Minutes after the formal announcement of the Dada Saheb Phalke award winner, veteran cinematographer V. Krishna Murthy is an excited man. “Who won't be?” he shoots back, laughing, even as he tries to roll back the years to 1950s when he was a regular feature of quality cinema. “They normally give this award to heroes or directors. I might be the first technician to get it.” Turns out, he is the second: Nitin Bose got it way back in 1977.
“I feel very nice,” says the veteran, now into his mid 80s. “All credit for my success should go to Guru Dutt who not only gave me a chance to work in his films but also an opportunity to do the work I wanted. He was good at detailing but never interfered with my work though I made sure I incorporated his suggestions. I shared a very good rapport with him, used to eat with him, play with him, but I never interfered with his scenes. I did a number of films with him and everybody talks of the wonderful work of ‘Kagaz Ke Phool' but my personal favourites as a cinematographer are ‘Pyaasa' and ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam'. ‘Kagaz Ke Phool' was the first cinemascope film, so it was better appreciated. But I have done suitable work according to the sequence in ‘Pyaasa'. There were different kinds of scenes — comic, tragic, emotional. According to the poetry of the scene I created my own poetry in black and white. In songs in particular, I tried to retain the effect of the lyrics. I made sure that the camera never overwhelmed the viewer.” Well, he instead let the camera speak silently. Remember those shots in “Waqt ne kiya kay haseein sitam” in “Pyaasa” or Waheeda Rehman's beautiful visage in the title song of “Chaudhvin ka Chand”? “There was a lot of thought involved in filming the ‘Pyaasa' song. We shot it during the day.”
Murthy knows only limited Hindi but it is with joy he relates the feelings of Kamal Amrohi with whom he worked for good portions of both “Pakeezah” and “Raziya Sultan”.
“When I reached the sets of ‘Pakeezah' Kamal Sahab said, “Murthy sahib aa gaye ab humein fikr ki koi zaroorat nahin.” Indeed, it turned out that way as Murthy left his stamp on the film. “I did the film some 40 years ago and I do not recall the niceties but I remember the work I put in for the song, ‘Chalo dildar chalo'. It was fun to work with him as well as Meena Kumari. With my limited Hindi I tried to match my work with the lyrics of the song. I have always worked according to the facilities available. Both in ‘Pakeezah' and ‘Raziya Sultan', Kamal Amrohi understood what I had in my mind and gave me the freedom to do it my way.”
Though Murthy has all along been associated with directors with finer sensibilities, it has not prevented him from going the out and out commercial way either. “I cater according to the customer,” he says, giggling. On a more serious note, he adds, “Not every director understands the detailing of the medium, so as a cinematographer I always try to find a little bit more. Before doing a scene I want to know the sequence before and after it. Only that gives satisfactory results.”
But was Pramod Chakravarty, known for films like “Jugnu” and “Sitamgar”, as receptive to his ideas?
“He never said what kind of photography he wanted. He was not in the Guru Dutt kind of mould. He just gave me a one-line note that he wanted people to enjoy the film. He did not need very serious art in his film.” So Murthy dumbed down a bit. “I cannot say that,” he defends, then adds, “as a cinematographer your work depends a lot on the director, the sequence, the sets, the treatment. There are so many variables.”
Amidst all the variables that have been a part of his career, there are some constants too. “I have been lucky with recognition. I am happy to get this kind of award at this time in my career. People have not forgotten me.” He got the IIFA Lifetime Achievement award too some time back. “Yes, but who won't cherish a National Award over all awards? But what I prize the most is my association with some of the great men of this industry.” Well, we could just add his name to the list.
