The lens comes to light
DEEPA GANESH
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Uma Rao, who started out as an ad copywriter and freelance journalist, is now an established writer with seven books to her credit. The latest is a biography of the acclaimed cinematographer V.K. Murthy
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PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY
NO LABELS Uma Rao is refreshingly different from other writers of her times.
Large cities don't just give one a sense of anonymity, but also a tremendous sense of space to be one's own. More so if it is away from one's hometown. Uma Rao, born and brought up in Tumkur, moved to Bombay after marriage in the late Sixties. It was here that she explored herself as a writer. In the early years of the '70s, around the time Uma began to write, Kannada literature saw the coming of writers such as Veena Shanteshwara (her pioneering work Gandasaru), majorly influenced by Western feminist movements. It was in these years that Kannada, in a big way, saw the coming of the new genre: feminist literature (could be true of other regional literatures too). Most women writing in this period, as one can see, did feel the pressure of writing in this mould. However, on reading Uma Rao, you realise that being away from a literary context did have its advantages. Her writing is easy, lucid and comes with no baggage. "Then it never felt that way. But in retrospect, I think it was good to be away in Bombay," admits Uma Rao, who has now come up with Bisilu Kolu, a biography of cinematographer V.K. Murthy, her seventh book. This is a new form for Uma who has refused to be slotted and tried her hand at several forms.
Initiation
The iconic still from Pyaasa.
Uma's father was a great collector of books. As a young girl, she was introduced to some of the biggest names in English literature and was hooked to the reading habit. Not surprisingly, she wanted to become a writer but the idea was intimidating because she had no clue how to go about it. Academically also she felt handicapped: she studied science and later went on to do law.
"I was married at 19 and left for Bombay. I read what I liked and wrote what I felt. It was in Bombay that I finally mustered courage to send my story to the Kannada magazine Sudha." What followed was a lot of appreciation and her apprehensions were allayed. She took up assignments for Femina, Eve's Weekly, apart from writing for Sudha and Mayura regularly.
To hone her writing skills, Uma even went on to do a short-term course in creative writing, for which Germaine Greer had come down to Bombay. She concedes that like for many others, this phenomenal, feminist writer was a great influence on her too. However, it didn't compel her to write in the feminist mould.
It was in the early '90s when P. Lankesh, after reading one of her stories, insisted that she write for his weekly Lankesh Patrike. "I was quite excited by the idea, but with my job as an ad copywriter, I wasn't sure if I could meet deadlines. Moreover, I wasn't sure what to write."
Bombay Diary
It was at Lankesh's behest that she began writing the column Bombay Dairy and she soon became a household name. For its readers, the column not only opened up a different world, but was also very refreshing, minus biases and pretensions. One on homosexuals, for instance, was quite radical for its times. "The column gave me enormous freedom to explore many subjects, helped me acquire new perspectives," says Uma. Uma met the subject of her biography, V.K. Murthy, as an active member of the Mysore Association in Bombay. He ranked among the country's finest cinematographers, having worked behind the camera for such fabulous films as Pyaasa, Saahib Bibi aur Gulam and Kagaz Ke Phool, all directed by Guru Dutt. Murthy became her good friend and they worked together in the association.
"When you are very close to a person, you don't realise his worth. That's what happened in my case too. When I realised my folly I did write about him in several magazines. But it was only recently, after I moved to Bangalore, that I realised it was important to do his biography."
The cover page of Bisilu Kolu, her biography of ace cinematographer V.K. Murthy
"If you want to make me great, then go ahead, " the modest, 82-year-old told her.
The work took almost two years. Since they were friends, the normally reticent, camera-shy (!) Murthy found it easier to open up. "Of course, I used to probe and in the process stumbled upon several limericks that he had written and also some unusual pictures."
But for a creative writer, can the process of writing a biography be a dull exercise? "Not really. I was excited by the form. And the man himself is so full of interesting experiences.He's such a saintly, non-judgmental and open-minded person. That's what makes him so outstanding."
(Bisilu Kolu will be released on January 1, 2006, at the J.S.S. Auditorium, Jayanagar, Bangalore, 10.30 a.m.)
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