For the past few weeks I had been pushing people to write about Gautam Chatterjee – and now I don’t know what to write myself. It’s tough. He touched lives in multiple layers – and did so with such fondness and integrity, that you can’t pinpoint on a single thing, or even a couple of aspects, that would define the relation he had with people. At least I can’t.
For me, I think I will just stick to facts. Facts, as I think and believe they were, 25 years back.
It was 1994. I decided to drop MA, but not before completing a Calcutta University course in Film Appreciation on the sidelines. I wanted to get into the making of films, somehow, with no clue whatsoever on how to do that. I knew no one in the industry, and no one in the industry knew me. We were mutually exclusive.
A classmate of mine, Subir, took me to meet Bappaditya Bandopadhyay, then writing his first feature script on a Shirshendu short story. I made myself gleefully available, helping Bappa in his scripting. By that I mean he was writing the script, and I was trying to impress him with my fundas of rather loosely imbibed East European cinema and Magic Realism.
Deep underneath, I was hoping he will introduce me to someone with whom I can apprentice, since he had then just finished assisting Buddhadev Dasgupta in ‘Charachar’. Coming from an established creative family, he knew people.
I blabbered a lot then, mostly nonsense. So that might be the reason why the mild-mannered Bappa tagged me along when he went to show his experimental short to Gautam-da. He saw his film, gave suggestions, then spoke to me for some time – and from a day or two afterwards I started hovering around him. He was getting ready for a new project that he got from Kolkata Doordarshan – called Video Gaan. Without any credentials to assist someone of his stature – just like that, he took me in.
Videogaan was about Music Videos, but not just any music videos.
Through the platform, Gautam-da wanted to highlight the work of young and promising musicians who were part of his regular ‘adda’ sessions. Some were already established, but most of the others were upcoming. It was a whole new world for me.
We soon entered into a mammoth recording exercise at ‘Presto’, a new ‘digital’ recording studio, which was a novelty in those analogue days. A large number of songs were recorded for that three part DD series – painstakingly, over a pretty long period of time.
The Biryani lunch mostly came from Shiraaz, on consensus. For variety, we also tried Rahmania. I know, I was there, and I often went to get them.
That’s a screenshot of Videogaan, from the Digha shoot of Krosswindz , for the song “Prithibi-taa naaki.”
Before we could go for the shooting of the videos, I had an impression that we might have overshot the schedule intended for the recording. Gautam-da, a stickler for quality, didn’t compromise one bit for the studio recording – and he now wanted to promote the songs before they went on air.
It was then decided to turn eight of those recorded songs into an audio-cassette and release them at the Book Fair of 1995.
We did that pretty much in a group theater mode, dubbing the master-tapes in Chandni Chowk, in copiers that replicated four cassettes in real time; in terms of publicity, we bought yellow parchment paper from Radha Bazaar and got the posters offset xeroxed from a outlet near Metro cinema, and used home-made ‘arrowroot’ paste to stick them at Nandan and Academy walls; we cut the cassette flaps manually, bought the cassette covers at whole sale rates and inserted all the flaps and cassettes into them – one by one.
Subrata, from the band Gorer Maath, was my partner in all those unskilled back-stories listed above. That didn’t, however, dissuade him from singing iconic songs for those albums.
At the book fair, my job was to sell the cassettes and keep accounts, while the others set the evenings on fire just outside the A Mukherjee stall – singing those songs.
And then, the shoot happened; it was an elaborate affair, with Vivek Banerjee as the Cameraman. Every single day went off in a tizzy, at Indrapuri Studios, Jhilmil Park, Princep Ghat, Digha and elsewhere – and I had the good fortune to remain the shadow of Gautam-da during this entire phase, including the live shows later at Kalamadir and Jadavpur University. Since I already did theater lights, he gave me the chance to do the lights for those shows – but I invariably messed it up every time.
Remember ‘ Podashonaay Jolanjoli’ …of course, if you have reached till here reading this, you do.
