Hi Anurag Kashyap,

Dev D was an amazing movie and available for me at a very correct time in life. You put so much love into the movie, it seemed that you carefully added little nuances whether or not the viewers would grasp them. Like Thumbs-up Coke. How come there is always the other option?

The aukaad-bits rocked. The 3 guys who performed at the shady Delhi inn were sooo good.. I was dancing in my seat and doing waves as I watched the movie. The music “Ohh Pardesiiiiii..ohhh pardesi…” fit in excellently. And connected so well with our identity.. good rhythm and breaking music with melodious Indian lyrics. Sattu was good “Tera taste kharab ho gaya hai.. whisky ki jagah vodka etc etc..” Abhai Deol’s styling was excellent. That black n white plasticky man-bag he carried was just the right thing. Very soon it’s going to be used to define stereotypes.

My friend called up and broke my thread of thought. So with utter devotion to you, cheers! Please make lots more films so that cinema is an amazing out-of-the body experience.

Now I must watch No Smoking.

Malvika

We went to a studio called Technicolor, 2 weeks ago.

Once a guest lecturer came to college and spoke to us about film-making. He appeared casual and not like a cabbage professor. Cabbage-Prof, I just made up the term. You get the idea right ?
In going to these studios and meeting all these people, the noticeable thing is that they are all so crazy and passionate, totally in love with film tapes and editing boxes. They can spend whole weekends sitting and tweaking video for post production in a dark room with two computers, editing equipment, a large screen in front while surviving on beer and cold pizza.
Each of these people, including our instructor Gordon Burkell, was more than eager to help as they came up as a novices, thirtsy for solutions to problems, themselves.

The film-veteran, speaking to us, wanted to tell us how to convert one format to another as he had just discovered a way to save time and money! Money was always short he said.

The way many films get made, he continued, is with a few hundred bucks on the table. The guys shoot a video and make the first edited draft. Then they show it somewhere and win a distributor who puts in a some thousands. Finally, they may get a budget of $50 million just by hoping and climbing up. Hope. Thats all.

All these people are crazy about story-telling through film - a documentary or fiction. Broken footage on climbing Mt everest from the 1980s to after 2000. Surrealistic pieces.

In my Introduction to video production, we were shown a short videos about lighting up the Eiffel tower. The maker of the video, Helga is our teacher. She conducted an interview with a workman who was up on the tower fixing lights. He was actually a mountaineer as expert climbers were needed for the tricky job. They carried heavy lights and worked while the tower was still open tourists. It would be certain death if the smallest of their tools dropped on anyone's head from that height.

Helga conducted a mobile phone interview with the workman. She could not hear his answers as he spoke into a mini-microphone for the camera. The cameraman was strapped up on the tower with the workman - both of them hanging high over Paris. And since Helga was using a Canadian number, the call went to Canada first and was then redirected back to Paris. This way she communicated with a guy hanging high up right over her head. This was when she was not walking along the girders of the Eiffel tower for the shooting!

When you are the producer, director, camera person and editor

I have written this as a film student and an appreciator of good movie-making -

Steps to shooting -

Decide what you want to shoot. Have a story.

Write the story in detail dividing it into shots. This is called Storyboarding.

Each shot must be decided upon as a WS, MS, CU, ECU or an Over the shoulder Shot. The angle of these shots should be decided as aerial, worm's eye or eye-level. These decisions should be relevant. For example use WS to show the context of the scene, use ECU only when you want to emphasize on the details. Avoid another WS immediately after a WS. If you must, change the angle of the WS.

Write down all your MS together. Put CU on another sheet or paper and so on.

All MS are probably going to be from the same position of the camera. If not, ascertain each position.

Write down all shots from the same position of the camera on 1 sheet of paper.

So if you have 5 camera positions/setups you will have 5 sheets of paper at the end of this.

Now you dont have to shoot the video in chronological order. Shoot all the shots from camera position 1 first. Then shoot all from camera position 2. And so on. The shots can be arranged in chronological order on the editing table.

