Maach Bhaajaa - Documentation Book

7/25/2019 Maach Bhaajaa - Documentation Book

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MAACH BHAJAry

A film by

Megha Bhaduri


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I always believe its better to have 30 imaginations working on a project, rather than oneimagination telling the other 29 what to do.

- revor Nunn

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No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our eelings, deep downinto the dark rooms o our souls.

- Ingmar Bergman

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CREDITS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ABOUT ME

BRIEFINITIAL IDEAS

INTENT

PRIMARY RESEARCH

SECONDARY RESEARCH

IDEA

CHARACTER SKETCHPLOT

SCENE 3

PRE PRODUCTION//LOCATION SCOUTING

PRE PRODUCTION//ACTOR SCOUTING

PRE PRODUCTION//PROPS AND COSTUMES

POST-PRODUCTION

CONCLUSION

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CREWDirector o PhotographyMayank Bhutoria

Location Sound RecordingYash Shah

Assistant Directors

Aastha KhannaRei Hazra

ACORSRoshni ChakrabortyNaireet Basak

SrijitMamata BanerrjiSramana Chakravarty

EQUIPMENMayank Bhutoria

Uttam Kumar PugoliaSrishti School o Art, Design and echnology

SUPPOR SYSEMAnusuya BhaduriSwati DandekarUjjwal Utkarsh

CREDITS

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o my mother or continuously arguing, testingand pushing my boundaries, yet not doubtingme or a second and being the most incredibleorm o support I could have asked or, throughthe last 4 years, and through DIP.

o Swati, Ujjwal, Aditi and Sandeep and every-one else who guided me through my project andhelped me reach clarity at every stage.

o my ather, brother and grandmothersor showing endless interest and support ineverything that has led up to this project.

o Madhul, Inca, Suraj, Mrinali, Maithili, Radha,Achala, Raaghav, Nico, Vishnu and everyoneelse or sitting through my panic attacks andconstant DIP planning and making sure I onlyDIPPED and didnt DROWN.

And again, to my mother and to everyone I havemet here that helped me realise how incredible,boundless, wild and absolutely stunning a ormo storytelling filmmaking is.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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It was the idea o telling stories that first lured me towards wanting to make films.While writing remains a step above filmmaking, the amalgamation o words intomoving, speaking and illustrious images on a flat screen, created with the help oa team that will give up ood, water, and sleep or the sheer intense motivation tocreate magic and bound together on an edit table o sleepless nights and head-aches, elt more incredible and heart wrenchingly beautiul than it sounds.

Te thought o not caring or the day o the week or hour o night or morning on ashoot elt more challenging than anything ever has.

And the immense pleasure o working with other stunningly talented peopletowards a dream we all see, but differently, trapped me so quick that afer a point Icouldnt imagine anything without it being in a film.

More importantly, my undying love or books and curiosity in trying to under-stand a society seemed to fit right into the structure o creating stories to tell peo-ple and make a difference.

Gradually, film became the most amazing orm o something. Something that youhate so ofen but just cant pull yoursel away rom.

ABOUT ME

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A Film is a Petrified Fountain o Tought.

- Jean Cocteau

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Te brie o the project was to create a short film o either fiction or non-fictionon any idea that revolved around relationships.

Te idea was to tell a story in a concise orm that we had scripted, directed and

edited.

BRIEF

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Te relationship a man has with his ambassador which he kept or 28 years.Te car (JKV) bought in 1970 that was finally given up in 1998, and the storiesthat revolve around the car over its liespan.

Te comical relationship o the mans obsessive need to monitor who sits in his car,who speaks o it and how it is handled. At once leading to his wie quitting drivingbecause she cant deal with her husbands control over the car.

How he cleaned the car personally every day, or cleaned it even when someone puttheir hand on the car.Te long road trips he took with his children, where his son slept on the bottombecause his older sister bullied him into it, to when he went to the hospital in thesame car to bring home his grandson, reusing to let anyone else take any othercar, to finally the big arewell the car got when it was given away.