A year and a half after I met Gautam-da, I joined a news-agency job, and stopped being a regular at his home. Videogaan was over by then, and he was planning an ethnic documentation trip to Meghalaya.
Afterwards, he was always there, much like a foster-father, whenever I needed him. I shifted to Delhi soon afterwards. The day before I left, in 1997, he gave me some money and a couple of phone numbers of Delhi contacts, chided me once again for not doing the ‘Sound’ course in SRFTI where he had by then joined as a teacher – and told me not to take the only copy of ‘Maaya’ that he had at that time. It was a master copy – and he liked to listen to those new recordings over and over again, in his Sonodyne music system.
I took it anyways. He gave that helpless look to Boudi that he always did when he couldn’t prevent something that he didn’t like, but asked for a glass of tea soon afterwards.
One glass for me as well; that was the last time I met him.
If someone reading this post remembers who took this photo, I would be grateful to know.
Thanks Gaboo, Gaurab Chatterjee for sharing this.
I have often wondered afterwards, what was it like learning under Gautam-da in SRFTI?
I know that I have picked up my life-lessons from him and under him, but how about the others who had the good fortune of being his more ‘academic’ students. Maybe some of us can get together and pay a brief tribute to the person who changed our way of looking at the rhythms of life – forever.
That’s what prompted this blog post.
Also, I have decided against mentioning anything about the later achievements of these students of SRFTI – first and second batch. They are well established now, but this post is not about them; it’s about their memories around Gautam-da.
So let’s keep this simple.
I start with Sagar Ballary, a second batch student of direction, SRFTI, and his recollections of Gautam-da’s first class on music.
METHOD AND MADNESS, IN A SINGLE CLASS!
SAGAR BALLARY
FROM MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA
My fondest memory of Gautam Chatterjee is his first class on music. He came and set the rhythm right.
It was a class on meter. He made us all understand the importance of meter. The click – the beat – he made us all clap. Yes it seems so trivial but many did not know to clap in rhythm. He taught that the basis of all recording was the click.
The beauty of this class – at the end he asked everybody to pick up some instrument that was available in the music room and play. It did not matter if you knew how to play – just play whatever! It was a cacophony!
He asked us to continue and not shy away. That’s what I call teaching method and madness – in a single class!
His music had a great influence on us. Not just local Bengali students -We had students from Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam – unanimously Mohiner Ghora Guli was loved and enjoyed. It was the sound of our hostel times for 4 years or so.
Most of us are practicing filmmakers today. The influence is an abstract deep memory which now a part of our collective consciousness.
Gautam Chatterjee mostly was there at the hostel interacting with students -making music and merry. He was always ready to play the guitar and sing and rock the party. His willingness to play the guitar and sing with anybody and everybody is a quality which is very rare in musicians.
He shared his music like a gift of god for all; a musician with no ego when it comes to picking up a guitar and starting a song.
For me, the albums of Mohiner are a go to even today – 20 years after I have come to Mumbai from Kolkata. The deep sense of nostalgia and belonging to Kolkata comes to me through his music. Kolkata’s memories are incomplete without all those songs.
The way he composed his songs – especially the choice of lyrics and themes of each song blew most of our non Bengali brains as we unraveled the meanings. The lyrics were abstract and resonated with the inner confusions and delusions of the mind – very unlike the music and songs we had heard in our youth before coming to Kolkata.
This opened a whole new door of thought and understanding at that crucial time when we were all absorbing the material that would shape our aesthetics for the future years to come
The news of his death was a shock to all of us.
Most of us were into the thick of our projects when this happened. I remember we were in the middle of shoots when the news came and most students went to his funeral at the Tollygunge Crematorium.
His funeral has etched a vivid memory in my mind because though everybody was sad and devastated – family, friends, well wishers and fans – they bid him farewell singing his songs!
I will never forget the rendition of “Bhalo Lage” that night. The eyes still get moist thinking of that day.
I don’t know what songs were sung that night. I wasn’t there.
In 1999, I was struggling to get a foothold in Delhi. I didn’t even know that he has died till a few months later, since those were pre-mobile, pre-facebook days.
