Subtle is beautiful

VISUAL MAGIC

Ravi K Chandran has done cinematography for films like Dil Chahta Hai, Virasat, Black, Fanaa, Ghajini  and My Name is Khan (which won him a place at this year’s Plus Camerimage), besides whole lot of Tamil films like Kannathil Muthamittal.

Love for the camera

The ace cinematographer has worked with big names in the Indian film industry including Mani Ratnam, Karan Johar, Rakesh Roshan, Aditya Chopra, Faran Akhtar, Shankar, Priyadarshan, A R Murugadoss, Rajiv Menon, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The wonderful thing is that despite his huge success, he is still a humble human being.

Being selected at Plus Camerimage is an honour by itself, considering that its nominees are many a time recognised by international awards like the Oscars for instance. Ravi K Chandran says, “I always wanted to make it to Plus Camerimage. As a student of cinematography, there is so much I can learn there by seeing work done by worlds’ best cinematographers.”

Chandran is now working on AR Murugadoss’s 7 Am Arivu and Karan Johar’s Agnipath starring Hrithik Roshan. He has, by now, become quite comfortable in Bollywood.

“Language is no problem. I get a complete translated script and in Bollywood, everybody speaks in English on the sets.” His cinematography has consistently been aesthetic and superlative.

When you quiz him on what's the secret to his success, he says, “To begin with, I go through a lot of reference points — photographs, documentaries, books, etc. In fact, my whole team works on it. We keep chewing on the idea and then visualise the colour tone and the look of the film. I arrive at a colour tone derived from the essence of the film.”

For example, in My Name Is Khan, the colour tone was based on the American flag — white, blue and red. In Black, it was gray, maroon while it   for the hospital scenes, it was black and white. It is crucial that the colour tone is maintained throughout the film, he adds. But then, it is all about team work. “Without a good art director and a good costume designer, no cinematographer, even an Oscar-winner, can create magic with the camera,” he avers. 

Concealed cinematography is what he aims for. He believes that ultimately, the cinematography should be about telling the story, not about showing off. “If every shot is spectacular, it will be an overdose for the audience, which will eventually prove to be distasteful. Besides, subtle cinematography works and not gimmicks,” he points out. 

“In the early stages of their careers, cinematographer tend to show off with gimmicks, special angles, etc. They are effectively saying — ‘Look at me. See my work’. But if you observe any of the great films ever made in Indian cinema, you’ll notice that the camera work is not obvious. And, it shouldn’t be. Take PC Sriram’s work in Paa, for instance. The cinematography does not stand out, it blends in, which proves that it is a fantastic piece of work”.

Ravi K Chandran gives a few suggestions to budding cinematographer and says that they need to try and enjoy this art. “Sometimes you get good shots, sometimes you don’t and you might end up getting disappointed and de-motivated. Therefore, take a variety of shots so that at least one of them is satisfactory. Also, you need not keep changing lenses all the time.”

 Chandran is a cinematographer who also likes to have the film’s script with him beforehand so that he can reflect on it and plan his work accordingly. He is also inspired by the way Hollywood works.

“In Hollywood, the cinematographer doesn’t even handle the camera. How can he, as there would be over five cameras shooting each scene in a film. That is why, I think, they are able to churn out films that are so polished, eventhough they use the same equipment like us,” adds Chandran.

Bleached screens

Besides cinematography, Chandran  also likes to paint and do still photography as and when he finds the time for it. Life for him has now become a whirlwind tour, carrying him around the world. “In fact, if I stay at home for a few days at a stretch, my kids start asking me why I am not going out of town,” he jokes.
As a cinema fan and professional, Chandran is aghast at the low quality of projection screens in cinema halls across the country. He is saddened when he sees that within the same theatre complex, the same film looks different in different halls — it is either bleached, faded out, has a blue tone or black tone to it. There is no standard maintained because most theatres use substandard projectors and audio fittings.

“Therefore the optimum output of our work is many a time never experienced by most viewers,” he adds. He signs off, “DVDs have a better picture quality than in most theatres. Once I took AR Murugadoss to a TV showroom and he was in tears while watching a clipping of his own film on the TV. He asked me, ‘Did we do such great work?’ He said this because he had seen the film only on a theatre’s projection screen.”