'Thirteen days after death, cops will hand us Ghatak's cinematographer's body that's rotting in the morgue'

KOLKATA: It is one of the most pathetic ends that anyone could have imagined for the life of film-maker Ritwik

Ghatak

’s

cinematographer

Mahendra Kumar.On October 3, the 81-year-old Kumar who had unofficially worked with the maestro in films like `Meghe Dhaka Tara', `Komal Gandhar', `Subarnarekha' and had done the cinematography in his ad film titled 'Scissors', short film titled 'Yeh Kyun' and unfinished film titled `Ronger Golam', had died in his sleep. For 13 days, his body was lying at the Katapukur

morgue

of the Kolkata Police because there was no blood relative to claim the body. Hopefully, on Monday the body will finally be handed over to his well-wishers and friends. Before that, they need to produce an affidavit from a proxy court as a claimant for the body.

According to director Saibal Mitra, who was close to the cinematographer and is part of the lobby who had gone to claim Kumar’s body, Kumar had left his family home in Himachal Pradesh at the age of 16. “We don’t know the actual reason behind this decision. Mahendra-da also never spoke about this issue. All we knew is that he never kept any ties with his family,” Mitra said.

The emotional and physical distance between Kumar and his relatives made it even for difficult to find a blood-relation who would come down to Kolkata to claim the body. “We had approached the police with a letter from the local councillor Archana Sengupta as well as one from Mahendra-da’s landlord. They had both given the no-objection letter to us. Initially, it seemed the cops would give us the body too. That was before the Pujas. But later on, they insisted on the physical presence of a blood relative. I guess, the protocol was being followed to ensure that there was no controversy,” the director said.

The hunt for the relative began thereafter. In 2007, Kumar had suffered a cerebral stroke and stayed at the residence of documentary film-maker Jojo Karlekar. “That’s when one of his brothers – Ravindra Kumar – had come down to see him. We found a number of Ravindraji and started calling up. However, there was no immediate response. Sometime later, his New York-based son-in-law called up from that number. He must have been in India then and was using that number,” Mitra said.

Slowly, more information started coming forth. “We heard that Mahendra-da has four brothers. I don’t exactly recall the name of one of the brothers who is based in Panipat. The family then entrusted this gentleman’s son with the responsibility of helping out in this case. As far as I know, his name is Dr Sabrewal. He was chosen to represent the family,” Mitra said.

Incidentally, this gentleman emailed his adhaar card and passport details to Karlekar. “We forwarded all that to the cops. Thereafter, photocopies of the aadhar card and passport details were also physically submitted,” said the director of “Shajarur Kanta” starring Dhritiman Chatterjee and Konkona Sen Sharma.

Initially, Mitra and his friends had heard that the cops would publish an advertisement in newspapers urging any legal claimants to step forward and take the body. “In cases where a person’s relatives aren’t found, a photograph is taken and the body is then cremated. We had also suggested that if that’s what is going to happen, we should be informed in advance so that we can pay our last respect. Meanwhile, we traced a relative. But I was worried about what kind of documents would prove the uncle-nephew blood relation,” Mitra said.

However, on Sunday night, Mitra was informed that they could take the body. “I spoke to DC South, Suburban Division. We have been asked to submit an affidavit from a proxy court as a claimant for the body. If the proxy court functions on Monday, hopefully we will be able to get the required documents. If not, we will have to wait for the court to reopen,” he signed off.