When an artiste bids adieu to the material world, what goes is not mere matter, but a soul and ideas that could create the world anew in the moment of their art. What we can do best at such a moment is to take inspiration from his art and savour his masterpieces. Pandolin celebrates the art of careful and precise lighting that late cinematographer, Bobby Singh, made the motto of his life.  

“When I light, I hope to achieve something similar to what the writer was able to do with his or her pen.” The imprint of these words can be found on the reels of the films their speaker created and the minds of those he enraptured with his camerawork and power of storytelling. We are talking about one of the most amazing cinematographers that contemporary Indian cinema has known, Bobby Singh, a gem who’s no longer with us.

This blue-eyed boy of Hindi cinema was known for stunning shot-making, deft use of light and colours that not only fitted, but produced narrative contexts in films, and creation of intense drama and story-telling even while shooting from pretty simple angles. It would not be wrong to say that Bobby belonged to the world of making, living, and lighting cinema like few others of his time, age, and craft. If trailers of his upcoming project, Special Chabbis, are to be believed, Bobby’s art and craft was about to amaze us all into silent submission once again on the 8th of February 2013.

A kind and loving gentleman, and an astute observer, creator, and reader of cinema, Bobby had a great sense of humour too. On 18th December 2012, this writer at Pandolin had the good fortune of being able to experience this lighter side to Bobby as he spoke about innovations in contemporary cinema technology and gave him an insight into one of his upcoming projects. Among the films that Bobby gave life to, The Dirty Picture, Life in a Metro, and Gangster stand out as the best and most hard-hitting ones. Team Pandolin salutes this master whose art has taught its members a lot about cinema and all that produces cinema. Without you, Bobby, the contemporary filmmaking scene in Mumbai is a lesser space. RIP.