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A son’s tribute to his feted newsreel cameraman father is a documentary that look at his effort to record an India on the cusp of change

It all began 14 years ago with a Google search,” Delhi-based Rajiv Parkash tells us over a video call. Growing up, he had heard of his late father being nominated for the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA). Having lost him at the age of 17, when he was still in school, Rajiv says he never got a chance to ask him about it. “One day, I thought I should self-verify this fact, so I typed his name [on the Internet browser]. After surfing for about 45 minutes, I came across a piece written in first person,” he recalls. “The author [who used to be with Gaumont British News], had spoken at length about my dad, who worked for the British Paramount News. He concluded the piece by mentioning how he had had lunch with him in London in 1975, and that he’d been devastated to hear that he died in a restaurant a few days later.” At the time, Rajiv didn’t know who the author of that particular essay was. 

After digging deeper, he discovered that this was actually a chapter from a book titled, Filming History: The Memoirs of John Turner, Newsreel Cameraman. Turner’s book was the catalyst, he says, “...I started finding out more about my father.” 

Ved Parkash in his new Chevrolet Bel Air car, 1965

His new documentary, Ved... The Visionary was the opening film at the 52nd IFFI in Goa last year, and recently featured at the Jio MAMI. It is Rajiv’s tribute to his father, Ved Parkash, a much feted newsreel cameraman, whose contribution to documenting India at the cusp of change somehow got buried under mounds of film reel.

Written by his daughter Lubhani Parkash, 29, Rajiv’s documentary captures the India that Ved inhabited and saw through his camera—be it his coverage of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s arrival in Delhi to take up his appointment as India’s last Viceroy and Governor General, the horror of the Partition, the mourning at Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral that won him the BAFTA nomination, or the first Republic Day parade in 1950.

Rajiv and Lubhani Parkash have been working on the documentary for nearly a decade

Born in 1917 in Bhera Maini (present-day Pakistan), Ved studied law but decided to pursue a career as a news and camera reporter in 1939, at the age of 22. In 1944, he joined the Indian News Parade, department of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Two years later, he tested waters internationally, working as staff cameraman at the British Paramount News. His later stints were with the Pathe News London and News of the Day, CBS News, NBC News, and United Nations.  

For the documentary, Rajiv had to sift through archives in foreign libraries. “My father maintained his dope sheets [a document summarising important details and background information regarding the coverage, including a list of shots that were taken, in order to help the video editor] meticulously. After he shot a video, the newsreel was sent directly to England, along with the dope sheet.” 

Dope sheet of new Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten’s arrival in Delhi, on March 22, 1947

While Rajiv had copies of these dope sheets, mining out footage from foreign archives proved to be a tough task. Not to mention, they cost a significant amount of money. “We had to match the visuals with those mentioned in the dope sheets. It was difficult to prove that these shots were by my father,” he says. At one point, Rajiv felt like he had hit a dead end. “But every time that happened, I would [mentally] connect with my father. And just like that a door would open for me,” he says, adding, “That’s how I landed upon the British Universities Film and Video Council [BUFVC] site, which had over 147 films shot by my father and the original dope sheets as well.”

Rajiv managed to source select original video material that he needed for the documentary, which along with pictures from the family album and interviews with his protégés and friends—Naresh Bedi, Raghu Rai, Mike Pandey, Sir Mark Tully to name a few—were used to create a compelling portrait of Ved Parkash. “As time passed, we kept getting more and more material... That’s why it took such a long time.”

Parkash with Paul McCartney of Beatles, during his visit to India in 1968

From their interviews, Rajiv and Lubhani learnt that Ved wasn’t somebody who kept secrets—he actively shared his knowledge, as well as his camera equipment. He was abreast of the latest technology, and shot on some of the best cameras of the time, including Auricon Cine voice 16mm, 35 mm Newman Sinclair non parallax, 35 mm Arriflex and Camiflex 16mm/35 mm. Most of these cameras weighed about 9-10 kg.  “As a child, I’d join him for some of the events that he’d cover. I remember the respect he’d receive from the fraternity.” The job had its own challenges and uncertainty, of course—“you had to shoot, ship the newsreel immediately, and wait for a telegram to get feedback on the coverage. Until then, you didn’t even know whether you got decent footage,” shares Rajiv, who also started his career as a news cameraman.

Ved wasn’t just an ingenious cameraman—his love for the reel, his son says, also made him an inventor of sorts. In the film, Rajiv recounts this one time in the 1960s, when his father was called in by the manager of Llyods Bank in New Delhi, as they were asked to reproduce a few hundred documents in a pilfering case involving some employees. Though the photocopy machine had been invented, it was barely in use in India. “The only option was to film the documents and reproduce a print on bromide. But that would cost a lot of money,” recalls Rajiv. Ved found a cheaper solution. He sandwiched the thinnest photographic bromide paper between two sheets of glass [framed with wood], and  exposed it to the white darkroom light and processed it. That’s how he got the negative of the document. After drying the negative, he once again placed it in the wooden frame, attached another photographic paper above it, exposed it to the white light and processed it. “That’s how he got a photo copy of the document,” recalls Rajiv, who remembers watching his father make copies in the dark room. Ved died at the age of 57, following a cardiac arrest, and Rajiv says he can’t begin to imagine the body of work that could have been. Rajiv’s daughter, who runs a digital marketing agency named after her grandfather, Ved Digital, says that working on a film was a first for her. “As a granddaughter, I am really proud of his work. He covered some of the most significant events for India,” she says. “It’s because of his extensive coverage and documentation, that we are able to understand our history better. We, as a family too, only discovered his work recently. And it’s been quite a revelation. We owe it to him to tell this story.”

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