PUNE: A set of 41 films from the personal home movie collection of eminent astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar is now with the National Film Archive of India ( NFAI ).Narlikar and his wife Mangala handed over the collection that has almost four-hour footage in 8mm and super 8mm film format to NFAI director Prakash Magdum some months ago, but the archive made the announcement on the renowned astrophysicist’s 80th birthday on Thursday. Narlikar is in the US at present.“I am extremely happy that a precious home movie collection of such an eminent personality has come to us. Home movies are important for preservation as their footage consists of family activities, vacations and social or cultural events,” Magdum’s statement said.The collection comprises Narlikar’s visit to the US and the UK, including footage of his stay at Cambridge and California Institute of Technology (Caltech).The earliest footage from the collection is his stay at Cambridge University in the UK. Most of the footage, consisting of family activities, including childhood memories of their three daughters, were shot by Narlikar and his wife, Mangala.Magdum, speaking to TOI on Thursday, said when Narlikar had visited NFAI for a programme a few months ago, he was shown some film clips which they had acquired from the collection of eminent nuclear scientist Homi Bhabha. These were the only clips that were intact from Bhabha’s collection. The rest were ruined due to lack of proper care.“I requested Narlikar for any personal home movie collection which he could share with us. We went to his home and brought the collection to NFAI,” Magdum said.The clips needed to be contextualised, he added. “Narlikar and his wife Mangala then visited the NFAI every day for about 10 days, viewed the clips, and told us the details related to the events shot in the home movies. An official from the NFAI took notes,” Magdum said.Specific GenreHome movies are audiovisual material that capture actions and movements in a non-commercial manner. They preserve actual activities of a group or family. The early films of Lumiere Brothers resemble these characteristics.Moments To CherishThe collection has footage of the Narlikars marriage in June 1966There is footage of his father Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar and mother Sumati Narlikar.There are scenes of the family’s stay in Rajasthan where an elephant enters their houseThe footage has family visits to Kolhapur, Varanasi, Pune, Khajuraho, Mahabalipuram, Agra, Delhi, Ajmer and Mumbai.An endearing visual is that of his mother playing the Indian string instrument Esraj and driving a car on the outskirts of AjmerTreasured BondsThe collection includes visuals of Narlikar’s mentor Fred Hoyle with whom Narlikar conducted research on cosmology and astrophysics at CambridgeThe footage consist of shots of his uncle V S Huzurbazar, founder head of the statistics department, University of Pune, and D G Tendulkar, eminent author of Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

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