Photo Finish

Film noir

TN Express...

a part of my life ever since the monsoon of '98

On the way out after a good lunch

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Orphaned Samosas

Wondering what a photograph of dozens of ready-to-eat samosas and sweets doing here? Well, they are not just an battalion of samosas, crispy potato chips and delicious sweets served along with tomato sauce; waiting to be had. They mark a rare occurrence in our campus. Generally we have a short break after every 50-minute lecture and a long break after every two such lectures. The first long break is a tea-break; the second one is the longer lunch break. Blame it on the soporific tax law lectures or the early morning physical exercises or the late night solid, liquid diets and movie sessions or just the sheer frustration arising out of the mere act of sitting inside the lecture hall for 50 full minutes -there is a sudden outburst of energy after every 50 minutes; that's when most of us rush out of the lecture rooms and make calls, catch up with friends, curse the bureaucracy, have sun bath in full formal wear outside the building, and prepare ourselves for the next fifty minutes. The energy outburst is of a very high intensity during the first long break when the tea, coffee etc is served. Being the winter hot soups are also being served these days. Most of us just wait for the lecturer to officially conclude and the moment we get that signal from the lecturer, there is a mad rush towards the mess workers who wait outside with the tea-can, soup and biscuits.

I feel it gives most of us a kick to fight and earn something, rather than getting things easily on one's lap. All of us here are aware that there is going to be enough of tea or soup for all of us, still we simulate the environment outside a PDS shop in a small-town, during every tea-break. There is a mad rush towards the tea-can. Imagine a minimum of 100-plus fully grown adults making a campaign for the tea-can and biscuits! Terrific! Here, the strategists have an edge. While many of us run and take positions near the tea-can and try to lay hands on the disposable cups kept on the other side, the masterminds conquer the disposable glasses first. Such a strategic move gives them the wild card entry; they have instant access to the tea-can. Their job is done, they have earned their cup of tea.

Among others who had lost out on the strategy there is a chaos and now the war zone shifts from the tea-can to the array of disposable cups. In the end everyone has the plastic cups in their hands and the real fight for the tea begins. Sometimes due to the commotion, many of our fingers lose the delicate balance of the plastic cup with some steaming tea, and a few others end up with heavy tea stains on their neatly-pressed formal shirts and trousers. "Very sorry yaar...". Coming to the biscuits the ones that vanish the fastest are Bourbon biscuits. I too attack them. Usually the salted biscuits are the leftovers.

So how were these samosas and sweets spared? Well, we had a special guest in our campus that day. He is also one of the persons I too admire. Samosa was in none of our minds. All of us were impressed by the talk the person had given in the audi earlier and were obviously interested in having a small talk or a snap with that special guest in the mess lawns, where the samosa-battalion was tantalisingly waiting. Alas! No one even cared about it. (Did you notice this in the photograph...how carelessly a person walks by the samosa battalion?!) No one even turned towards it.

Sometime early December, 2009. The best-ever captain of the Indian cricket team, M.S.Dhoni, visited our campus. It was an inspiring and a very memorable day.

Director's Cut - 4

Majid Majidi. Children of Heaven. Day 6. December 12, 2009. It was (supposed to be) the final day of NIFF. My excitation level was a little higher. Being the final day of the festival I expected everyone to like the movie and go back home with a happy note - about the whole thing called NIFF. But more than that it was Superstar Rajnikanth's 60th birthday! Even in the promos I had mentioned that COH would start after the screening of highlights from Sivaji - the boss.(Shankar/ 2007/Tamil). COH was about to start at 9:30 PM. I started Rajni birthday celebrations with Sivaji, with the scene where helicopter lands and Rajni stunningly and stylishly comes out as "motta boss". No wonder the applause and whistles lasted for the next ten minutes or so till the movie ended. I still believe that Shankar has truly transformed Rajni to a higher plane in Sivaji, especially as motta boss, and Enthiran (under production) is going to be a trial by fire for the Sivaji team. Having celebrated the birthday it was time to start the final show of the festival week.

COH impressed everyone right from the beginning. The movie is about - just a pair of shoes! I never knew such a gripping and enjoyable movie could be made using this half-line plot! Hats off to the director for also showing various walks of Iran life using this tiny plot. The screenplay also has a few pinches that makes you come to the seat edges. One of them being the sequence where a shoe falls into the stream and the little girl chases it along the stream trying to pick it up. Its a classic! Of course, the climax too. My heart missed beats while watching the climax. We all were sure that the kid is going to come second and win the shoes. He too appeared to be doing that. It was quite a surprise and disappointment to see him win the first prize. It was a kind of anti-climax. Totally unexpected. Now what? Hows he going to get a shoe-pair to his sister? Is he not going to get? Is his father going to know the truth and scold him? Poor boy!

