THE RIGHT MIX OF EMOTIONS: THE ‘HITEN GHOSH’ DICTUM

The story of Hitendra Ghosh is the saga of walking willingly into a maze of amazement.

His insatiable quest for meaning partnered with his indomitable will to experiment. It didn’t take any time for his skills to be noticed, recognized, and efficiently used across the spectrum. Be it the multi-layered aesthetics of ‘art’ cinema, or the heightened emotions of ‘pop’ cinema – he has heard it all, and mixed it all.

Even while Hiten was still a student at the Film and Television institute if India, he had this ability to stand out in the crowd. Like he already said in the part 1 of this blog, he wasn’t jobless for even a single day. That’s probably because he loved and respected his work, which reflected in his attitude.

The fact that his student project had Smita Patil in the lead also played a distinctive role. Not for Hiten, but for Smita.

“I TOLD SHYAM BENEGAL I DON’T HAVE ANY PLANS.”

In my last exam, Shyam Benegal was my examiner. When we said goodbye to him, he told me you have done a good job, so what is your plan? I said I don’t have any plans. He told me to come meet him in Mumbai. When I came back from Neena’s film, I met him. He said, I am starting Nishant, so why don’t you do it? I said yes. He told me it’s going to be a full-fledged job, no assistants. I said I will do it full-fledged. That’s how I got Nishant.

When we were discussing the script, Shyam mentioned about the requirement of a girl for the role of an angst-ridden village girl. I told Shyam that I have a friend called Smita Patil, why don’t you try her. He said okay, bring her. Shyam saw her and his immediate reaction was – yes, she will do the role.

That’s how Smita got Nishant. Her first limelight feature role.

This occurred roughly towards the end of 1974. What happened was Nishant got delayed, and Shyam had to do a Children’s film first. In that film, Charandas Chor, there was the role of a queen, which Smita did. So, in terms of camera appearance, that was her first film. I think she had acted in some Marathi films too – but Nishant gave her recognition – she had arrived.

Since then, I have done all films of Shyam Benegal. Recently I did ‘Mujib’ as well. During those freelancing times till 1984 I did all the films of Govind Nihalani, ‘Ardh Satya’ and all. My association with him has also lasted all these years, till the last film he did.

Those few years after FTII were extremely productive times for Hiten – with loads of good work coming in.

That was the time when Indian New wave film-makers were making their debut films – working beyond the traditional formula flicks that characterised Hindi films. That was also the time when the angry young man arrived and became mainstream. Life got complex with thousands of young Indians opting for ultra-left revolutionary routes and the government declaring emergency and the opposition leading nationwide protest rallies – and what not.

The 70’s was a tough time to live. And every tough time to live has always been a good time to make meaningful cinema.

I couldn’t help but asking him about his long-standing partnership with Shyam Benegal. His initial films from those times have always intrigued and inspired me – along with Adoor, Aravindan, Govind Nihalani and to some extent, Gautam Ghose and Aparna Sen.

More recently, I found Shyam Benegal to be a very ‘amicable’ speaker when we interviewed him for Rahman Music Sheets – crystal clear and specific in his opinion.

You can check the interview here if you want to.

So how is it like working with Shyam Benegal?

“SHYAM WOULD NEVER TEACH ME HOW TO DO IT.”

Look, I will tell you. I found Shyam Benegal to be a person who gives the entire responsibility to the technician. Say I am doing the sound – he will give me total responsibility for it. I will give him my way of doing it, and he has to either approve or disapprove. If he doesn’t like it, I have to give him another version.

But he will never teach me how to do it – because that is my area.

That kind of a director is very difficult to find today. Today everybody wants to interfere. Aap mereko do, main karta hoon. Even in music, they do the same. In editing as well, but that’s fine I suppose, they have to be there. But Shyam has never done that.

Shyam will first give the entire stock to the editor, let the editor cut, we will watch it after he is done and then share our impression on it. See that is a very big thing for a director. Say, for instance, Govind is the cinematographer. So, he tells Govind the kind of feel he expects from the scene and leaves it on him. That’s how he is.

Also, talking from the sound perspective, Shyam has the mindset of a documentary maker. His approach is different.

So, when you have a docu-mindset, all sorts of sounds will come to you and catch your fancy – that you want to put in your film. Whereas, for other people, like those with a feature-film mindset, it’s not like that at all. Documentary film-makers like to capture on-location natural sound and use it for their films. They want their films to look and feel realistic. Govind Nihlani was also like that. I am like that. That’s what we have been taught, that films should have that kind of sound atmosphere.

