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place had this sort of brooding
aura about it,” says Palit. Chanda
built the church exterior and
interior. “Situated in Coorg on a
coffee plantation, a Manderley
(Rebecca) sort of place, we shot
there for 60 days at a stretch
without any outside disturbance,”
shares Palit.
Actually with this sort of a film it
is impossible to cover the entire
gamut of shots that were created,
but one can just try to recapture the
most interesting bits of the film as
it unfolds before one’s eyes. The
most important characteristic
of Palit’s camera is that a large
part of it is shot hand-held. “After making over
100 documentaries, I cannot remember when
I last used a tripod. To me the camera is an
extension of my body. As I said earlier, fiction
is now borrowing from documentary. Cameramovement
now has become very fluid, it helps
the director and actors. The whole rhythm of a
film gets broken if you use too many separate
shots. Small subtle movements are much nicer,”
says Palit.
As a matter of fact the total characteristics of
lighting become different as one moves from
location to location, from the perspective shots of
a Kashmir garden to the open sea at Pondicherry.
One really has to see the film to realise the full
potential of Palit’s camera-work. “One has to
limit paraphernalia when Actors are seriously
Ranjan Palit on why Kodak
makes a difference?
For the entire film I used Kodak Vision 3, 250D for
daylight exterior shootings and 500T for night
exterior without any correction filter. I don’t use
an 85 filter as the camera becomes heavy with its
accompanying matte-box. Only Kodak stock can
handle such situations, as I feel it has great colour
latitude. Minute corrections if required can be
handled in the lab. No other stock I believe, can
give me this kind of colour latitude.
Kodak Vision 3, 500T is one of the best that I have
ever used. Even when underexposed by half or even
a full stop, no grain is visible at all. Prior to this we
had grains if we pushed. I used Vision 3, 500T
for the sky at the end of the film, where night turns
to twilight.
In the machan jungle scene where she takes the
Russian towards the well at night, or where they
kill Irrfan, on a moonlight night, on snow, I have
underexposed highlights by two stops, shadows by
five stops, and Kodak Vision 3, 500T gave me detail,
in the shadows.
acting – it interferes with their
work. They are free to move as they
like, the same goes for the director.
He can go anywhere… the camera
is like a character, interacting with
the Actors! My camera is reacting to
the movement spontaneously – that
is an outcome of my documentary
background,” adds Palit.
‘‘Being a filmmaker has certainly
helped – it should be the director’s
vision. I don’t want the camera
to come in the way,” says Palit.
“Bharadwaj and I have a beautiful
chemistry. He is the nicest filmmaker
I have ever worked with, and this
was the best shoot of my life.”
I