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! 

Days 351 - 355: From Good to Awesome!

17 - 21 December, 2013

In my last post, I had written about how the days have gone from being pretty bad to pretty good. Now in the last few days, I can safely say that the days have gone from pretty good to pretty awesome! Several awesome things have been happening:

1) The dub for Aravindum Aarumughamum is finally complete! It took staying up until 6:30 on friday night/saturday morning to get this done, but thanks to a cup of exceptionally good black coffee and a lot of humour and wit from the team even that late into the night, we managed to get through it. It took me another late night to complete the entire sync and edit of the dub but then... soon enough, we were done! And it felt awesome!

2) We, the culture team at work that organized the Christmas party, had a really nice celebratory lunch at the Ku De Ta restaurant in Marina Bay Sands. This was a gift given to us by the boss, for the good work ! The lovely atmosphere with the cool, breezy weather, the gorgeous views, the delicios Japanese bento set that ordered, as well as the fun conversation that flowed throughout, all made it a really nice experience.

3) I had  been pretty much stuck with the ideas for episodes of the Malayalam sitcom that I had started to write, but now I have a new thread in my mind. I haven't yet written it down, but this is already a great start!

4) I started to pack for the last and final trip of the year - back to India!

5) I finally started to feel that December is here! Work was easing off, mainly because nobody is around to not let it ease off; The work on the film at my end was finally pretty much done, I was beginning to think about the holiday finally (and panicking about the packing, if I may add) and I even managed to catch a Bollywood film, Dhoom 3, in the theatre. I was visiting the cinemas after three whole months... I don't think that kinda gap has happened ever before, but that's how busy it has been! It was great to be back... and I think I enjoyed the film more than anyone else. Sure, it has a mindblowing list of flaws, but just watching it for the performance of Aamir Khan and production design, was good enough for me.

6) I had two really good yoga classes!

7) Thanks to Youtube, I am still receiving messages from strangers on Mausams,even though the film is almost three years old now. Especially when I feel like I am in a rut with the dubbing or some other issue with the film, one such message quickly pulls me out and up and I feel like this is all worth it! Everytime this happens, I feel so thankful!

Nett, am an awesomely happy person! 

Days 29 - 30: Reasons to Cheer!

29 - 30 January, 2013

Pretty good two days with a few good reasons to cheer!

1) I completed the short film screenplay, my first screenplay based on a short story and my first work for another director!
2) The screenplay was approved by the director! Yay! It's one thing to write for my own films and totally different thing to write for another person. So I was eagerly looking forward to his feedback. Except for a few minor additions, it's all good to go!
3) I managed to drag myself to yoga even though I was feeling incredibly exhausted and didn't want to do anything other than just sleep! But I went and I didn't regret and felt really proud of myself!
4) Post yoga, just when I was wondering whether to go back home or treat myself to a Starbucks Chai Tea Latte, the hubby called and said that his company has closed a deal. That definitely called for a celebration, even if a really tiny one because we had to get back home to the little one, and he joined me for my cup of Chai Latte! Loved that celebration!
5) I had a meeting with my manager to close out my work review for last year, and I got pretty good feedback, which made me super duper happy! It was not an easy year with my rather colourful pregnancy, and I had to work extra hard. So the appreciation was very welcome and it also makes me look forward to getting back to work again!
6) When I went to meet the manager, I also got to meet a few friends there for some highly overdue catch-up. And as always catch-up and conversations are very welcome!

Like I said, it's all pretty good! 

Day 28: Short Film Screenplay - 75% done!

Like I mentioned here yesterday, I had taken up a new project to write the screenplay for a friend's short film based on his short story. This is an addition to my list of writings to do for the year.

Given that the short story is ready and all I need to do is the screenplay, I decided to start working on it immediately, putting on hold the rest of the more-time-consuming projects on my writing list.

So after putting the little one to bed, I sat down to work on it and surprised myself by completing 75% in one go! Sure it is only a 15 minute film, so the work isn't huge, but I didn't think it would progress this fast.

I would have loved to complete the whole screenplay but couldn't because a certain bit needed a lot more thinking and my brain had begun to give away by midnight. Hope to crack that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I can definitely say that I went to bed a very happy person! 

Day 8: When The Idea Strikes!

I think one of the most exciting parts of any creative project is when the idea first strikes. And that's exactly what has happened today!

The idea is for a feature film script. It's not technically a brand new one...I had been working on this particular script for a while now but recently  have been feeling that it's lacking in something. And annoyingly enough I hadn't been able to put my finger on what that something is and how I can fix it.

But today, out of the blue, it struck me! An idea on how to totally elevate the current script!

This means discarding almost the entire script I have written so far and just keeping the basic premise, which in turn means a lot more work before I have a complete screenplay once again. But this new direction is a lot more exciting and am really thrilled!

Now only if I can find some time to work on it...But let's take one step at a time!