A short story narrated by my friends Alice and acted by Eugene. This is a chapter of omnibus film ‘Fish and the Yesterday Song’ by my artist friends Claire and Peter of Skimtone Studio with old people of Newcastle. I was been lucky to be a part this project helping them in shooting the film. I have also done the documentation of the process of making this collaborative process-led film.
More than the film, the unconditional love of each and every participant was a memory to cherish for this lifetime. Eugene and me shared quite a lot time cracking jokes and fooling around. Well, it was like getting a good friend whom I can relate very well. He too calls me his best friend now. Cheers dude. And definitely Alice, she is my sweet heart too. Love u guys. The film was a great effort of six months by Artists Claire and Peter. Kudos to the team. We all got so many hugs and kisses, which is precious than any awards or appreciation. Hope to make another film with the team.
It is morning 1.30 AM here. I just got back after 6 hour long work as a waiter in a Kerala Restaurant. The best thing about this job is Chef Yousaf Bhai’s traditional Kerala food and being in the ambiance of my homeland listening to Yesudas songs. I also enjoy the walk after the work late at night from Quayside to my house at Fehnam making fun on Newcastle roads fooling around everyone. Today while walking back I suddenly thought of my very first job in life, back in the year 2002.
I was always been blamed of seeing life through the eyes of a romantic. I won’t deny; it’s quite true. To be honest with you, I did my first job to earn money to buy a gift for a girl hoping to propose her. It was during my graduation days in Hyderabad. I was adamant that if I buy something for her, that should be with my own income. Since then I was been dependent on my parents completely. I never had any shame to ask money from them for myself, but I thought it is unfair in such a context. The job was to do promotional sales of Rexona Safron and Sandal soap at various shops, as part of its launch. I did the work for 4 days under the hot summer sun of Hyderabad with a record sale of 256 soaps. As a promotional deal I was asked to give a free shampoo along with 4 soaps of Rexona. A little intelligence worked there, to make that record mark by approaching wholesale dealers directly; who brought soaps in bulk from me along with all the shampoos, which they could sell separately for extra profit.
I too gained enough to buy something I thought is precious for the little money I could gather with that job. I got the payment a few hours before my train to Kerala. I ran through the roads of Hyderabad and caught a bus to old city. That was my second visit to old city and got into a shop called Kesiah or something, where I got a cute white pearl. I was too confused whether it was an original pearl. The shopkeeper was a kind man; he showed me how to find the purity of pearl. He made a flame and kept the pearl on the flame. He told me that if it changes the colour or get burnt it is a fake one and if it retains its shine it is genuine. He thus proved his point; that he sells only pure pearls. The pearl was pure and my heart too baked in Hyd sun, but interestingly only the pearl was acceptable to the girl. Well, she had her reasons… At later point of life, I realised that love and adventure as an infatuation quite natural for a young boy of his graduation days.
I can see that young chap, running through the dirty roads of old city, catching bus to the railway station to get the train to Cochin with a dream. He had a pearl close to his heart. That was my very first run of victory and failure. But the experience I gained is still unique. It was my love for her that introduced me to multimedia to do a music video on the theme of love. It is multimedia that introduced me to the world of editing and it is editing that opened a path to videography, direction, filmmaking and hence me, cockroach in cocktail… etc… everything… A Malayalam poem I did write, compose and sung that was recorded with a pocket walkman, transferred and edited with sound forge in the space of Arena Multimedia. I had never seen a camera during those days and hence animated clips generated from Flash and 3D studio Max was used for the video that was edited using Adobe Premiere. Special effects were added in After Effects. I myself handled every single aspect of it, without anyone’s help. In that process learning a lot about the art of cinema… Thus my first audio-visual art work happened. There used to be a time which I bunked my B.Sc Computer Science lessons and spend whole day in Arena practicing editing and making this film. The first preview of that video was done to the pune Vinay. The day I finished it, we both sat there watching it continuously again and again until we were bored of it. I used to help Vinay to pull down the shutter of Arena on many nights for many months. I remember that old maid servent of Arena too, who always hugged me and called me ‘Anarkali Betta’. Even now she won’t remember my name, but she definitely recognize me as ‘Anarkali. Now that is a different story, of acting as female character ‘Anaarkali’ for a comedy play at Arena.
