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| Ishan Arya and his films |
When I saw the movie
Mutyala Muggu on TV, I liked the camerawork a lot - even as a kid. Every scene looked poetic and breath-taking. When I watched the film a few years after that, I noticed the name "Ishan Arya" and tried to see what other films he worked for. Apparently, he only worked for
Gorantha Deepam after that, and left me wondering as to why he had not worked for more films. ...I wanted to watch the film
Sneham in order to write an article on it, but I had much trouble finding a print. Finally, with the help of Sree Shankar (father of actor Baladitya, and an actor himself), I could get a very bad print. And, I noticed the name "Ishan Arya" again on the screen - for his earliest Telugu film so far! I then got in touch with Bapu
gaaru, who directed me to Baba Azmi, and from there to his younger brother Noumi, and finally I was introduced to Ishan's wife, Sulabh Arya.
Noumi on Ishan Arya:
Ishan Arya, who was born in Nagpur on October 14, 1942, was originally named Irshad Ahsan but he was fondly called "Ishan" in his home and he thus chose that as his screen name later. Irshad's father was a classmate of Seshdhar Mukharjee ("S. Mukherjee"), a top film producer and director of the time, at Aligarh University. When S. Mukherjee later produced
Leader (1964) with Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala, he came to Hyderabad and stayed at Ishan's place. Ishan was also, by then, studying at Aligarh University and was visiting his parents for holidays. Since he was only an average student at studies, Ishan's father asked his friend to take his son to Bombay along with him. However, Mukherjee said that he could not do so as he was already promoting his own son, Joy Mukherjee, who gave super hits like
Love in Simla,
Phil Wahi Dil Laayaa Hoon,
Zidd and so on. Upon further pursuation, he did take Ishan along and joined him at his studio, Filmistan. There, Ishan worked under Jal Mistry, a great cameraman at that time who worked for the 1949 classic
Barsaat,
Udaan Katola,
Naseeb and so on. Ishan soon worked independently for a few documentary films and ads such as one for Coca Cola, and so on. He was interested in theater and was a part of Indian People and Theater Assocation (IPTA). He met M.S. Satyu there, and the association led to working together for some documentary films and a film titled
Garam Hawaa which created a sensation!
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| Ishan Arya, his father and Noumi |
...Ishan was the one who introduced the concept of "bounce lighting" with the film
Mutyala Muggu while shooting in Hyderabad in January, 1975. When shooting a closeup of Sangeetha's face, with Sridhar in "suggestion", Ishan noticed that Sangeeta's face registered more glow when Sridhar was in the frame. When he realized that Sridhar's white shirt was reflecting light, we sat together and discussed this and Ishan suggested that white satin cloth would reflect more light, uniformly too. Thus, we stitched together one-meter wide pieces of satin clothes (since there were no cloth that was wider) and used it on 6'x4' reflectors. That's how the use of white cloth for smoother bounce lighting was born. The cloth is called "skimmer" in India while the West simply calls it "silks" and 12'x12' cloth is routinely used today in filming. Ishan even extended the technique by covering the artistes' overhead area for even smoother reflected light, and also started using it to cover sunlight in shots taken in the exterior regions of an indoor shooting spot, so that there's natural, uniform lighting in outdoor and indoor sequences. ...While shooting for
Sneham too, Ishan came up with an innovative way of shooting at night when a very "slow" negative of Orwo was used. (The "speed" of a negative is measured in terms of "ISO", which was called "ASA" back then.) ...Another notable experience in Telugu for Ishan is to have worked with NTR (under the director of C.S. Rao).
Ishan Arya's wife Sulabh Arya speaks about him:
I first met Ishan in one of the meetings of the IPTA. I was studying at Jaipur and my family lived in Bombay. I was 16 and Ishan was 21 then. He used to meet often with the group along with M.S. Satyu and others. Ishan had not yet settled in his life then, and I had to complete my studies, but Ishan wanted to get married soon. We come from different religions and thus we were not even sure if our parents would consent. Thus,
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| Sulabh Arya with grandson |
our options were to get married according to Hindu tradition - at an Arya Samaj - or according to the Islamic tradition (nikhaah) - we had to apply for a registered marriage one month in advance, and we didn't have that time. I was ready to convert to Islam for Ishan, but he felt that my parents would never forgive us if he allowed that to happen. Thus, we got married at Arya Samaj. For this, he needed a Hindu name and thus became "Ishan Arya" from the day of our marriage - December 02, 1967. He immediately left to Bombay after marriage and I went back to Jaipur for my studies. When I went to meet his parents during the Christmas holidays that year, I was welcomed warmly, as they were all well-educated and openminded. To my pleasant surprise, even my parents got adjusted immediately. ...It was only with the encouragement of Ishan that I continued my work on the dais, on TV, and in movies too!
Cameraman Baba Azmi on Ishan Arya:
Ishan was my first cousin. I worked with him for all the three Telugu films that he worked as a cameraman. He was a soft-spoken guy who never complained for anything and shot whatever scene the director told him to, even if the director wanted him to use very low intensity light that made it nearly impossible to shoot! Carefully observing artistes' reaction to the lighting, he used to make the scene with soft lights so that the artist could appear comfortable on the screen. Even for scenes where others might want to use flood lights, Ishan used only soft light and natural light in combination with white or satin cloth to get the correct lighting. ...He always encouraged all his assistants and felt very happy when an assistant turned an independent cameraman. Such attitude is really rare in the film world!
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| Sameer Arya, Tabu, Sagar Arya |
Ishan Arya's Filmography:
Scorching Winds (1973)
Manchiki Maaruperu (1974, Dir: C.S. Rao, Cast: N.T. Ramarao)
Muthyala Muggu (1975, Dir: Bapu, Cast: Sridhar, Sangeetha)
Kakan Kote (Kannada, 1975, Dir: C.R. Simha, Cast: Lokesh, Srinath, Girija, Lavanya)
Khoon Pasina (Hindi, 1977)
Sneham (1977, Dir: Bapu, Cast: Saikumar, Shankar, Raj Krishna - Rajendra Prasad's debut film)
Kanneswara Rama (Kannada, 1977, Dir: M.S. Satyu, Cast: Ananth Nag, Shabana Azmi)
Gorantha Deepam (1978, Dir: Bapu, Cast: Sridhar, Vanisree)
Punniya Bhoomi (Tamil, 1978, remake of the Hindi classic
Mother India, Cast: Sivaji Ganesan, Vanisree)
Bazaar (Hindi, 1982, Dir: Sagar Shiridi, Cast: Farooq, Supriya Pathak)
Shaapit (Marathi, 1982, Dir: Raj Dutt)
Mumbaicha Faujdaar (Marathi, 1985, Dir: Raj Dutt)
Aaj Jhale Mukt Mi (Marathi, 1986)
Kahaan Kahaan Se Gujar Gaye (Hindi, 1986, Dir: M.S. Satyu, Cast: Anil Kapoor, Sharon Prabhakar, Pankaj Kapoor)
Popular Awards:
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Best Cameraman for
Mutyala Muggu, received from the President of India
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Best Cinematographer for the years 1982 and 1986, received from the Government of Maharashtra
Ishan and Sulabh had two kids: Sameer Arya and Sagar Arya. Sameer works as a cameraman and he worked for various films including
Koyi Mil Gayaa, while Sagar is setteld in London. Ishan passed away on September 20, 1990, after surviving a cancer for two years.
Photo Courtesy: Sree
Noumi
Acknowledgements: Sree Bapu,
Noumi, Sulabh Arya, and Baba Azmi
