Tom Cowan, the cinematographer of the 1970 classic Samskara, visited Bangalore in 2011 to collaborate with Konarak Reddy and Kirtana Kumar (the son and daughter-in-law of Pattabhirami Reddy) on a film project called Bangalore Love Story. Cowan had shared how it was artist S G Vasudev (also the art director of Samskara) who had told him during a visit to the Cholamandala artist’s village that Pattabhi, the director, was looking for a cinematographer. As the work began, Cowan also met UR Ananthamurthy who had written the powerful story. Pattabhi passed away in 2006 and this year, we lost UR Ananthamurthy.
The charming old cottage off Church Street where Pattabhi lived and where socialist, Marxist meetings were held, luminaries like Ram Manohar Lohia, George Fernandes, U R Ananthmurthy, Girish Karnad, Gauri Lankesh and even Roman Polanski spent time, has now been vacated by Kirtana and Konarak and they live in a farmhouse far from the city.
But URA’s death has rekindled nostalgia and memories, and Konarak, an accomplished musician, now looks back in wonder, gratitude and a sense of loss.
He says, “My first memory of Ananth (URA), is of this dignified man with great compassion, understanding and insight, entering our house and delighting us with his conversations, arguments and his questioning of the status quo.”
He even recalls the moment when Samskara was born and says, “My parents, Pattabhi and Sneha heard the story of Samskara as related by the late Sri Gopal Gowda (also with the Socialist Party) to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. This amazing story was ofcourse written by a young writer – UR Ananthmurthy! When Pattabhi heard it, he immediately wanted to make it into a film. The only thing he wanted to change from the book was the ending. In the book, Chandri gets some lower caste people to cremate Naranappa’s body. But for the film to have a dramatic effect, my father wanted Praneshacharya to cremate the body.”
The bond forged over a timeless classic also became lifelong as URA and Pattabhi’s family grew close.
Recalls Konarak, “Ananth and Esther (URA’s wife) always treated my sister Nandana and me with the greatest affection. Interestingly he had written Samskara in London in just over four days, after watching Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.The film had inspired him greatly and he was challenged by his teacher, Malcolm Bradbury (to write a compelling narrative). He had told Bradbury that in India, the medieval coexists with the modern. Samskara was all this and more. Watching the film was a spiritual experience. You felt as if you had grown as a person and you left the theatre full of integrity and hope.”
Was he in touch with URA after Pattabhi passed away? Says Konarak, “Off and on…luckily we were both presiding at Expermenta (an independent festival celebrating moving image art) so I got to talk with him. We made plans to go for dinner and promised to meet soon but…it never happened.”
He reacts to the negativity surrounding URA in his last years with, “This was mere noise and Ananth stands for something far larger. We live in times where people are petty minded and have no vision of anything greater than themselves. Art today is a commodity and people think it is disposable. With his passing, a time of maturity and humour has come to an end. The time when one could look at oneself, laugh and critique oneself or others and learn from one’s mistakes is slowly fading…it will soon be forgotten.”
with The New Indian Express Reema Moudgil works for The New Indian Express, Bangalore, is the author of Perfect Eight, the editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul-Indian Women, an artist, a former RJ and a mother. She dreams of a cottage of her own that opens to a garden and where she can write more books, paint, listen to music and just be.