INITIAL IDEAS

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My intent was to create a visual database o storytelling working as a magniyingglass to look into the lives o human beings and their psyche and ways o thinkingand unctioning on a sociologival level.

My sel-made pointers included -- to understand the struggle o a lower working class amily.- understanding and investigating into the internal turmoil o trying to achievebeyond ones means.- the tug o war in wanting to move out o ones ramework, yet still eeling theneed or that comort you eel in the space you come rom.

I took the decision to look at an urban space or the setting o my film over a ruralspace since the need to achieve at a monetary level is much higher in a metropol-itan or globalised area.I wanted to look at hopes and aspirations influenced by the context o the globali-

zation o a metropolitan

INTENT

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In January I visited the keyatala and mukundapur slums in Kolkata as initialrecces and in the hope to find prospective actors and locations and more impor-tantly get a better idea o the setting I was scripting or.

I spent a couple o hours each day doing an observation exercise, just notingdown the clothing, body language, conversations and daily activites.

I had a ew conversations with a couple o rickshaw wallahs and house helps

to understand on a deeper level how they live their lives outside o their occu-pation. I conducted an exercise or mysel where I listed down 10 thing I knewabout my own house helps and also asked them about their living situations toavoid any mistakes in the script.

In Bangalore I met a amily in nagashettyhalli, also rom Calcutta, to continuemy research everytime I lost track o my script.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

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Inside a lane in Keyatala Slum.Inside the house o a dweller. Tekitchen area, the woman was cook-

ing fish.

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Initially I started with my secondary research, going back to books I have read and movies Ihave watched which matched my idea. However, instead o creating an idea and then prov-ing it with research, I got my basic idea rom 2 books and films that I had studied in school.Te first was the book and film Pather Panchali and the next was Death o a Salesman.What interested me the most in Pather Panchali was the description and portrayal o ruralBengali amilies and ther dealings with poverty.

What struck me the most about Death o a Salesman was the idea o the American dreamand the search and run or more materialistic gains in lie.My basic idea thereore revolved around the lives o a urban working class amily in Kolkataand their bargaining with things around them to achieve more than they have financially.Other films and books I watched and read in the process o scripting were

My years with apu Satyajit Ray (1992)

Deep ocus (essays on fimmaking) Satyajit Ray (2012)Kalikatha Alka SaraogiTe lowland, short stories rom interpreter o maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (2013,1999)

FilmsYuva Mani Ratnam (2004)Aparajito Satyajit Ray (1957)Apur sansar Satyajit Ray (1959)

Audacity Anirban Roy (2013)Born into brothels Zana Briski, Ross Kaumann (2004)Disha Sai Paranjype (1950)Los olvidados Luis Bunuel (1950)

SECONDARY RESEARCH

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Hau Mau Khau, Manushergondho pau

A dialogue rom the film andsomething that goes hand in

hand with my childhood, thisfilm changed the way I looked atcinema and is my biggest influ-ence to date.

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Shor (2013) Neeraj Ghaywan

Te film speaks about a lower-workingclass couple stuck in the struggles oachieving goals in a big city like Mumbaiand the miscommunication that takes

place between them because o all thenoise around them.

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Los Olvidados (1950) - Luis Bunuel

Te film speaks o a group o juvenile delin-quents living in a violent and crime-filled liein the slums o Mexico City.Te change in character o Pedro because o

his situation and surroundings helped me un-derstand the process o turning a protagonistinto an antagonist.

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Pather Panchali - (1929/1955)Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay/Satyajit Ray

Both book and movie were the biggest influence ormy story. Te lives o the working class bengalis and

understanding them beyond their class has alwaysbeen an interest. Pather Panchali speaks about apoor bengali amily in rural West Bengal and theirchanges over the years as Harihar, in the hope toachieve a better lie, leaves the village in search owork.

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Te Lowland (2013) - Jhumpa Lahiri

Te Lowland and other Jhumpa Lahiri bookslike Te Namesake, Unacccustomed Earth andInterpreter o Maladies have been some o myconstant reads or many years and gave me a

resh look on the essence o a bengali liestyleand the unctionings o a bengali amily andsetting.

