Tuesday 8 November 2011

The Game Hunters of Bhopal.

Dev, Dinesh, Prakash, and me. 
It all began with Raajneeti.

Massive convoys zipping across the many roads of the sleepy little city that suddenly woke up to a lot of chaos, a lot of screaming, lot of shouting, and a lot of madness….all the ingredients, that make a film shoot…well…a film shoot.

Initially, because of most of the cars in those convoys being those old, cult, white Ambassadors with that mandatory red beacon revolving on their heads, the whole hullaballoo was often mistaken for the Chief Minister’s convoy passing through their city. Only, these convoys were slightly more mad, slightly more loud, and of course, slightly more interesting to watch for the bystanders who soon began spotting one or the other of their favourite stars sitting inside those white Ambys.

Slowly, the fascination of the wonderful residents of Bhopal turned into awareness, and finally into habit.

By the time we shot Aarakshan there, the next year…that habit, of watching a few mad men lead or chase swerving, screeching, speeding vehicles on their city roads, had turned into boredom.

Yes, there were those few youngsters on their Pulsars and Bullets who, always keen to be in the same frame as Mr. Bachchan, Saif, or Deepika, (who they assumed must be inside one of the vehicles) would ride behind, or at times, even in between the camera and the actor’s car…only to be shooed away by all the mad men in the open jeep who screamed and shouted at them menacingly. But these Bollywood freaks aside, most of the city had been domesticated into ‘not looking at the camera’ when the legendary jeep passed them!

Here, I attach one of the many photographs of those mad men and their faithful jeep, returning after one such successful hunt.

What a jeep it was! And what a city!


Wednesday 26 October 2011

Friday 7 October 2011

An excess of apples.

Dear Steve,
                   I never met you, never saw you in flesh and blood, never knew too much about your travails and triumphs....but your genius used to touch me, almost every second of the day.

 Every time I made a phone call, or sent a mail, or saw a movie trailer....you were the man, instrumental behind the instrument.

I have seen and heard your speeches on you tube....and some, left me wondering whether you were a salesman, or a statesman.

 It is one thing to possess an apple product...it is another, to be possessed by it. Yes...in some way, you were a merchant of drugs. I have been roaming around with the apple sticker on both my vehicles for the past three years....like so many do, with the names of their kids pasted on the rear screens of their vehicles. That, Steve, is the kind of passion us 'converts' have for the world you created. Born to a Syrian, I do know that you yourself converted to Buddhism very early in your life....but what you did after that, was create an altogether new religion of your own. Agreed...you were no saint who went about distributing macs and i phones to the poor and needy free of cost on the streets of the world...but even though one shelled out the thousands, at times, even lakhs...to own an apple...it always felt, somehow, that I was investing in my own self...in my own life, in my own growth.

I never desired an I phone, or a Mac Pro, or an I pad, or an I pod.

I simply needed them.

But then, I do not desire the oxygen I breathe, either.

Just what did you feel when God pressed the 'power-off' button on you....for the last time...?

When all the folders, all the apps, all the tabs in your brain shut down for the last time...?

They say that an apple a day....keeps the doctor away. But anything in excess, is bad for health, I guess.

The closing lines of one of my favorite films, in the baritone voice of another legend, go like this...

"Anand mara nahin.
 
 Anand, marte nahin."

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs...but for me, and so many billions....you will always live on.


Friday 23 September 2011

Not about the bike.

Strolled into the Phoenix Mills compound yesterday with full plans of spending a quality two hours at the sprawling Landmark there...immersing myself in the world of books, music, movies, and coffee. How anticlimactic then, to find the store shut for 'up gradation'. There I was...having valiantly negotiated the infamous Mumbai traffic from Versova to Lower Parel for almost an hour-and-a-half....to reach my El-Dorado, and find it's gates shut. Almost immediately, got enveloped in a cloud of those familiar blues that surface from nowhere at times like these. Bought myself a coffee, that tasted quite horrible...walked aimlessly into a famous electronic superstore where almost everything looked too big for my little apartment. Drifted aimlessly into the Canon store and stumbled upon a magnificient piece of equipment..the little, but formidable, G 12. And suddenly, I was alive. Twenty minutes of tinkering around with the little gadget...and I was convinced that I could not pursue my passion for photography any further without this absolutely essential piece of equipment. Much against my capacity to shell out 30 plus grand on an impulse, I gave in to the extreme craving that I had for the camera...and within minutes, was fiddling around with it on my way back home. Yes...if I was to take up photography seriously...I could not do it without proper equipment...and this, thus, I convinced myself, was not an indulgence, but an investment.

