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Meticulous lensman Putting things in perspective

Some of the films where his camera did the talking are national award-winning movie “Thenmavin Kombathu” (Malayalam), “Kadhal Desam” (Tamil), ‘Josh’, ‘Khakhee’, ‘The legend of Bhagat Singh’ (Hindi) and ‘Mudhalvan’ (Tamil) dubbed into Telugu and remade in Hindi.

About his negative mindset, he says: “Don’t project me as a gloom merchant. Of course, I have apprehensions about my own work. Can you believe director Shankar too approaches things with the same mindset? On the sets of ‘Sivaji’, we never had peaceful sleep. For, both of us would be preoccupied with the outcome of the shots. In fact, such a feeling invigorates me and propels me to put in that extra effort. Ultimately, it works in my favour.”

“Right from childhood I was interested in photography and in mountaineering. During several trekking expeditions I wished I could capture the beauty of Nature and that’s how I developed an interest in landscape photography,” he reminisces.

But his career received a jolt when a popular magazine turned down his application for the job of a photojournalist. Not being able to make it to full time journalism irked him, but it proved to be tinsel world’s gain.

His acquaintance with ace cinematographer P. C. Sriram ended in his appointment as apprentice. The experience of working under Sriram in movies such as “Gopura Vasalile”, “Amaran”, “Meera”, “Devar Magan” and “Thiruda Thiruda” helped him learn the art of filmmaking.

Anand got a major breakthrough when Sriram recommended his name to Priyadarshan when the director was on the look-out for a cinematographer for his Malayalam movie. From there started his film journey. “‘Thenmavin Kombathu’ gave me enough freedom to try out all that I had visualised from my childhood days. If you see the movie you can feel the landscape effects. The theme and tone of the cinematography won critical acclaim from all quarters. I was happy that my efforts were recognised as the film received a national award,” he says.

His subsequent movies also brought him laurels. “Kadal Desam”, “Josh” and “Mudalvan” stand out for their excellence. He is particular about working on one movie at a time. “I cannot divide my attention to too many assignments,” he says citing that in 12 years, he has done only 14 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.

During the post laboratory work for “Sivaji”, Anand meticulously went through every single print. “I feel my job doesn’t end with cinematography. I should also ensure that the final output is excellent. For “Sivaji”, we actually worked on the colour contrast to suit three different categories. The film had different colour depths for screening in multiplexes, city theatres and xenon projectors. Besides, we had earmarked 100 prints for overseas screening, for which I had a different colour set-up,” he explains.

Anand has worked in more than 50 commercials with leading advertisement agencies in the country. He has also wielded the megaphone for “Kana Kanden”, which again received encomiums for choice of subject and casting.

Anand is now busy with his own film, due for release this year end. “Harris Jeyaraj is the music director and Surya is playing a major role,” he signs off.

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