Kamal Bose

Biography

Kamal Bose (1915–1995) was an Indian cinematographer, who shot most of Bimal Roy's classics, including Parineeta (1953), Do Bigha Zamin (1953), Bandini (1963), Devdas (1955) and Sujata (1960). He successfully transitioned into the coloured film era, and shot Qurbani (1980), Janbaaz (1986), and Dayavan (1988).

During his career, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer record five times, Bandini (B&W, 1964), Anokhi Raat (B&W, 1970), Khamoshi (B&W, 1971), Dastak (B&W, 1972), Dharmatma (1976).

Bose was an important part of auteur Bimal Roy's team, starting with Anjangarh (1948), one of the last major films of the New Theatres in Kolkata, However, Kolkata based film industry was now on the decline, thus Roy shifted base to Bombay (now Mumbai) along with his team, which included Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Nabendu Ghosh, Asit Sen, Bose and later Salil Chaudhury, and by 1952 he has restarted the second phase of his career with Maa (1952) for Bombay Talkies. Thereafter Bose collaborated with Roy in all his subsequent films, Parineeta (1953, The Fiancee), an adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel by the same name, in the same year came the neo-realism classic, Do Bigha Zamin (1953), which not only won the Filmfare Best Movie Award but also became the first Indian film to win the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Their association continued with Naukri (1954), Baap Beti (1954), Devdas (1955), Amaanat (1955), Sujata (1960), Parakh (1960), and Bandini (1963), which won Bose his first Filmfare Award especially noted for his masterly use of black and white, to bring "texture and form in simplicity mixed with richness", especially in the way he captured the starkness and gloom of the prison environment, while depicting women at work. Previously, his lighting in the film, Devdas (1955) was also noted as it enhanced the emotional torment of the tight-lipped protagonist, played by Dilip Kumar.

Meanwhile, he also shot, Musafir (1957, Traveller), the directorial debut of Bimal Roy's editor and assistant Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the film is still remembered for its panoramic shots;[8] and Kabuliwala (1961) Hemen Gupta's adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore story, by the same name, starring Balraj Sahni, and produced by Bimal Roy.

He died on 9 October 1995, at the age of 80. His son, Palash Bose is a commercial photographer based in Mumbai