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Death o a Salesman (1949) - Arthur Miller

Te play addresses loss o identity and a mans ina-bility to accept change within himsel and society.It is a montage o memories, dreams, conronta-tions, and arguments, all o which make up the last24 hours o Willy Lomans lie. Te play concludes

with Willys suicide and subsequent uneral as heaims to achieve the American Dream.

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My years with Apu - Satyajit RayAparajito (1957)Apur Sansar (1959)

Te book speaks o Rays journey into filmmaking, andthrough the years o making the apu trilogy. It keptme highly motivated through my diploma as a sign o

sheer determination on ones part to achieve thir dreamwhether it sounds unrealistic or impossible.

Te three films comprise a coming o age narrative inthe vein o a bildungsroman; they describe the child-hood, education and early maturity o Apu (ApurbaKumar Roy) in the early part o the 20th century.

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SCRIPT

But having a really good understanding o history, literature, psychology, sciences is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.- George Lucas

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Maach Bhaja speaks about the lives o a lower working class amily in Kol-kata, where Badol and Kamini aspire or more than they have, influenced bythe modernized urban lives they see around them and the extents they go to,to achieve it. Te destruction or change o Kaminis mindset as she resortsto her sub-conscious out o sheer desperation because o the miscommuni-cation between her and Badol and the difference in their ways o looking atmaterialistic acquisition.

Te buying and eating o fish is crucial as a sign o wealth in the typical Ben-

gali culture.While Badol strives to buy fish or one meal everyday, Kamini is tempted bya lottery seller. Te mental struggle she aces on what orm o spending is

justified and which is not will be my other ocus.

IDEA

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Name kamini mondol nee rakshitAge 25working classOccupation maid/cookSalary 4000/month

Kamini has a son gopal, o 7 years and a husband, badol, o age 29.Kamini lives in the keyatala slum, ar rom the apartment complex she works in because othe affordable cost o living in this compact slum in the middle o the city. She works in 4houses. In two houses she goes twice, once in the morning and once in evening. In the 3rdand 4th house she goes in the late morning time to work as a cook.She was brought up on the outskirts o Calcutta, in canning, where her ather worked as a

manual worker at the port in diamond harbor, while her mother was a housewie. She has2 sibling, 1 sister and 1 brother. She married badol because he was one o the older boys inher locality who her mother was scared would cause trouble to kamini, so she requested theamily to get them married off. Kamini got married and moved to Calcutta with badol, sincebadol did not want to do the daily commute between canning and Kolkata and through acousin o his, they ound a small shack in keyatala to stay in.Kamini and badol pay 200 rupees or the rent o the house they live in now.

Physically, kamini is petite. At a height o 5 eet and a thin body. She has a round ace withbig eyes and long hair which is always gathered in a bun. Out o respect or her husband, likeother women in her locality, she also wears a long, wide line o vermillion, running up rommidway through her orehead all the way to the middle o her parting.

CHARACTER SKETCH

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Educated till class 7, unlike her husband badol who never attended class and dropped outin class 4 to join the local boys in wasting away kamini eels a sense o authority and pridein being able to converse and dictate portions o her husbands lie unlike most women inher locality. She wanted to study urther, but her parents pulled her out to help in the house-work.She thereore wants to make sure her son, gopal gets the education that his parents missed.Kamini dreams o a lie with more money to their disposal, living in a bigger house andwearing better clothes. She however ears the thought o leaving the present liestyle that shehas known all her lie and does not know whether she and badol will be able to adjust to theliestyle o richer people that she sees in her employees houses, but wants with such convic-tion.

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Name Badol mondol

Age 29Working classOccupation rickshaw driverSalary 6000

Badol is kaminis husband. Like Kamini, he also grew up in canning, where his ather whowas originally a armer, later got liver syrroshis and was bed ridden or many years beore his

death, when badol was 13 years old. His mother who was initially a housewie too, resort-ed to being a cook and maid in houses nearby since she had to earn the daily bread or theamily.Badol has 3 siblings, 2 sisters and 1 brother. Due to the amount o the money his motherborrowed or hospital visits and medicines or his ather, his amily was under immensedebt. Te fights at home were evidently only about money and this was ingrained into badolshead rom a very early age.