But Sagar’s memory of his first class also reminds me of my first day of recording at Presto. Or was it the second day?
If my memory serves me right, during the early phase of the Videogaan Presto session, we were recording ‘Dhandhar thekeo jotil Tumi’ with Subrata doing the vocals, and Neel Mukherjee with his nylon-string guitar adding the interludes.
I somehow managed to goof it all up by switching on a switch that wasn’t supposed to be switched on – and ‘poof’, everything went dark. Overload.
It’s a confession; never told this to anyone, in 25 years.
But what followed was amazing. We had to arrange for an electrician and wait . An exasperated Neel then started playing flamenco on his strings and Gautam-da joined in tabla. I have never heard a jugalbandi like that ever afterwards.
It was magic. They were talking. Rather, debating.
For that matter, every moment spent with Gautam Chatterjee was nothing less than magic. He made sure of that with his signature ease and comforting smile. I think Amal Neerad, a student of Cinematography from the first batch, would agree with me on that.
‘IT WASN’T JUST THE RAIN’
AMAL NEERAD
FROM ERNAKULAM, KERALA
My acquaintance with Gautam da grew outside the classroom.
Since I was a Cinematography student and he taught the Sound Department, our classroom interactions were limited to a couple of general sessions he helmed in my first year. He would often hangout with us in our hostel rooms after hours. He sang and played his guitar, while we all sat around listening to him.
I always thought that there was something unusually soothing about the rains in Calcutta. Now I realize that it wasn’t just the rain, it had more to do with Gautam da’s music and the serene atmosphere it created.
I had no clue about the lyrics of his songs for a long time and it never came in the way of connecting with his music. More recently, I made my friends translate most of his songs and I realize that it is as revolutionary and timeless as it sounded to me then.
I still listen to Gautam da’s music a lot and still, it isn’t just nostalgia that washes over me, it is mostly exciting new ideas to work with.
I so agree with Amal on that ‘ideas’ bit.
I never had the opportunity of assisting him in a film. But in Gautamda’s ‘adda’ room, and later in the editing studio, I was more like a lizard on the wall, waiting in silence to nibble on all the morsels of ‘ideas’ that I never knew existed.
A whole lot of people used to come, and there were intense discussions on cinema and other forms of art – that often went over my head. All my pretensions of being an emerging intellectual cineaste never worked there.
But it was family; the only family I had then.
And yes, if and when I got the opportunity of speaking to people who have actually assisted him in his films, I have always cherished those discussions.
And that’s why I think you will enjoy the next memoir a lot.
Tuhinavo, a first batch student of editing from SRFTI, has known him from much before me and for a much longer period of time. He worked with Gautam-da during the filming of ‘Samay’- a project much close to his heart.
TIME OF INNOCENCE
TUHINABHA MAJUMDAR
FROM PUNE, MAHARASTRA
I remember meeting Gautam-da in a rainy August morning in 1983 at his place in Naktala. I watched his National Award winning debut feature film ‘Nagmoti’ may be a week ago, and was quite impressed by the sheer novelty of the subject and the overall approach of the film.
The film was a dramatic representation of snake-worshipping gypsies known as ‘Bede’ of the densely riverine South Bengal. The film, like all his other films had brilliant music and songs (mingled with an ethnographic curiosity and compassion to explore the ‘other’) and this, even at that young age I felt to be distinctly unique in a time when the so-called parallel cinema was denying the traditional song-based melodramatic narrative form in the name of realism which was heavily euro-centric in nature.
I am sure that this was precisely the reason why I thought I should meet him. This meeting transformed into a long relationship in two different phases, once from 1983 to 1987 and then again from 1995 till his death.
I slowly got immersed in a world filled with music, cinema, sessions of long conversations and arguments along with tea and Charminar cigarettes, sharing ideas and dreaming. A strange sort of a community living began for me which I seldom had experienced before. I think Gautamda imbibed this faith on togetherness, on doing things as a community from his experience of radical politics which he practiced actively in the 70s, his close association with the Bauls in his post-political days and finally from his theater practice.
