Candid photographs from the Bengali wedding of Supriya & Kamal

Pictures and story by Amrit (for the post titled Candid photographs from the Bengali wedding of Supriya & Kamal)

I arrived at Ashiana in Hyderabad a little early and so went to the nearby CCD and ordered a cafe latte for myself. Supriya was getting married that evening. And I was her candid photographer. She is a junior from IIT. While in IIT, we just knew of each others existence, but never really got a chance to interact. In fact, the first time I spoke to her was when she called me up to break the news of her wedding. She revealed that she had wanted to have me at her wedding ever since she had seen pictures from Anika’s wedding in Delhi, over an year ago (Anika’s brother was her batchmate at IIT if you are wondering what the connection was). It would be a Bong wedding, she told me. I was glad to take up this Assignment. Before this, I had been to only one Bong wedding, where I had created a wedding-movie.

The cafe latte was soon over. I looked at my watch. It was time to hit the venue. So I walked down. Most chairs were empty. Bit of decoration was still going on. And then I saw a tall guy explaining the decorator guys how he wanted things to be. The tall guy later came to me and introduced himself as Kamal. ‘It’s my wedding today’, he clarified! ‘You must be Amrit, right?’, I nodded and wished him best. Someone would tell me later that evening that he was a Telugu movie actor. Wow, hadn’t imagined so! :)

Candid photographs from the Bengali wedding of Supriya & Kamal

Supriya soon arrived from the parlour, all dolled up. And she had her best friends for company. She was very very excited and happy. Bu there was a problem. She had arrived and was all set for the wedding. But her parents and immediate family were still on their way. Now, this probably was the first time that the bride had showed up for her wedding before her family! :)

The not so long wait for her parents was soon over and as the evening set, everyone rushed to wedding mandap – the groom first, followed shortly by the bride.

If the panditji had had his way, the wedding would have continued for few hours. However both Supriya and Kamal simply did not want to keep their guests waiting. Their wedding may have started an hour late, but they wanted it to end exactly when they had planned for. So that Supriya could change to her reception dress and then the reception could start. Their will prevailed and within one hour, panditji had to wrap things up and let them leave. The wedding happened so fast that I wondered how many pictures I might be able to give them later!

As Supriya took her time to get ready, Kamal and I shared some time listening to the Hussain Group jamming in his room. They were to perform later during the reception. And they did a neat job of it.

Alright, so Supriya was finally ready on time. She looked fabulous, and nothing less then a heroine herself. :) And then the reception went on the way receptions usually go on. People brought gifts for the young couple, got a posed picture clicked (was being taken care of by a regular studio photographer) and Hussain group played in the background.

And once the reception was over, a bunch of dholak-valaas took over and everyone balle-balleid to their beats. An absolutely charged up happy ending to a beautiful evening. At the end of the day, I could still give them 400+ processed candid pictures! Kamal would later write in his blog, that he loved the work. He even wrote a mail to me – “thank you so much for taking that time out and making that valuable effort to capture the moments. I go through so many photographers in my profession and to shoot in low light it needs a great talent apart form the equipment. and must say you have thrilled and amazed us with the pictures”. That’s what all artists live for, don’t they? :) Hope you liked the picture story! Share it so that I could get more jobs from such sweet couples who value good work!

Candid photographs from the Bengali wedding of Supriya & Kamal