Finally! Presenting "A Picture Of You"

For over ten years now, I have been working on this film which started off with getting to know my dad. I had lost him when I was six. The question I had asked was: Can film bring my father back to life in a way I will never lose him again? But this film did far more than that.

I now invite you to the premiere on 12th Oct 2012 at the Vikalp@Alliance screenings at Alliance Francais in Churchgate at 7pm. The screening will be followed by a discussion.

clearing cobwebs

the cobwebs grew thick n fast over the last year...obscuring any trace of progress i had made on my dad's film. on sunday, while dusting some debris off my head (not my brain, pls note;) i realised that it was exactly a year ago i had begun writing a proposal for docedge. the coincidence was eerie but significant...significant enough to want to get back to it...i hadn't shot a frame nor written a single word...some said it would happen when it happens...whatever that means...but all i know it's back on my radar, a faint blip albeit...but hopefully the venus jupiter conjunction will ignite it back to life :)
working title: in the name of the father (o how original!). gtkd - getting to know dad (cuteseely yuckk!) so help me god

old wine older bottles

...every new year for the last 4, i resolve to finish my film on my dad...n every year somewhere along the way it gets derailed n i get increasingly lazy...no not lazy (yes! lazy) kinda struggling to find the motivation...last week, on an impulse, i decided to fly down to spend a couple of days with my uncle. my mum said she'd come along too...the night before the departure i had an idea! let's not shoot this time...enough of your boring camera-in-your-face shoots...i decided to do some audio recordings with my uncle n mum n her sister there...my usual last-minute scrambling around..my poor friends now inured to my ways chipped in - paro, suresh, mohandas, madhu, mahesh, sur, muks...so walkman dat in tow with two mics i went ...thought i'd take b/w digital stills in a desperate hope to get me thinking afresh anew...but na...i just wasn't thinking enough...of what i wanted n how. recorded random conversations with old family friends...n even took some pics...but haven't come back happy...the blessing of "the plot" never happened - mum forgot to carry her holy water n eddie didn't call to remind me of the good ol coconut n my uncle couldn't walk up so stayed back in the car...sighhhh! kya hoga mera??!! angry at myself n v disappointed i spent the next day alone on the beach...

untitled 3.1

Daddy's flown across the ocean
Leaving just a memory
Snapshot in the family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me?

printed memories

..i sit across a table with my mum's sisters as they rummage thru their past recollecting for me all thay can remember about my dad...and my mum. they pull out lil brown paper packets of lil b/w photographs of a time i never knew but cherish so much. we hold them in our hands...look at them...closely...sending them deep into a spiral of memories...they give them to me those b/w photographs...i am overwhelmed... but can't help thinking of the future...what will they the gen next hold when we sit down together so many years later?...

bheja fried!

...been two weeks since i got back to work on my film about my dad...but structure, edit, script toh is doooor ki baat...my head's been swimming over pc vs mac, premiere vs fcp, laptop vs desktop, 250gb vs 500gb, lcd vs crt, pirated vs legal software, to log or not to log...but it is begining to settle down...after chewing lots of friends ka brains...we're going the fcp macbook route...will tell more as i progress!

in the midst of all this, one night at mukul's party, again i got smashed n left without saying bye to anyone...hopeless!!