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It’s been almost three months since I have been in Mumbai. I was called in by Sudhir Mishra to edit a 90 minute international version of his new film, Tera Kya Hoga Johnny! It was a very interesting experience to take a film and reconstruct it in a different way. The Indian version is about 130 minutes long and one could not just throw away 40 minutes of the film. So the narration had to change and the story had to be told in a different way. As the film was made up of multiple characters and their stories, I tried to find a situation in the original film which would become the pivotal point of the new narrative structure. Once I had found that, I reworked the different stories from that pivotal point in a non linear narration. It was quite fun. I dismantled the rough cut and …

I recently met Manjeet Singh, an author on PFC in Mumbai. We had a long and interesting chat about films and particularly on his feature film project.
As he wants to make to make a short film first and wanted to understand the basic differences between a full length feature and a short length feature, so instead of writing only to him, I thought I should share it with all on PFC.

Short films are where I come from and they have helped me formulate my style in cinema. They have also taught me to tell stories easily and swiftly. My first short film ‘Le Cochon’ (see Photo) ( 35mm/12′/French) was selected at the Clermont Ferrand short film festival in 1996 and I also represented France at the Locarno film festival in the ‘Leopards de Demain’ section of the short film competition …

There was an auto-rickshaw strike the other day. The government wants them to change their mechanical fare meters into fancy electronic ones. So the union decided to flex its muscles. Suddenly the streets were empty of thousands of noisy gnats. My car driving friends were very happy they said they should be a permanent ban on them. But the people (like me) who are dependent on them were in a real fix. I saw people on the streets jostling with each other for that rare taxi.
I had this meeting with a big corporate film company. I had to go some faraway place to meet them. I tired in vain to borrow some transport from my friends. So finally, I decided to get a radio Cab (they are quite efficient). I told the driver to take me there and to bring me back.
So I arrived at my meeting on …

I was standing at the bar of a famous night spot in Mumbai sipping at Mango Vodkatini watching the young and old, bold and the beautiful, the rich and the famous.

So are you back in India? said a suave looking man with greying hair.

I recognised him like I recognise most of the rich and famous in Mumbai. I knew all these guys when they weren’t so rich and famous back in the late eighties and the early nineties, when they all drank Old Monk in ‘quarter’ bars like Casbah and Janta. They all swore by the Che and the revolution and had smoked at my Alvares house loft.

‘No!’ I said. ‘I am here for some time. I come and go.’

‘Working on a film?’ He queried.

‘Yup!’ I said. ‘Working on a film.’

‘What’s it about?’

I said ‘Well, It’s about… ‘

He quipped in ‘Which film …

Here’s something interesting that I wanted to share with you guys:

From the site Room 999

“Is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?” This question was answered by a.o. Jean Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Steven Spielberg, in Wim Wenders’ 1982 film Room 666, which he made during the Cannes Film Festival.

We would like to update that question and rephrase it:

How does arthouse or independent film relate to growing commercialism?
We’ve invited film professionals from around the world to answer this question in our contemporary, but nonetheless equally urgent, spin off: Room 999.

Nowadays, cinema has a central position as a source of imagery, supplying our encompassing audiovisual culture. Still, as an artform, cinema is under fierce pressure. Development of thought and language has been narrowed down to elite arthouse cinema, which has troubles in reaching …

My laptop packed up a few days ago and I have been cut off from the world and from PFC. I have also been busy working on my documentary script that I am going to ‘pitch’ in front of commissioning editors and funders at the FIPA in Biarritz, France next week. My project has been selected along with ten other poor sods (directors) like me who will try and attract the attention of the biggest funders in Europe. And my kitchen has been fitted.

I was thrilled to hear from my ‘borda’ Sudhir Mishra who called me to tell me that he would be in Rotterdam for the festival. Sudhir and I met in 1988 (I think) when he was going to make his first film, ‘Yeh woh Manzil to Nahin’ in Lucknow. I was supposed to be the art director and we had agreed on the terms ( …

Hava Aney Dey is part of the Global Lens 2008, a project conceived by The Global Film Initiative (GFI) to encourage filmmaking in countries with developing film communities. Developed with seed money from GFI, this year’s eight films, representing eight different countries, constitute a concise survey of contemporary filmmaking from areas where local economic realities make such expensive and technology-driven endeavors a challenge. Now in its fifth year, will première at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York in January 2008, before embarking on year-long tour of over 50 cities across the United States.

*The DVD version will be releasing in the US mid 2008. Will keep you posted.

check out the calender for a screening near you
http://www.globalfilm.org/calendar.php

Hava Aney Dey Screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Thursday, January 17 2008, 18:00;
Wednesday, January 23 2008, 20:00. T2

Watch the Global lens 2008 …

A producer called me yesterday and asked me if I had a story for a film to be shot in India. I said depends… what is it for?

He said well I have some people who are interested in making ‘interesting’ films from the ‘South’.

That’s the politically correct term for the third world originally coined by the Che, but now used by all, even the CIA.

I said sure, great!

But I am scared, I have heard this before. It is a well-known fantasy of the aging white European male producer to make a film in India. I was told once by a producer I met: the context is boy meets girl… sorry old European man meets young nubile poor Indian girl. The man is successful, has had a long uneventful marriage, grown-up children but something is missing in his life. He lands in India on some stupid pretext, (easy) …

I dare say that making films and food are the same business. They both create drama and emotions. They both tell stories and give the audience something to think about and react. They both excite and fire up electrical sparks in the brain. They both have to be made with fresh and new ingredients that have to be carefully chosen and hand-picked by the ‘maker’. The elements have to be right and their dosage perfect. They must have the right amount of sensations; too much of any would spoil the equilibrium and thus making it inconsumable. The cook or maker must know all about the people s/he is cooking /making for, their tastes, their palate, even though s/he may want to surprise them, and even if s/he wants to take them into the unknown.
So is it necessary to be a good cook to be a good film-maker? Perhaps not, …