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 175 - 179: People, Plays, Films, Yoga, Work, Music And Such Happy Things!

I am having a good time! Yup... all up, hardly any downs (touchwood). The past few days have been pretty happy and I feel good!

Why? A variety of reasons!

a) I went back to work on Monday and got showered with a few more compliments on how well the offsite was organized. Am not one to shy away from compliments and yes, these made me very happy!

b) I went to watch a play after more than two whole years! And I loved it. It was a locally produced play called Fourlies and I thought the writing, direction and performances were brilliant! It is always great to watch such splendid works of art and considering that this was a completely original work from Singapore, it was even more heartening.

c) I watched Raanjhanaa, a new Hindi film and fell in love with it! As far as I am aware of, it was a romantic drama made like no other romantic drama from India so far in terms of its storyline. It was funny and tragic at the same time. It had both the leads playing not white but very grey characters. It had a dark, scrawny guy from South India making his debut in the highly discriminating fair-skin-loving Bollywood, and flooring every single person with his talent alone. It had brilliant music and very good integration of the songs with the narrative instead of force fitting them. Nett, I felt really good watching it.

d) I went for yoga three days in a row, which is a big deal because the last time I did that was some time in March! Once work had started, it's become increasingly difficult to hit yoga. And the irregularity had also contributed to laziness. So it took all my willpower to do three days in a row. But I did. And it was awesome.

e) I had a great chat with my editor friend from Mumbai in which I narrated an entire feature film story. And now we have just that - a full feature film story! Surely there is a long way to go from a storyline to a final film but it gets me super excited when a new idea brews. So yes, I am excited!

f) Got to spend a lot of quality time with the in laws, which included long chats, chai time and bargain shopping, even! It was a good last week, as they will be on their way back to India this Sunday.

g) I discovered the wonderful, wonderful songs from three Hindi films - Raanjhanaa, Lootera and Fukrey and I can't stop listening to them. They are definitely fodder for happy thoughts and glazed smiles and I love them!

i) I had the most amazing lunch with one of my best friends. One of those where we don't talk about our daily mundane lives but our takes on what our lives have been so far, where we think it is going, where we think it should go and what we can do about it. I feel really good post that 1.5 hour Friday lunch.

h) The little one has discovered the art of clapping. Or rather the art of repeatedly slamming her right open palm on her left closed fist, in the name of clapping. She crawls all around the house and demonstrates some over the top excitement when she sees me (as well as her other favourite like her dad, grandparents and nanny....but I am there too!). It is such overwhelming joy to see her break into her toothless wide grin when she sees me early in the morning or after I can back to work. I can see that she is already not just the little vague baby but a full individual with pretty much her own unique personality and this journey of motherhood is getting more fascinating by the day.

So yes. I am happy. With all of the above and more! 

Day 119: Drama Talk!

A friend of mine wants to do a play in Malayalam and is currently in the very initial stages of the production. He gave me a ring to know whether I would want to be involved as part of the cast. As much as I would have loved the experience, with a heavy heart I had to decline the opportunity because really, regular rehearsals are not something I can commit to at this point in time.

But as we spoke more, it struck me that sure, I can't be part of the cast but why not the crew?! I could be in the backstage which will require time commitment only for a few days prior to the performance dates. It would be a few days of intensive commitment vs. regular commitment required over a longer period of time as with the cast. It seemed like something I could totally do!

I got super excited and shared my thoughts with him. I suggested that maybe I could be his stage manager, I have enough experience and can easily work with the sound and lights. He was totally happy with the idea and before we knew it, we were rattling away about all sorts of production details! It was SO awesome!

I really hope the production takes place - he is still trying to gather the cast, get an afffordable venue and put all the the nitty gritties together. If it does, I will get to be the stage manager and do something that I have been sorely missing for a few years now! My last production was in 2009, which was really too long ago!

Am not sure where this will go, but for today, just discussing about a theatre production has got me so very excited! Beautiful!