Discovering the late Dr Jayant Narlikar's love for home filmmaking

Dr Jayant Narlikar during the handing over of the reels to Prakash Magdum in 2018. Pics Courtesy/NFDC-NFAI

The news of the passing of Dr Jayant Narlikar on May 20 brought back memories the name carried for many Indian millennials. This writer recalled sitting in front of a second-hand television with hazy reception watching the children's series, Brahmand in the '90s. An exploration of the cosmos, written by Narlikar, laid the foundation into scientific inquiry for a generation of young viewers. But before he was a scientist, mathematician and polymath genius, Narlikar was also just a young man with a camera.

The big reveal

He was among the kindest, most humane people you could have met," recalls Prakash Magdum, MD, NFDC. Magdum was heading the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) in 2018 when he interacted with Narlikar.

Dr Narlikar puts on cricket pads for a net session (right) Dr Narlikar (left) with his colleagues in Cambridge

"As the then director, even though our main focus was preservation of films, I was also trying to get some moving images connected to Dr Homi Bhabha. When I mentioned this to Dr Narlikar who was the chief guest at the Science Film Festival we had organised, his answer stumped me. He mentioned that he too had a collection of film reels he had personally shot over the years.

"I immediately asked if we could get them to NFAI for preservation. These are what we would categorise as home videos. They were a common practice in America and Europe, not so much in India. Few Indians had access to a portable video camera back then," Magdum points out. In 2018, Dr Narlikar donated the collection to the NFAI.

Dr Narlikar with a colleague on the grounds of Cambridge (right) The reels are presently archived by the NFAI

The collection of 41 film reels of Super 8 mm and 8 mm films contains snippets from Narlikar's early years at the Fitzwilliam College in the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, even a snippet of his famed research partner, Dr Fred Hoyle as well as family moments.

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Priceless treasures

While the popular perception of film archiving relegates it to the restoration of cinematic works, Magdum believes these personal documentaries are just as important. "They reveal a lot about the people; their small joys, habits and things. One might even call them social documentaries that need to be preserved for the next generation," he explains. This is made self-evident, when the Punekar speaks of one of the reels from Narlikar's collection.

Dr Narlikar in a moment of levity

Among the donated reels, Magdum shares, was a short video from the 1970s where the late professor had recorded his mother, Sumati Narlikar - a Sanskrit scholar well versed in music. "The video shows her playing the esraj. It is a rare musical instrument, and few play it even in the circles of Hindustani classical music," he shared. Another older picture captures the scientist putting on pads for a batting session at Cambridge. In fact, these rare moments of nostalgia were almost forgotten when the good doctor handed it over. Magdum recalls, "He admitted how he had not seen the film footage in a long time. So, we had the projector brought in and invited Dr Narlikar and his wife, Mangala, to the NFAI campus in Pune to sit down with us."

Over the course of multiple sittings, the couple would point out details that added to the documentation. "Even though his memory was fading, I could see how they enjoyed reliving those moments. It was through their observations that we were able to classify the videos. In the end, I am glad we did it, and very grateful that he agreed," concludes Magdum, to our agreement.

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