If one were to go by the conduct of moviegoers, the title sequence would perhaps be the most incidental part of the cinema experience. It is what allows them the luxury of arriving late, or of stealing a few moments before surrendering to the action of the film; the stand-at-ease before the attention, if you will.
But to anyone who looks closely, the title sequence is an art in itself. It covers a range of creative aspects – music, typography, photography – “which come together to lead us into the dreamscapes of the cinema experience”.
Puneet Rakheja remembers looking forward to these sequences as keenly as the rest of the film. It is what he credits with turning him into a motion graphic designer, and now, a filmmaker. Titled “Taking Credit: The Fabulous Art of Indian Film Titles”, the documentary, which is currently in its initial stages, seeks to excavate the history and beauty of this craft as practised in Hindi and regional film industries. As an extension of the film he has also, in collaboration with film and typography enthusiasts, started a website to archive film titles and interview the filmmakers and designers who created them (http://indianfilmtitles.wordpress.com/).
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While Rakheja was familiar with the work of the masters of American and European title design, such as Saul Bass and Pablo Ferro, the fact that this aspect of Indian cinema remains understudied compelled him to start this project. “I am of the opinion that to encourage attention to detail in Indian films, we need to nurture a culture of learning and appreciation,” he says.
Talking about the range of uses the title sequence can be put to, he says, “It could be exposition – give you necessary information for the plot, it could be narrative – a short film in itself, a sequence used to put you in a certain mood, or it could simply be stylistic, a celebration of the movie experience.”
Some of Rakheja's favourites are the title sequence of “Do Aankhen Barah Haath”, with its iconic hand print, and “Jawaani ka Khoon”, “an otherwise unremarkable film with surreal hand painted title plates that are just fabulous artwork”.
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“I can’t resist mentioning V. Shantaram’s introduction to ‘Navrang’ where he himself walks onto the stage and literally announces the film, making his director’s statement. Makes the film so much more personal than a lot of factory made products we see lately,” he adds.
Title sequences are also a site where we get to witness the hierarchies of talent, and how they vary from director to director, era to era. So while “Devdas” in 1936 placed the name of film technicians before the names of the stars, in “Sivaji”, there is no reference to any technician, just Rajinikanth. “Talent can often work on a film just for the ‘credit’…For example, some films have titles like ‘Thrills by’, ‘And Above all’, ‘Dynamic appearance by’, ‘a friendly appearance by’,” Rakheja observes.
“Sadly,” he adds, “more than often proper credits are not given to the title designers themselves”. One of the aims of the film, therefore, is also to “uncover the masters of Indian title design”. The quest has led to Ram Mohan, founder of Ram Mohan Biographics, who started his work at Films Division and worked on the title sequences of “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” and “The Burning Train” among others. He was recently awarded the Padma Shri.
It is an ongoing quest, and a difficult one, but Rakheja is hopeful more title designers will reach out.