ONE May

Our First Teaser www.firestillburns.org

Fire Still Burns with AGNI

Fire Still Burns in a campaign initiated by Artistic Revelations to bring change by doing what you know to do the best.

AGNI- the organisation who introduced the concept of Advanced Locality Management in Mumbai; one of the first propagators of the Clean & Green Mumbai idea; an organization that challenged strikes of essential services in Mumbai; an early starter to utilize the power of media to spread their message…

To cut a long story short - a visionary team who has withstood the test of time in working towards creating a better tomorrow.

And we are thrilled to announce that this visionary team is partnering with our movement to combine the energies of the youth with the expertise of the elders. A wholly voluntary association, AGNI is operated by citizens like you and me.

The details of the association will follow as we go along – as always ideas to make the association meaningful are welcome…

Keep the fire burning.

http://www.blackbridge.co.in/agni/activities.asp

Thinking without Thinking

(First Published on www.passionforcinema.com)
http://passionforcinema.com/thinking-without-thinking/

Thinking without Thinking and Visual Language in Indian Cinema.

Disclaimer: I am a student of Cinema, for a lifetime. I have not attended any film school so whatever expressed on the article is based on my observations and understanding of this medium by watching movies. I just have two short films to my credit and currently writing for someone detested here on PFC, every thing expressed here is purely my opinion, meaning no offense to anyone.

Recently I came across the trailer of Dev D on PFC, after watching the trailer on the comments section I impulsively wrote “Reminds me of Requiem for a Dream.” Later on however I thought, I should not have made the comment without seeing the whole film. It set me thinking why that happened. If you have read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, he puts forth the theory of “how we think without thinking”; it was a similar situation, impulsive reaction. The whole thing nagged me and later that night I sent the trailer link to a friend in US to get a different point of view. He immediately responded after watching, it reminded him of Trainspotting. My immediate retaliation- why can’t two directors have the same idea while making a film? They can result in different stories, both original. Does watching a huge collection of foreign films give us a right to compare a genuinely original film to some foreign one? It could be a mere coincidence that the trailer reminded you of a particular film. His answer was pretty interesting “thoughts and ideas can be the same, but not the same visual language”.

Another incident, on a TV show, Anurag Kashyap recommends “Battle of Algeirs.” I managed to get hold of that film and watch it; the opening scene of the film has soldiers questioning a bearded man in his underwear shivering, not able to speak. The soldiers are trying to get some information out of him. The soldiers even offer him water. Déjà vu !!! Black Friday, Mumbai cops questioning the Memon’s manager in the jail cell. It could be tribute, inspiration or a sub conscious decision to do it that way. What stood out was what my friend called Visual Language, it was similar. Tribute and inspiration is acceptable, but if it’s a sub conscious decision to attempt it, the problem needs to be addressed.

Being original in your scripts and stories is not enough, it is fine as a writer, but a director needs to approach his original work backed with original execution of visual language. Other examples, which I would like to point out here, the last scene of RGV’s Bhoot reminded me of Exorcist, many scenes from Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan had a Godfather hangover, Bhansali’s BLACK had the Road to Perdition look, there are countless examples if you dig deep. Again I emphasize on the point on having a tribute or inspiration, with due credit, but if it’s a sub conscious decision to execute it that way I am not sure what the solution to the problem is. Are the directors aware that they are following the same visual language of the originals while trying to be an original film? Are we pushing the craft in terms of visual execution or is it cool way of doing it because “I have seen it in this film” and “I can work it into this film I am making”?

Visual Language, of what I have to come to understand over the years, is the use of all elements of cinema and creating the visuals within the rectangular frame in front of you. Placement/actions of actors, cinematography, editing cuts, props, lighting etc.

At the Screenwriter’s conference Sriram Raghavan spoke about the Cinema greats of India who brought in a particular persona to their films over the years and through their works. Abbas Tyrewala spoke about the last of the Giants of Cinema and how we no more have them as times pass, which I disagree. Over the time in search of finding true Indian stories Indian film makers forgot the importance of visual language or execution. The Giants and the greats were also original in their execution of visual language with respect to their stories, be it in India or abroad.

