The spotlight is back on one of the most ancient sports in India. Excellence of the talent and controversies have revived the lost sport and Hindi cinema was only too happy to find stories for us there. Box office hit Sultan and the upcoming Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal are cases in point.
In a scenario like this, how could an artiste like Navroze Contractor remain indifferent to it and Kushti has resulted from there. At Crimson, one of the oldest galleries in the city, the well-known photographer is showcasing his black and white frames of the akhadas in Dharwad and Ahmedabad, the city where he grew up.
While the cinematic gaze is very recent, the Bengaluru-based photographer began to train his lens on the subject in 2014 and has exhibited the work in Amsterdam and Chennai Photo Biennale since then.
His black and white shots are poetic and weave a narrative of hope around the subject. In a majority of his shots, children occupy the centerstage. "Because in a many parts of our rural India, sending a kid to an akhada is still a matter of pride. One boy from the community has to train in an akhada. And who pays for it? The community. They provide for his food which is the major expense. The akhada charges a nominal fee of Rs.50," says the senior photographer.
The photographer remembers a story he had heard once. "One girl told me that her father didn't let her marry the guy she wanted to because he couldn't defeat her father in kushti . It is a true story."
He recalls wrestling being a way of life once upon a time. When there were no gyms, health conscious men went to the akhadas . He went to the one which was established in 1918 whose image features in the exhibition.
The artist feels that the mud pit is a great leveller too. “Caste, religion, region...nothing matters once you enter. And it is a contact sport so where you come from ceases to matter." The artist feels that the mud pit is a great leveller too. "Caste, religion, region...nothing matters once you enter. And it is a contact sport so where you come from ceases to matter."
Called garadi mane, what used to be in hundreds in Mysuru, have reduced to a handful. "But the sport continues to be played with same rules though formats have changed. Outside the akhada it is done on the mats."
The practitioners are not really touched by its projection on cinema. "They talk about it and feel good but they are aware that it is not real. Wrestling in akhadas doesn't get you money so most of them do it for their health. They come, practise and go to work."
Navroze is working on a documentary on the same subject.
(The exhibition is on at Crimson, Cunnigham Road till October 22 after which the show will travel to Ahmedabad)
Many passions of Navroze Contractor
Photography is not his only love. Navroze Contractor is equally passionate about cinematography and has to his credit Mani Kaul’s Duvidha , Limited Manuski by Nachiket Patwardhan and Percy by Pervez Merwanji and Love in the Time of Malaria.
He studied fine arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda and later went to the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He further studied photography under Bhupendra Karia in India and the U.S. and studied cinematography under master Laszlo Kovacs in the U.S.
He has had several solos of photographs and his photographs of jazz musicians are in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum. He loves to travel and regularly undertakes expeditions on his bike. “I feel travelling is the best education one can have. It is like the university of life,” says the travel and biking enthusiast. He also writes on travel and automobiles.
