Category Archives: films

In search of immortality

2009-07-23

We were watching ‘The Fountain’ by Darren Aronofsky the other day and my mom remarked how it reminded her of our first digital feature called Turjya. We made it in 2003 and it was about this guy with a map seeking immortality. Check out the trailer. We knew nothing about constructing a scene or blocking or editing. We just took the camera and began filming. Thanks to Pramida without whose support we could never have started or finished the project. The adventure started in Hyderabad where we did a lot of indoor shooting and a bit of the outdoors at the Kapra lake and then we went on a whirlwind tour of the country to shoot the remaining scenes. The team was Nishant Pant-line producer, Dev-DP, Asheesh-Lead Actor and Art -Director and I directed the film.

Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore-Metrupalyam-Ooty-Burliyar-Coimbatore

Our first destination was Silent valley national park. We didn’t go all the way but stopped about 40 km from Ooty at a forest guest house and decided to finish shooting the forest scenes there. We first went to Metrupalyam and took a bus up to Ooty where we hired a couple of motorbikes and spent the day in Ooty. The next day we started for the forest guest house and On our way we saw Nizam of Hyderabad’s summer Palace. We wanted to shoot the hospital scene there, but we were chased out of there by ferocious dogs. With our tails between our legs we carried on. The guest house was eerie. There was this guy called David who was the caretaker of the bungalow and he was also the cook. We got a lot of supplies from a neighboring village and gave it all to David who would whip up delicious dishes with potatoes and eggs and have a feast ready for us by the time we went back after a hard days shoot. The shoot itself was full of surprises. The Emerald lake, the Todas, the wild buffaloes and our encounter with a sambar on a deserted road, the leopards growling at night. It was one of my first experiences being in the wild. We wrapped up and headed to Burliyar from there. We took the toy train from Ooty and we wanted to film a shot there. But the conductor didn’t let us shoot and threw us out at Lovedale station. We then took a shared jeep and got off at this hotel in Burliyar where we planned our next steps. There was this stream right by our hotel and we hitched a couple of miles upstream and found a waterfall where we decided to do a little more shooting. We shot the wrist slitting from the climax here and after getting enough coverage we decided to take a dip. I had a terrible back ache throughout the shoot and this was the only place where I felt a little better after treating my back by sitting under the waterfall. Our next destination-Sikkim. It felt like we were on the train for a few years.

Sikkim, Metrupalyam-Coimbatore-Chennai-Howrah-New Jalpaiguri-Kalimpong-Jorthang-Yoksum-Tchoka-Dzongri-Delhi.

With numerous delays we finally reached New Jalpaiguri. In between we got off at Shantiniketan like Michael Palin got off in Pune because his dad had served there. I don’t know why I got off there. Maybe because of Tagore. Maybe because of Nandlal Bose. we reached new Jalpaiguri late at night and took a jeep. The driver was drunk as expected and after a near death accident and a fight with with the driver we decided to hitch. We walked to the nearby police station and the guys there kindly stopped a truck for us. We took the truck all the way to Jorthang. As soon as we got off at Jorthang the police there stopped us because we looked shady and interrogated us for over an hour, they looked at our equipment, our id‚Äôs and just wouldn’t buy our story that we were students. They eventually let us off but only later came to know that the information bureau was after us. More about that later. We took another Jeep to Yoksum which had one street with small guest houses and an eatery. This was our base from where we trekked to a camp from where we could capture the Kanchenjunga. It was a 2 day trek and we spent a night at a remote mountain village called Tchoka, with no electricity and two or three huts. We had a lot of tchang here. Tchang is fermented millet beer served in a bamboo mug. Fermented millet is first put in a mug and then hot water poured over it and then is drunk using a bamboo straw. It quickly gives you a high and you need to be very careful. The next morning we finally reached the deserted camp called Dzongri. Our DP, Dev got diarrhea so Asheesh and I went up the mountain to get the required shots. The rest of the day we just stayed there looking at the mountain in utter silence and awe. When we went back to our base we found out from our hosts that the Information Bureau was making inquiries about us. We got really scared and wanted to leave immediately but couldn’t since it was raining and we had to wait for an extra day. Since Sikkim is a sensitive area, not everyone gets permission to shoot there. And the permits were really expensive and since we were poor students we really didn’t have money to even think about paying the fee. To cut a long story short, we smuggled our camera in. So the news of the IB made us rethink our strategy and we hid the tapes in our underwear and all evening stayed in bed and avoided going out. The next morning we took the first jeep out to Jorthang. That was a close one! There was a landslide on our way to Siluguri and finally reached a day late. As expected our train tickets were on waiting list and we couldn’t get confirmed tickets because there was this huge group of school girls going to Delhi by the same train. We got on the train nevertheless and after bribing the TT, we got 2 seats in an already packed military compartment. We put all the equipment on the top birth and took turns sleeping. The train went through Bihar and UP and it was late and the boogie was dirty and several people got on with no ticket. Basically it was a circus and never again with a waitlisted ticket. When we got off at the New Delhi station, we were already tired and had several days of growth on our faces and our clothes were dirty. We were walking to a friend’s house to clean up when a cop stopped Asheesh and me and took us to the police station at Gulmohar Park because we looked suspicious. No amount of pleading helped. They finally took out our expired id cards and called our faculty at NIFT to verify whether we were students. It so happened that the faculty did not like us because we were rabble-rousers. They refused to identify us and even today I don‚Äôt know whether they were playing a prank or if they really wanted us in jail. One of them took pity and told the cops she knew us. They let us go and asked us to get a shave. The same evening we left for Jaisalmer.

