Wednesday, April 14, 2010
What is the movie about ?
The story is about a handful of mud. Really. It's a fable. An old man immerses ashes of his loved one. The ashes goes and merges with other mud in the river. A small girl (whose sculptor father has migrated to Mumbai to become a taxi driver) wants to send some customary mud to her father. If the mud reaches her father he can make some sculptures during the famous Ganpati festival. The problem is that she doesn't know her father's exact address. The hope is that she knows a human chain that can reach her father. That old man is the first person in that human chain. What is the destiny of that mud ? Will it reach her father? Is humanity divine ? Or is divinity human after all.
Title and its meaning
I had a huge struggle in my mind over title. Even now I feel it is not the best because there is a little nonchalance in it. It might still change. But here were my thoughts behind the title:
1) First impression of the movie - tells the genre
Our movie first half I felt has some curiosity and interesting moments - it later becomes musical and serious - showing the waiting of the girl, boat scene, final wait scene etc.
2) Placement of the title and impact on the mood of the audience when it comes -
If the title is in the beginning the it should actually be a little fun so that it bumps up the mood and curiousity. If it comes at the end, then it should be the saar of the movie, should bring a lump on the throat maybe.
3) Relevance to the story
What is our story about. Philosophically it is about hope and living in the moment. At the story level it is about the mud being sent. For TT his son has merged with the mud after his death. I feel if we place the movie's title at the end then it has to be philosophical but if it is at the beginning then it can just talk about the story.
1) First impression of the movie - tells the genre
Our movie first half I felt has some curiosity and interesting moments - it later becomes musical and serious - showing the waiting of the girl, boat scene, final wait scene etc.
2) Placement of the title and impact on the mood of the audience when it comes -
If the title is in the beginning the it should actually be a little fun so that it bumps up the mood and curiousity. If it comes at the end, then it should be the saar of the movie, should bring a lump on the throat maybe.
3) Relevance to the story
What is our story about. Philosophically it is about hope and living in the moment. At the story level it is about the mud being sent. For TT his son has merged with the mud after his death. I feel if we place the movie's title at the end then it has to be philosophical but if it is at the beginning then it can just talk about the story.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Production day musings
Day 1:
1) 4 hours shift - jackie sir reaching before all on us on the location.
2) Dev's "trick" to make the red boat float.
3) The wait over costume.
4) End of day 1 and we shot 1 scene less because the sun went down. Too much worry of schedule!!
5) Rehearsing in hotel room with Ovi and Vijay and momentarily revelling in the concept of outdoor shoot.
Day 2:
6) Cold shower at 4 am in the morning to awaken self. (P.S: I haven't taken cold shower since I was mentally born)
7) Javed dressed as God Shiva and doing focus pulling!
8) Taking train shots with public going mad in the compartment.
9) No electricity in the station - generator making loud noise - there goes the sync sound + Crazy hot afternoon with overhead sun.
10) Kokum sharbat by Dev, mango shake by Jaggu da!
11) Super punctual Jackie sir reaching much before estimated time and my mind going "Oh no he has already reached".
12) The playful laughing kids of the climax shot ...the whole crowd clapping on seeing the shot. Trying to freeze that moment.. (the shot went away on the editing table)
Day 3:
13) Mind-numbing struggle over the climax - thinking about the climax at the day of the shoot at 3:30 am in the hotel room.
14) Finally getting up and knocking at everyone's door at 4 - Dev was doing the budget work and hadn't gone to sleep at all. "Mein to abhi tak sone gaya bhi nahee aur subah ho gayee"
15) Early morning jogging on the station at 5:30 am to awaken people.
16) "Idhar kya dekh raha hai - mein tujhko kya madhuri dixit dikhta hun" - Jackie Sir's dialogues for people staring at him during the shot.
17) Crossing the tracks to take a shot from the other side of station and a long goods train coming and stopping to block us. That was 12 noon with overhead sun. We were stranded for 30 mins and strangely our throats started parching with thirst.
18) Akash Prakash Kasbe - the kid who provided me, Chetan and Madhavi cold water and prevented us from dying from thirst.
19) Tension of number of cans.
20) Tension of sun setting and taking away the light.
21) Ganpati visarjan shot where manavi and Madhavi got left in the train and had to be rescued..
22) The station master ending the shoot after 6 pm. Pack up. Eating grapes brought by Ovi's father.
23) Oh and I almost forgot - birthday on the set and cake cutting at night :).
1) 4 hours shift - jackie sir reaching before all on us on the location.
2) Dev's "trick" to make the red boat float.
3) The wait over costume.
4) End of day 1 and we shot 1 scene less because the sun went down. Too much worry of schedule!!
5) Rehearsing in hotel room with Ovi and Vijay and momentarily revelling in the concept of outdoor shoot.
Day 2:
6) Cold shower at 4 am in the morning to awaken self. (P.S: I haven't taken cold shower since I was mentally born)
7) Javed dressed as God Shiva and doing focus pulling!