When I asked a director on visual language problem, the reply was “A new visual language is extremely hard to invent.” Hard not impossible. As much as there is talk of craft developing in Indian cinema, barring a few, most film makers who talk of their craft are already doing tried and tested methods set by the giants, or because it is not done before in the Indian scenario. I refuse to believe that new methods and craft in film making are no more possible, it’s firmly about pushing the craft from the seed idea. As much as we are progressing towards better stories and content, there should be more focus on developing the Indian film making technique along with the stories. And I don’t mean the use of songs into films, the so called Bollywood films, but visual styling is lacking in India; I am also talking of the niche, alternative wave of cinema that’s mostly discussed in these forums. Visual language is the last factor paid attention to in those movies and they seem to be inspired originals in terms of visual execution. I am not sure how many directors get their cinematographers to read the script, sometimes cinematographers seem remotely disconnected from the scene. Directors are not able to create original visuals by the references of countless films provided to the cinematographer to achieve a look, maybe not time invested to work out a visual language for the entire film. There could be mighty budget restrictions, but even budget restrictions can be used to an advantage in achieving unique visual language, thinking original in these circumstances. In the broader sense, somewhere in execution and in production values our films are lacking and are unable to raise the bar while competing internationally.

I do not claim to have the solution to this problem, merely pointing it out as a problem. If people think it’s alright for film makers to attempt already attempted visual techniques because their stories are original. The cleverer ones build it into their narrative making sure even the original film maker who first attempted the techniques cannot figure it out. It might be something that we need not worry at this stage since we are waging a war with the commercial star driven format for now; we have a long way to go before our film makers try stuff like Citizen Kane, Forest Gump etc. The larger implications of this problem is that we might never really have the so called “Unique Indian film” as times pass, just Bollywood musicals without soul and alternative, different cinema with techniques tried, tested and aped from the west or set by the Giants, we will just have content imitations of world cinema and Hollywood visually. An example of a seed idea pushed by craft of film making to final execution is Sholay. Wikipedia quotes “The Indian film Sholay (1975) borrowed its basic premise from Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. The film was declared BBC India’s “Film of the Millennium” and is the highest-grossing Indian film of all time.” We might never find an original visual language in future, but as an independent film industry we definitely should try to find one.

So coming back Dev D, I haven’t seen the film, read it’s an adaptation of Devdas, definitely not Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream, but the visual language definitely reminded me of other drug movies I have seen. Now why did I think before thinking?

A Year Later...

Nothing can be worse, like a power cut when you have just typed out what you wanted to say on your next blog entry. I did not save it while typing. Lesson learned , there is no perfect order for the things you set out to do, circumstances change. That's what been happening over the year. "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making plans"

A lot has changed in the year that went by, I was surprised to see the date on last entry in the blog was last November. There was a reason that it was not updated simply because we did not know such things had to be ever updated.

Grown wiser, know to read people and judge them better, taking them at face value , "sab log bolta hai". The past year has been impressive for me with the number of people I met and networked. Directors, Producers, actors, writers and of course my partners in crime in Bollywood, the eternal struggling souls that I gain inspiration the ones up there, who have managed to sell their souls to the devil.

I managed to get my first contract as a writer with a very established Director/Producer. Honestly, after the contract was signed there is now, a famous name tag in my resume, the project has to be still on floors. People are more accessible, willing to meet and yes willing to hear me out. I continue pitching projects. For those who asked me about The last Painting project, it has finally been shelved, due to various issues.It won't be made in malayalam, with the same budget we could even make it a multiplex film in Hindi. Who will fund you? No one to blame, but sometimes my own choices. Why would anyone want to fund a new director, who claims to know to make films, without working under anyone as an assistant or a bollywood set. A question that bothers many, few ask me and the only answer is the confidence in my script and my vision, because I am yet to make that film.

With ' The Last Painting' not happening, I decided to boost my resume with some names, not knowing whether it would be possible. More the names, better for investors, " "Aah this guy has worked under so and so...he has written so and so ...project etc". I collected contacts from all possible sources , started messaging and calling up the established names in the industry, asking if they would be interested in hiring a writer for their projects. I actually started with the Director for whom I am currently working. After numerous messages, he finally gave me a meeting. From there on after multiple meetings and discussions, he finally signed me in March. I ACTUALLY RECEIVED MY FIRST INDUSTRY ADVANCE. My Cheque!!!! Thursday the 13th of March, 2008!!!

During that period I had also pitched to other directors, so ended up making multiple plot lines during those pitches. Some producers even made me work for six to seven months, but when it came to the money, they simply vanished. I was Cuba Gooding "Show me the money Jerry!!! "..only problem is Jerry hung up the phone other end.

