Ami paddyafatle lok, hanv ani kide ulaitalo. (‘We are people behind the scenes, what else can I say?’). With these humble words said in all simplicity, veteran cinematographer Suryakant Lawande won the hearts of all those present at the 9th Goa State Film Festival as he rightfully received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite his aging years, Lawande travelled all the way from Mumbai to the land of his birth to receive his award, accompanied by his life long support, his wife, and their son Samir Lawande.
Suryakant Lawande may not be a frequently searched name on any of the search engines on the internet. There aren’t any fancy profile pictures or Facebook pages in his name. But although he has been mainly behind the scenes, his work has been lauded by some of the finest and senior most stalwarts of the film industry.
The cinematographer’s journey started way back in 1942 when he moved to Mumbai to follow his passion for cinema and cinematography. His brother in law D N Pai who was the then Editor of Pakizaa introduced him to the famous cinematographer during the times Prakash Kohli and slowly things begin to shape up. Lawande started his career at the Filmistan studio in Goregaon and was fortunate to work under stalwarts like the Mistry brothers, Jaal and Fali who were associated with the films of Raj Kapoor, Chetan Anand, Dev Anand, Manmohan Desai and the likes.
He got his first breakthrough as a cinematographer in the film Yuge Yuge Mi Vaat Pahili (1965) where eminent artists like Jayashree Gadkar and Chandrakant Mandare were playing the lead roles. There was no looking back after that. He worked with Jabbar Patel on the highly acclaimed Marathi film Samna (1974) which was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and then teamed up again to deliver yet another landmark film, Sinhasan (1979) written by Vijay Tendulkar. He also worked with other popular directors as well including Sachin Pilgaonkar and Mahesh Kothare and some of films include Sasurvashin (1978), Gupchup Gupchup (1983), Navri Mile Navryala (1984), Dhoomdhadaka (1985), Gammat Jammat (1987) and Kunku (1994).
Over the years he has received awards and accolades like the Sanskruti Kala Darpan Lifetime Achievement Award and the prestigious V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Maharashtra state government in 2015.
“A tragic moment in my life was when we were shooting a film Mehman by Ramanand Sagar and Prakash Kohli was the cinematographer. We were also a part of the team. Prakash had to leave midway to attend a function but on his return trip he was murdered. The incident shattered all of us and everything came to a stand still. However, we managed to bring the situation under control,” narrates Lawande.
Lawande who has worked with the heavy Mitchell cameras which contained 8 thousand films finds the work by the younger generation more simplified due to the use of latest technology and digitization.
“Earlier for dual roles, we used to carry out techniques like masking where in one half of the character was covered. After shooting one part of the scene with one side, the same scene was shot again flipping the cover on the other side till we got the perfect shot. Your creativity was reflected in your work. With digitization, things have become simpler. There were long recording hours carrying heavy cameras. For an outstation scene we had to carry all the equipment along starting from the generator for adequate power supply,” says Lawande who feels that with films now available to watch on TV and mobile, films have somewhat lost its real charm. “The best effect of the 60mm reel in movies like Sholay etc can be best felt only in theatres on the bigger screen,” quips Lawande who doesn’t enjoy watching movies anymore as he cannot travel much or sit through a three hour movie in theatres. And watching them on TV is pointless, he feels.
An ardent foodie, Lawande’s love for fish has not diminished as he makes it clear that fish has to be a part of the meal on all days except the three vegetarian days in a week they follow in the house.
“Coming back to Goa, reminds me of the yester-years where things were so different. Today I can see a lot of things changing like the upcoming third Mandovi bridge, the broad highways etc. Goa is progressing and I am happy to see that,” he states.