But they say (very rightly) that you can fool the whole world...not yourself. However much I tried to convince myself about this wise decision I had made to buy the camera...I was reminded of a little episode that shouted to me otherwise.

About a year back I had visited the Piramal gallery at the NCPA to take a look at a photo exhibition that was running there. Bizarre, but I totally forget the name of the photographer who was showcasing his work. All I remember of him was, that he was short, dark, lean, and an extremely apologetic man who must have been in his early 50's. The exhibition was based on the photographs he had taken on his visit to the Zanskar valley, and I remember admiring the framing, the thought, the passion behind almost each photo that lined the walls of the sprawling gallery. Most photos were around three feet by four...if I remember correctly...and I remember telling myself that if I have to ever hold an exhibition of my works later in life, I must invest in a professional grade camera...at least in something like a 5D...loaded with pixels and a big sensor. The sharpness, the crispness, the latitude within each frame shouted out the words "Pro-stuff" to me. Thoroughly impressed with his high quality work, I accosted the elderly gentleman who sat by the visitors' book, sipping a cup of chai alone.

"Super work," I said," really crisp...which camera do you use...?"

"Thank you," the man replied, barely audible,"I use a Mark 4...."

'There,' I told myself,' so I was right...this guy has the best of equipment..no wonder his photos look so damn good....'

"But...for this project," he continued, a faint smile of remembrance on his lips," I could not use it...the moment I got out of the taxi in Leh...my camera fell  and broke down...."

"So....then...," I asked, genuinely inquisitive.

"I had to take all these snaps with a little power-shot," he replied as I found myself staring at him in disbelief.

Yes, Lance Armstrong is so right.

It definitely is, not about the bike.

Am glad I did buy my G 12, anyway.  Maybe the Mark 4 I buy falls down and malfunctions...this will come in handy then...

     

Friday 16 September 2011

PILLION........India takes a ride.

Jaipur.

Goose Bumps.




Sometimes, it's difficult to believe that I have spent a full two months in the company of this man...who I always thought, was from some other planet, some other world. I remember seeing his first glimpse on the sets of Aarakshan as he entered the premises in his gleaming Merc. And I remember precisely this music playing in my head as I felt his presence...just inches away from me. As the DoP of the film, I knew I was supposed to exercise calm and act with dignity...but all that went flying as the director introduced me to him. I remember those first few minutes of haze and blur...when I mumbled something about not having spoken to my late dad for two years after having watched Shakti...and I remember Mr. Bachchan's eyes, looking at me with sympathy, humility, and amusement. I remember my assistants whispering in each other's ears about how stupidly their boss was behaving today...but I remember having brushed all that aside...because some moments...are just meant to be savored. This...was one of those, when a devotee, met his God...in flesh and blood. Thank you, Amitabh Bachchan...for being what you are. 

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Working life.

In the middle of a new film...rather...the beginning of it. My third, this year. Each film, a life lived. Each, with it's own unique set of pluses, minuses, pros, cons, highs, lows. Chaos, distractions, egos, emotions, ideas, visions, suggestions, interference....and amidst all this....your will to keep going on, those blinkers...ensuring your sight is set on the final destination alone. Bit by bit, hour by hour, you keep nearing the end...and when you do reach it, worn and tired...the redemption of it all. All follies pardoned, all egos forgotten. The process of 'taking the film out of my system' begins. A few days of unwinding, recharging, idling, doodling....and the mind is fresh to take on something new again. A new film. A new life.

One life at a time. 

Wednesday 31 August 2011

PILLION........India takes a ride.

Delhi.

Ambivalence.

Is it worth it....to live a life of sacrifice...
to not indulge,  to abstain, to refrain...
to shut yourself in your room,
when the world outside parties.

to reach nowhere, to yet keep walking,
to push, to pull, to fall, to rise...
only to fall , get up, and walk..
yet again.

is it worth it, to put on the blinkers...
when things so many, beckon you in your peripheral vision...
an Alladin...hunting for his magic lamp...
is it worth it, to toil...when the whole world sleeps cosily ensconced in it's cocoon...
in the quiet, wee hours of a winter morning.
when all seems lost, when the last flicker of light seems to be dying...
is it worth it to keep that hope lit...

is it worth it, to give, and not take...
to savor wantonly, to only window shop...
to stand watching the setting sun by the choppy waters of versova...
and tell that fireball slowly sinking into the Arabian waters...
"I do not know whether it's all worth it or not...
but untill I see you again tomorrow...
i'll keep thinking it is."

