The Insomniac is in Town
The Insomniac is in town
Before you call me a douche-bag and call this article a shameless plug; let me admit a few things. I know I’m not a regular on this site and usually resurface once a year for the one-minute film festival. But that’s only because I’ve been busting my butt to get my film made. It is done.
“The Insomniac” was born over a year ago. I felt useless and hopeless. Almost everything that I wrote seemed trivial. I couldn’t get past myself and I could barely speak with authority about the shitty things that people were doing to each other, everywhere. I did not know enough and I did not always trust what the media reported. Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Darfur, North Korea…it’s easy to see what I’m talking about, just pick up a globe, spin it and stop anywhere. I’m sure you’ll see that there is some kind of conflict going on.
Someone is always pushing someone-else down.
I did a lot of research. I found out stated reasons for unrest. I didn’t buy into any of them. It takes a lot to want to indoctrinate the killing of people, or to back it up with some kind of “us vs. them” dogma. It takes a lot of bullshitting on the part of the powers that be.
I wrote about all this from the perspective of a writer struggling to wrap his head around what’s going on and failing, miserably.
Of course, one can’t do that with complete authenticity, being a well fed fat-ass in a first world paradise. One has other things to worry about: women, laws, msn and good Alsace pinot. It became very interesting to me, to see that my concern for what was happening elsewhere though real and honest could only carry me so far in understanding the true plight of others. This challenge was authentic and painful.
Different things keep different people up.
Could be the fear that you won’t ever see your family again; fear that you won’t be able to submit your manuscript on time to your publishers or fear that the girl you love might just go back to her half-witted obnoxious ex, before you can let her know about your feelings. It could just be good old caffeine and nicotine.
I started thinking about how I could relate to what was happening.
You read about policing, death squads, the sick treatment of old people in fascist regimes…you read about ill-trained mob-like ‘armies’ destroying entire countries, silencing people as they go, even turning on their allies and suppliers in the process.
It all came together. It had to be satire because the links that I felt were just plain laughable. They were absurd. They became abstract references that stood in for the police, death squads and torture.
They became The Insomniac, my first independently produced feature film.
The Insomniac - Lady in the Robe in Ali's glasses
The film embodies my frustration with oppression in an indirect manner, which is the only way I can express myself now and still keep it real. With all this on my mind the script came out with great ease. I had the words. There are some painters and artists that I really admire and they must have been an important part of my initial visualization of the film. References to Francis Bacon, Picasso and Rembrandt are in my film.
The man who composed and performed the music for the film, Siddesh Mukundan (Sidd), is a long time collaborator. His music speaks my language. So before he wrote a single piece for the film, I knew I had the sound.
Varun Viswanath (Oddy) is our resident Editing and Special Effects genius. He once spent ten minutes on Premier Pro and made it recalibrate the Hubble Telescope. True story.
Things came together in an unprecedented manner and with our meagre means and limited reliance on others, the three of us as Bad Alliteration Films have made our first film. It has taken almost a year, a lot of sweat, some blood but no tears.
It releases this week at Sinema Old School (Aug 13th) and The Arts House (Aug 15th) in Singapore.
Here’s the trailer:
You can check out the official website: www.theinsomniacfilm.com there are details about the film, some of our short films and a gallery of film stills as well as behind the scenes work.
Tags: art, Bad Alliteration, Experimental, Indie, Madhav Mathur, news, Premiere, release, Siddesh Mukundan, Trailer, Varun Viswanath
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
was different from the ‘dark’ choices of yours – comedian, johnny, puddle. this one looks more humorous … satire, surreal. Intresting
the lead guy Ali doesnt look too comfy …hopefully he looks better in the film…
AND WHEN IS THE INDIAN RELEASE ?????
looking forward to insomnia
Have been following your shorts. all the best.
Madhav..good to see you here man…have been following your short films…eagerly waiting to see your latest..
“His music speaks my language”
Loved this line!!!
Good luck
this is real passion for cinema man..
really inspiring buddy…
the movie looks promising
i also checked out your short THE COMEDIAN. The lead actor is terrific….
All the best for THE INSOMNIAC and many more….
Looks amateurish… all the best dude!!
Madhav Mathur looks sooooooooooo young!!! 22? 23? And to have made a movie at this age? I am SURELY going to see this one. The young kids deserve all our backing and support. Madhav, ALL THE VERY BEST TO YOU. You ROCK!
Real wannabe stuff !! stop being prententious…and then maybe you will make something honest……
Thank you all for your comments! Any feedback is good.
KK, no Indian release yet, still have to figure that one out. Hopefully something happens..
Ashwini, OM, Aarti thanks!
Bhavesh, will try harder! Hopefully we’ll get funding and support for the next one.
Vikram, this is an honest film. I had to take the absurd route to make sense of what was happening. Would be rather pretentious of you to call me dishonest without knowing anything about me or watching the entire film
Man.. this is what we called real passion.. bravo..
keep going. I will wait for Indian release.
Hey!Madhav- great going there man.I’ve seen all your shorts too and its nice to know that you guys actually managed to take the plunge.I haven’t read your book, hence the question- is this movie same as the one you planned to make last year based on your book ( with Anurag’s involvement )?
Thanks Akash!
Sethu, my book comes out in Nov’09, it is titled “The Diary of an Unreasonable Man” and is being published by Penguin. The film with Anurag that i had mentioned earlier is based on that.
“The Insomniac” is a different project.
You’re having a book published by Penguin! Super! Great to hear that.
Hey!Madhav nice to know the details.I’m aware of your book’s title & in fact was under the impression that the book is already out. Check this out-
http://www.flipkart.com/diary-unreasonable-man-madhav-mathur/0143065440-xow3fnlz3b
thats why I said I haven’t read your book yet
.gr8 so let me look forward to both the book & the film.
Thanks guys, hope things work out..