One thing about Shyam maybe I should share, within this context.

He used to do his shot break-up on location, not before that. He saw and he instructed the cameraman, these are the shots we need to take here, from these angles etc. It’s like a documentary film-maker.

Whereas other people, even before reaching the location, they knew what their shots would be like. They have a certain plan in mind. That planning is not there in Shyam’s film-making. He goes and plans it in the location.

Which is absolutely not the way Satyajit Ray would do it.

I was glad that Hiten himself broached the topic of Satyajit Ray. I would have come to him a little later. If I list down the reasons why I came to Hitendra Ghosh for a blog-post, the fact that he is one of the last surviving technicians to have worked with Ray would definitely be somewhere at the top of that list.

We will come to that later. First, yet another unexpected decision from Hitendra Ghosh. Yet another road less taken.

During the late 70’s and early 80’s – Hiten was picking up one project after another, as an overall ‘sound’ technician. He was getting good films – with off-the-beat directors like Kalpana Lajmi, Girsh Karnad. He did ‘Utsav’. He did ‘36 Chowringhee Lane’ with Aparna Sen. Talking of commercial films, he did the sound of ‘Arjun’ with Rahul Rawail, and ‘Saaransh’ with Mahesh Bhatt. All of that and more.

By Hiten’s own admission, ‘Those were great times!’

But then, while at the height of his demand as an established overall Sound person, he decided to focus on one specific aspect of ‘Sound’ in cinema – which was re-recording and mixing.

He had his reasons, and I do resonate with his logic.

“MANGESH DESAI SAID, HE WILL BE BACK IN A MONTH.”

In those times there used to be an umbrella term – ‘Sound’. Which means you go to the location, record it, and then mix the sound, one person doing the entire work. But as the years went on, they started dividing the work. Location sound, one person. Dubbing sound, someone else. Sound effects, another person – that’s what the trend is now.

In 1984, I left and joined Rajkamal Studios.

What happened was, I used to do my own mixing. But at Rajkamal, Mangesh Desai used to do the mixing of all films. He liked my work and so he allowed me to do my own mixing. In 84, he was very sick. His heart had to be operated. He told me – can you look after the studio for a month, I will come in one month. Unfortunately, he died after the operation. Our boss used to be V Shantaram. He asked me to join.

I had to think, because the salary was much lower than what I was earning as a freelancer. But then, something happened in my mind, and I said yes, I will join this.

One thing was the need to continue the massive legacy of Mangesh Desai. Secondly, I thought, if I take a film, it goes on for six-seven months. Same film goes on and on. But if I do only ‘mixing’, every day I get to see a new reel. My mind continues to work on an overdrive, facing new challenges, and the scope for creativity is much more.

You finish one film and take up the next, all the time you are seeing different people, new directors are coming with their work, we talk about things like how they have shot the film and what are their thoughts about the sound of the film.

Let me give you a few examples.

Some directors are very keen on having sound effects. Very keen. Say if you see a car, the car sound has to be absolutely perfect; if you see someone walking, the sound of footsteps has to be there. But there were other directors who were radically opposite. They absolutely don’t want the sound effects. They just want background music and dialogues.

I will tell you the example of Sawan Kumar Tak.

There was a shot of a Mercedes coming to a bungalow with a canopy. I think it was Jeetendra, so he came out of the car and walks in. I kept the background music as well as the sound of the car. I was very keen to keep that sound as there was mud there, and the sound of the tyres on the mud was captured beautifully. But once he came in, he said – no, no, no, I don’t want the sound of the car at all. I just want the background music. He didn’t allow me to keep the car sound at all.

So, some of them like sound effects, and there are others who are more, like, musical minded.

The re-recording and mixing work Hitendra Ghosh used to get after joining Rajkamal studios were mainly commercial films. But he still got off-beat films – some of them came from Kolkata. Tapan Sinha used to come, and Tarun Majumdar.

Commercially hit Bangla films too; he did films like ‘Gurudakkhina’ with Anjan Choudhury.

Satyajit Ray, of course, was the icing in the cake as far as Bangla films are concerned. More so because of Hiten’s Shantiniketan connection with Ray – through his parents.

Hiten has a wonderful anecdote to share about his first experience of working with Ray.