Rajasthan, Delhi-Jaisalmer-Delhi

By the time we reached Jaisalmer, the train bogies were covered in an inch of sand. There was sand everywhere. Just like Shantiniketan, we got off at Pokhran, the site of the underground nuclear testing. We bought hot mirchi pakodas here to commemorate our arrival. The city was out of a fairy tale. Out of nowhere we saw this huge structure in the distant desert, beatiful in the glaring harsh afternoon light, We stayed in a haveli within the fort and that evening allowed ourselves the pleasure of chilled beers. It was brilliant.The next morning we took camels out into the desert. There were a couple of other tourists with us and whenever we made stops, we rushed off to get coverage. That night we slept on a dune, after listening to the camel riders sing. the food was tasteless and full of sand. But we didn’t mind knowing that there were only about 2 pages to be shot. Rajasthan was the only place in our shoot where we didn’t face problems. It could have all gone wrong when Asheesh with his long hair and a beard asked our hotel manager where the Air force base was. If the guy had raised an alarm we would have been sitting in jail today for looking suspicious!

Delhi

After coming back to Delhi we did the remaining shoot. our professor at NIFT, Mr. Chand Gupta gave us a helping hand by acting in the film and also giving us a lot of encouragement. There were several people who helped us and like most student films, the list of people we thanked was longer than the production crew. In Hyderabad, we got to shoot at Outswinger, the pub and Andy made it happen because he knew Shane, the then manager of Outswinger who is no longer with us today.

Blues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009-02-12

I am changing my tires and I am changing my gym. Updike is dead and so is Hazel.
I lived with my tires for 4 years and now it is time for them to go. Most probably I am going to get my battery replaced and change the oil and filters when I am at it. My gym membership is coming to an end. I enjoyed climbing but now I am looking for something more economical. I am getting an unbeatable deal at another gym which has an indoor pool, racket ball courts and a regular gym. Updike died a few weeks ago and it reminded me of college when I used to read his books while drinking Golden Eagle. I feel sad. I was also devastated when I got a message this morning about Hazel. She was a great dog. It is tough to lose a pet. I don’t know how Toton is taking it. I don’t know what to say to him.
Let me try and beat my blues.
Deliverance–
I saw this movie a few weeks back. It was very honest and poetic. It felt like I was reading back issues of Nat Geo and when I think of back issues of Nat Geo, I am reminded of the endless days of trying to build the perfect boomerang. The damn things never worked; probably because I used cheap plywood to make my boomerangs. During my boomerang days, there used to be this buffalo near my house. The buffalo would come and stand outside our gate every afternoon to get a shower from our garden hose and I would oblige. We became good friends and the buffalo even gave me a ride now and then to the neighborhood shop. Another animal I became friends with and had the pleasure of riding on, was a camel called Kalu, in Rajasthan. We were filming ‘Turjya’ and took the camels from Jaisalmer to Sam sand dunes. There were a couple of French tourists who were riding with us and I was amused when I saw them change into silk pajamas when they retired for the evening. The only other person I saw in silk in the middle of the desert was Prince Feisal in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

