Saturday, April 19, 2014

Weeks 11 & 12: From "Mainstream" Producers to Indian Plays!

First I was blogging on a daily basis. Then I changed that to a weekly basis. And look like now it has moved to a fortnightly basis. It is rather sad. I see this blog dying a slow death. But before we get to that, let's recap all the awesomeness from last couple of weeks. 

Firstly I had the good fortune of watching an Indian play featuring none other than Naseeruddin Shah and Rajit Kapoor and directed by Ratna Pathak Shah. The play called "A walk in the woods" showcased the conversations between an Indian and a Pakistani diplomats and in two acts and four scenes, it managed to engage the audience with a socially relevant, thought provoking and highly entertaining conversation between just these two individuals.  

I spent a nice Vishu day. I took off from work, met a friend for lunch, visited a charity organization to discuss potential tie up for Aravindum Aarumughamum as a fundraiser for them, went to the temple with the little one, and finally, very unexpectedly, managed to catch the Vishu Sadya (feast) at Swaadhisht when the hubby rushed back from his work in Malaysia just in time to make it for a late night sadya. Overall, it was a pretty good day. 

I had written a feature film script during my maternity leave. It was what I call a "mainstream commercial film" which basically means that to make it, I need more money than I usually tend to put into my films and people who really know the craft in the technical team. And that means it needs a real producer from the industry. It so happened that my editor friend in India knew one such producer who expressed interest in reading the script. I was excited to share it with him - not because I think I will be making this film with real stars or even a real camera for that matter - but because, I was curious to hear what a "real" producer would have to say about my "mainstream commercial script". I even have added song sequences in there to make it totally Indian in feel, so I was eagerly looking forward to his feedback. His feedback came and apparently he loves the script and was asking questions on whom I planned to cast etc. Needless to say, it made my day. 

I also had a reading session for my Malayalam sitcom with one of the actors. The sitcom is to feature only two key characters and I wanted to kick start its making at the soonest. I know whom to cast for the lead male role and I am contemplating about the female role.However, it was good to do a reading because it gave me a good idea on whether this is going to work at all or not. I tend to think that the first reading was promising. After a few more rehearsals, we should be able to kickstart the shooting. This is going to be a totally different project from all that I have done before, so that's going to be exciting. 

I had an almost private lesson at yoga ! It was a Friday and there was a major downpour in Singapore. As a result my yoga class saw me and just one another girl during that time slot (usually there would be more than at least ten of us in a class). So the teacher made it a super customized class with really good individual attention and I think I gave my best and the got the best out of it too! I felt closer to yoga than I had been for a while now. It was wonderful! 

There was a nice gathering in my house of all the creative people I am close to here in Singapore. It included the full team of Aravindum Aarumughamum including by incredibly talented music director from India who happened to be in town, as well as a few other friends. It was fantastic to have all of them together and I had a lot of fun chatting away and felt blessed to have this team to associate with. 

Last but not the least, a few compliments came my way too - on this blog, on my film Inganeyum Oru Katha and my performance in it, as well as at work. Needless to say, I love compliments and it felt good. 
 
Alright, on that note...I am going to take an extended break from blogging and will get back when I figure out how exactly to go about this in the future. I don't think this weekly process is working for me - the summarizations kind of ruin the detailing and beauty of all that was beautiful and yet I dont have the time nor commitment to write on a daily basis like I used to. So let us see what's the best way to go about this. 

Until I figure it out, Adios! 

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Week 10: Routine, Wine Cricket and General Lack of Memory!

31 March - 6 April, 2014

So am writing this blog on a Thursday when I was supposed to write it on  a Sunday.

Oh hum...

I wish I could say that it was because my life has been rather happening but not really. It was just laziness.

In any case, here's all the good stuff from last week (atleast as far as I can remember).

Firstly, my helper is back! Phew! This also means my mom returned to India, which is a bummer. But the good news is that my life is back to normal. Soon after the helper reached, I was back to yoga and back to the movies. I had been dying from not watching a film for a month and I finally watched the much acclaimed "Queen". And like everyone else, I loved it too.

But more that anything else, it felt good to be back to my routine.

I also joined my friends to watch the India vs. South Africa cricket match at Singapore Cricket Club. One of my crazy friends was convinced that India will take a wicket in the first over if I promise to do a bottoms up with my port wine if that happens.

(Yes, even in their 30s people behave this way).

I told him that I drink only one glass of wine in a week and I would like to enjoy that by sipping from it and not gulping it down. He retorted by questioning my loyalty to my nation.

To calm him down, I agreed. And India took a wicket in the first over.

Clearly I have magical powers of making national teams win with my consumption of alcohol.

Oh well.

And yes, I did keep my promise.

In other news, my mom has figured out the joy of Whatsapp. These days I find myself sitting in my office and receiving random messages like "hi" followed by "haaaai" followed by "in office?". followed by "what's up" and it goes on. Such excitement!

And then...

... And then...

....Well, nothing.

That's pretty much all that I can remember right now. For some reason (actually, the reason is prolonged absence from blogging and simply moving on with life without putting any thought to it....or it could be the delayed effect of that bottoms up), I seem to be suffering from a general lack of memory on what else happened last week.

In spite of that, I am happy. Which at the end of the day, is all that matters.

Peace.