Walking back through the roads of Newcastle late night, I realised that I haven’t changed at all… fooling around people, dancing and howling on the roads, I haven’t grown up at all. Still playing bet games on street run or jumping to catch the roof of bus stops. How much ever people blame me for being impractical, I still enjoy being that boy of Hyderabad roads, running with a pearl close to his heart. He still hasn’t learnt to love, but he enjoys his romance to his life. He is not okay with people who are busy complicating their lives. He is not ready to except the world’s comment that romance kills the sense of practicality. His life is a simple one; He see it with a lot of romance, adventure and care… love to live it this way, simple and straight… with the heart of the same boy of Hyderabad… whether it is filmmaking, family, friends… hopes, journeys, fantasies, adventures and dreams… A few days back I had a moment to cry when a young boy who had a problem of autism suddenly started sharing ideas with me when I was doing a little film editing with him. I haven’t lost anything… life has a reason to move on… it is magical… And I feel myself a magician. :)
The only thing the Little Tramp wanted was a little smile on her face… He smiled at her and so did she… Together they walked hand in hand, down a road at dawn, towards an uncertain future of new hope as the music ‘Smile’ flowed in the background. This is the climax of Charlie Chaplin film ‘Modern Times’. ‘Smile’ is a musical composition by Chaplin himself. My curiosity made me do a bit of research on this violin piece and happen to get a lot of surprises. A simple search to know about the versions of this song put me in an endless loop. My hunt for ‘smile’ made me fill my computer screen with countless ‘smiles’. In an hour I could find almost two hundred plus versions by various singers and I had to end the search… For a moment I saw the ghost of Chaplin smiling at me standing right in front of me. Can’t explain the feeling in the blog. I had to smile back… out of all my tensions. Chaplin was always been a role model whom I truly envy. I wish I could bring such smiles. Sigh! Well…Chaplin is Chaplin…and that is a film and not reality.
Smile, though your heart is aching,
Smile, even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky,
you'll get by.
If you smile through your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
for you.
Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near,
That's the time you must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you just smile.
I strongly believe that there was, is and will be only one brand called Charlie Chaplin. Sure, no one can be 100% in anything, but he did prove that there is a rank for being 99.99%. Who is this man? Where does he come from? Where did he go? And why? I have no answers… I am speechless each time I hear something new about him. How could he make people so happy?
The Chaplin’s version of ‘Smile’ was an instrumental piece that came out with ‘Modern Times’, in the year 1936. Later in 1954, John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and it was sung by Nat King Cole. Since then, till date ‘Smile’ has had many versions, I leave you to explore. I had to quit….
‘Smile’ was also said to be Michael Jackson’s favourite… Michael Jackson recorded the song for his 1995 double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. After his death in June 2009, the song charted due to legal digital download sales.
This is a sample list of others who sang it… well this is just some of the names I could search…… I had to quit…..
Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Barbra Streisand, Skeeter Davis, Judy Garland, Diana Ross, The Lettermen, Eric Clapton, Betty Everett and Jerry Butler, Timi Yuro, Holly Cole, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett, Julia Migenes, Steve Howe & Martin Taylor, Dalida, Michael Jackson, Michael Bublé, Maria Friedman, Petula Clark, Djavan, Sun Ra, Robert Downey Jr., Ray Quinn, Tony Bennett, Janelle Monae, Russell Watson, Josh Groban, Jimmy Durante, Barbi Benton, David Whitfield, Westlife, Harry Connick Jr., Charice, Nydia Rojas, Madeleine Peyroux, Harry Connick Jr, The Fureys, Charice Pempengco, Chris Botti, Ingmar Nordstrom, John Barry, Diana Ross, The Savage Rose, Chris Walden, Petula Clark, Hanne Boel, Ray Quinn, Roger Whittaker, Michael Bolton, Timi Yuro, Tony Bennett, Judy Garland, Rickie Lee Jones, Frank Pourcel, Manfred Junker, Lena Maria, Pierre Boussaguet, Palle Mikkelborg, Trijntji Oosterhuis, Jimmy Durante, Nana Mouskouri, Trini Lopez, Cyd Sharice, Chiquita, Ruby Murray, Sun Ra, Elvis Costello, Martin Nievera, Staffan William-Olsson, Tune Robbers,Holy Cole, Steve Brookstein, Sandie Shaw, Pearl Django, Linda Eder, Lucia Micarelli, Russell Watson, Ruth Brown, Joe Longthrone, Jimmy Scott, Sammy Davis Jr, Long John Baldry, Petula Clark, Tony O'Malley, Peggy lee, Spirit, Judy Garland, Amalia Gre', Amy Dickson, Atlantic Five Jazz Band, Johnny Mathis, Lisa Dawn Miller, Grace Kelly, Steve Tyrell, Jerome Jackson, David Whitfield, Danny La Rue, Lita Roza, Jacqueline Francois, All'Amore Ensemble, Simon Schott………..
