Culture of the Street
Culture of the Street Text: Khalid Mohammad – Interview of M. F. Husain Twenty five year after the photographs were shot, they still remain way ahead of their time, a vision of the street culture of the 1980s, which in the next millennium seems wondrous, humorous and with a spontaneous, even crazed aesthetic of its own The style of M.F.Husain’s photography arises not out of any pre-meditated study or connived purpose, but from the colours and the gigantism of the hoardings of Madras (now Chennai). One can almost see the artist, standing across the from the hoardings, and capturing the imagery in a way that is distinctly his own – candid and the documentary-like and yet fantasticated as if existing and on other realm. These photographs, some of which I first saw at the Husain’s Cinemaghar in Hyderabad, set off a welter of feelings and responses, depending on the viewer’s own sense of aesthetic. The photo celebrate kitsch, they record the melodrama of movie epics and comment on the ongoing relationship between the movie stars of southern India – Sivaji Ganesh, Rajnikant, notably – and the worshipful spectator. While looking at the photographs, one after the other, it becomes more and more apparent they could be the work of no one else but M. F. Husain… which prompts my first and obvious question: When were first attracted to the still camera? Right from my schooldays, I dreamt becoming famous, of becoming Maqbool the photographer and Painter. I must have been 11 or 12 when my father bought me an Agfa box camera which must have cost about Rs. 5 those days. I saw how photographs were processed in a photo studio in Indore, put up a black cloth over the bathroom window, bought a red light and developed the photos myself. Once during the Ramzan Id prayers, I climbed onto a tree and shot a picture of men in sijda. When my father saw the picture, he was upset, and yelled, What were you doing talking pictures when you should have been doing your Id ki namaaz?’’ Was there anyone who taught you the basics of Photography? In Indore, a Mr. Ram Chandran from Kerala, was the official photographer of royal Holkar family. He had a huge studio, with a collection of original Ravi Varma paintings. I would watch him for hours, taking portraits, so in a way I did my apprenticeship with Ram Chandran. Then with my friend, Yavar Hussain who’d come to Indore from Lucknow, I would spend hours at the library of the Christian college. We’d look at the books of nude Paintings from the Renaissance era… the women would look so voluptuous, with heavy buttocks.. we would be quite amazed by those women, there would be some postcard-sized tinted photographs of white women also, which seemed to have been inspired by the Renaissance paintings. (Laughs) I guess that was my introduction to nude photography. Sometimes I would emerge nude from the lake in Indore, and ask a friend of mine, Subhash, to take my picture, I wanted to determined what I look like naked, I was often told I has a chikna ladka, with a strong forehead, long hair, some would even say I look like a girl. (Laughs) So my first nude model was myself. Subhash and I would laugh at the results in the photographs, they did look very funny. Did you continue with photography after becoming a painter of cinema hoardings in Bombay? Initially, I didn’t know what to do in Bombay. I borrowed Rs.350 from Halimbhai of Badr Bagh. I’d take photographs on the streets by rigging up a cloth backdrop which I had painted. I made one Sharma, who had come from Gwalior to make a living in Bombay, my partner. We made a little money by taking photographs, but suddenly Sharma disappeared with the camera and our meager savings. It took me one and a half years to clear my debt with Halimbhai. When I returned the Rs. 350 to him, he said that I was the first person who had ever returned a loan him. The first portrait I shot with a camera was that of my father in 1927, and last one I shot was that of Madhuri Dixit in Paris. Why did you take so long to ‘resurrect’ these photographs? They were at my Hyderabad Museum. As the years have gone by, I noticed that they haven’t dated. For instance, the same film fan worship continues in Chennai, with an intensity that doesn’t exist in any other part of world. Women queue up with their children outside cinema halls which is about to release a new Rajnikant film, the actors are worshipped like gods, the way M.G. Ramachandran was. And the photos bring that out without any extra efforts on my part. I felt that some of the photos could work better with the collage effect, the entire perspective changes with an interpolation, a nose or a lip cut from the copy of same photograph. Today, I feel it is possible to do so much more with photography especially. I’ve myself a new camera Leica digital. Is there any photographer you admire? Henri Cartier-Bresson without a doubt. He caught those special candid moments which no one else has been to do with such mastery. I met him, he was a simple and very humble man. (laughs) Like me. Is there anything truly challenging you would like to do in the realm of photography? I would like to shoot my own film, because then the result would be my total vision. I used to handle the film camera before…with my documentaries. But when I say I’d like to handle the film camera again for a feature film, people look bewildered. Santosh Sivan is the best cinematographer I have worked with, he listens, he can understand what is in my mind and heart. Finally, is there any theme you would like to approach photographically? Perhaps the ‘’little people’’ Bollywood would be exciting to document - the people who work behind the scenes juxtaposed with images of the big star. It would be an interesting contrast. So what’s stopping you? Nothing, I may just take my still camera to the studio one fine day and start clicking.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
