PROLOGUE Teaser

So, here is the official trailer of this upcoming French short film, PROLOGUE, in which I acted and about which I wrote here. Before you ask me, No, I’m not there in the trailer; thankfully . Have a nice weekend everybody.

Story: How it starts?

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. – Socrates

Of late, I have been thinking a lot regarding how the story of any film begins in the mind of a writer/filmmaker. In various scriptwriting books, courses, workshops etc, we learn about various things related to any good story; the structure, various acts, conflict, interesting characters, beats, plot points, resolution and so on. The book, “Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting“ authored by the ultimate screenwriting guru, Robert McKee, is considered Bible in screenwriting. I cannot write enough that how much this voluminous 500 page book has taught me. Unlike most other books on screenwriting which focus more on the mechanical aspects of a story structure, Mckee’s Story turns inwards into human psychology to explain in minute detail how great dramas unfold on screen. He writes, “We need a rediscovery of the underlying tenets of our art, the guiding principles that liberate talent.” His book, Story, is a path to that rediscovery. In it, McKee offers so much sound advice, drawing from sources as wide ranging as Aristotle, Casablanca, Stanislavski and Chinatown, that it is impossible not to be influenced by this book when you start your journey into screenwriting.

Nostalgia

While going through some old videos on You tube, I found these fascinating videos of old Indian TV commercials. Anybody who has grown up in India during mid-80’s through early-90’s will remember these commercials. These videos are listed in no particular order of my liking them.

1. Gold Spot: Till date, no soft drink has tasted better to me than what Gold Spot had tasted long back. And, this commercial looked so hip then.

Notes from a film shoot

They say that no book or a lecture on film making can teach you what a real shoot will teach you. I agree. My first real foray into the world of film making happened recently. One of my friend, Paul Landriau, a young filmmaker, shot his ten minute short French film, PROLOGUE, last weekend. He had asked me more than a month back if I would like to play a role in the film and, even though I first panicked and balked at this idea of me being in front of the camera, I still agreed to act; I thought that what better way to build network for my own future film projects & also to learn from the whole experience for free. This is Paul’s third short narrative film & the film is shot with a digital video camera (Panasonic AG-DVX100). Paul is making this film primarily to sharpen his directing skills further & to build his repertoire. In terms of its target audience, the film will be sent to some film festivals and Paul also intends to hold some free public screenings. The story of Prologue, from whatever I understood, is about a surreal dream of a budding actress. In the dream, actress is auditioning for a role in a film & I’m playing the director who is auditioning her. We first discussed about this role more than a month back, followed by rehearsals with the full cast before the final shoot with the camera happened. The following are my notes and observations from the shoot of my part which happened last Saturday.

Luck By Chance (2009)

As if it was not enough for Farhan Akhtar, the director, to charm us with his cool films, he has now also donned a role of an actor with films such as Rock On and Luck By Chance. I didnt like Rock On much; I thought that even though the film was well made, it was quite predictable and safe in the end. Luck by Chance, however, I found very rich and well crafted. The mind behind Luck By Chance, Zoya Akhtar, goes introspective by turning the cameras on the industry she has grown up in (Zoya is the daughter of legendary writer/lyricist Javed Akhtar & the talented screenwriter Honey Irani & she is also the sister of Farhan Akhtar) and in the process tells us a story set in a world where destiny, talent, egos and little chances all converge to make or break people.

The New Sardars of Bollywood

Since early days, Bollywood or Hindi film industry has been dominated by Punjabis. Many producers, directors, writers and especially heroes of the past were Punjabis. Quite a few among those Punjabis were either Sikhs or came from mixed Hindu-Sikh Punjabi families. But still the Sikh characters in Hindi films during those days were mostly reduced to stereotypes. Either they were there to provide a comic angle or to play an over the top super nice/super brave character. I guess the reason that in spite of the presence of many Punjabis at the helm of affairs during those days, we still didnt ever see a full Sardar as a hero was that both producers and the directors thought that a turbaned Sikh with a beard wont find much takers among the masses. Also, remember that those were the times when even some Muslim actors and actresses changed their names to more North Indian sounding Hindu names. I guess most people wanted to play safe in the still nascent Bombay film industry of the 50’s and the 60’s.

Why not….?

They say that, in life, everything happens for a reason and that you meet, form relationships, with only those people with whom nature wants you to connect with; the reason that you never meet the remaining ones or never come to know them much is because it’s not meant to be. But, I wonder if this is really true. I see some souls who exist in the same world around me, but our paths never get crossed and will never be. Seeing them from a distance, however, I find them very interesting. I wonder why didnt I meet and know them instead of the ones I knew and know now. I wonder why didnt I fall in love with them rather than the ones I fell in love with in reality. I wonder why didnt….

Do we really make the best possible choices in terms of choosing people in our lives? or even before that, do we really have any control on our ‘choices’ ?

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy teases you. The film teases because you cannot decide when Coens are serious and when they are spoofing. If you start taking the film or it’s characters seriously, you might realize that you, just like the main character Norville in the film, are being taken for a big ride by the Coens; and if you relax and treat it as a spoof, soon you start getting this uncomfortable feeling that you are missing many layers beneath the ‘dont take me seriously’ narrative. Actually, Coens, as is their wont, are doing both. It’s your prerogative what you prefer to see in the movie.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Since some years now, Bollywood, along with it’s usual masala fare, has been also churning out some decent low budget films; films which dont have big stars but which are well scripted, realistic and reasonably entertaining too. I guess Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! comes under that category.

Election Mania