Tereore, in spite o being sent to school, badol chose to drop out and ool around with thelocal goons because school was a waste o precious money, while he could do something onthe side to make an extra buck or himsel, i not his amily.Badol and his riends were rom time to time commissioned to work as local tourist guideshelpers in the sunderbans when the season was at its peak. He would help out as the cleanerand cook on the small boathouses or the weekend visits. But not having educated himselenough, and unable to speak or pick up English, there was no hope o rising to a higherposition in this business.

Badol, like other boys, would eye on the girls rom his locality and get their attention. Oneday, one o the girls mothers came home to ask whether badol was willing to marry herdaughter he happily agreed.

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His cousin, who was a rickshaw driver in Kolkata had influenced badol to move to thecity and start work in his line, since that would pay much more and he would get to ex-perience living in the city.Starstruck by the thought o moving to Kolkata, badol agreed and he and his wie,kamini moved.Badol has a 7 year old son, gopal, who is now in class 1. He does not have a say in his

sons education since his wie Is more educated than him and has without permissiontaken the responsibility on hersel o making sure he has an education. Badol doesnt sayanything because he doesnt mind not wasting his energy on authority and instead justbeing treated as semi-royalty in his house. From time to time when his wie overdoes itor tries telling badol what to do with his lie, he puts her back in her place.Badol is basically very kaeblaBadol is a short man o 53, dark and well built inspite o his small rame. He has short

hair and a thick mustache running right over the length o his lips. At work he wears hischecked t-shirt with his brown pants (eg) and at home he is normally in his gamcha andgenji.Like kamini, he also wears a sacred thread around his arm and one around his neck.Badol also has hopes and aspirations or his amily, hoping to be rich one day. But unlikehis wie who looks at it as a long term goal, badol takes the first opportunity to eel richon a day to day basis. he doesnt see or understand the point o saving up and he wants to

display his wealth as and when he can.

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Kamini, as she looks out o the house, overhearing a fight between two women in the slum.

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Badol, as he walks down the fish market in the early morning, and looks around at his surroundings.

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the film begins with badol lying on his cycle rickshaw, resting, while his riend on his ownrickshaw is trying to have a conversation with him.Badol is distracted and keeps looking across the wide road. He notices 2 women walk pasta man sitting at a table. Te women walk back towards him, and one o them conducts atransaction with the man, and they walk off.Badol apologizes or being distracted, a subtle sense o shock and deceit on his ace, andhe goes back to having a conversation with his riend.

(enter title)kamini is sitting by the door o her house, sipping her tea and observing the morningunold outside. Badol gets ready inside, while gopal sleeps on the bed.Badol comes to the door and stands where kamini is sitting. He asks her whether shewants anything rom the market and she asks him to bring mustard oil and daal on theration card. Badol takes her leave. Kamini watches intently as he crosses the turning andlooks a little longer to make sure he has actually gone, beore stepping back into the house

to wake gopal up or school.In the process, she fixes the clothesline over the bed and the dressing table. She noticesthe little piggy bank on the table and opens it. She continues to call out to gopal, while shecounts the notes that were in the piggy bank. She holds it close to her chest, contemplatingwhether to take it or not.Tat moment, neela comes into the house and asks kamini or some sugar. In the shock othe moment, kamini takes the money and hides it in her blouse.

Kamini wakes gopal up and gets him ready or school and sends him off with the otherboys beore setting off or work hersel.She walks down a ew lanes beore hitting the main road rom where she takes the train.Down the road, a man sitting at a lottery table notices her and nags her with amiliarityinto buying a ticket.

PLOT

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Kamini umbles, trying to avoid contact with him and crosses the road, blending into the crowd.

