A passage to India

Photographer Derry Moore’s continuing engagement with India began in 1976 and developed through a series of visits to the country, notes Giridhar Khasnis.

It is clearly a posed picture. It features an elderly couple in a typical Madras home — with its neatly swept floor, multiple doors and hanging photograph, presumably of a deceased ancestor.

The protagonists are 60-year-old M S Subbulakshmi, the ‘nightingale’ of Carnatic music, and her husband, T S Sadasivan.

In the photograph, M.S, in her silk saree tied in typical madrasi style, has her double bindi decorating the forehead. Flowers are neatly tucked into her tightly combed hair stands. Sparkling ear-studs and nose-ring add lustre to her divine face.

Sadasivan is seated sternly in a large cane chair, holy ash prominently plastered on his forehead. The subservient look and pose of M.S are in stark contrast with the arrogant bearing of Sadasivan (to whom she had, by then, been married for 36 years). Significantly, she is standing; and he, sitting.

The picture was taken in 1976. By then, Subbulakshmi was literally a household name in the country. Her music reverberated on the radio of every South Indian home; her LPs and cassettes sold in thousands. She had won many honours and accolades, including Padma Bhushan (1954), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974) and Padma Vibhushan (1975).

In the coming decades, she was to be honoured, among others, with Kalidas Samman in 1988; Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1990 and, finally, the Bharat Ratna in 1998, she being the first musician ever to be given that honour in the country.

For all her talents and achievements, M.S seemed to relish being a simple South Indian maami all her life. Only when she took the stage and sang those soulful, devotional songs could she miraculously transcend all worldly matters, and transport herself (and her listeners) into a spiritual arena.

It is said that her life was controlled totally by her husband. She could never agree to a music concert without Mama’s permission; the accompanists were handpicked by him; and she could sing only those songs approved by him.

He always sat in the first row of her concerts and even restricted the audience requests before they reached her.

The picture of M.S and Sadasivan was snapped by British photographer Derry Moore (b 1937). If nothing, just for this one picture, one should visit the exhibition of photographs titled ‘Evening Ragas’ by the British lensman, currently on in Bangalore. If the visitor cares to spend a couple of silent moments in front of the photograph, s/he would certainly grasp the many layers of its narrative.

Brandt’s protege

Derry Moore, the 12th Earl of Drogheda, is known for his interiors and portraits of the European aristocracy, including those of Queen Elizabeth II and the late Queen Mother. A protégé of Bill Brandt (1904 – 1983), he is said to have studied painting at Oskar Kokoschka’s School of Seeing in Salzburg, Austria before taking up photography. Brandt’s 1938 book, A Night in London, which Moore discovered when he was in his 20s, reportedly inspired him to take up photography as a career.

Moore has won laurels for extensively photographing the British and European aristocracy, and documenting stately homes and country houses in the West. He has published over 12 books of his photographs, and was the subject of a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2005.

Moore’s continuing engagement with India began in 1976 and thereupon developed through a series of visits to the country. He remembers his very first visit to unoccupied but well maintained palace, Falaknuma in Hyderabad, and says that it changed the way he looked at things.

Moore also recalls that his initial idea had been to photograph some of the places in India whose days, he knew, were numbered; and what fascinated him was not simply the places themselves but also the hybrid quality of many of the lesser buildings that had been constructed since the first arrival of the British in India. He was also taken in by the appearance of their inhabitants who appeared far more interesting than the folkloric looks he expected of them.

“To take most of these photographs today would be impossible, so much of India having changed beyond recognition over the past 22 years,” says Moore in the catalogue for the exhibit, ‘Evening Ragas’.

“This is apparent not only in the buildings which have been largely replaced by tower blocks in a style that it would be charitable to describe as ‘international mediocrity’, but also in the people who are increasingly losing individuality in their looks.” He also bemoans the fact that the way Indians dressed in the past was distinctly Indian, whereas today it is increasingly anonymous and could be from anywhere in the world.

Technical competence

‘Evening Ragas’ presents a series of portraits, landscapes, palace interiors and street pictures — mostly shot in black and white. One can discern a high level of technical competence and facility in the displayed pictures.

The interiors of palaces with antique furniture and curios, as well as landscapes, are well composed and pleasing to the eye, but they can hardly be described as awe-inspiring. Similarly, compared to the photograph of M.S and Sadasivan, Moore’s portraits of Satyajit Ray, Indira Gandhi, Yamini Krishnamurthy and others look predictable and commonplace. Moore’s portrait of Miss Bina Shivadasani (1978) is striking though – thanks to the stark background, and the unusual costume(?) draping the dreary-eyed beauty. A seemingly tired Soumitra Chatterjee sitting in his make-up room also catches the eye.

“If I were asked what I look for when I take a photograph, the answer would be surprise,” says Moore. One wishes that his future exhibitions present many more surprises to the viewer — like the M.S picture.

‘Derry Moore: Evening Ragas’ has been organised by Tasveer and Damiani and forms part of Tasveer’s seventh season of exhibitions, in partnership with Luxure Louis Philippe. The show will be on till November 29 (Sundays closed) at Sua House, 26/1 Kasturba Cross Road, Bangalore (080 40535212).