"I try to live my life like I play my guitar" said Hedges, "asking, 'what happens if I press this?' I'm always pushing the boundaries of comfort."
While studying in MCC, in the year 2004, my friend Amit gave a music album called Miracles that was a collection of musical masterpieces by various composers around the world.
The music piece that immediately caught my attention was ‘Aerial Boundaries’ by American composer and acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges from Oklahoma. Since then I don’t think I have had a day in my life without listening to it. Slapping and plucking of strings or percussive slapping on the guitar body gives a totally different feel, which I guess is quite unique of Hedges. Except an ear for music I have no commendable knowledge of music, so I am not talking much on this. But acoustic guitar always remained a love and thus the songs based on it.
‘Aerial Boundaries’ always takes me to many mountain peaks and heights I keep imagining in life and the richness of my solitude. I often have dreams of rich green mountains touching clouds. Listening to it makes me experience the same, the touch of clouds and smell of raw and chill wind. I was reading about Michael Hedges today. Sorry to realize that he passed away at the age of 43 in late 1997, in a car accident. He was driving home from San Francisco after a Thanksgiving visit to his girlfriend in Long Island, New York. His body was found a few days afterward. The very next year 1998, his record Oracle won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. Hedges was able to let go of attachments and live the life of a true travelling troubadour, with a little Zen in his pocket says John Beaudin in an essay about him.
Michael Hedges was also a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, percussion, tin whistle, harmonica, and flute, among others on his albums. Some of the techniques he used include slap harmonics created by slapping the strings over a harmonic node, use of right hand hammer-ons particularly on bass notes, percussive slapping on the guitar body etc. He also made extensive use of string dampening as employed in classical guitar, and was known to insist strongly on the precise duration of sounds and silences in his pieces. He also played guitar-variants like the harp guitar and the Trans-Trem Guitar.
My impatience definitely didn’t let me grab any knowledge of guitar, though I have tried learing it many times. There was always been a guitar in my room for no specific reason but as a showpiece. I remember that silver coloured one I had in mcc that was taken by hall friends for Saarang festival at IIT. I have no clue, where it had gone later, but sure it was there in Heber Chapel for one more year. Yesterday at Skimstone studio, my friend Peter gave me his old guitar, that I am now thinking of getting repaired… Don’t know what is its fate…
Introduce you to a new blog page www.mylostpages.blogspot.com that is short book I have written during my college days in in MCC. I thought I won't wait for publishing it but share it with those who like to read some real crap. :)
‘My Lost pAges’ is about a writer’s lost ages through his pages. It is a postmodern fiction without any conventional form or structure. It has neither a start nor an end. The structure is as of a book that can be read from any page - start to end, reverse or from any pages you wish to start with. Sincerely that is exactly the way that I have read all the books in my life. My favorite writer is Paulo Coelho. To be honest with you, I have not finished reading any of his books except The Alchemist.
I am not a writer in any weird sense, but in this write-up I am imagining myself as a great writer. ‘My Lost Pages’ are the pages this writer, lost from many of his personal notes as well as other works. Hence there are a lot of factual and fictional references.