Talking about the French, I was pleasantly surprised when I was in Paris last month. I had heard a lot of horror stories and was not really expecting much but I enjoyed Paris as much as I enjoyed Madrid in ’05. We were at a hostel in the Latin quarter with its small eateries and pubs and lot of backpackers. We stayed very close to Ernest Hemingway’s first apartment in Paris. Just before our trip I had the pleasure of watching “Quiet Days in Clichy based on Henry Miller’s book by the same name. I wanted to check out the neighborhood and it came about in an unexpected way. Pramida fell sick early one morning and I rushed out looking for a pharmacy. I was in my pajamas and flip flops 🙂 and it is not really nice when it is zero degrees outside. The neighborhood pharmacy was closed so I walked to the main street and took a cab.
The cabbie was this friendly Moroccan guy who went out of his way to be helpful. After several closed pharmacies, we decided to ask for help and asked a cop who directed us to an all night pharmacy in Clichy and that’s how I finally got to see Clichy! When the cabbie dropped me back, he refused to take the tip and asked me to enjoy the rest of my stay in Paris. The food, the beer and the people. All very refreshing.
Just being at the Arc de Triomphe brought back memories of hundreds of films from the 70’s most notably of Alain Delon driving on Champs Elysees. Paris is just that. A cinematic place. A place full of stories. I won’t bore you with the details but you must go to Paris.
It was a cathartic experience and talking about catharsis you should check out Liam Neeson’s Taken. Written by Luc Besson, the film is one roller coaster ride. Like we say in Hyderabad, “kya khatti tha!”
Brussels and Luxembourg were pleasant. I enjoyed myself at the Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art in Brussels. I asked Pramida to take silly pics of me pretending to walk with TinTin and Haddock. I had waited to see this for over 20 years. I was so overcome with emotion that I decided to get a tattoo of the fetish with the broken ear from ‘Tintin and the broken ear’. I am still trying to figure if it is a good idea. I will probably get it one drunken night. The main square in Luxembourg is very cinematic. I could almost picture a dictator walking out and giving a fiery speech from the balcony!
A trip to Western Europe is like time traveling. The great wars, the artists, the writers, the imperial colonizers. It is too much to absorb, but the feeling is like chasing the dragon.
This was our first couch surfing experience and our hosts in Amsterdam were such great people. We spent the New Years with them talking politics and philosophy (they are students of philosophy) and drinking vodka. My one-off indiscretion while I remain faithful to beer, rum and my new mistress the single malt! We plan to go to Africa this year with Toton and Preeti and I have invited our hosts to come along. Hope we get a chance to host them and make them feel as welcome as they made us feel. Same with Dada and Lena who opened up their home in Delhi to us. More about that in my next post.

Hulla

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008-11-19

I saw hulla the other day and was quite impressed. Almost the same exact thing happened to my family but it was much darker and painful than in the movie. and I had often witnessed my dad go berserk when we used to live in an apartment where my parent’s bedroom window opened out to the street. The window was right next to a shop where the local goon used to hold court. No amount of pleading or threatening worked and the goon even threatened to kill my dad. If not for my mom he probably would have. That guy in any case was murdered a few years later…stabbed in the back.
The movie had a fantastic cast. They breathed those characters and from what I hear Sushant and Rajat couldn’t even rehearse because of scheduling conflicts. I loved the joke about changing the Indian cricket team colors to black and blue. Vrajesh Hirjee was brilliant like he always is. He is an under utilized talent who should be getting better roles. But what a bunch of awesome storytellers. When the movie started for a moment it felt like I was watching a Basu Chatterjee film. My only problem with the film was that there were not a lot of wide shots and no moving camera. Probably it was a directorial choice to make you feel trapped like the character but in my opinion it would probably have made the film more cinematic. But I am nitpicking, the film was awesome. Go rent it.

Tarkovsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008-10-09

I thought I would write about the downturn but decided not to. Like Caroline McCarthy says in this CNET blog,”We could all use some levity these days.” So I shall instead talk about Stalker, the 1979 russian sci-fi film made by Andrei Tarkovsky based on a book called ‘Roadside picnic’. I remember overhearing a
conversation at sirifort once about the movie and tried desperately to find a copy in India but couldn’t find it. All this wait and the first
three minutes almost put me to sleep. It has been a while since I have seen a film like this, with real long shots.For Tarkovsky the film was about faith and metaphysical ideas. The science fiction elements were just background. As a fan of science fiction, I was a little disappointed that the whole science fiction part was through suggestion. No attempt at ploys like the ones used by Spielberg, to increase tension with John Williams’ music. the mention of binomial theorem, the speculation of the meteor or a spacecraft crash landing and the bomb that the professor carries with him were the only times I thought the film tried to bring in science into the canvas. But as a student of film I was enriched by the many elements which made the film so brilliant. Supposedly most of the film was shot a second time over and was made on the fly after the labs ruined much of the kodak experimental stock which it was shot on. The part which was shot on the grainy sepia like stock gave the film a post apocalyptic look . The Wet industrial look and the soviet era structures also give it the extra dark mood.It reminded me of the hostel’s production designer Franco Carbone’s work. The ending is literary and it is a master stroke of a brilliant story teller. Most of the cast and crew supposedly had untimely deaths because they shot the film close to chemical factories and the toxins caused cancer. The film has interesting visuals and most of the shots talk to ones primitive instincts and you relate to the film in many ways.Tarkovsky manages to create an alien world with the camera thereby not having to rely on anything else but suggestion.Thereby posing an argument that all alien worlds are right here right now.