Before you shoot any scene,

1 Zoom in and focus

2 Check white balance

3 Adjust iris/aperture, especially when light conditions change

I have written this as a film student and an appreciator of good movie-making -

Shots -

WS - Wide shot. it is taken from far away and shows a place. Often used at the beginning of scenes to show the context of the scene. Thus it serves as an ES - Establishing shot

MS - Mid shot, A shot taken from not too close, not two far. It may be a shot of two people talking.

CU - Close Up, A shot taken from near the subject. For example, head and bust of the actor.

ECU - Extreme Close Up. Like showing the eyes of the actor to show a frown.

VO- Voice over

MVO - Male voice over

FVO -Female voice over

Super - Text that appears over the video on the screen

Camera handling techniques -

Tilt Up, Tilt Down - Self explanatory

Panning - Swinging the camera from side to side. Lets say, to scan a crowd.

Tracking - The camera moves along with the subject. A person is walking and the camera is moving along with her, maintaining constant distance from her.

I have written this as a film student and an appreciator of good movie-making -

Tips -

Never cut wide shot to wide shot, change angles if you must

When you track a person walking, keep room in front of him so that it looks that there is space for him to move into

Always have the actor facing inwards into the frame unless you deliberately want to make him look outside

When two people are talking and you are taking separate shots of each, shoot person A looking inwards into the frame, standing on the left side of the frame. Person B should stand looking inwards into the frame from the right side where he is standing.

When two people are shown talking in the same frame, make then stand close together. On camera they will appear to be at normal distance.

Use tripod. Shaky camera is awful unless you want to show an earthquake!

Avoid zoom in and zoom out. Do separate shots.

Shoot a little extra before and after the shot so that there is enough space to cut while editing. Basically give lead time.

S cut, L cut - Lets imagine an actor giving advice to a little child. You are shooting him speaking. In the last few words of his speech, you can change the shot to show the child and the child's reaction as a listener. For example if the speaker's last sentence is "...And remember to fart quietly." Keep the camera on the speaker till ‘remember’ and finish the words "..To fart quietly" showing the child listening. This adds continuity to the story visually. Vice versa, you show the listener first and then quickly move to the speaker.

Here are 5 things to take care of while shooting -

1. Emotion - If you want it to appear fast and racy do quick shots and fast cuts. If you want it to be larger than life, do worm's view shots

2. Story - Make sure that the shots spell a story in chronological order. The story should make sense.

3. Rhythm - Take the example of a music video. The shots can be changed in sync with the beat of the music. The sound and shot-change makes great impact together.

4 Eye trace - The viewer's eye concentrates on the most dominant part of the composition within the camera frame. You may wish to take advantage of that if you want the viewer to continue looking at that spot in the next shot. By making a path down which the gaze would follow, you can lead to show things to the viewer.

5. Continuity - Simply that if a person walks out of the right side of the frame. In the next shot have him enter from the left. Otherwise it will look like he took a U turn.

(Poster from bollywoodmantra.com)

Ok, so its been quite a while since Chokher Bali made news, got reviews and I am presuming you have no problem if I reveal turning points in the story.

The movie is based on a book written by Rabindra Nath Tagore and is full of complex characters and relationships within a family. The story has four main protagonists

Binodini (Aishwarya Rai) - a widow (unrelated to the family)
Ashalata (Raima Sen) - young wife
Mahendra (Prosenjit) - husband
Bihari (Tota Raychaudhuri) - younger brother of the husband

Binodini comes to live at the house of the young couple. She befriends Ashalata. Ashalata is eager to alleviate Binodini's sorrows in her life as a widow with no jewelery, man or epicurean pleasures like chocolates and tea. There is so much intimacy that ultimately Binodini starts sleeping with the husband, Mahendra.
Ashalata is fooled and tricked by her own naivette. Ha ha! Ashalata ki Googly!

Binodini leaves the house and goes to Bihari saying "Give me support. make me your wife. Well, Ok then, make me your mistress". He rejects her, not even a one night stand. Heh heh. Binodini ki Googly!