“SATYAJIT RAY DIDN’T WANT THE MUSIC TO BE HEARD.”

Till 84, Mangesh Desai used to do Satyajit Ray films.

Satyajit Ray came to know that Mangesh is no more there at Rajkamal, but I am there. He already knew me, because I was supposed to act in his film ‘Aparajita’ – as a seven-year-old child. Eventually that didn’t happen. My mother was from Shantiniketan like I told you, Ray was also there, so they were all friends.

In 1984, when he learnt that I was there instead of Mangesh, he sent me a telegram. That I am coming, and I want a booking from so-and-so date, from Monday till Saturday. I want full day, from 9 to 6 PM.

The film was ‘Ganashatru’ (Enemy of the People).

So, he came at 9 AM. I asked him, do you have any instructions for me? How to do it and what all you expect?

So, he told me simply, see, dialogues and sound effects, you do the way you usually do it. But the music – I should not hear the music at all. When you are mixing, I should not hear the music at all.

I was intrigued, what does he mean? He said – I mean you put the music there, loud if you want to, but I should not hear it. Your levels should be in such a way that the person should be attracted to the visuals without realizing that the music is going on.

It was such a tough thing that he told me. See he wants the music to be loud, but at the same time, he doesn’t want it to be heard. That means the mix has to create an effect that the audience gets glued to the film without even realizing that the music is there, or not there. The music should blend so well with the visuals that one should not even feel that there was a music track. That was the idea.

Tough challenge, that one.

In those days we used to do one reel at one go, the machines were different. You couldn’t break in-between. I thought it would be best to involve myself with the film. Dialogue and effects I worked on, but when it came to music, I decided to just see the film. Whatever was happening on screen, I was just seeing the film, as if I am the audience. My hands are on the mixer keys, I am feeling the mood, and my hands are moving with my own emotions.

I completed one reel and asked him. He said, very good, you have done the right thing, I don’t have anything to suggest or say. I felt I have managed to capture his pulse. Then I did the second reel. The third reel after that. You won’t believe, I finished the film on Monday itself, and that too before six-o-clock. The entire film.

His wife came. She said ‘Arrey tumi toh shesh kore diyecho, edike aami toh poisa diye rekhechi!’ (Hey you have completed the work, but I have made advance payments!’)

What happened was, they were staying in Taj Hotel. They have paid them in advance for the whole stay till Saturday.

Bijoya ma’am was a little worried, what to do now?

I told her, why don’t you do one thing, you go to Goa. Taj has a property there, shift your bookings and spend some time together there. Ma’am said, ‘Naah, he will never agree to that.’

So, they said bye to me and went off.

The coming Saturday, I was doing some other work. Out of the blue Bijoya ma’am came and shook my hands. Thanku… thanku…she was muttering in Bengali. ‘This is the first time we have spent some time together after a very long time. This has never happened before.’

The story doesn’t end here.

A couple of years later, Ray was making his next film. He called me and told me to keep a booking for a single day. I had to tell him, sir, it might not always be possible to complete the entire mixing of a film in a single day. Please book for at least three days. He agreed.

Picture courtesy for the above image goes to Nimai Ghosh.

Our conversation continued – around directors that are keen on good sound. Although Hiten was initially reluctant to take names – he loosened up a bit when talking about Mukul Anand. Hiten believes Mukul Anand was one of those directors that had an ear for sound.

When I asked him about today – his top pick was Ashutosh Gowarikar. Hiten says Ashutosh is very particular about sound. To some extent even Subhash Ghai, but his is more about music, while Ashutosh is particular about all the aspects of sound.

He shared what happened during Jodha Akbar.

“ASHUTOSH HIMSELF CHANGED THE BGM OF JODHA AKBAR”

In Jodha Akbar, the background that Rahman had given, in some places Ashutosh didn’t like it. So, we had to change the background. He sat with us, changed the position of the tracks, shortened some of them, did all sorts of experiments. Rahman was not aware of this.

When he saw the final print, I was a little nervous that he would not approve of this, and ask me why haven’t I cut on the beats. But after the film got over, he came to me. He was smiling, hmm, you made quite a few changes it seems.

But he didn’t object to those changes.

So Ashutosh is someone who did that kind of a thing, which no other director had ever done.

If they don’t like the music they will tell the music director – okay, I didn’t like this piece, do it again. They won’t attempt doing this. That kind of knowledge of music Gowarikar has.

