Storytelling Jeopardy!

About 5 years ago, I managed to con my employer into sending me on a culinary tour of Mexico with celebrity chefs. I falsely thought that this was my talent. I could convince people to finance my whims, with a subsequent ill-advised foray into filmmaking.

During that tour, I sampled a lot of dishes whose complexity boggled and left me with a perpetual “wow” reaction which could only be cleared with some fine mezcal. And then I tried something that defined artistic perfection. I hailed it as the best thing ever.

Why?

Because I understood it.

It was butter, served with bread while the appetizer was being pulled out of the aquarium. I applied a chunk of the butter to a crusty baguette, and the following happened in bullet time –

A readily accessible caramelized sweetness that slowly built in intensity, surrounded by a refreshing citrus bloom with occasional flavor bursts, …

An Experiment in screenwriting

If it is a game - come and play.

If it is a challenge - come challenge yourselves.

If it is a creative outlet - Express yourself.

Call it whatever you may, I will call it a creative collaboration of enthusiastic minds.

The experiment is simple. There have been many such experiments done in other platforms - for story writing. Some of you might have played it as a game on a rainy day with your friends at home.

The game is “complete the story”. The only difference is that we do not alter basic characters in the name of introducing twists and we try to write it up more visually (for screen writing purposes) and write it probably one sequence at a time (lets keep it at a healthy 15 minutes screen time). If one can provide a cut to cut (or shot by shot) screen script, it is well and good. Forthe less …

How to write Naach-Gaana?

After yet another rejection of yet another offbeat screenplay (breakdancing gangstas, ichchadari nags with superpowers, indian zombies, refrigerators that molest little girls, romance between a guy and a dog, serial killer on a shopping spree, etc., not all in the same movie though), I decided to sell out (and hopefully sell a screenplay) by writing a mainstream movie.

I took inspiration from Lars who thundered back at critics when they accused Metallica of selling out with the Black album (a manifesto of metal and poetry), “Yeah, we sold out. Every arena and stadium we played at!”

And because all good and some bad things always come in 2s (like hot twins, underaged hot twins, and not so hot twins), I decided to write one for Amreeka/Hollywood, and another for India/Bollywood. The Hollywood film is a Thriller, and the Indian film is a RomComMusical.

Let’s man up (ladies can man up too). Our …