Mahendra leaves his home to go to Binodini. She says that they should go to Bihari. He says "Why? Do you want him as a witness to our marriage?" She says "No. I want you as a witness". LOL. Mahendra ki solid Googly.

Finally Bihari does come around, stepping down from his pedestal of freedom fighter, disciplined man with control over his lust and emotions. He proposes to Binodini who accepts. He returns the next morning to take her away but finds her gone. Poof! Bihari ki Googly!

Overall satisfactory movie with lots of back.

A guy at NIFT explained to me that "Popping up the chain" is a special dance move and he spent a long evening before he figured out that the lyrics were "Can we pop up the chain, can we?"

Here is what searching online gave me -

Soni de nakhre sone lagade o mainu

Oh keinde, funk funk funk

Oh jannah jannah keinde

Oh keinde funk funky jam, oh keinde

Oh jannah jannah, oh keinde

(from bollywoodlyrics.com)

soni de nakhirai soni lagidai meino (4)

oh keinde pump pump pump up (4)

oh jannah jannah

oh keindie pump up the jame oh keinde (4)

oh jannah jannah oh keinde

(from indicine.com)

Many websites like www.indianjukebox.com, movietalkies.com have totally skipped the chorus in giving the lyrics.

I know for a fact that there is a "Pau" in there, you cant fool me with pump and funk!

So can some true blue Punjabi step in and solve the whole mystery and explain what the chorus means please.

Remember that song of the 80s- 'Informer' by Snow. Well surprising how it became such a super hit considering that the rap was totally unintelligible, 'licky boom boom dang'?

Ahaa! Now that was a good movie.
When I went to watch Chak De I kind of knew what to expect - rivalry in the team, one killing loss in the game, injury of a good player which gave a lesser player an opportunity to prove herself, an inspiring coach speech. I must say the movie went far beyond my expectations and there was a special tadka in it since it was Indian. No hamming with patriotosm, just the correct pinch of it. Indian languages, practising with facilities that are sub standard on the international scale, the India Gate circle as a running track, the lack of faith in "women running around in knickers" - it made the movie very different from any other sports team movie from Hollywood.
The movie pushes women and their self esteem ahead, the girls even beat up eve-teasing men. Yet the movie is not a feminist's delight and there is a good dose of sportsmanship from both men and women. The excitement builds up, the penalty shoot outs are moments of silence and anticipation and quick heartbeats. I found myself cheering and clapping and having to remind myself that it was only a movie with takes and retakes.
Must watch movie. Paisa Vasool.

Attended half of OSIANs film festival, from the 20th to 25th of July. I would wake up and really get cranky about procuring food. I had nothing to do and no will to work, having just finished my internship. The only highlight in the day was the time spent in Audi 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Siri fort in the darkness catching movies. Soon I was craving for AC, fridge and Mummy and I hit home in Chandigarh after half the film festival was over.
It was good to watch the thin Neville Tully around the festival with his light cotton, well ironed clothes and the characteristic loop in his posture.

I caught the following films-
Curiosity killed the Cat
Dor
Fourteen
Tender is the Wolf
Driving to ZigZigland
Where to
Vanaja
Frozen
Mr and Mrs 55
Cafe Lumiere

If you watched any of these films do give your opinion on it as a comment on this blog.
Some films had a very strong plot that kept the viewer glued to his seat while others seemed like drifters with a surrealistic touch. I am a fan of strong plots and films that are too abstract lose my attention.