Ever since I started watching films on big-screen, I always used to wonder who is this guy Mangesh Desai? How come he is there in every film, and what does he do?

Directors direct, actors act, singers sing, someone does the camera, sound, music – so what the heck does this re-mixing, re-recording guy do?

Even after I entered the industry, since my domain has never been fiction, this confusion remained. I did ask some fiction people, but perhaps not the right ones – since I never got a satisfactory answer.

I had to clear this confusion with Hiten Ghosh.

“NOT HAPPY WITH HAVING ALL THE SOUNDS THERE”

According to me, re-recording is a very emotional play of sound. It is not that we have to mix all the sounds. It has to reflect what we are trying to do in a film – we are trying to tell a story, right? That story has certain emotions. That needs to come out.

When I say sound, it means all three components – dialogue, music, and effects. These three elements have to blend in such a way that the emotion which the director wants from his characters – that should come out. The sound mixing should enhance those emotions.

This enhancement, it might even happen with the dialogues. If the character has performed so well, then where is the need for background music? Background music is used to emphasize something, but if the performance in itself is so good – then my job is to underplay or completely avoid the background music. You know, the dialogue delivery is so good, that if I put in music there, it might even end up destroying the emotion that I am trying to evoke.

Nowadays, the demand is to have all the sounds there. That is something with which I am not very happy.

Suppose it’s a romantic sequence. In that case I don’t want to hear their footsteps. It is not necessary. We need to make the audience focus on their romance – maybe just with the dialogue and the music. That’s true even if they are in the middle of a traffic.

Nowadays what happens is they even retain the sound of the traffic that the romantic couple is experiencing. I believe in cinema we can take the liberty of not having the sound of the traffic, even if the traffic is seen. Simply because it’s more important to hear the dialogues that they are saying. But now they want all the sound to be there, whatever gets seen on the screen.

Maybe they are copying the west in these matters, but one has to understand, the western people are not really very keen to convey the on-screen emotions through the usage of sound. They would do that more directly, through performances.

My time with Hiten-da was coming to an end.

If you ask me, I would have stayed a few more hours to listen to all his stories – but he was looking visibly tired.

Which also reminded me of the ‘machine’ he is carrying inside his chest for more than two decades now, something that is more complex than a ‘pacemaker’. In his own words, ‘Pacemaker keeps pace for hearts that are still functioning. This one is for dead hearts.’

With the turn of the century, Hiten had a massive heart attack – and since then, this machine sends an electric pulse to his heart to keep it pulsating. Forgive the wordplay, but this means his heart does not beat normally any more, it is being kept functional artificially.

Yet there is rarely a day he misses work. This interview also happened between two of his recording sessions, in studio.

I don’t know what that says about his tenacity towards life and work; you tell me.

To round up the discussion, I asked him to mention five films that students of cinema should see, from the sound perspective; not necessarily his own films.

“CHOOSING 5 OUT OF 3500 FILMS IS A TOUGH CALL”

See, till date, I have done more than 3500 films.

Out of them if you ask me to choose 5 good films it’s a tough call, since all films involve lots of hard work, and have some good aspects ingrained in it.

But yes, overall, if you ask me for five exemplary films that students of cinema should watch to enjoy the right mix of sound – it would be Gladiator, of course, Slumdog Millionaire, the Matrix, Junoon and Nishant.

Nishant was my first film and it has lots of things in terms of creativity. Films like Lagaan also. And Ben Hur. The film was made in 1959, if I remember it right. Even at that time what they did with sound was unbelievable.

I came out of Empire Studios with overwhelming feelings.

All my life as a media-person and a writer – I have consciously avoided iconic cultural figures. Might be my own fear to connect, or maybe I felt intimidated by what I felt to be their towering presence.

But here, I very much wonder, whom did I just meet?

Without doubt this humble, welcoming, ever-smiling gentleman in there have played a seminal role in the history of Indian cinema for fifty years now – as an undisputed maestro in his craft; the quintessential silent worker, literally hand-mixing a plethora of films – guiding them gently towards their destination.

Without realizing, I have just met an icon, also an everyman.

People like Hitendra Ghosh brings back my faith in the power of passion. He stands tall, uncompromising as always, and ready for the next trial. Incessantly vouching for the right mix of emotions. Forever standing with and for cinema.

Keep taking up challenges Hiten-da. One film at a time. Hat’s off.