Majidi has given us a great ending. He has written the climax sequencing in quite an absorbing way; he just does not leave us there comfortably, he gives us a twist. Neat job! But that's not the main reason why my heart missed a few beats. Usually I play the movies form the movie files stored in the computer. Only for COH I had to play it directly from the DVD. And you know what, the Computer made the climax much more thrilling and ensured that everyone in the audi had to literally sit at the edges of their seats. Just about 5-6 seconds before the running race is over and everyone fully eager to know who is going to win - the DVD got jammed! We tried hard a few times, it would not move beyond that very same point! Audience were getting restless. I was getting tensed up. One more try; no improvement. We tried opening it using other media players as well, but no change in the script.

The ending could not have got more thrilling.

Thanks to the Computer!

Ultimately, I had a huge relief when we were able to copy the file to the computer and the VLC player was kind enough to show us who won the race and what happened to the pair of shoes! The audience too had a great relief and a feeling of satisfaction; the movie got a warm applause in the end.

Still I had to apologise to the audience (who were very nice) and narrate (!) them how exactly the movie ended. It was a real, thrilling experience. I, and many others, would not forget COH for the years to come. Cheers to Majidi... and that Computer!

Director's Cut - 3

Day 3. 9th Dec 2009. I had made the promos for that night's movie with the tagline "Come and see what it takes to beat Lagaan". No Man's Land. (Danis Tanovic/2001/Bosnian). Some of you would have seen this movie; most of you would have heard about this movie. NML emerged the winner in the Oscars ceremony in 2002 and I vividly remember that day. I was in my final year of engineering. Dozens of us were in the common room watching the live relay from Hollywood. Lagaan had by then created waves all over the world. The simple storyline of David v/s Goliath set wonderfully in the pre-Independence India, with Goliath being the British and rustic Aamir as David had struck chord with everyone. AR Rahman's compositions had also mesmerised all. Lagaan ran for more than 3 hour 30 minutes without any dullness. Great job by Gowarikar. I remember even one of the IIMs had used Lagaan to teach management! No wonder that dozens of us were waiting for India and Aamir to hold the Oscar.

...and the Award goes to No Man's Land! Huge disappointment, then. NML is just the opposite of Lagaan. While Lagaan takes forward a simple plot in a highly entertaining way, NML presents us a grand plot covering global politics, cultural issues, military mindsets, patriotism, media hypes and a few more in a very simple yet a very hard hitting way - that too in just under 100 minutes! At the end of show everyone was left with a deep impact. It was a worthy defeat for Lagaan. Not many of us had seen such a movie before. The talks between the two men in the no man's land made us laugh at a few places but at the same time those dialogs were quite deep. What an end! I had another night of peaceful sleep. Some of the audience personally congratulated me for choosing NML! I plan to watch L'enfer by Danis Tanovic.

Day 4. Downfall.

In the first place I was not sure whether to have The Counterfeiters (Stephen Ruzowitzky/2007/German) or this movie, Downfall, in the itenary. I decided to go ahead with The Counterfeiters. But just a few moments before I clicked "Print" in NIFF_Schedule.docx, I got The Counterfeiters changed to Downfall (Hirschbiegel/2004/Germany). Though a heavy movie, my friends would like to know Hitler's final weeks, I felt. I had seen this movie a few months back.

Being a Friday the audience count had touched thirty! The majority of them were due to the curiosity-factor. Anyway by then at least 25 viewers was the norm.

Though some more editing would have made the movie more riveting, at the end of the show everyone was feeling - heavy and as a part of one of the defining times of the modern world history. Downfall proved yet again that language does not matter...all it mattered was whether a movie is able to "connect" with the audience, and what is "new".

Director's Cut - 2

I consider my contribution to the world of cinema to be - over! I have personally been instrumental in making close to thirty people watch Rashomon. (Akira Kurosawa/1950/Japan). Well I do not say all those thirty saw the movie only because of me; I just meant that I had a huge role there. The past one week has been quite tiring and exciting. Being the Secretary, Film Society here I am supposed to screen 1-2 movies every week. These were typically old Hindi or English movies. And generally only 4-5 viewers (including the person who is in-charge of the audi) turned out for these movies. A show is treated to be Houseful if the audience count touches the magical double-digit figure - ten. Sometimes due to the poor turnout I have even felt very lonely and scared in the Auditorium! Well...the only exception to that till the last week has been Andaz Apna Apna. (Rajkumar Santoshi/1994/Hindi). More than fifteen people had come to watch that rib-tickling comedy by the Khans. I too enjoyed the movie. I almost placed a "HOUSEFUL" board outside the auditorium.

