset by what they thought was interference,but he always thought that his job was to present the best-lit set and ambience. The idea was not to dictate but to demonstrate a concept.”

Though he was reluctant about Sharmistha entering his profession,he was very proud of her work,she recalls,especially in the male-dominated industry. “His entire team is still working for me,” says Sharmistha proudly. “He was like an umbrella under which I was safe,otherwise entering this line would have proved very tough.”

Sharmistha remembers her mother telling her that her father landed in Mumbai as part of a large group led by Bimal Roy that included director Asit Sen,cameraman Dilip Bose and others. “Any producer or director could approach my father. He would be fine with a budget of Rs 5000 to Rs 50,000 for the same kind of set,like,say,a palace. He had the reputation that no one ever went back disappointed or dissatisfied.”

Roy,she says,learnt on the job. He taught himself to draft and sketch and in case of difficulties would pick up a book on the subject and read. Says Sharmistha,“My father even taught himself to make a film,direct and shoot and finally edit it from books! His Saudagar was India’s entry to the Oscars in 1973 and was a very bold subject for its times.”

Terming their family values as “Bengali middle-class”,Sharmistha recalls that while she would pester him to help do the drawings in their journals,the children were kept away from the film world. “No film magazines were allowed,and the first film set we were taken to was Karz.”

“My father believed in subtlety. When black-and-white gave way to colour,many went wild with them,but my father preferred beiges and grays,” says Sharmistha. “He always said that his work was supposed to be in the background. The sets cannot distract the audience from the story and performances. And yet the detailing in them was astounding,whether it was a set of a chawl,a slum or a palace.”

On a personal level,Sharmistha recalls him as an unworldly man with meagre needs and a true friend in need to so many. “He was unaware of money as something important. If anyone came to him in trouble,he would just hand over whatever he had in his wallet without even counting it! A sharp observer with a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek but penetrating humour,he loved to travel and had a cherished collection of Western instrumental records and Bengali music.”

A friend remembers

Subhash Ghai,for whom Roy worked on Karz,Krodhi and Karma,explains that Roy was a top-league art director when the filmmaker entered the industry. “My first encounter was at his home as I went to buy his second-hand 1962 Fiat. He welcomed me when I told him that I was a Pune Film and Television Institute graduate and a struggling actor and said,“I am not a car dealer,I am an art director’. He agreed to sell his car for whatever sum I had — which was Rs 13,000! Seven years later,I went to him for my first production,Karz and narrated the script. He did not react. But he called me a few days later. By then,he had done rough sketches of major sequences of my film and told me to treat my story in modern form! If Karz is considered modern even now after 30 years,a good deal of the credit goes to his colour schemes and innovative sets.”

Reiterating what Sharmistha stated,Ghai says,“He would give you the best of sets even you did not have any budget. He would guide the director about the best camera angles to exploit the set to its fullest.”

Recalling Karma,Ghai says,“He suggested that I erect the huge sets of a jail and the terrorists’ den in Mumbai’s Film City as both get destroyed in the film’s climax. We showed Film City as Kashmir because of his creative inputs — he taught me how to play with camera compositions to cheat a location on screen. This saved me heavy expenses in a 70mm film.”

About Karz,he adds,“Dada,as I called him,would listen to my description very carefully and come out with fantastic results,like the turntable set for the song Om shanti om from Karz or the climax number Ek hasina thi. I learned a lot from him,which is why I can communicate with and even mentor many young production designers today and save on costs.”

Ghai goes on,“Today,directors have a benefit of new technology and access to world’s best visuals,but dada had his own imagination derived through life,paintings and cinema only. We may never have enjoyed multiple options in designs,but each one of them was related to the demands of the script yet never overpowered the scripts as seen today.”

rajiv vijayakar@expressindia.com