Gautamda for me was primarily a filmmaker.
His music was something I admired and always in love with but my association was mainly with his world of cinema.
I remember Ritwik Ghatak, Eric Sattie, Rahul Sankrittayan, Laurie Anderson, Gour Khepa, Habib Tanveer, Deepak Mazumdar, Barin Saha, Louise Malle and Carlos Castaneda, to name a few, who were referred to quite often in those long, almost unending ‘adda’ sessions. Gautamda also wrote an essay in a Bengali daily news paper on ‘adda’.
My apprenticeship began with assisting in writing scripts which he could never make like ‘Maghmalhar’ based on a short story by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay and ‘Banijya’ adapted from another short story by Sachindranath Bandopadhyay.
His sincere interest in documenting the so-called marginal communities and cultures can be traced in all his works and even in his music.
The script of ‘Samay’/ ‘Time’, his second feature film was written in 1984 and the shooting began in November, 1985. The film finally got finished in April, 1986. This was my first experience of working in a full length feature film.
Samay was perhaps the only film where he was predominantly engaged in exploring a film language rather than concentrating on the narrative or the story. The formal aspects of cinema rather than the story were his concern. In short, I would like to call it an exercise on the idea of ‘musicality in cinema’.
The idea of musicality I am talking about does not stem from either the central theme or the central character David Biswas who is a practicing musician. David plays Eric Satie’s Gnossienness-1 – once in the film and later it’s repeated innumerable times like a leitmotif. But that’s not simply the reason for referring to it as ‘the idea of musicality’. The structure, the misc en scene, the complex movement and the rhythmic pattern of editing of Samay has its roots in music.
Samay was also a film on the city of Kolkata- a film on the city’s cultural/ political decadence and its state of amnesia.
The general image of Gautamda is that of a bohemian, emotionally-driven, instinctive artiste who is heavily guided by spontaneity and impulse which I think is a superficial construct. I have found him to be immensely meticulous, diligent and disciplined in his preparation from writing a detailed script – shooting to post-production.
He used to tell us that ‘one has to work on a script in as much detail as one possibly can to be able to understand the film better’. That is precisely why he could improvise scenes, movements, even dialogues at the last minute before taking the shot. This capacity of improvising too I think he must have imbibed from his practice of music for years.
The most precious lesson I learned from him was that cinema, like any other art form, has to be a way of life.
Both Tuhinavo and Pallab were close associates of Gautam-da.
Sound was the department where Gautam-da was a teacher, and where I couldn’t join. Those lucky fellows met him almost every day during their stint with SRFTI – and learnt from him first hand.
Here, I have to mention, that this blog might not have been possible without one of them. Tapas Nayak, first-batch student from the same department, virtually pushed my reticent and reclusive Bong self into getting in touch with all these people, even called them to ensure that they attend my call.
And here I am; I didn’t even manage to speak with Tapas yet – about his own memories of Gautam-da; will do that soon.
For now, I bring you the memoirs of Shubhadeep, his batch-mate.
‘WITH GAUTAM-DA, EVERYTHING WAS INFINITE’
SUBHADEEP SENGUPTA
FROM KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL
After pursuing literature I got interested in films and jumped into a film-making course abandoning all the other avenues open before me.
It was a completely new experience and in fact I just started loving it until shortly we as a batch found out that the Institute was overwhelmingly under equipped and we were learning film making with the meagerest of the resources. We stepped back and striked. A long time passed after that when we united, divided, fought the state, fought the center and finally negotiated our way into normalcy.
We had graduated to second year by then. A lot of lost time needed to be recovered and we were anxious for projects and workshops.
In such a context a playback exercise was initiated by the Institute to be taken by Gautam Chatterjee. It sounded exciting and for the first time we will be undertaking a complete project led by industry experts.
In my small experience I have been lucky enough to go through some of the better academic institutions and be in touch with some very good and inspiring teachers. In fact I would not be pursuing any film course at all if not for Professor Kapadia from St Xaviers College who was the only person supporting me. He would often say “you have already learned one language – so go try other languages”.
