There was a time when Calcutta epitomised hedonistic living. In the early and mid-twentieth century, neighbourhoods like Old Court House Street, Esplanade and Chowringhee would come alive with sparkling shops that included famous tailors like Ranken & Co. and jewellers like Hamilton & Co, Cooke and Kelvey. There were hatters and glovers and drapers and gun-makers, watchsmiths and opticians and saddlers and wine merchants.
But for Jayant Patel, the official photographer of Government House (Raj Bhavan after Independence), the shimmery eclecticism of the streets was overshadowed by his love for documenting the monumental power centres of Calcutta from the 1940 to 1970. “The buffed and manicured white enclave”, “the neighbourhoods that were powdered to perfection. The warts were rarely visible,” says Soumitra Das in the book Calcutta, 1940-1970: In the Photographs of Jayant Patel.
So there are black-and-white panoramic views of Dalhousie Square flanked by the General Post Office with its Corinthian pillars, the Reserve Bank of India and Writers' Buildings; the majestic Clive Street before the RBI structure was erected; the Great Eastern Hotel; the Calcutta High Court, which is the oldest High Court in India; the art nouveau style Esplanade Mansion; Pandit Nehru in serious conversation with Madam Chiang Kai-shek at Birla House; Queen Elizabeth at the Calcutta Airport while descending the British aircraft BOAC. The high life and politics of Calcutta was the province in which Jayant Patel played and this coffee table book is an ode to this prolific photographer who father helped establish the iconic Bombay Photo Stores in Park Street.
Born in 1927 to Chhotabhai Dwarkadas Patel who set up CD Patel & Sons photo studios in Mombasa, Kenya, Jayant had an early start in the field when he got a Kodak box camera as a gift from his father at a very young age. The Patels moved back to India and set up the Bombay Photo Stores in Calcutta in 1940. Later in 1941, Bombay Photo Stores became the official photo studio for Government House and responsible for taking photographs of all their official events. And Jayant Patel handled these shoots and recorded history as it unfolded in those heady days of the Quit India movement and the Partition.
Conceptualised by Lila Patel, Jayant Patel's wife, with a foreword by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the book is an important addition to historical material on Calcutta, the second city of the Empire. But it fails to arrest attention as an abiding piece of literature. The text is clean and easy to follow, but isn't backed by striking production elements as would behoove a coffee-table book handling material which has already been explored many times over. Just black text and grey images against a white background doesn't do enough justice to a momentous era in Calcutta's history.
Calcutta 1940-1970: In the Photographs of Jayant Patel
Niyogi Books
224 pages
Rs1495