8) Taking train shots with public going mad in the compartment.
9) No electricity in the station - generator making loud noise - there goes the sync sound + Crazy hot afternoon with overhead sun.
10) Kokum sharbat by Dev, mango shake by Jaggu da!
11) Super punctual Jackie sir reaching much before estimated time and my mind going "Oh no he has already reached".
12) The playful laughing kids of the climax shot ...the whole crowd clapping on seeing the shot. Trying to freeze that moment.. (the shot went away on the editing table)
Day 3:
13) Mind-numbing struggle over the climax - thinking about the climax at the day of the shoot at 3:30 am in the hotel room.
14) Finally getting up and knocking at everyone's door at 4 - Dev was doing the budget work and hadn't gone to sleep at all. "Mein to abhi tak sone gaya bhi nahee aur subah ho gayee"
15) Early morning jogging on the station at 5:30 am to awaken people.
16) "Idhar kya dekh raha hai - mein tujhko kya madhuri dixit dikhta hun" - Jackie Sir's dialogues for people staring at him during the shot.
17) Crossing the tracks to take a shot from the other side of station and a long goods train coming and stopping to block us. That was 12 noon with overhead sun. We were stranded for 30 mins and strangely our throats started parching with thirst.
18) Akash Prakash Kasbe - the kid who provided me, Chetan and Madhavi cold water and prevented us from dying from thirst.
19) Tension of number of cans.
20) Tension of sun setting and taking away the light.
21) Ganpati visarjan shot where manavi and Madhavi got left in the train and had to be rescued..
22) The station master ending the shoot after 6 pm. Pack up. Eating grapes brought by Ovi's father.
23) Oh and I almost forgot - birthday on the set and cake cutting at night :).
Diploma
I called this blog ataki film as I don't know whether the film will be made or not.
It was one crazy ride making this film. Almost at every step we felt we wont be able to make it because there were blocks from external factors. Well instead of writing a sobbing essay about that let me see- a month after the shoot - what all things from pre-prod and prod stage stays.
Pre-prod stage:
0) Zahir - original sexually charged story that gave way to this script after realizing that that won't fit in 10 minutes. (Not that this one fits)
1) First call from Jackie Shroff sir. I picked up and he said : "Jackie". That's it.
2) Walk to Taj Land's end with Dev to meet Jackie sir and his approval and the following jubilation on getting out from the coffee shop.
3) The numerous rides on various local trains in mumbai squeezed between so many people to goto VT for getting railway permissions. Getting caught for travelling without ticket in Bandra station because the ticket was in Dev's pocket and he had left for Goregaon.
4) Individually and collectively crying in front of A.K. Jain (Railway Chief PRO) for giving rail permissions.
5) Getting bank guarantee from college.
6) Marco(my cinematographer) not coming issues. Cute Chetan coming on board.
7) The day we felt that we will use slo-mos in the film. Orgasmic high.
8) Sitting on the floor outside LFW (Lakme Fashion Week) waiting for Jackie sir who was attending it. One bad guy tried to shoo me away and one nice guy gave me a pass to enter.
9) Casting the girl from Nashik - my very on Dixit - Ovi dixit.
10) Script rewrite torture and almost dying trying to rewrite original characters and moments from 5 am in the morning and after 20 drafts the feeling that no one is liking it now and trying to figure out why.
It was one crazy ride making this film. Almost at every step we felt we wont be able to make it because there were blocks from external factors. Well instead of writing a sobbing essay about that let me see- a month after the shoot - what all things from pre-prod and prod stage stays.
Pre-prod stage:
0) Zahir - original sexually charged story that gave way to this script after realizing that that won't fit in 10 minutes. (Not that this one fits)
1) First call from Jackie Shroff sir. I picked up and he said : "Jackie". That's it.
2) Walk to Taj Land's end with Dev to meet Jackie sir and his approval and the following jubilation on getting out from the coffee shop.
3) The numerous rides on various local trains in mumbai squeezed between so many people to goto VT for getting railway permissions. Getting caught for travelling without ticket in Bandra station because the ticket was in Dev's pocket and he had left for Goregaon.
4) Individually and collectively crying in front of A.K. Jain (Railway Chief PRO) for giving rail permissions.
5) Getting bank guarantee from college.
6) Marco(my cinematographer) not coming issues. Cute Chetan coming on board.
7) The day we felt that we will use slo-mos in the film. Orgasmic high.
8) Sitting on the floor outside LFW (Lakme Fashion Week) waiting for Jackie sir who was attending it. One bad guy tried to shoo me away and one nice guy gave me a pass to enter.
9) Casting the girl from Nashik - my very on Dixit - Ovi dixit.
10) Script rewrite torture and almost dying trying to rewrite original characters and moments from 5 am in the morning and after 20 drafts the feeling that no one is liking it now and trying to figure out why.
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