Simultaneously, Badol is seen at the fish market. He asks or the price o the fish. He counts themoney he has and decides to buy the more expensive fish, outside o his budget.Kamini is seen working in the kitchen at her employers house. She opens the ridge to etchsomething and sees an expensive bottle o sauce, ascinated, checking the price on it. Her employercomes out to give her instructions.Kamini sits with the grandmother to watch balika vadhu, passing comments at the tv and havinga good time. She asks the grandmother or 300 rupees or a new uniorm or her son since his is

small or him now. She gives kamini the money in a small envelope.Kamini walks into her house in the afernoon and sees the fish sitting on the kitchen top. She getsangry that badol has bought the more expensive fish. She works on the fish, cutting it into 2 pieceswhile commenting loudly about badols dirty habits o gambling beyond his means.

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Kamini is seen working in the kitchen at her employers house. She opens the ridge toetch something and sees an expensive bottle o sauce, ascinated, checking the price on it.Her employer comes out to give her instructions.Kamini sits with the grandmother to watch balika vadhu, passing comments at the tv and

having a good time. She asks the grandmother or 300 rupees or a new uniorm or herson since his is small or him now. She gives kamini the money in a small envelope.Kamini walks into her house in the afernoon and sees the fish sitting on the kitchentop. She gets angry that badol has bought the more expensive fish. She works on the fish,cutting it into 2 pieces while commenting loudly about badols dirty habits o gamblingbeyond his means.She goes into the room to massage oil into her hair, while daydreaming about all thethings she can acquire when she has the money or it.

Badol comes home with gopal or lunch. Kamini is distinctively angry and shows it in heractions. Badol asks her why she is so angry and she chooses not to reply directly. Whenpushed more, she turns around and explains her issue to badol in a strong monologue.She blames badol o stealing money rom the piggy bank as a means o covering up, sincehe spends so much money on useless things and has to pay the bills. Badol and kaministand or a ew seconds with nothing more to say to eachother.Badol is seen playing carom and riding his rickshaw, while kamini is simultaneously seen

travelling in a train and cooking a meal at home.

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A voiceover starts ading in and then a shot o two womens eet as they walk down a busyroad. One woman asks kamini what the point was o wasting so much money on nothing,

while kamini tries deending hersel saying she will be rich soon. She asks whether her hus-band knows while kamini says no.Kamini is seen opening the stitches o her sons school shorts and elongating them, whileanother VO comes in o badol telling kamini that he knows what she is upto, because he sawa brand new bottle o sauce in the house and where does she get all this extra money rom.Te shot changes to one o kamini lying in bed alone with a shocked ace, as the VO is o herdeending hersel to badol saying she was doing everything or the amily. Badol asks her

what the point o all o it was. Silence.In the final scene, kamini and a riend o hers are seen walking past a lottery guy. He nagsher again. Tis time kamini turns around and gives him all 300 rupees rom an envelope andbuys the tickets in bulk. We hear the same conversation rom the VO o her riend asking herwhy she is wasting so much money, as we see the first scene again o badol looking rom thedistance at the transaction taking place.

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3. IN PIGGY BANK MORN

(Kamini turns her head to see Badol walk away and stoops ahead to watch him take the turn. Shekeeps looking in that direction a little longer to make sure he doesnt turn back around.

She pulls the glass o tea to her mouth and sips the whole glass in one gulp, making a loud slurpynoise. She picks the glass up urther and lets the remaining tea all into her mouth, which she

leaves wide open, while fixing her eyes on the tea glass.

She gets up and turns around in one quick swerve on her heel and walks into the house, fixingthe untidy bits o her saree that was between her leg. She places the tea glass on the top o the

kitchen counter, and runs her fingers through the pleats in her saree, looking up at the room andcalling out sarcastically)

Kaminigopuuuuu! Ischool ki ami jabo?

gopuuu! Do you wane me to go to school?

(She looks back down at her saree or a ew seconds and fixes it, beore striding ahead into theroom and loudly saying)

Kamini

ey oth! Cheleeee!oh son! Get up!(she fixes the clothes on the line that hangs over one side o the bed. Her bangles make a rhyth-mic sound and she stretches up, balancing on her toes. Gopal turns around in the bed behindher and lies on his back or a ew seconds. He opens his eyes and looks up at the ceiling, his

eyelids slowly closing. He pulls his hand up to his ace and scratches his ace near his eyes, beorepromptly turning back around and alling off to sleep on his stomach.)