What came out of the meetings, is some great ideas, concept notes, treatments that lie in my email Inbox waiting to take off someday into the celluloid. Someday I wish to start a production house, happy, that I have original concepts and stories, I finally have my own bank, that I can either pitch, produce or direct, the ones that I beleive in. I have registered all of them in my name.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a director at CCD near Fame andheri. I reached there and waited for sometime for the director to arrive, I kept looking around the tables, what I saw models, an actress, glamour, the usual show shining, contracts being read, a group discussing song lyrics, lifestyle week been discussed, a college couple smoking a hookah, a casting guy looking at a model's snaps, someone saying he knows the A list stars and can get them. I suddenly felt very alien to that world, I don't belong there, the worse part Bombay has banned smoking in public spaces, that makes me a full alien in public place. Dunno, how many of them are actually telling the truth, how many are serious and how many meetings there will finally take off into something concrete.

The Andheri west belt scares, that is not the real Bombay, that is reality for some, not for me. I prefer taking a rickshaw ride to andheri from chembur, enjoy the sights and sounds of bombay, including some of the traffic, except when I am in a hurry. The rickshaw rides gave me numerous ideas, concepts, plots, gave time for prep before the pitches and I also met a rickshaw guy who worked for TCS in Oklahoma as a Java consultant, he has also passed Police Service exam, did not get a job because they demanded bribe from him to be a cop, he thought investing on his business was a better decison than paying the bribe, now works in a factory as a skilled turner( dunno what exactly it means) and invested, rents out and himself drives the rick for four hours daily, finally makes it home on time to watch BIGG BOSS. How inspiring, modern india, post liberalisation !!!!

I paid him, said "thank you", he replied " welcome". Something that struck me as I walked away " We are all part of some vicious system struggling to fight our circumstances and outcome of the choices." Sorry for this preachy shit !! I wish I could have sold my soul to the devil, but something that comes to my mind is when the Oklahoma school bomber Timothy MacVeigh was executed, he wrote a note to the people who insisted on seeing his death execution " I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul." He is not the right example here, but what I loved was you couldn't break his spirit, causing the people who watched his execution more grief.

Over the year we have become more adamant, stubborn, maybe focussed...and it's next to impossible to break our spirit, no matter how the circumstances changes.

Orson Welles advice to Ed Wood Junior in the movie Ed Wood (1994) " Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams? "



Goodluck and Best wishes to all.

Someone wrote it....

The Screenwriters have decided to strike in Hollywood. They are demanding a share of loyalty on DVD rights, internet and mobile content. Scripted televisions show will have difficulty in showing new episodes. Advertising on those shows will be affected. So revenue affected. The Writer's Guild of America has authorized the strike now. Currently 12,000 Writers have participated in the strike. Actors and celebrities are now supporting their cause. California Terminator Arnold is desperately trying to terminate the strike. Several shows are now been repeated. Many crew members are loosing work and finding it hard to find more work. Many will be forced to shut shop soon.

Sounds like some revolution happening there. Do we have the same power and voice in India ? Most writers are not even aware the kind of power and voice they have. Most directors and producers are still working without bound scripts. Sadly no one even realizes the importance of a good writer in a film. For the producer, the writer's work is never seen physically in the film. His pages are in the dust bin once the rough cut of the film is ready. What was his work in the film except write the story? Nothing really, the producer just has to pay a meager sum to write the story. He also writes a screenplay. Really? What's a screenplay? I have never seen one. The movie made money for the producer. Yeah of course it had stars, songs; yes also the idea was new and fresh. It was treated different. The writer did nothing for the film. He was someone hired to type away words for his film.

The director, the writer just gave me the idea, it was really my treatment. The writer is justified in his payment. After all what does the writer know about film making, the angles, the shots, making a film, and writing a film are two different jobs. His job is to just work like a typist to the story I have in my head. The writer knows no form, style and content. It's me. I created the story. He just wrote it. It's all my imagination. My office boy has told me some better stories than the writer.

The actor is now really concerned who the writer is, how much can I cry, emote, shout, scream do action in this story. What's the writer got to do with all this that I do for this film? Will my audience accept me if I do this role? What did the writer do for this role? It’s me, myself and my image. Screw the writer. Who is the writer ?

Cinematographer "what kind of lighting? The script? No why?... just tell me what you have in mind. I don't need to read the script. Anyways what does the writer know about cinematography, why should I care. It’s me anyway shooting it. Balls to the writer I follow the director and his vision. I have no connection to the writer of the film.