There is no big thought process or targets while writing it, except the fact that I was writing with a fever of almost a 100 degrees and was unable to go out anywhere else from the room for three days.It was written during those days in the year 2004, in some alien mood that I can’t express now. Till today I’m unsuccessful to get the same mood to frame an extra page to My Lost pAges.
I’m dedicating this work to my family, 18 freaks of M.A Communication, Hexaware friends and that special someone who is my alter ego for past few years in pain and gain, whom I have never met in my life but known only through her voice and support.
Fire walking ritual is a very common event that end the 'Mahabharatham Festival' of Draupati Amman Temples, in and around the Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, India. For National Folklore Support Centre, with my good friends Aruvi and Manivannan, I did two documentary films - one on this 26 day festival and the other one on Timti ritual. The documentary on Timiti is now uploaded in NFSC's youtube channel. Thanks to the director of NFSC, Mr. M.D. Muthukumaraswamy for giving me the opportunity to work with NFSC and hence these documentary movies.
National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, registered in Chennai dedicated to the promotion of Indian folklore research, education, training, networking, and publications. The aim of the Centre is to integrate scholarship with activism, aesthetic appreciation with community development, comparative folklore studies with cultural diversities and identities, dissemination of information with multi-disciplinary dialogues, folklore fieldwork with developmental issues and folklore advocacy with public programming events. Folklore is a tradition based on any expressive behaviour that brings a group together, creates a convention and commits it to cultural memory.
Man & Nature
A film I edited for my good friend Joseph Alex. Is there a greater truth than what nature has to give? - Camera speaks about Mannan Tribe of Kerala, India through two distinct view points - One of the community as a whole & the second through Periyan Chachi, a very silent member of Mannan tribe who prefers his 'day' close to nature than anything else.
Kudos to the director :) who made me understand the power of audio-visual media. Till then, i never thought there can be a DOCUMENTARY without narration. Btwn, Joseph and me had lot of fights while editing on the structure of film. He gave me a freedom to add a bit of my choices too. Interestingly I had to edit the whole film 3 different times, 3 diff styles coz of problems with computer.
Joseph remember those days me coming back from Hanmer late at night and then start with you editing at amin's room in mcc and then go back early in the morning to Hanmer for work. After all that tiring work in hanmer, ever eveing i used to be in a sort of trans to be back to edit. :).......Memoriesssssssss......... What a pressure, it went on for 2 weeks !!! And all the problems with comp. Trust me I want to make a film like this, now that is the reason I have 'Man & Nature' in My fav films list in both FB and Orkut. Cheers.
oh yes bose...:-) there are lots great memories behind the film... do u remember we survived the most nights having just TIGER biscuits...lol. Images of amins room, 100 years old editing desk just flashes by on mind!! As i always say the film wouldnot have seen light without u... You were so restless, a strange enthusiasm to finish the work... Most of the times when i lost my hopes and got tired of the comp problems... U really boosted me up and came with some solutions... U were more dedicated and interested in the project than me, as if this is some divine intention or duty that u have to perform! We both at the final stage of the editing was in a trans like state due to the lack of sleep and nutritions:-) ... anyways one thing i FELT while doing this film was the pain, anxiety, fear, the uncontrollabe excitement and above all the love of the creator towards his creation! However small or less important his creation is, there is a strange attachment which cannot be explained... Ask a boy who made a paper boat and floated it on the river, he will tell u what it is like.
...after taking the final output you told me to stop saying that I've no patience in life...phewwwww he he Even I realised then that I can be so patient or...is it that I became a patient. :P
done....i ve a weird plan...on a road movie. something mad and crazy. lets c some day. cheers
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Shadow Chair
A chair has different meanings in different people's life. 'Shadow Chair' is a film done by young people of Skimstone studio, Newcastle. It is a new attempt where we are trying a more democratic way of filmmaking where each participant plays an equal role.
What is the Edge?
' What is the Edge?' is a collaboration between young filmmakers from Thomas Bewick School and All Saints Collage and Skimstone. It is inspired by site visits to Hadrain's Wall. The edges of wall were explored as barriers that might protect us or stop us doing things, and as a boundary created by the Emperor Hadrain.