SCENE 3an excerpt for the film

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(Kamini goes to the makeshif dresser near the almira and hits gopal on the head and picks up thesmall piggy bank that is on the dresser. She doesnt chance upon it, but picks it up in a known ash-

ion, as i she walked in that direction just to get it.Te piggy bank is shaped like a mini sae, with intricate locks with a number system. It was a hand

me down rom one o her employers who had no use or it and is used by her now to stow away extrachange when there is.

She looks around the room with quick jerks o her head and then looks at gopal sleeping on the

bed or a ew seconds, beore quickly turning the small wheel on the lock with precision. She opensthe small door and pulls out the olded and old notes rom inside and counts them and places the

notes on the dresser. She then holds one palm out and jerks out the coins rom inside. She places thebox on the dresser, counting the coins and promptly putting them back inside. She counts the totalamount on her fingers, sticking her tongue out slightly and licking her lips while looking in no par-

ticular direction. She nods her head and moves her eyes around in agreement.She slowly stops and stands in contemplation, but without a look o concern. She moves her mouth

to one side, biting the inside o her lips and her ace loosens up as she picks up the notes with onehand and pulls it closer to her chest. She rubs the notes with her fingers as she looks careully at thenotes, expressionlessly.

Simultaneously she calls out to her son again, still standing in the same position, looking into thedistance.)

Sheiladidi ektu chini hobe?

didi can I get some sugar?

(Sheila pops her head into the small house, not knocking on the door but instead walking in andleaning at the door, her hands resting on the door rame, while she peaks around the house, her headmoving exaggeratingly rom side to side. She walks in afer a ew seconds o peering and stands at thestove looking or the salt that she demands. She stands with her arms in ront in an awkward manner,

waiting or kamini to respond.)

(Kamini, in the shock o the moment, quickly takes the notes and tucks it into her blouse. Her expression still

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doesnt change, and it seems like she was waiting or a easible excuse to complete her action.Kamini comes out o the room where her son still sleeps to etch the salt. She turns around quick, her ace

now gone rom expressionless to welcoming, almost ake.)

Kaminiektu bhetore giye dekh to Jodi chele ke otha te parish? Kichu tei amar kotha shunche na!

can you go inside and see i you can wake him up? He isnt responding to met at all!

(she simultaneously pulls out a small bowl rom below the gas, one hand on the kitchen top, and anotherhand holding her saree up rom the ront as she peers below, ducking her head with perect accuracy while

getting back up. She places a small steel bowl on the kitchen top with a loud clank and reaches or the trans-

parent plastic container, still stationary, standing in one position.Behind her, in the mirror, you can see the reflection o sheela standing over the bed, pushing rhythmically at

gopals back)

Sheilagopaaaal! Ey gopaaal! Uthbi na? school e jabi na?

gopaaal! Oh gopaaaa! Wake up? Wont you go to school?

(Kamini walks into the room and gives Sheila the sugar.)

Kaminitui ja, ami uthie debo

you go, Ill wake him up

(Sheila obliges a smile and walks away, stepping over the door as she screams out)

Sheilakalke chini pherot kore debo didi

Ill return the sugar tomorrow didi!

(kamini looks at hersel or a brie second in the mirror, pulling at the skin on her cheeks and fixing her hairwhile she simultaneously calls out)

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Kaminigopuu! Barite boshle exame ki golla aanbi?

you want to sit at home and get zeroes in your exam?

she opens the almira door and pulls out a pair o pants and a shirt or gopal. she throws the clothes on thebed, and physically picks gopal with both her arms and makes him sit up in a rustrated manner. She goes to

the stove to boil some milk.

Kaminidudh groom korchi! ui uthe porIm heating the milk, you get up!

(while kamini puts the milk to boil, pushing the stove many times to start it,her ace showing irritation whileshe mutters, dhat tarikki under her breath, gopal wears his pants. He moves slowly, his eyes still shutting as

he sways rom one side to the other slowly, and jerks back every time he leans too much.)

