Bombay To Mumbai: A City’s Journey Through Pradeep Chandra’s Lens

Portraits to track the journey of Bombay to Mumbai? “Yes. For me, people of Bombay is Bombay. It is not that Marine Drive or VT station, or Gateway of India. For this thing for in my career all over the years that I have photographed people, for me, they are Bombay. So, this exhibition is dedicated to the people of Bombay. That’s why the faces of Bombay/Mumbai to show the journey of the city,” says Pradeep Chandra, a photojournalist, who has seen the journey of the city through his lens for almost five decades.

At 75, Chandra wishes to share his experience, vision and emotion with the viewers through his exhibition, Bombay Through the Eyes of Pradeep Chandra. “This exhibition is also my tribute to Pritish Nandy,” Chandra confesses. “You will see two photographs of Nandy — one when I was working with him at Illustrated Weekly and the second one much later at his production house office.” Chandra gives Nandy all credit for his illustrious photographic journey. “He gave me the freedom to express myself through the camera and allowed me to experiment. He had the vision, an eye for art and detail… and he guided me to develop one,” he tells.

Chandra reminisces about the days when one could experiment with paper while developing the roll on which photos were taken. “That made a huge difference,” he tells. “The grains, the texture of the photo paper could increase or decrease the nuances of the photo. For example, for a woman’s portrait with a soft expression or smile, a paper with softer texture helped; for a landscape a grained paper or a hard paper for a man…” he explains.

“Things have changed today. Now everyone is a photographer. And before a photo appears in the newspaper the next day, it is already viral on social media.”

Bombay to Mumbai? Who defines the change the most according to you? Dev Anand, Balasaheb Thackrey, and MF Husain!” comes a prompt reply. “One was responsible for the change of name; one was change and adaptability personified and the other painted the change.” Chandra stops for a while and adds another name – RK Laxman. “Coming to think of it, nobody noted and documented the changing face of Bombay/Mumbai like Laxman did,” says Chandra. “And his cartoons are still relevant. I was just looking at one of his cartoons, which he had done for a cover story of The Illustrated Weekly, I think. It is from the late 60s. Roads are dug up and even today they are dug up,” he adds.

“I still remember my first encounter with Laxman when I was a freelance photographer. A journalist from The Telegraph had done his interview. Ms. Dhar. She called me and asked if I could do the photoshoot of Laxman. I immediately agreed and connected with Mr. Laxman. He asked me to come at eight the next morning. When I suggested a later time like nine, he said – ‘then don’t come’ and disconnected the line. I reached at 7.45 the next morning. I saw him through the door before I entered and clicked him without his knowledge. That’s the photo you see here, in the exhibition. And it remains to be one of my favourites.”

Among the array of photographs exhibited at Floor One, the gallery in Juhu, is one black n white photo from 1991 of a young man on the podium with a poster of ‘abrogate 370’ behind him. That young man is Narendra Modi, our Prime Minister. Today, 370 stands abrogated. “I was going through my negatives, and I found this gem suddenly,” tells Chandra. “And to be honest, it took me a while to recognize that this is our PM,” he admits. How did he manage to get such a candid pic? “I had gone to Wardha with Pramod Mahajan to cover the Rath Yatra by Murli Manohar Joshi. I wanted something different and was searching. I saw this young man sitting in front of the poster, I zoomed in and like the frame I saw. I clicked. That’s it. Forget me, nobody knew at that time that he will be the PM of India in the coming years. He was not even a CM that time.”

How would you define your career? “I would not call or define my career as a very successful. But from time to time there have been good phases. I was very happy, working at The Illustrated Weekly, The Observer, the Malvika Sanghvi time at the Bombay Times. And then I had a bad time at the Express. I didn't like what I did there,” Chandra shares. “The Free Press work brought me into limelight. My work there was noticed. People called me and gave me more work after seeing the work published by The Free Press Journal,” Chandra shares.

Pradeep Chandra’s exhibition will be showing till May 21. “There is so much missing here. I would have loved to include much more, but couldn’t because of the space restriction. I think I was lucky to have witnessed the change and journey of this city, and had the chance to capture it through my lens. Maybe someday I will be able to display all my favourites,” Chandra concludes.