The "Prabuddha DasGupta"

The "Prabuddha Das Gupta"

About 14 years ago, I think it was during the initial days we got our cable connection, there was a program in Star TV (as it was called then) on Sunday mornings which was hosted by Sanjana Kapoor (daughter of Late Sashi Kapoor) which was the only lifestyle show at that moment on TV. On one of the episode, I remember, it had featured some of the eminent Fashion photographers who were making news. It included contemporary names like Rafique Sayed, Rakesh Shreshta, Dabboo Ratnani, Gautam Rajadhyaksha and some other. Prabuddha's work was briefly showed. The black and white images clearly stuck to my mind and soul. And the next few days, my tryst with this genius started. 

It was the days when internet was in infancy, not to mention that there were no PC at that time in my home. I was a student in college, so any other interaction with the web was out of question.

There were very few Internet Cafe's nearby and surfing net was really exorbitantly priced (~Rs 50/Hr).

So all I was left to was books. And I did exactly that. 

I started to visit the old magazine shops on the streets and collected the fashion magazines which featured Prabuddha. I still continue the same and if I come across any fashion magazine featuring him, I still buy it. I have created a good collection of them in my home and even with all force from my mom and wife to sale these "Junks" and clear some space in the cupboard, I have not succumbed.

After I started to work after college, I had the luxury to surf web occasionally and I remember I used to search google for PrabuddhaDasGupta.com....but it always returned "Page Not Found"....till recently when he launched his website, my wait for several years ended. And the domain www.prabuddhadasgupta.com opened and today's enthusiasts could access his work by the click of the button.

I know, for most, Prabuddha is synonymous with the work he did on Ladakh. But for me, I was exposed to his work for an AD of Prafull Sarees (which was also shot on Ladakh). These were color shots of Ladakh (as against his B&W book on the place) with a model in the midst of nowhere in Ladakh. I got them in one of the numerous ELLE magazines I possess.

Photographers of Kolkata would agree that we do not get to see great Photographic works exhibited frequently in our galleries often as in Mumbai or Delhi.

Fuji Film, about 8-10 years ago had started an initiative to showcase some of the leading photographers in their "Super Six" campaign. The objective from Fuji was definitely branding, but in the process they would arrange an exhibition in all major cities in India. The list consisted some big names in various genres and Prabuddha was one of them. This gave me chance to watch Prabuddha's work in print at Academy Of Fine Arts, South Gallery, Kolkata. However, these were not B&W images. It featured the VAMA print ADs, the below link have them:

http://www.prabuddhadasgupta.com/comissioned/11.html

Not very long ago,  CHIVAS REGAL arranged similar initiative in CHIVAS STUDIO campaign where Prabuddha's print exhibition travelled to Kolkata. Just looking at an AD on The Telegraph, I went directly to The Oberoi, Kolkata where it was hosted. Not knowing that entry was only by invitation, I had to return disappointed.

Why I am inspired by Prabuddha?

The answer is not very easy for me. I like the tactile quality of his B/W images. When you see them you can feel the texture of the image. I know Prabuddha used to do his own prints and what prints they were.

In this very very cluttered Fashion Photography circuit I think you can easily spot the mark of "The Prabuddha Dasgupta"  in all of his images.

And yes I love his persona...his baritone voice...his intellectual looks (very unlike fashion photographer attitude...)

Yes, I am a great fan of his personal work like many....but I am truely inspired by his commercial works.

I think not only they sale the brands but they are also art photography.

If you know his story, you might know that an accidental incident made him a photographer from a copywriter at Lintas. And what an accident it was....the world could enjoy such commercial photographic art for a brief period of time and then a very unpleasant accident took it all away....

Prabuddha, you will be missed by every one who knew you...you will be missed by many many more who never knew you personally however you remained a silent inspiration....and I will miss you dearly....

And yes....your work will still continue to inspire all of us for generations to come....

North Bengal - Lava, Lolaygaon, Rishop

As a photographer, I have always been inspired by rustic beauty of our mother nature.It has always been my endevour to get to the wilderness and capture the beauty of the nature as it is. Hence on a very hot and humid day in the month of April, we jumped in Darjeeling mail to get to NJP and then to Lolaygoan via Lava.
This part of west bengal is still not that popular among our welknown bengali tourists and hence we could taste the natural beauty with utmost serenity.Talking about serenity, Lolaygaon gave us that with a beautiful charm. We had our stay booked at a wonderful resort name 'Tree Fern'. This is a new resort and has great visuals from all the cottages.

Weather at the mountains are always unpredictable and here we were presented with a follgy weather.And yes, the great Kanchenjunga gave us a miss...
Travelling through the lanes of lovely Lolaygaon gave me some wonderful visuals. In one corner of the street, I saw little kid playing on his own. I could not resist to freeze the frame with my -55mm kit lens.We walked and walked and walked to reach the famous canopy bridge, quite infamous due to 'jok' a kind of parasite which sucks blood silently. The jungle was quite dense and reminded me of some of the wellknown thriller movies of hollywood and even to some extent our bollywood's 'Raaz'. Foggy and dense, and the silence of the forest made this an experience to remember. And I got a great image of the foggy atmosphere and the hanging bridge.