Vanaja (Telegu), Frozen (Shot in Ladakh), Dor and Mr and Mrs.55 (Guru Dutt) were the Indian movies I watched.
Vanaja is the story of a fisherman's 15 year old daughter and how she tries to climb up in life. She works at an influential woman's house as domestic help and wins a bet against her mistress to learn classical dance from her. Vanaja is at the verge of womanhood. Its crazy how certain scenes titillate you without any skin show. Its mind twisting. A simple story otherwise, very interesting to watch with lots of Andhra Pradesh landscape and lifestyle to observe.
Frozen has very very very beautiful shots. Its all in black and white. The snow, the glare of the sun in frozen Ladakh, the wolf like dogs make it a beautiful calender. No story. No fun.
Mr and Mrs 55. Fat and happy and beautiful Madhubala. Guru Dutt in a lighter mood and Johnny Walker flirting with Ms Julie by singing songs with her while crawling under office desks. Loved the movie.
Dor - a Nagesh Kukunoor movie with Ayesha Takia, Gul PAnag and Shreyas Talpade. Strong story. Beautiful shots. Great film in too many aspects to point out.

Fourteen was about crazy adolescents in Japan. It was also about adults coming to terms with the craziness of their own childhoods. Didn't identify with it as we Indians are still a sane lot in our teenage lives except for the occasional young guy who features on reality shows like Deewanagi.
Cafe Lumiere - another Japanese movie. Boring. Japanese movies are non-noisy non-pushy like Japanese people themselves. They pause. One scene was shot with a girl bending and putting on her shoe, stopping to think and finally does up her laces to sit up straight and thinking and then finally going and pulling out her cycle from the stand to pedal away. The way they make films, the way Japanese people shoot scenes and the way they give the viewer lots of room for thought is a breath of fresh air for people accustomed to racy Hollywood. Sounds are like water dripping, the sound of putting down a tea cup on the table or the short answer "Hai (yes)" to a question.

The Chinese movie Curiosity Killed the Cat is one of the movies I enjoyed the most. It is the story of betrayal and revenge. Main characters - a man, his wife and his mistress. It is all about she knows and she knows that she knows but she doesn't let him know that she knows, he doesn't want to let her know. The same scenes are shown again and again but each time a new angle in the story has been revealed to you so that you see it in a new light each time. Its a whodunit. Very well made film that grabs you by your eyeballs.

Tender is the wolf (Tunisian) had me cringing with its rape scene. Its about weird characters, a girl who takes revenge and even makes up with one of the men after rape, a girl with no fear and lots of spunk, a mentally sick albino, a coward who is beaten to pulp and rushed to hospital by strangers in a trash wagon. The story of the movie is made up of the happenings of one night. It is a very involving movie.

Where to - strikes a chord in the heart of anyone who longs for home. Its a 12 minute film on an immigrant taxi cab driver.
Drivingto Zigzigland is a movie made in USA but the theme is not USA. Its inclusion in OSIANs is justified by the fact that the main protagonist belongs to Jerusalem and this affects the thought-base of the movie. This man too is a taxi cab driver. Each time he tells his passengers he is from Palestine it strikes up a political debate or calls for a history lesson. So he prefers to say he is from Zigzigland and even gets away from it. The passengers are often racists - not the extreme types, but the everyday types - you and me. The film has comedy, sadness and damn! kick-the-object-closest-to-you, bang-your-fist moments. It was the best film I watched at the film festival. It was introduced by the director and cast of the movie which was an honour.

Waiting for a movie to start- Looking around - silver haired flowing tresses women with silver jewelery and exclamation mark bindis on the forehead - the gaggle of students- a woman from some country left for you to guess with a scary spice hairdo sitting in the seat in front of a short man - the old man who sang along lustily with all the songs in the Guru Dutt's movie - the people sitting around that old man who did not have the heart to ask him to stop although they are very sensitive to the backseat chatter in a movie usually - the security guards at the door who were very sincere in their duty but a little scared lest they be stopping some high and mighty dignitary who is a chief guest for the movie screening and not to be disallowed anything - the aunty sitting in the food court handing out coupons to soggy bhelpuri - the sound of the projector running just before the video appeared on the screen - the gol gappa fellow outside making hay while the sun shone by doubling the price of his aloo tikki and papri chaat and chutney burger - the art student studying the posters and understanding the development of painting to printing techniques over the years - fearless Nadia - Lawrence of Arabia - toilets that don't lock from inside- beautiful signage, direction pointers.