Monday 29 August 2011

PILLION........India takes a ride.

Bhopal.


I have often wondered in amazement and amusement at the way people improvise the backsides of their vehicles to suit their travel needs. Marriage party...? Well, 10 people can easily squeeze in on the backside of an auto rickshaw. Commercial carrier...? The best place for a laborer to sleep is atop the iron rods, marble slabs, and concrete loaded on the truck. Gotta carry a huge barrel of water on a cycle...? No problem...will fit in creatively. Ganpati Visarjan....oh, oh...forget it...the sky's the limit...! With a highly co-operative traffic police by our sides, our population devices novel ways of using their vehicles' backsides.
I have been capturing these visuals for years now, armed with my faithful IXUS, and now, share some funny, some dangerous, and some outright bizzare ways that our country takes a ride in...!  

Saturday 27 August 2011

The Sun that shines within.

Got up in the morning to find the heaven's still crying...this morning...their eyes out. At 10 in the morning, the light outside was deceptively grim...it could well have been 6.30 in the evening, or 5.50 in the morning. Found the whole household pining for sunlight...their moods, as dark as the weather outside. And since I am somewhat of a (I feel) protagonist straight from out of a Patricia Highsmith novel....my mind lit up at the thought of sitting by my little balcony, and watching it pour, maybe, with a few mugs of beer post my morning coffee. With alacrity, I rushed to my music system, made it vomit out the dvd that I must have inserted a few nights back, and inserted a Zakir Hussain-Hariprasad Chaurasia marathon, that fills up the drawing room right now. A downpour outside, and music cascading down the system in my apartment.

 An Equal Music.

Some moments in life, are perfect. They are not necessarily moments when you have taken the last shot of a film, or got your fat paycheck, or got the news of you having been nominated for one of the umpteen awards floating around in the Industry....

Instead...these moments occur more when you can not describe why they occurred when they did. That perfect moment could happen while sipping a South-Indian filter coffee at Bru, it could occur while tapping your fingers on the steering wheel of your vehicle, waiting for the endless jam to begin crawling,  it could happen to you while aimlessly walking the corridors of an air-conditioned mall...or, like today...it could happen to you when you get up in the morning to realise that in this grim and wet day...you have the luxury of staying put inside the safety and warmth of your little apartment, your sanctum...and spending the day as you like...doing this, that...or best...nothing.

Yes...this IS a perfect moment. Thank you, God, for this gift of Life. 

Wednesday 24 August 2011

A Thousand Words.

Divinity.

Some moments leave you speechless. This, was one of those. I was making my way up the cobbled,  winding lanes of the stunningly beautiful island in the Aegean...Mykonos, when, just to see how much I had climbed, I just turned my head back. And lo and behold....this is what I saw. My initial reaction was, not to shoot this moment. It was so beautiful, that even a Hassleblad could not do it justice. But then, I involuntarily picked up my semi professional camera...and took the shot...just one shot, before sinking the magical moment in, and continuing my ascent.
Moments like these,  cement your belief in God.


Shot on 50D, edited in Aperture.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

A Thousand Words.

Language of Light.


Vaguely remember having taken this one. Three pegs down, this was my state of mind when I shot it, standing by a busy roadside somewhere in Bangalore. The random shake of the camera, coupled with a(around) five second exposure resulted in this formation of streaks of light...almost making it look like a freehand signature with an underline. Next morning, when I was going over the previous night's experiments...I was in for a decent surprise.


Shot on 50D, edited in Aperture.

Sunday 21 August 2011

A song that haunts.

The lyrics, the voice, the melody...everything aside..this song, for me, transcends the screen and straight enters my heart whenever I see or hear it. In fact, whenever I see or hear it...I FEEL this song.

That's it's raw power. Uff...! How much I would have loved to be 25 in the late 70's, early 80's....no cell phones, no Coffe Days, no comps, no Toyotas...only our home grown Ambasadors, Fiats, BEST buses....and handwritten letters.