Next day, we travelled to Rishop. Road to Rishop was something which I have never experienced before. There was no way yet we made throgh by a 4x4 Mahindra jeep. The driver told us that the way is just for trekking, it has only made a Jeepable road by force. Only all wheel jeeps can afford to get into such a rough surface.On the way I took several pictures and one with the Jeep wheel made me happy.
Reached Rishop, just to find out that it does worth all the hard work to get here.Such a superp atmosphere out there. Though Kanchenjunga, as we expected remained hidden behind the clouds all through.
We had booked at Lovely Resort and the flowers and plantations just inside the resort made my days. I could get some of my favourite flora images during my stay here. I also got soem macro images.Next day, I woke up quite early and took a walk around Rishop during sun rise. I could not resist taking some images of breathtaking Rishop.
Although I love capturing nature, yet my ultimate hunger is for portraiture. I love taking picture of beautiful people. Here I was accompanied by my family and by brother in law's family. I took some portraits mostly in the beautiful resorts where we stayed.
Please have a look at all my images at my flickr site:www.flickr.com/phots/biswajitkumar

Mondermoni...My Road Diary...
Day 1
Date : 1st August 2009
Time : 3:45 AM
My mobile alarm started ringing ....time to get up and get ready for Mondermoni, a trip we (CG, Kolkata team) planned for a long time.Finally the D-Day arrived...having arranged every thing in advance..yet the anxiety still quite
there....feeling the excitement of organizing such a big event.

Time : 5:45 AM






A political event in town forced us to prepone our journey by half an hour. Scheduled to start at 6:15 AM, got the starting blow as the bus arrived 45 mins late.We finally started at 7:00AM and then as we went we got every one onboarded from various
juncture at the route. Things were really smooth and being Saturday early morning we never faced any traffic snarls.As we moved at brisk pace, we left our city and cruised through the national highways.

Time : 8:00 AM
Breakfast were served which comprised of Kachuris and Sweets. Also fruit juice, Chips etc were also a present....
Saby had compiled a list of songs / videos for the entertainment inside the bus, and he did not disappoint...things were really spirited inside the bus. Joy exhibited his brand of 'spiritual dance'...and lot contributed to the awesome experience on the road.
But soon, we got halted by a road-block on the Kona Expressway (National Highway) by some local people due to some of their local issues. We were stranded for 2 hours and spirited as we were, got down of the bus and started playing football at a ground beside the highway.Finally, as police came and removed the road block....we again started cruising at high speed.As we were coming closer to the destination, we enjoyed a movie inside the bus...time really flew and we reached the destination. Our driver had made the time loss and we reahed almost as we expected. However, since the Beach is situated a bit remote place, we had to onboard Tata
Sumo to reach the Resort.

Time : 1:15 PM



Mondermoni is one of the rare beaches where you can drive over the beach. As we rode over the sands of beach towards the Resort, one of our Tata Sumo got stuck in the sand. People inside that car had to get into another car to get going.

Time : 1:30 PM

Reached Debraj Resort where we had booked and without wasting any time we landed into beach after pushing our luggage in our respective rooms.Mondermoni is a wonderful beach situated at Purba Mednipur (West Bengal) and is known for the
lonely atmosphere.

Time : 2:30 PM
Lunch time and we were served with some delightful Sea food.Had a good time gorging on them.
After taking rest for some time we again had a awesome time with our family and friends on the beach
Time : 7:00 PM






Evening snacks were served along with drinks.We had arranged for this and we had brought our drinks selectively from Kolkata.As Saby arranged for the dance numbers spirited people had a great time.Every one enjoyed and this made the event really memorable one.
As we called off the day after the dinner we all went to the beach on a moonlit evening. The sea lit with the moonlight gave us an surreal feeling. The moment was something which I will cherish all my life. Just during this time I witnessed a Star Trail in a partally cloudy sky.

Day 2
Date : 2nd August 2009
Time : 5:30 AM
I woke up early to catch a sun rise...only to get disappointed with a cloudy sky hiding the drama on the sky.I decided to get back to bed for some more time.

Time : 8:30 AM
After having the breakfast comprising of puri and aloo sabji and sweets, we hit the beach and all got drenched.It was a great time and I captured some of the jovial moments of Team CG in my camera.
Time : 11:30 AM

After having a good time on the sea for 3-4 hours we got ready for our way back.Had a sumptuous lunch comprising of mutton and crab we headed for Kolkata.Way back was made wet by the monsoon rains. However the cool weather really made the journey comfortable.

