Magical light

Humra Quraishi on veteran journalist Hiranmay Karlekar’s photography exhibition

Hiranmay Karlekar stands out because of his boyish looks. Despite almost touching 67, this veteran journalist’sface has not changed in the last seven years one has seen him either at The Pioneer (where he’s the consultant editor), or in and around Sujan Singh Park (where he resides).

Seeing Karlekar at the exhibition of his photographs at India International Centre’s art gallery was a surprise. Not many knew he could wield a camera and transform even the routine and humdrum into pictures of beauty.

In an interface, Karlekar spoke of his step father "Who was the ideal man, I even took his surname. He, Govind Vinayak Karlekar, set up the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and was a close associate of Jaiprakash Narain and M.N. Roy. He was the finest man I have ever known."

A pleasant surprise was the fact that Karlekar has authored two Bengali novels—Mehernissa and Bhabisyater Ateet. To the question why he decided to write in Bengali, he replied "For Bengali is my mother tongue, my first language and I love writing in Bengali. I write long hand and am already into writing a third novel." Karlekar’s parents, Govind Vinayak and Kalyani, too had literary sensibilities. Writer Gunther Grass dedicated his book Show Me Your Tongue to Karlekar’s parents.

On his Nikon FM 10, Karlekar has captured pictures of New York, the Niagara Falls and locales in Delhi, such as Humayun’s Tomb and the Red Fort. He takes the viewers towards the hills—Ramgarh and Binsar in particular.

Karlekar has managed to get some excellent shots of home territory. Each visual seems as if it has been transformed. I have been to all these places yet when I saw the photographs I really couldn’t recognise them. It took a while for the beauty to seep in and then I kept staring at the sunsets and sunrises and the sheer expanse of nature. Highlighting it with the power to light, what he calls "the magic realism of light."

He expands it with these words—"light lends life to vision, defines moments, transforms the appearance of reality, and, sometimes, brings out its essence. It can make the mundane look ethereal, such as when a streetlight makes the leaves of a tree dull green during the day, shine as flakes of greenish light in a dark night.

It makes a rainbow dance on a snow-bound Niagara falls and bring out the contours of frozen waves at its feet. It lends a golden radiance to the upper reaches of skyscrapers while fluorescent tubes and parking lights are switched on in the street below. Passing through ornate grills, it weaves enchanting patterns on walls and floors. Stealing through curtains, it makes a marble statuette of the Buddha glow with its inner…"

In fact, this is Karlekar’s very fist exhibition of photographs but going by the response he’s received he should capture more …making the mundane come alive for us to see, making Nature stand out in all its glory for us to appreciate and value. His ‘photographic captures’ have the power to make the viewer relaxed and nostalgic, for one is transported to places which evoke pleasant memories. One keeps yearning for the beauty and peace that the hills have to offer even hours later, such is the power of Karlekar’s camera.

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