lighting@sristi3

some of their situations...william'sroanna's
philly's
sahil's
tariq's

PS: a bar of chocolate to anyone who figures out the dominant mood ;)

birthday in b'lore

my friend ranjan had me over for lunch on the 25th...complete with belge beer n exquisite strawberry cheesecake...what a start...then later that night...

... i made them lots of goa sausages n irish cream n they got me this yumm chocolate cake.and early my b'day morning, sur's friend sushma drove me to their beautiful farmhouse nearby for breakfast n some very good coffee...aahhh nice!...needles to say, we ended the long day with lots more beer n music...er ya n some food!!

lighting@sristi2

so we closely observed daylight, watched films - bits n whole, looked at paintings, read about how the great masters worked - from nykvist to murty saab and slowly started working on individual lighting situations which they realised over the last 3days...
quite intense, it ended up being...working about 12hrs everyday...sat sun republic day too!!

lighting@sristi

early this month, mike (aka michael joseph of johnny gadaar fame) called from bangalore asking me to do a 10day camera n lighting workshop for his film students at sristi. 10days!!! i gulped...we settled for 7...i'd never done a week long lighting workshop. was most kicked about the fact that i would be teaching my niece-pooja!
now, i had seen some early dip films from sristi n loved them n thought this mike guy's got a good thing going. on our last trip to b'lore, visited the school n liked the vibe n met up with mike n bonded almost immediately. i've often felt frustrated at sophia's where i've been teaching for about 13yeaars!...and now quite looked forward to interacting with just 10students. that too all day for however long we wanted...an all new experience!

...and a happy new year it has been!

discovered the hippest jazz night club in town - blue frog! good international acts in a well designed space all centred around the performance stage.
school boys reunion! kaali, mullah, tun, shorty, batli reminiscing...missing pakya, ghoda, padhya, porky, chic...was years since we used those names! such fun!
did a pottery workshop at the prince of wales museum! something i had always wanted to learn. sitting at the wheel shaping a mound of clay to life is the closest spiritual experience i've had recently!!
...and how's the new year treating you??

happy new year to you!

the fog came on lil cat feet...
the fog that seems to have taken the world away...
may the new year be clear n crisp, bright n happy!

dmc college goa workshop

finally getting down to write about my first workshop for undergrad college students...this friend of mine - anita, teaches economics at this college in assagaon, near mapusa. and we'd been talking of me doing a film workshop for some time now. three (or was it two) years ago, the inimitable shammi did one during iffi, which was a big hit with the students.

we decided to keep it small ...12-15 students over a week...introduce them to the basics of film-making. for a change i didn't carry my camera n laptop, just to see how i'd manage with what was available. carried many films, a couple of books n my digital still cam. oddly tho, i hardly took many pics this time...kinda bored of my mostly merely illustrative pictures. the hardest part was getting them to talk...they're so used to passively listening in a classroom, it took a long while for them to break free n enjoy an all new feeling of talking, sharing, exchanging...i thought it was the language at first n encouraged them to speak in konkani (hoping that way i'd learn some too ;)...

the other striking thing that happened was that they kept thinking only for themselves dismissing totally all i said about the collaborative-ness of the filmmaking process. it was only late on day 6 when they begun editing the film that they had shot did they realise...and that was such a wonderful moment! how much i laughed when they cribbed about the other...save one guy, no one else had used a video camera...i hadn't anticipated how much of a big deal it was to them...so impatient they were to just go shoot...without listening or following my instructions...without thinking even about what or how they wanted to shoot...of course they got a earful from me!
once they got over that, we really started enjoying ourselves...they came up with 47 ideas!!! to make a film on...n narrowed it down to three - one about love on campus, which they dramatised n shot. then, one on how to copy at exams n not get caught, which was a lot of fun. and third, about the guy who runs their canteen - an elusive but much loved character. he refused to be interviewed which made it all the more challenging!

remembering what bodhibaba used to say about involving locals in my workshops, i invited a young filmmaker - laxmikant who had made a 45min film "a seaside story" to "interact" with this bunch of students...needles to say, they sat poker-faced after the screening n the over enthu laxmikant went on overdrive promptly talking about his film...i stayed quiet for a while...but soon interrupted it, saying he was making it way too easy for them n that he should talk only if they had questions! a wicked smile left my face...n soon the questions poured in :)

now tech! that remains such a pain...for three days we didn't get a comp with the right config to run premier pro. when we got one, it didn't recognise the playback devise...grrrr i tore my hair cursing my decision not to get my laptop with fcp. sos some tech savvy friends...one fails, the other after some tinkering gets it working...phew!...we can edit!! just seeing their footage projected made them gasp n giggle...by the time they begun editing they realised this thing called filmmaking...

unfortunately tho, we didn't finish the edit...the one thing i had completely not factored was "the last bus home"!! this is goa n the last bus back home was at 7.30pm...so we had to stop work at 6.45 every evening...n still they'd get shouted at for coming home late n then leave home at 7am to be in time for the 9am start! the end came suddenly n reluctantly...contento contento contento!

merry christmas!

wishes from the ark this christmas...may you have a very merry fun-filled christmas...there's yumm sweets n good food to be had! so come!

begum

so the new chat show i worked on - "begum" airs on 15th dec at 10pm on this new channel 9x. pls to catch it n tell me what you think.

goaaahhh!

...off to goa (yet again!)..this time for a week long intro to film-making workshop for a bunch of undergrad students in mapusa. assagaon, really - very close to my mum's family village. i'm excited n nervous...never done a week long 9am to 9pm kinda workshop. the college is celebrating its centenary n we're going to be looking at making 4 films...4 groups of 4 students each. one camcorder one edit machine...so let's see how it goes! i hope to rope in some locals in taking the workshop, so that they build a pool among themselves to take this further without me...

haven't prepared much...not too happy about that...will keep you posted.

