One had to snatch time from his regimen of medicines, sleep and physiotherapy. Tapas Sen was 81, his hearing troubled him and one could only communicate through scribbled notes. But behind thick glasses his eyes still sparkled with new ideas, some of which he had just implemented in the ambitious Naya Theatre-Rangakarmee joint production Visarjan.

Ill health had not permitted him to witness the premiere at Delhi but he spoke of his new project with almost childlike glee.

By way of introduction the one-man stage lighting industry said: ?I have the unusual good fortune to be a part of several productions of Tagore?s Bisarjan... But this forthcoming one seems to me the most meaningful? here people from all over India and all communities are coming together to spread the message of Tagore.?

Asked how his lighting style had evolved over the years from the time he recreated the flooded mines in Angaar in 1959 and was nicknamed ?Tapas Light Sen?, to Visarjan, he said: ?This is something I find embarrassing and impossible to say accurately. But I think my lighting has become more suggestive? Instead of gimmicks and special effects, I now try to leave things more to the viewer?s imagination. It also helps to use suggestive lighting because we are still so backward in terms of technology and equipment.?

Miles to go

The technical backup Sen rarely found while working onstage and with son et lumiere shows at Red Fort, Purana Quila etc, he found as aesthetic adviser of the Howrah bridge illumination project undertaken by the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) and Philips Electronics India Ltd.

A fortnight before his death, he staged a meeting at a friend?s office on Camac Street. Perhaps he realised that the Howrah project was too big to be discussed in the informal settings of his Naktala house.

?The icon of Calcutta, Rabindra Setu, will shimmer in all its glory against the night sky? This will be under the open sky, a giant affair, nothing like what I have done so far, I often dream of it,? Sen had said excitedly. He knew he had to take into account the traffic load, the unpredictability of weather, the ?light pollution?? but he was also worried about maintenance.

Like most artists he wished he had more time and better health. His scrapbook, which he had brought along to that last interview, had a clipping about a shadow play Bhusundir Mathey staged in New Delhi in the 1940s. It mentioned that ?a young electrician Tapas Sen showed rare skill in presenting shadows in technicolour.? The scrapbook also included other clippings of amazing discoveries, news from all over the world.

?I am a young man of 81, there is so much happening,? he had said with a smile.

highlights

• Utpal Dutt’s Angar, the flooded mines

• Sadharan Rangalay’s Setu, a train chugging in

• Sambhu Mitra’s Char Adhyay, a silhouette that disappeared and reappeared

• Sambhu Mitra’s Raktakarabi, tattered light falling on Bishu and Nandini

• Sambhu Mitra’s Pagla Ghora, special effects for the ghost

• Feroz Khan’s Mahatma vs Gandhi, a tiny red dot of light on a white screen to signify the shooting of Mahatma

• Goutam Haldar’s Chokh Galo, depiction of a storm

• Usha Ganguly’s Kashinama, the dream sequence

Tapaskaka was part of Bohurupee productions ever since I can remember. I worked with him in Pagla Ghora. The last time I saw him was at a discussion at Bangla Akademi. He was in the audience with his catheter and hearing aid. He had to leave early but before he left he said out aloud, “Carry on, I am with you!”

— Saoli Mitra

He could make magic with minimum resources. And he was also a very wonderful person. He had an honesty and courage rare these days. He had no ego problems, he worked with everybody and everybody felt he was their guardian

— Usha Ganguli

He had an exceptional talent for creativity and innovation. He has done lighting for us since Chak Bhanga Modhu in 1972 right up to Nakchabita in 2006

— Bibhas Chakraborty

We have lost our pole star. He could defy the pains of body and mind to give his best to art. His work in Maromiya Mon and Chokh Galo overwhelmed critics in Berlin

— Rudraprasad Sengupta