Time : 6:30 PM
As we passed Kolaghat on the National Highway, we halted at the famous dhaba
Sher-e-Punjab.Samosas and Tea refreshed us as we slowly made to our destinations.
Even when we were getting back, we had a wonderful time inside the bus as we played
Antakshari.Both teams were equally balanced and even after good 2 hours scores were levelled at 0:0.This event not only helped to pass our time, it introduced us to two great talents - Tanushree and Pallabh. Tanushree has a genuine good voice and sings really well.Pallabh, on the other hand has an uncanny talent of making a new melody out of any well known song with sheer confidence. Even Kabi Guru - Rabindra Nath would be proud of his calibre.I personally was really impressed with sandipanDa's renditions of Great KishoreDa's songs.
Time passed by really well and we reached our destination.It was a great experience and a trip I will remember for a long time.
Thanks to every one who made this successful...thanks to AvijitDa without whose support this won't have been possible.

Metro...
After hearing lots of positive feedback from TV, I went to the theatre to watch Life in a Metro...@Jaya, Laketown.

The movie did leave up to its expectation and was a decent timepass.
Afterall the houseful said it all....

Performance was good...but best was the music.
The music was rock based...first time by the successful duo...Preetam and James.
The same duo did magic by bheegi bheegi in Gangster.

Well its just for this you can go and watch this flick....

Anurag Basu did a great job in weaving stories of 6 different people in one story....

Salaam-e-Ishq was also on the same lines, but not to mention it was a failed attempt.

Suvo Nabo Borsho...
It was the starting of a brand new year for the Bengali calendar yesterday
An hectic day for all sweet tooth people all over the city. This is one of the day when almost all bengalis does not seem to get enough of sweets.

The best part of the day was the derby match in the NFL (National Football League) between earst rivals Mohun Bagan and East Bengal....the hyped match was played in front of FIFA president Mr Sepp Blatter who visisted our Football frenzy city for the first time.

Mohun Bagan defeated East Bangal 2:1....and made my day memorable.
MB is not playing well since long...however this win will surely boost thier confidence and satisfy its supportes like us for whom, winning this match is just like winning the cup...every thing else hardly matters.
Hope MB will have a better season this time having started off the year on a winning note.

Silver Screens....
This weekend I was treated with a feast of photographs from one of the finest photographic talent in our country....Fawzan Hussain.
Visited his solo exhibition being held in Seagull Arts and Media Research Centre in South Kolkata.

Fawzan is a renouned photo journalist and in this project he goes behind the scenes of our favourite tinsel town...bollywood.

The shots are taken behind the screens during shootings of various movies in our very own mumbai.
Its truely a fantastic experience and it gives us a view of the immense talent that Fawzan has.

This is the first time I visited Seagull Arts and Media Research Centre. I took great pain in finding the place...but I can say I have found a place to visit often.
This exhibition is brought to us by Tasveer Arts, an art production house delving only in photography.

I missed the Raghu Rai exhibition last year at Bangalore, Tasveer Gallery situated there just beside the Museum near Cubbon Park, which was also promoted by Tasveer Arts.

Any ways looking for more such experience in the coming times...

Namesake....
Well...after few days of settling down in kolkata...I am back to start up my blogging...which for the past few posts have been dwelling on my passions...movies, cricket and photography.

This time its yet again...movie...

Went to see Namesake @ the newly openened Star theatre in the hub of north kolkata, hatibagan,....which as you might know has been revamped to be a movie theatre from the stage theatre, which it was since pre independence.
This was the first time...and I would say the experience has been awesome...it looks and feels much like interiors of "Nandan". Classy yet cheaper than multiplex.

Coming to the movie, Namesake is a great movie to start with. The movie is a journey of a simple bengali man (played by Irrfan Khan) along with his wife....settled in New York.
Namesake wonderfully depicts the difficulties that he faces to grow up his children born and bought up in American culture.
The main protagonist of the movie is the name "Gogol Ganguly" which he gave to his son...being a greatest fan of the eminent authour Nicolai Gogol.

The cast has been awesome with Irrfan leading the team, Tabbu might seem to be a slight misfit as a wife of Irrfan...however the acting that she delivered, I don't know who could have replaced her.
Karl Penn was a revealation...an actor par excellence...and its for him, you can go to watch this movie.

Technically, this is one of the most enriching experience I have ever had in an movie...
Photography has been awesome...mostly used natural light all accross the film, it takes you back to the era of Satyajit Ray's Apu'r Sansar.
Hats off to the lens man....New York has never been captured so detailly by any one in any of the movies I have seen...(there have been quite a few which has been shot there recently).

I loved the scenes from Kolkata as well, set in North Kolkata...I felt like the city just outside the theatre (I was watching it in North Kolkata as well...remember).

Music was good and was aptly mixed with the scenes and environment.

Well well....Mira Nair's Namesake is a must watch for all.....Salaam Mira Nair...I have to say.