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SHOT IN BOMBAY -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1118078/

A documentary waiting to be made. For last 20 years. The director of this film happens to be a returning filmmaker of IFFLA & one of our favourites- Liz Mermin.
She had directed last years OFFICE TIGERS, which I missed. I been told its hilarious. Her most famous film so far is The Beauty Academy of Kabul which you can get from Netflix.

Its a film I have heard about a lot. And everytime someone tells Liz, “Oh I have heard of that film, but I couldnt get to watch it. ” Liz shots back immediately “You can watch it online on Netflix.” She said that to me & in the next 30 mintes were were hanging out I saw the same thing repeat 3 times. So all you readers with broadband …Watch this film. She is a terrific filmmaker. I would watch anything she makes.
Lets get back to SHOT IN BOMBAY. According to the IFFLA website -

Filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia is eager to get to work on his next production, SHOOTOUT AT LOCKHANDWALA, an action/thriller based on real life accounts of a standoff between gangsters and a police anti-terrorism unit. But production is held up by the drama surrounding the film’s leading man, actor Sanjay Dutt. Dutt, the son of Bollywood royalty with an infamous reputation at the box office as well as in his personal life, is enmeshed in a high-profile trial for possession of weapons linked to bomb attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 250 people. Determined to complete the film on schedule, Lakhia and his crew adopt inventive measures to shoot around their star.

Liz went to Bombay to make a documentary about how a Bollywood film is made. Few production houses turned her down, while few others were still thinking about it. Its during this phase she met Apoorva Lakhia through common friends & he allowed her access to his film. And I have to say no other film could have had as much Masala as this film. Apoorva having worked in films in NY & LA was open to see how a documentary about Bollywood turns out. I have to admit I thought the movie will make a fool out of the main players, but on the contrary I kind of ended up liking Apoorva a lot. I felt sorry for him at various stages of the film. We see a humane side of everybody. No one is trying to make the greatest film ever. And they are all very honest & aware about what they are doing. I hopethe film gets a distribution in India.
What Liz had no idea was how the Lead Star of the film would turn out to be her films Golden Egg. Sanjay Dutt’s trial kept interfering with the shoot driving the whole crew crazy. Sunjay Dutt’s trial also takes the film to a completely different path of Bombay Underworld & the Bomb Blast. I think its a equivalent of winning a lottery for a Documentary filmmaker.
She has captured so many things about the way things are done in Bombay so perfectly.Apart from the film, we also have the perspective of two of the most important people from the real incident at Lokhandwala - The cop & the Journalist who covered the shootout live on Indian Television. As the filmmaking progresses we hear from these two people what exactly happened along with Inspector Khan’s crew of Sub-Inspectors.
I met liz on the last day of the festival when she was having lunch with Srinivas & Ritesh. And we had a very interesting conversation about Bollywood. Of our experiences & perspective of Bollywood.

As famously said by a Bollywood Director -
MINDBLOWING