Adieu Narayanan sir: M. S. Prabhu

Summary – A Tribute to Color Timer Narayanan

M. S. Prabhu, DoP, pays an emotional tribute to Narayanan sir, the legendary colour timer of Gemini Film Laboratory, whose contribution to the South Indian film industry spanned over four decades.

Adieu 🙁

NARAYANAN SIR..- the name that was echoing in the minds of cinematographers, the ears of the producers over four decades across the South Indian fim industry.., sadly his voice only would be echoing from now, of course, a bitter truth.

Yes, he is no more physically, and the cinematographers’ community is mourning to a greater extent, unlike for any other loss occured in the recent past.

“Narayan sir”, as he was fondly addressed, was very friendly towards the younger generation cameramen, though he was a favorite choice of prominent senior cinematographers who were looked upon at, by anyone who came post 1990, hence he was also respected on par with those iconic cameramen of yesteryears.

He was an irrefutable bright name shining from the darkroom. He used to talk less and when needed, talks only on anything related to the laboratory proceedings.

Very few know that, Hazeltine colour analyser was developed by the USA, but to most of our cameramen, it was introduced by Shri.Narayan sir, such was his influence. Though it is now considered as a primitive method of colour Grading, we belong to an era that saw HIS fingers handling the rolling knobs fluently. Never he got stuck at a wrong combination of RGB. He was the person who detailed us on ‘Thin & thick’ negatives, and eventually we all learnt the amount of light passing through the negative to get printed on a positive emulsion, thus from over and above the mid-value of 25:25:25 (RGB) on the analyser, we learnt the quality of the film we had exposed in our cameras.

Gemini film laboratory was our learning hub those days, where we used to dwell day and night checking the release prints. Narayan sir too had spent sleepless nights with us, treating our movies as his own.

Narayan sir was the second brain behind many south Indian movies that won accolades and national awards for best cinematography, which no one would differ with.

We call Gemini film laboratory as the dream child of late Shri.Ravishankar Prasad, but Narayan sir had been a stepmother to it.

He was a man always seen in white and white outfit, that indirectly said, white encompasses the entire spectrum (VIBGYOR) within, which is the basic understanding of photo-chemistry.

He opens only to say “Good morning & Good night”, and now the entire cameramen community is bidding ADIEU to him, which he cannot listen to, but his soul would definitely hear. As long as, the colour timing system exist, in whichever form, he would be remembered by all those who follow his lessons in day to day filming sessions.

BYE, Narayan sir, BYE.

We miss you…..,

M. S. Prabhu DoP.