Saturday 20 August 2011

A Thousand Words.

FAR(to)GO.


Stuck in a sudden blast of heavy snowfall with a film unit in Manali's Holiday Inn...I shot this one from the hotel's cozy bar. No, was not getting drunk, but was instead chalking out the strategy for an emergency exit from out of the Mousetrap that we had found ourselves in. Talking about Mousetraps...yes...now when I think of it...the setting was perfect for a juicy Agatha Christie to unfold in real life...a film unit stranded in a plush, warm hotel...inches and inches of snow blanketing the world outside....tempers flying high amongst the crew...the totally inaccessible hotel fast running out of diesel for it's generators...and a MURDER most foul.....!! Hmm....food for thought...


Shot on Canon IXUS, edited on Aperture.

Making it in Mumbai...

The moment I begin feeling that I have, kind of, "made it" here in Mumbai.....this amazingly impersonal city shows me the mirror, at once, putting me in my place. I agree that 'making it' is quite a relative term...and can not have any particular definition...but I also feel that, at least in our (film) industry...there are people who have 'made it'. Am I talking people like Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan...? Well...those are the kind of people who are beyond contentions and competitions of any sort and kind...instead, I talk about the more real ( I definitely think the lives of the kin of the above mentioned people are surreal) and flesh and blood people who constantly run neck and neck with each other to reach their respective El Dorados....people who comprise of the directors, cinematographers, editors, sound recordists...even aspiring and 'struggling' (why is term only restricted to actors, I often wonder...?! Is it too difficult to find a struggling DoP..?!) actors. When I talk about 'making it' here...I mean people of this clan and class. Of course, even here, there is a Hirani, there is a VVC, there are the Ravi Chandrans and Binod Pradhans....there is, of course, our very own Mr. Pokutty....but here...in this strata of professionals....I feel a palpable rat race of people who desperately want to 'make it' here in Mumbai.

Only...the moment one thinks he has made it...suddenly, a mirror pops up from nowhere to show him the reality.

No...at least I have not 'made it' here in Mumbai...yet.

A Thousand Words.

An Accident at Hill Road.


Took this one on a stunningly overcast day, somewhere near Panvel, where we were shooting a commercial for a particular brand of  tractors.  The turtled vehicle is, in fact, one of the convoy of tractors we were using. In his excitement of giving us the shot fast, the driver reversed the bulky tractor with such speed, that it spiralled right out of his control and into the lush field by the road.  The scarecrow on the left of frame made the whole scenario more ominous, making all the scenic beauty around the scenario, surreal and paradoxical.

Shot on Canon IXUS, edited on Aperture.

Friday 19 August 2011

A Thousand Words.

A View to a Hill.

                                                             
I have already published this album of mine, one picture a day, on Facebook some months earlier. I do it here again on my blog, albeit, with some more details about each photograph.

This one, of the Acropolis in Athens, was taken from the rooftop bar of the hotel I was staying in. Needless to say, two beers down, the magical view appeared even more so. One of those moments which will remain etched in my mind...forever.

Shot on Canon 50D, edited in Aperture 3.

Thursday 18 August 2011

From personal diary to a web blog.

So there, my netizen friends....here I am too...arriving late..but arriving anyway. Do I hear trumpets, crackers, thunderous appalauses...? Well, all I can say is...I am touched.

Why am I finally retiring my old, worn diary and pen and flipping open the lid of my Mac to tap tap my thoughts and ideas to all the world...? Is it about seeking fame, or friends...? Appreciation, or understanding...?

As of now...I don't know. And maybe as I slowly sink deeper and deeper into my blogging life, I figure it all out, and in the process, begin to understand myself better....but as of now, I just don't know. What do I want to achieve with this blog? Why should I give it any time...? Why do people blog, and blog, and blog...? Well, I certainly have no experience right now about blogging myself, but having read umpteen blogs by now, I do feel that blogging is a damn good way of creating your own world...your own way. A little island of your own...a sanctum to which you can turn to anytime...and in this 3G era...anywhere. Yes...in a mad life in a mad city...maybe this sanctum is required.

Why have I titled it 'One Life at a Time..' ? Well, because the title just floated in, and then cemented itself  in my subconscious. Another question to which I do not have any answer. But then, like I said, maybe this exercise is all about finding all the answers..well...not all....but, you know...