DO NOT FLY GO AIR

...just back from delhi after a harrowing flight on go air. you call before you leave home, "it's on time sir"...you check in, "it's on time sir". you're waiting in the the departure lounge that resembles a railway stn, no announcement. 15mins after the flight was supposed to take off, there's an announcement that the flight is going to be 30min late. 1hr later the crowd's getting restive...still no announcement. 30mins later we gherao 2 young walkie-talkie totting go-air ground staff. they plead ignorance innocence whatever...we're getting angrier...

turns out that the flight has come in from bombay n that a connecting flight to jammu has been cancelled, so the passengers on board are refusing to deplane!! duty manager is on board trying to coax the passengers to get off. meanwhile, no announcements, no senior "responsible" staff. we start go-air hai hai! the cisf comes by, the airport manager comes by...protests get more vociferous. go-air are sorry! but no offer for refreshments, still no announcement, no offer to put us on other available flights, no refund..but they are sorry!

the commandos are called in n the passengers de-plane n we board the aircraft 2 hours after the scheduled time of departure. on board too they are sorry. but they won't provide us with a complimentary snack or drink. they won't even provide you with a complaint form or passenger feedback form! utterly disdainful disrespectful dispicable behaviour!!

so, the long n short of it - pay that 2/300 extra fly indigo, spice, jetlite, deccan, etc BUT DO NOT FLY GO AIR!

the gautama buddha...

...advises me to kill the "I"...but, just how the fuckkk??!! did he ever have any followers?

sankraman studios!

aaarrrggghh! sankraman studios (where balaji n all those k soaps are manufactured)...aawwful dumpyard masquerading as a studio. illegal (it is located within the reserved forestlands of aarey) n ill-maintained
piss pools from overflowing loos!
the sound proofing!
the world's my garbage dump!
i don't know why producers pay for facilities like this. makes me so angry!...the only good thing, is that it is a 5min bike ride away from home ;)

yet another chat show!

long after the high of koffee, i get a call to light another chat show, "something very different, which needs someone as sensitive as you"!! i wasn't too keen as i'd finished my quota of television work for the year...but they were insistent n i bit the bait yet again -so this new chat show to be airing on this new channel called 9x from 15th dec 10pm. not saying more ...just yet!everyone seemed happy enough yesterday after our first shoot. they're happy, i'm happy!...and guess what? we're shooting 16:9!! (that is the widescreen format)...for so long i've been lobbying for it n finally it's happening...

these my two headhonchos - bob n fauzi...we've been working together for years now.and how they've grown!! ;)

aaja nacch le!

madhureeeee!....that's all i wanted to see!...after ages did advance booking for first day first show!! o those eyes n taht flashing smile...n no one, no one can move like her!...the story v weak n tres facile...the supporting cast fantastic, esp vinay, divya dutt, konkana...impeccably lit n shot...though an over use of the jib i thought...
most disappointing of course, was the empty theatre...this carpet bombing of realese prints has taken the mazaa out of a full house. there were barely 45-50 people in this 200seater at goregaon :( lagta nahi ki yeh picture chalegi :(

bicycle DoP

i cycle to my television shoots as well...the studios, an easy 15-20min radius from where i live... i remember when i first arrived on my cycle to the kbc n koffee sets, my lightboys were horrified!..."kya sir, gaadi lena chahiye". of course, there'd be one of them who'd thumbs up in full approval from behind ;)
now they are all used to me seeing me rollin in ...i am loving it!

bicycle bicycle bicycle

been meaning to do it ever since i got my bike...ride from home @ sai baba in goregaon to sur's @ thakur village in kandivili...and i did it this morning!...in 20mins flat!! with coolers over my eyes n music in my ears, i was there in just 3 songs. up over the malad flyover rolling down all the way downslope to the notorious malad toi signal. slight upslope till the k'vili station road bridge n then a smooth roll down to mahindra gate...whizzed right past security n parked my bike just below the block. ahhh!...to think i've spent an hour n a half hours sometimes suffocating in a rick to do the same distance at peak hours!!
bicycle lanes toh door ki bath! wish i was in amsterdam!!
so many lifetimes ago, i'd race rickety ambassadors n fiats on skates as they spluttered down the highway in bandra east...i skate from home in kherwadi to the santacruz airport just to see planes take off...o n to under one while it took off was the biggest thrill of the week!!...i'd skate the from home in vakola to school in matunga, n be joined by two classmates on their bicycles at the bandra kalanagar flyover!!! cannot imagine doing it these days...
next...gonna try goregaon to vakola to my mum's! yaaay!

not just jazz

i had missed all of the prithvi theatre festival celebrating the musical. got a chance to see denzil smith's 'jazz' last evening at bandra...my friend, naresh has been digging up bombay's fantastic jazz past over the last few years...his research shaped much of the script but the play left me disappointed. some of the lines were straight out from a high-school annual day production!...making me cringe. the lead - bugs bhargava huffed n puffed his way thru the different characters he played - mumbai's long forgotten jazz greats. drugs, sex, women, exploitation, penury, desperation, alcohol, church, bollywood...o how much church! seemed more like a "made by bandra for bandra" consumption! the high point was young rhys!...boy! can he blow that sax??!!
good intentions not matched by as good results...in fact, it could've been a radio play!!

maalish! tel maalish!

sar jo teraa chakaraaye,
yaa dil Duubaa jaaye
aajaa pyaare paas hamaare,
kaahe ghabaraay, kaahe ghabaraay

...a few days ago, i decided to shave my hair off! well, almost ;) but the chammpi that followed...aaahhhh tres bliss! wondered why i didn't get one before!!

a couple of hours later...

no one says it like schulz!