Same is the case of the rest of them involved in the film, the editor, the musicians, the technicians. The writer’s job is forgotten in the director’s and the producer’s office. The production companies are too busy listening to he directors and the stars. “Arrey…Don’t worry we’ll just hire a writer. It hardly costs anything? We’ll be anyway spending on the stars , promotions, songs, look, style, etc what the writer writes on the page has nothing to do with the cost of the film.” . Well this cribbing can continue forever, we don’t have the voice or the power. Most of them don’t know we exist. Did someone actually write about a film writer's job. I am reading this because I wrote it. Anyone else reading this ? Hello ? Is there anybody out there ?

Does anyone even know or care what’s a film writer’s job is?

Steven Spielberg once remarked " We all have a job in films , because there is someone to do a film writer's job."

Image Source- Google Image Search

A Kathaa about All for the Best.

A story from the Balbharati textbook stayed in my mind after 5th standard, it was a story about a King who hurts his hand and the Brahmin in his court says "it's all for the best." The King is furious seeing his bleeding thumb and says "How can it be for the best if I have hurt myself? ". He sends the Brahmin to the prison. Few days later the King, while hunting in the forest with his men, take rest below a tree. They are all asleep when a bear enters, the King's men escape to the trees, leaving the King sleeping . The bear sniffs around and reaches the sleeping King. The King wakes up on hearing the bear sniffing around and pretends to continue sleeping.The bear sniffs the wound on the sleeping King's hand, and thinking its an eaten carcass walks away. The King who was pretending to be asleep is relieved. The next thing that comes to his mind is "Its all for the best", the last words the Brahmin said before he was imprisoned.

The moral of this Kathaa, I would say is " All for the best. " So when I look back and see it's good we met the numerologist producer who rejected it. All the rejections happened and now we are happy. We did not have a producer for almost 9 months and have lost count of the rejections, phone calls and the people we met over the last 9 months. During every rejection we kept telling ourself "it's all for the best". It came to a point where we started wondering if it is really for the best till we met Elizabeth Koshy and Prakash Nambiar of Kathaa Films.

We met Elizabeth Koshy through Doney Joseph from California who connected us, prior to that we had no idea who she was and what she did. So we had to do some background study before meeting her, so we did a Google search. So by the time we met her, we had a clear idea we were meeting an entrepreneur, and the CEO of Animation Dimensions, Asia's largest flash Animation studio with branches in US and three cities in India. When I first spoke to her on the phone she mentioned that they had acquired Prakash Nambiar's Kathaa Animations, the same company involved in the animation of Yashraj's Hum Tum. So one thing was for sure, that she had an eye for spotting new talent. To be honest, we were skeptical about the meeting with her and what would be the outcome, since we were going to pitch a live action project to a company that specialized in Animation. But then every meeting we had to approach with the same fire that was ignited almost two years ago, cause if we did not show that enthusiasm the person listening to the pitch would be least interested. We finally got an appointment with her, which almost looked impossible with her schedule.

Sometimes history has an habit of repeating itself, we pretty much faced the same issues to get to her office, with traffic, print outs and a rickshawallah who would only drive to Dubai, to those who want to know, should ask Prasad and Vinayak. Situations similar to that happened while meeting Mr. Mohanlal, in Cochin. But somehow we managed to get to the meeting on time. The moment we met her, she made us comfortable, she was extremely lively and warm. All apprehensions of meeting a CEO was put to rest. She called in her creative head of Animation Dimension Prakash Nambiar for the pitch too. The moment we met Prakash, we knew we could tune to the same wave length. Both of them, gave us complete attention during the narration and they liked the story. Our meeting moved to the audio visual room, where they heard out the entire music. Prasad and Vinayak, spoke about their vision on the end product and I spoke about the screenplay and story. After a long discussion, the moment came in, when Elizabeth looked at us and asked " So, how do you want me to help you'll?". We were not quiet expecting that question since we had assumed she was listening to our pitch as someone who would produce. She mentioned that she can put us across to many people in the industry, thats when we admitted that almost all our pitches nobody could see our vision. She could see that vision, she had the contacts, the means to the funds to roll the project and she could see the passion we had that was needed to make a good entertaining film. Vinayak plainly replied and said" We need the funds and a producer, and we want you to consider this." She smiled and asked Prakash's opinion and he said he liked the story. She agreed. Phew !!!!! One answer we had heard many times, but would she come back, it all now depends on the days to come. Most of them showed support and enthusiasm in the first meeting, but later were never available to take calls and returned messages with stupid excuses, rather than be straight they don't want to do. Will Elizabeth and Prakash turn out to be the same? Though I was physically there in the meeting, mentally the thoughts haunted me. It's not yet time to even smile, forget celebrate. The discussion that took place further started assuring me, that at least at the end of the meeting we all can smile. She shared with us, her work experience, the various people's careers she had launched, making her a silent player in the success of lots of present day celebrities. her company is launching an animation project with Mr. Mohanlal, outsources work from Hollywood animation studios, involved in animating Donald Trump.