Gautam Chatterjee started by taking music classes with the sound department students. In our dull institute life plagued by boring theoretical classes, his classes stood apart by the fact that he would make all his points by demonstrating things physically, and mobilize our physical as well as intellectual faculty. For a musician par excellence it must have been a pretty boring thing for him to take classes but he took up this challenge and fulfilled it with flying colors.
In no time we had become fans not only of the music that Gautamda propagated – but also of the person himself.
He was always bursting with energy, so much energy that it would transform any prevalent dullness into an exciting adventure. So by the second academic class, we had already taken our classroom to the fields and by the fourth class to his house.
In fact by now there was no concept of class or any timing. We would be engaged with him from morning till late at night. By some miraculous stroke of a hand our dull institute life had transformed into a rigorous daily routine of creativity and physical persistence.
In fact by now the class had spilled over. So for a class with Gautamda, other students from other departments were regularly attending, sometimes even bunking other classes.
With Gautamda there was no sense of the finite. Everything was as infinite as one can imagine and persevere. Under his mentor-ship camera students, editing students, direction students and sound students united for the first time for a play back exercise. His guidance was so severe that it transformed us into multi-talented creative genius.
In one of the lyric writing sessions, we were so excited that all the 20 odd students from various departments present during the session contributed one or two lines of lyrics each and the song writing was over.
Then came the music composing and recording; he invited the famous members from the rock band Crosswinds to lay down the tracks with us; Raja on the keyboards, Tuki on guitars, Dwight on bass and vocals taken care of by Boney and Parama.
Our newly built sound studio was producing a whole song from scratch and it was exciting every bit. In fact he transformed some of our most non-musical students into percussionists and musicians. A rough track finally came together which will be used for the playback.
The next few days were spent in frenzied action planning for the music video and writing the script. Again there was no prioritizing, all the students contributed equally and it was ready after some intense brainstorming sessions.
We had quite an elaborate planning in place which also included a ferry ride over the Ganges. His guidance was pretty rigorous in nature. Thus he divided the pre-production work among the students and will be always present with one of the groups. After another few days of pre-production we were ready with a concrete schedule for shooting.
The shooting went in a tizzy. The locations were improvised, shots were changed, the script demanded rain and it was a sunny day. We learned how artificial rain is created for shooting. We learned that the very act of shooting needed extreme focus and physical energy.
I was doing the playback duty and we had a quarter inch tape recorder – the Nagra, to do the duties. This machine demanded a lot of accuracy in operating it because the rewind had to be done manually, turning the release spool by a few turns so that the perfect line is cued.
In the first few takes I had to gather the accuracy and had one of the most important lessons in analog filming – the wastage of footage. If I would rewind too much, 35 mm raw footage will be wasted whereas if I cued too early, the actors won’t be having enough time to prepare themselves for lip-syncing.
The few weeks went in an eye blink with the shooting as the high point of the exercise. Soon we realized the nature of the film. We had to wait a while for the footage to be developed, edited and printed. Naturally in the intervening period we were engaged in other classes and other projects but for us, this was the starting point.
Gautamda continued his classes with us and in the way of the exercise he allowed us a glimpse of his film-making style which really transformed our lives from a state of mundanity to a state of permanent excitement.
I have that song with me – now how exciting is that!!
It’s here for you, thanks to Shubhadeep’s archival instincts. It was a student project, and in Hindi – since it was like an anthem for a National level institute, so lend it a listen from that perspective. They did have lots of fun during its production – that’s for sure.
Shubhadeep has already said whatever was to be said about the song – so let’s just enjoy it. Do use a pair of good headphones.
” Chhoro kal ki baatein gaaye doosri kahani… “
Might seem like an odd platform to point this out – I know. But yes, that’s what we all learnt from Gautam-da – to keep moving.
For the records, and this is for you Shubhadeep, my first task in Gautamda’s unit during the Videogaan shoot was also in the playback section – and with Nagra.