A bit of trivia-Chernobyl accident happened seven years later and the area was depopulated for obvious reasons and the area around the reactor came to be known as “the Zone’ like in the film and the people taking care of the site were called “Stalkers”.
I enjoyed the film a lot and I hope you do too. Lets keep the memory of Tarkovsky alive!’

Food and scripts

2008-04-01

I went to Fatima in Cupertino last week and Havana Cuba a few weeks before that. I really enjoyed the food at Fatima. The hand made noodles went well with fried chicken. As this was a Muslim Chinese place there was no pork and everything had a distinct Central Asian taste.
Havana Cuba in San Jose had a typical Caribbean fare with lots of bananas and avocados . The avocado stuffed with shrimp was great so was their sofrito. I had saffron rice with curried shrimp for main course and it reminded me of khichdi.
I forgot to mention E&O trading company. The interiors were great with exposed brick walls and great art and knick knacks imported from South East Asia. I liked the front desk shaped like an alligator.They serve fusion cuisine and the portions were small but exquisite. We tried Indonesian corn fritters, Firecracker chicken, dumplings and Balinese shrimp. The sauces were a culinary experience. The sauce that came with the shrimp opened all my senses. I am definitely going back. A bit pricey but good for occasions.

I am sad to report that I sold my tickets to this years burning man festival. It sucks. I used the money to register for a workshop with Robert Mckee. The graduates of this workshop are who’s who of Hollywood. You might remember the Charlie Kaufman character played by Nicholas Cage in Adaptation. He gets screamed by Mckee in the movie. Well there are critics but what the heck. This won’t be my first workshop and certainly not my last but at least it will give me a chance to sit through this legend’s class.
More about my experiences after the workshop. Also the selection certificate from the San Francisco Short Film Festival arrived a few days back. I will upload it soon. More Later.

The Fall

2008-06-09

I first heard of Tarsem Singh When I was in Mumbai during my internship with Ulka. He was God to most copywriters aspiring to be filmmakers in those days and I think he still is. He was in Mumbai back then for a talk and the event was sold out and the people at agencies stood outside the auditorium and heard him on boom boxes specially fixed outside for people who couldn’t get in. I wasn’t there but I wish I was. I saw The Fall yesterday what an experience! From his Levis ads to ‘The Cell’ to his videos for REM, the visual intensity in his work has been so vigorous. He is “The” Visual director of this generation.

Coming back to ‘The Fall’. It had all the Tarsem elements. The barren landscapes, the intense colors, the surreal artistic elements and the rest. The main plot was set in the 1920’s Hollywood where a suicidal stunt man who has lost all feeling in his legs, tells an epic story to Alexandria (Catinca Untaru, who is in the same hospital recovering) to make her steal morphine for him to OD on. The story he tells is the sub plot which is intertwined with the actual plot line. It is wildly imaginative and resonates so true to the story. It is meticulous and not one detail is wrong. Catinca Untaru is as real as they get. She is a definite find.Visually I saw many influences from Godfrey Reggio’s Quatsi to Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson’s Baraka.

There were visual elements from Ramayana and Mahabharatha as well. For instance when Otta Benga gets shot by several arrows, he falls on the bed of arrows like our own Pitamah Bhishma. The Kidnapping of the Indian’s squaw like in Ramayana. There were elements from many folk tales I grew up with. From Russian to American. The film was shot in several locations out of which I recognized Namibia, Jodhpur, Agra, Prague (the bridge) Paris, China and the island which I assumed to be near French Polynesia. There were several other locations. For the entire list please click here. What made the film really special for me were shots like when Alexandria is looking at her finger by closing one eye at a time and the whole perspective changes.
The pin hole camera effect, where she sees the(upturned) horse arrive outside and the whole opening gambit in extreme slow motion.Overall the movie was a very satisfying experience. The thing that I thought was not resonating with the story as such was the whole surreal element, when the imagined story plays out (most of us don’t imagine stories in Tarsem visuals). But then it is his movie and it is his style. I went to see this movie for these visuals. But just a mention. No one blames Hitchcock for making suspense thrillers now, do they? So I give it 5 stars. I wish it was shot on
imax film or just upscaled to imax. I was disappointed to see that it was released only in art house circuits.I saw it at the Aquarius theater which is a nice independent/foreign/art film theater but to see something like this on the small screen of Aquarius is not the way to do it.
To sum it up, one of the best films I have seen.

The film website