As an entrepreneur, she stressed on the importance on having a pre-production brochure for investors, presentation and about our approach. She loved the idea of marketing unusual projects and how she got a kick out of it when it worked. We knew she was also sharing our vision to do something different. We all connected on different kinds of cinema, the need for content and how she sees money in our project. Finally someone sees that potential, nobody so far could see our end vision, without wanting their compromises on the project. The moment I almost smiled in mind, when she said, "OK. I will take this up. I want you guys to direct it and no one else. You'll will make the film, like you'll planned ". The meeting lasted four hours, at the end of the meeting we were assured that she would finally produce it. She mentioned that she was planning to meet Mr. Mohanlal the next week and would inform him personally about her decision to do this project. We walked out of the meeting smiling , feeling lighter and thrilled. Though my mind, was still in doubts on whether, it was like one of the many meetings with other producers. Few days later she met Mohanlal and informed him. We had a second meeting with her and Prakash, where we actually decided on how to proceed with the project. We started working on the things that she wanted from us to get the project rolling.

Few days later around midnight, Prakash sent me a text message on my phone, that their live action company for this project would be called "Kathaa Films". I sent a text message to Vinayak and Prasad "A Kathaa FiLMS Production of An Artistic Revelations Project."

It's all for the best.


Image Source - www.animationdimensions.com

Film Appreciation in Gods Own Country

The Kerala government recently announced their decision to include a course in Film Appreciation in the school syllabus. A move the Malayalam film industry has welcomed with open arms.

Quality and content had once ruled the Malayalam film industry during the 80s and the 90s. The end of 90s and start of this century suddenly saw creative vacuum in the quality of films. The content of Malayalam films deteriorated during this period, mindless comedies, poor scripts and focus towards gimmicks to sell the film was prominent. Very few films stood out during this period. The films in a way started aping the Bollywood song and dances. Before this period the use of the songs always justified the story telling. Mindless song and dances done by starlets from the Tamil and North Indian states started getting work in the Malayalam industry. The industry showed a decline in content and viewers started looking for other forms of entertainment. Worse, the execution of the youthful song and dance, the campus stories were all done by film makers for whom this culture was alien as they were from an earlier generation. They were forced to work around this content to forcibly cater to this new teenage audience. Poor execution, bad costumes, vulgarity and poor production values too prevailed.

A career in films, by and far is seen as a social stigma in almost all of India. The general perception of parents is to make sure that their children pursue a career in engineering or medicine, get a secure future. Films are not seen as a career at all, but their general perception is that films are for low scoring, good for nothing students who couldn’t figure what they wanted to with their lives. A career in technical area of films they believed could only be afforded by the rich. Films are a mode of entertainment, not a career option, stay away. Of course a lot of this can be attributed to the shocking tales of exploitation, casting couches and gossip stories told behind the sets, which the media enjoy publishing and people enjoy reading. A content called Masala. But then, the same people fail to understand that there is Masala in every industry and again there are positive sides to every industry. Your social stigma is wiped out the day you make it big in films. The day you can boast of a fat bank balance and an award.

Approach and attitudes to career in films will only change with moves like the Kerala government. Film appreciation will encourage children to see films in a different way; it will encourage young minds to imagine in a positive way. Understanding the fine nuances of a good film, will only encourage them to think of a career in films. They will choose better content over crap that is available in the market. A lot more will choose to pursue films as a career option since their basics of a good film is sound; they have grown watching good films. Actor Mammootty insisted that the subject should be kept optional, since that will only attract students who are serious about approaching this subject, which I agree.

A state that can boast of 100 % literacy, an industry that can boast of more National awards than any other state in the country in the area of films, a state where the two big superstars Mohanlal and Mammootty are great actors first and superstars later, only film industry in India to publish screenplays as a books will finally see the come back of good content and international cinema with the Kerala government’s decision.

There is hope.


Image Source -Google Image Search