Today was the first day of film work here in Abu Dhabi and it was a combination of things going well according to plan, and also things going exactly not according to plan, but that turned out to be fascinating nevertheless.
Let us start with what went by according to the plan.
I was driven around the city and the outskirts and I got to see the magnificent Grand Mosque (I love its domes... so exquisite!), the skyline, the corniche - the coastal area lined with parks and fountains, the mangroves (yes, there are MANGROVES in Abu Dhabi!) and the canopies of trees lining the roads making the place seem anything but an arid desert! I had to admit that this desert city looked nothing like what I had expected it to.
I met up with key team members of the crew which included the owner and other members of the production studio and the person who will be helping us get all the required permits and licenses for the shoot. When I met up the owner of the studio, for the first time ever, I had to narrate the script like how regular directors or scriptwriters do. Usually I just give the script and expect people to read it, but this time I narrated it exactly the way they would do it out there in "real" film world. That was an interesting experience. Expecting people to read the script is indeed a lot easier than having to summarize and bring the essence of the whole film in a narration!
My editor-cinematographer and I also had a good long pre-production meeting where we dissected the script, went through the logistical requirements for each scene, and worked out the location needs, before we start on extensive site recee tomorrow.
Now for the stuff that didn't happen according to plan.
The studio guys had a few documents to be picked from their local Arab sponsor, a policeman, and for this purpose, I accompanied them in to the police station. Yup, that's right. I have now been inside an Arabian Police Station. Of course, I didn't anything there except for sitting in the area designated for the ladies, but it was pretty exciting. Now, the local sponsor had already left the station for his home, and so we drove to his house - which was in a residential area far from the city and the drive to which presented more of the dry, sparse landscape that you would expect from the region.
The sponsor was a really nice gentleman, who tried to teach me a bit of Arabic (I now know "Kaif Halat? - how are you?" and "Tamam - Am fine"), let me see their house's patio and garden (which was lush green with a ton of beautiful roses in various colours!) as well as the guest rooms (huge living areas to receive guests) designated for men and women separately, and also introduced me to his beautiful daughter (even as the guys with me respectfully turned their faces away from her, a custom I understand is quite prevalent here). Overall it was a pretty nice experience.
And there was the highlight! The studio guys asked me whether I wanted "Pazhampori" a snack from Kerala made of bananas. I said sure, why not. So they took me to the Kerala Social Centre, a community centre for Malayalis, and man I was totally bowled over ! They had a really big building with a huge central courtyard and performance stage for themselves and there were different types of music and dance classes going on in the various rooms around the centre. There was also a little tea stall selling snacks in one corner and they served chukkukaapi (spiced black coffee, in true Kerala style!) and I helped myself to the pazhampori as well. The ambience of the place was just like what you would expect of some centre in Kerala, and I simply loved this piece of Mallu heart in the centre of Abu Dhabi!
Thus came to an end a long and tiring day, but am looking forward to the "proper" location recee that is starting tomorrow! So far I have loved every bit of what I have seen and experienced - the mangroves, the police station, learning Arabic, and the Mallu-ness of the "Gulf"!
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