Photo – Mechanical process

He is fifteen years old. And he has to run for his examination at the Sir JJ School of Art.

As he sketches the live model sitting nude, the hands and toes of the drawing keep disappearing.

As in the peeling frescoes of Ajanta, where we see the same students taking photographs of the frescoes, or tracing through the cross hairs of the camera obscura prints being enlarged.

1886 - CLOCK AND CHIMES

Mr. Griffith, the Principal, and Mr. Tarry, the Vice-Principal, present their annual report on the institution.

Mr. Tarry announces that they have been able to manufacture glazed pottery that can hold liquids, and have been commissioned to make ceramic insulators for the telephone company, that drawings have been made of all the caves of Ajanta, and that future jobs entrusted to them include building of the telegraph office, and the wood carving for the new station of the BCC&I railway line. Following this, he introduces Raja Ravi Verma, and invites the students to view his paintings.

The students leave for the exhibition hall. Phalke is accompanied by a young friend who is skeptical of art schools, opining that these schools are basically established to produce aluminum utensils for the Mission hospitals.

Later, while discussing their future prospects after graduation with his friends, Phalke discloses his intention to go to Baroda where his brother works with Romesh Chandra Dutt, the eminent scholar from Bengal.

After the ceremony, Phalke walks from the JJ School to Elphinstone College, where his father teaches Sanskrit.

When he gets there, there is a commotion in his father’s classroom. Phalke’s father is objecting to the presence of a non-Hindu in his Sanskrit class.

Impulsively, he resigns his post and leaves the premises, taking his son with him.

He decides to return to Trymbak and resume his old job of kathavachak.

Phalke’s brother from Baroda is at home, paying the family a visit, and Phalke prevails upon him to take him back to Baroda with him.

1886 - 90 - THE MASTER

The next day, Phalke is taken to meet Prof. Gujjar, Principal of Kala Bhuvan, the technical institute under the royal patronage of HH the Gaekwad of Baroda. Forty years ago, I was a student of Kala Bhuvan when Prof. Gujjar was the Principal.

Being pleased with my work in drawing, painting, photography and modeling, Prof. Gujjar not only gave me a scholarship, but was also kind enough to allow me free use of Kala Bhuvan laboratory and studio The product of such facilities and the knowledge I gained in Kala Bhuvan was ‘Phalke’s Photo-engraving and Photo-printing Works.’ The work of this firm was highly appreciated even by foreigners. Mr. W. Ray was the only other person to have a studio of this sort in India at the time.

Let me tell you, my young Kala Bhuvanians

Seeing extraordinary talent in Phalke, Prof. Gujjar puts him in charge of Kala Bhuvan’s photography studio where Phalke makes several experiments in photochemical processes.

He spends days and nights at the Sir Sayaji Rao library, reading 'Photography depends upon two basic operations - the formation of an image on a flat surface by an optical device, and a chemical method of sensitizing that surface to light so that the image can be captured permanently.

‘The first requirement was met by camera obscura, known since the 16th century and used by artists as an aid to sketching.

‘Wedgwood was the first one to make a light-sensitive material when, in about 1800, he treated white leather and paper with silver salt. He used this technique to make prints of leaves and transparent paintings.

‘The first permanent image produced directly by light was made by Nicephore Niepce in 1823 on a bitumen-coated pewter plate exposed for eight hours. ‘In 1839, Daguerre demonstrated the Daguerrotype in which silver surface on a copper plate was sensitized with iodine vapor.

‘Now Daguerre, when he took over Niepce’s invention, was running the Panorama Theatre animated by light shows and movements in the Place du ----- ‘In 1839, Daguerre demonstrated the Daguerrotype in which silver surface on a copper plate was sensitized with iodine vapor.

‘Now Daguerre, when he took over Niepce’s invention, was running the Panorama Theatre animated by light shows and movements in the Place du -----

‘The camera obscura had generated at one and the same time painting, photography and the diorama.

The wet plates require speed, the luck of an alchemist, and the dexterity of an acrobat. Having shot the picture, you return to the dark room, prepare the dark plate, clean it with cotton and brushes, coat it with viscous collodion, immerse it in silver nitrate solution, recover the exposed plate from the camera, and immerse the plate in developer

Phalke also comes into contact with Shankar Moro Ranade, a dramatist who is about to perform ‘Winter Tales’ and his own play ‘Veni Samhar’ at the Maharaja’s palace.