Not exactly running the machine, though; I carried the huge batteries that were needed to play that machine during the field shoots, while Kali-da, an aged sound-technician, operated the machine. It wasn’t a small task, mind you! Anyone who has worked in open fields shooting song sequences will agree with me.
I managed to goof up there too.
In fact my mess-ups while with Gautam-da could be the subject of an entire coffee-table book with illustrations; this is not the space for that.
For now, give me a few more days, I have a few more students lined up, all from the Sound Department of SRFTI, spread all across India – with one common factor between them – their love and respect for Gautamda.
Part one of this post took 25 years in the making.
Part two won’t take that much of time. I promise.
Would love to write about his films some day.
Rana beautifully written it brought tears to my eyes and a smile on my lips….simply loved it!
Boudi…that makes my day. Nothing else really matters. Thanks a lot.
Beautifully written and presented. Loved it. And thanks for introducing another part of him to us.
Thanks for reading Udayan. Please share with like minded people.
I had never dreamed of reading an epic in my life but I just did.
This work of art reflects how loved Gautam was by anyone who was associated with him.
Very well written and arranged, Anirban.
I don’t think I have met you but we have both met Gautam and that makes us family.
So, let’s celebrate GAUTAM.
Many many thanks. Yes, and I hope many more will write about him. High time.
Loved reading this amazing write-up. Thank you for sharing such beautiful memories. Truly brilliant!!
Thanks for reading.
Excellently well-written…
I love it when you say that Gautam …
That’s one brilliant piece of writing! Brought back hordes of memories associated with Gautamda. Loved reading every bit of it.
Thanks for reading Shivani.
“FROM BEYOND THE LIGHT YEARS’ The title and the write-up indeed took me back to the time which now seems like beyond the horizon of many light years. To be honest I must say I know not much about cinema and music but I remember Gautam Da (my brother in-law) as a good human being with an electrifying smile..
Thank you so much for taking me to the voyage to the past and for bringing it to the present.
Thanks a lot for reading this. That title is a throwback to his song, Prithibi-ta naaki, where he refers to the creation of distances that sets us light years apart. On the contrary, he was a person that was always up and close to everyone that crossed his path, bridging that distance. Once again, I hope more people will write about him.
Enjoyed every word, every moment of this piece. Really, knowing Goutam-da has been the event of life.
Thanks a lot Amit. That’s so true.
Heart warming and nostalgic.Thanks Anirban for sharing. Can you share any memories of Bappaditya?
Bappa was a lovely person, but I have never really worked with him. My most vivid memories with him is all about working on that Shirshendu short story on which he finally based his first film. He did the film a couple of years after I left for Delhi – but I lost touch with him completely. I did call him once after 15 years or so, but couldn’t meet him. By then he has made lots of films, none of which I had seen… we had moved apart in different directions. But whatever time I spent with him I will always remember him as a gentle, mild mannered young man, with lots of dreamy ideas.
Wonderful. We miss Monida.
Thank you so much for a wonderful writing. G
Wonderful. Such a nice write -up on Monida.
We miss Goutam ( Monida)
Thanks again
Thanks for reading Gauri Chatterjee.
Very well written Anirban. Recalled all those fascinating moments with Gautam, being one of his core members of the film and television unit. Will patiently wait for more such wonderful write ups to come
Now that’s a dream come true comment for me Vivek-da. Really looking forward to come to Kolkata since I want to write about his films for sure, and the first person I will approach is you. Let me see when that happens. Thanks a lot for reaching out.
What a wondderful tribute to an artiste and a teacher!
And you write extremely well Rana, and while being self deprecating imay be your style, it just addds to the eloquence of the narrative.. excellent read
I do have a modest impressions of myself Nilendu-da, but thankfully, I have mentors and well-wishers like you to remind me that I am not entirely useless. This platform helps me to be what I am and to choose the topics that I want to write about, without extrapolations. Everyone should have a space like that – a room with a view.
Lovely read! Your style and diction brought Gautam da and his stature to full life! Knew nothing about this great artist but this article rather an epitaph helped a lot!