Sir M. Visvesvaraya was famously reluctant to face the camera. Even being photographed required persuasion, and only when he was impeccably dressed in a suit. Yet one man patiently earned the centenarian engineer's trust and convinced him to appear in what would become one of the most important documentaries ever made on his life. That man was M. V. Krishnaswamy, affectionately known as MVK,whose documentary on Visvesvaraya remains one of the Karnataka Film Archives' greatest treasures.

From Belakavadi to Malleswaram

Born on 8 August 1923 in Belakavadi, near Melukote, Krishnaswamy grew up in a family that valued education. His father was the headmaster of the village school, known for his discipline and dedication. Although MVK later described himself as "a good third-class student" with little ambition, his years at Maharaja's College, Mysore, would shape the rest of his life.

Looking back decades later, he remembered pre-Independence Mysore with the words of Robert Browning: "God's in His Heaven, All's Right With the World." To him, the city was a place where education, public life and culture flourished, and he would later call his college years the happiest period of his life.

At college, he excelled in English, theatre, elocution and sports, eventually becoming Vice-President of the Students' Union—a position he liked to say came to him almost by accident after friends persuaded him to stand for election.

A Student in the Freedom Struggle

The defining experience of MVK's youth came during the Quit India Movement in 1942.

Responding to Mahatma Gandhi's call, he joined student demonstrations in Mysore and was arrested while still a college student. He spent nearly three months in Mysore Jail, where he began reading Gandhi seriously and studying India's political history.

The experience transformed his outlook. It challenged many of his inherited beliefs about caste, religion and public life, and nurtured the thoughtful, principled worldview that would guide him throughout his career.

Learning Cinema from the Masters

After Independence, MVK travelled to Paris, London and Rome, becoming one of the first Indians to go abroad specifically to study filmmaking.

He trained under John Grierson, regarded as the father of documentary cinema, who later appointed him Secretary of the Overseas Film Club.

In Italy, he worked as an assistant director with Roberto Rossellini on Viaggio in Italia, starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, and later collaborated with renowned cinematographer Aldo Tonti on India '57. These experiences gave him an international perspective that few Indian filmmakers of his generation possessed.

A Life Behind—and Briefly Before—the Camera

Before becoming known as a filmmaker, MVK briefly stepped into acting. While serving as a lecturer at Maharaja's College, he played one of the lead roles in the Kannada film Bharati (1948), opposite Padmini and T. Suryakumari.

Cinema, however, did not enjoy much social respectability in those days. Determined that his students should never think he neglected his teaching, MVK would shoot through the night, return home at dawn, prepare his lectures and be back in the classroom the next morning.

He soon found his true calling behind the camera. Over the following decades, MVK emerged as one of the pioneers of Indian documentary filmmaking. He documented the lives of many of Karnataka's leading writers, scholars, artists and public figures, while also directing the acclaimed Kannada films Subba Shastri and Papa Punya. Through Subba Shastri, he introduced the renowned veena maestro Doreswamy Iyengar to cinema.

His documentary on Sir M. Visvesvaraya, photographed by celebrated cinematographer S. N. S. Sastry, remains one of the finest visual records of the legendary engineer and is preserved as one of the Karnataka Film Archives' most treasured films.

MVK's influence extended beyond filmmaking. He served in leadership roles at the Films Division, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), helping shape India's documentary and film culture.

A House Called Kusum Bhavan

For more than fifty years, MVK lived at Kusum Bhavan on 17th Cross, Malleswaram. Hidden behind an overgrown garden and shaded by a large neem tree, the modest bungalow became closely associated with the soft-spoken filmmaker who lived there.

Visitors expecting a celebrated personality instead found a man of remarkable humility, who spoke of extraordinary achievements as though they were everyday experiences.

M. V. Krishnaswamy passed away on 27 September 2010 at the age of 87. His birth centenary was commemorated at the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES) in 2023, recognising his enduring contribution to Indian documentary cinema.

Sources and References

https://thefederal.com/states/south/karnataka/centenary-year-renowned-filmmaker-mv-krishnaswamy

Article by Muralidhara Khajane on thefederal.com

https://churumuri.wordpress.com/what-is-churumuri/m-v-krishnaswamy/

Article by Sugata Srinivasaraju

‘Malleswarada Rashtra Shilpigalu - Brief life sketches in Kannada of eminent citizens and organisations of Malleswaram Locality ‘

Published by: Malleswaram Residents Welfare Association