To break the monotony and my loneliness in the Auditorium, I hit upon the idea of screening a few international movies. (International means - Non-English/Indian) It was a huge risk and I felt I was driving away even the regular 4-5 viewers. Anyway I was prepared for it. Even if no one else turns out I was sure at least two viewers would; my close fellows here...captive, guaranteed and helpless audience! A personal gain behind this idea was that over the past one year I had seen most of the movies only in my room, on my HCL desktop. So watching a few of those great movies in a "cinema hall" was not a bad idea. And I have this luxury only till this month-end, when my tenure ends and the new FilmSec would take charge. Things got going and I put up the itinerary for the week-long NIFF ~ NADT International Film Festival 2009.

The lineup was - Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico), Rashomon (Japan), No Man's Land (Bosnia), The Downfall (Germany) and Children of Heaven (Iran). I had also planned to screen Mongol (Mongolia). I had wanted to show only those critically-acclaimed movies that were also interesting enough; not the usual slow-paced, art-movie types. I thought, in that way I would help break the normal mindset that award-winning movies are either too slow or over-the-head.

Here are a few lines from the gmail chat I had with one of my good friends (GF) here...just a few nights before the inaugural show of NIFF.

GF: "if u had 2 do a festival 4 urself thn why waste our money on posters"

GF: "so a mixture is always good"

GF: "wht u r doing is social exclusion of those whose tastes dont conform 2 urs."

Me: "i am sure more than 10 will turn up on one of these days!"

GF: "show mithunda's Gunda... best ever B-grade movie made...it was the biggest hit in kharagpur."

I reduced my audience estimates after that chat. I found some sense in what that sensible GF was saying. I felt only the usual 4-5 would turn up to NIFF too. Being shown on weekdays....will even the usuals come? Question mark.

Day One. Monday. Dec 7th. Pan's Labyrinth. All my assumptions about the kind of cinema people would like to watch - were demolished without a trace, for the good. To my utter surprise quite a few number of people started pouring in and by the time the movie ended the count had touched..hold your breath...t w e n t y! Unbelievable! People were ready to take a few steps to drop in and see..."What's new?". Language was not a serious barrier. All that matters was a novelty factor to begin with, and to sustain the crowd all it takes is a gripping storyline and a beautiful narration. By the end of the show...everyone was thoroughly mesmerised by Ofelia's fairy world and equally disturbed by the evil Captain. Day One was a success! I had a good sleep.

Day Two. Rashomon. It is said that Rashomon made Hollywood stop for a while and turn towards Asia. Being shot in black and white I was not sure if it was a good choice for NIFF. Still I went ahead - just to tell everyone what made Akira - the Master. I also wanted to make sure that my friends had something to say when they had to come across the so-called connoisseurs of world cinema. It worked...more applause for Akira. My job was done. That was my greatest contribution to cineworld yet.

The story will continue...

(PS: On a special directive from that GF, I would like to make it amply clear that GF is not equal to Girl Friend. For this post, GF = Good Friend. This GF's name is Smarak Swain @ Mark Twain)

Director's Cut - 1

It happened at last!! Ever since my Higher Secondary school days I wanted to be a cinema director! Seriously. I am not joking. I don't know from where that dream landed in my brain and heart. But it did. During my earlier school days I wanted to be a Doctor. It is a different, tragic story that the biology classes in our high school days pushed me to opt for the Computer Science group during my higher secondary classes.

September 19-20, 2009. Tanjavur.

I was sitting next to the director of "Kalavani" looking at the monitor! It has been more than a decade since I finished my schooling. It was a great feeling to find myself in the sets of an actual movie shooting. Kind of dream come true.

Beauty in chaos - that is the only line that can truly convey what happens on the sets. You have people running around madly looking for someone/something, assistants desperately trying to get the sets and the props ready, a few men shouting at the top of their voices asking someone to get something to the sets, tea boys shuttling at the location with tea cups/juice bottles, associates trying to explain the situation to the cast/crowd and make them ready for the shoot, huge cables from the generator van coiled around the whole place like hungry pythons, dance masters trying to extract the right moves, the lead artists' vans parked at a distance, a few men permanently hooked on to their cellphones, the curious crowd that sieges the unit, the caterer with his huge tiffin carriers...the list goes on. And at the end of all this repeated over a few months or so - you have a finished movie! That is something truly amazing.

The whole thing hinges on that one person called - Director. Apart from being a highly creative person, a director is also expected to be an extraordinary General Manager. I really don't know how in spite of all the headaches on the sets, one is able to be creative and make others too deliver. Creativity needs relatively calmer mind/environment, as far as I know. For instance let us take the apparently creative task of writing this blog post. Just try writing something or drawing something with a dozen people watching you amidst lots of chatter. It is not going to be an easy task even to write one good paragraph. Just magnify the complexity of the creative task as well the chaos around, say a thousand times, you have a director's job!

The story will continue...