(Kamini comes along and quickly puts his shirt on or him, bending on her knees to reach his level, quicklybuttoning his shirt, looking down to concentrate. She looks at gopal while she reaches or the comb on the

dressing table, her hand patting the table in different places beore she grabs the comb.)

Kamini(She combs his hair to one side, her hand holding his ace in one place.)

tuitione teacher schooler kaaj shesh koriyeche toh?has your tuition made sure you finish all your school work?

(Gopal looks at her with his droopy eyes and tries nodding a yes, shutting his eyes in the process, back tosleep.)

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A shot rom scene 3, as Kamini takes the money rom thepiggy bank afer Badol leaves the house.

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A shot rom Scene 6, as mashima calls to Kamini or hermedicines.

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PRE-PRODUCTION PLANNING

PRODUCTION

Casting is 65 percent o directing.- John Frankenheimer

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Involved going to keyatala and mukundapur initially. I finalized on a amiliar persons houseor the location o the house.However my issue was always finding enough space inside a house in the slum or thecrew and equipment. My issues started emerging when I realized that a lot o people werenot willing to give their house rom morning to night. At the last minute, my location got

scrapped and I had to go hunting or a new house 4 days beore the shoot schedule.Finally I ound a house in a locality close to my house which was big enough to accommo-date everyone and everything.

Other locations involved were the employers house, the fish market, and the lottery sellersbench. I decided to choose the local fish market and roads around mukundapur itsel so itwould save my crew sometime and add to the essence o that specific location, instead o

taking another location in a different part o Kolkata which might have looked completelydisjointed.I had finalised on a train station or the lottery sellers bench but then ound mutliple ven-dors on the main road outside the slum and decided to shoot my scenes in those locationsin a non-fiction style.

Te idea was to look or locations which not only gave the essence o Kolkata as a city, withits busy roads, yellow taxis, rickshaws and vendors and narrow lanes but also accentuate thecharacters in my film by leading them through locations which would porbably match withthe desires they eel on a sub-conscious level.

PRE - PRODUCTION//LOCATION SCOUTING

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Initially I wanted people rom the slum itsel since I was having difficulty in conceptualizinghow to direct a person not rom the slums since I didnt eel I had grasped the idea o thekind o characters I was scripting or yet.

I finalized on a young girl and continued the scouting over phone conversations and withhelp rom my mother in the hope to conduct a short acting workshop a week beore theshoot began.

In the process o the scout, another issue arised, where I realised that I could not possiblyask a house help to give me morning to night or so many days to act, or a lot o womenwho were willing to act rom the slum were unwilling to act outside o their houses.

Tereore, over time, I decided it might be a better idea to find proessional actors and sendreerences and speak to them rom Bangalore and then conduct rehearsals in Kolkata.

Arnab Chakraborty, a riend o mine rom Kolkata in the theatre scene helped a lot withfinding his riends who fit the age group and role.Apart rom my main actors, I used real people to play their own parts.Since the lottery scene and fish market scene were shot in non-fiction style the characters

were played by themselves. Te others such as the mashima and didi were played by amilymembers whom I had based the roles around.

PRE-PRODUCTION//ACTOR SCOUTING

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Te clothing or my actors was comparatively easy to conceptualise since I had in-culcated it into my script in each scene and knew what I was looking or. It took mymother and me one day in the local market in the slum I was shooting in to acquire

what looked right.

For kaminis character, we asked a househelp or her clothes so that it would look asauthentic as possible. I made a list o all the props required including clips, pins, nailpolish etc.

o organize the props, I had been making list over my requent visits to nagashettyhalli

and the slums in Kolkata and thereore had a detailed list o everything I expected inmy locations and with my actors.It came to my advantage that the house I was shooting in was aready belonged to ahouse help and had almost everything, i not more, o the things I wanted in my shots.

However, we art directed the locations beore every shoot according to the shot divi-sions so all the required things could be seen to get an essence o the space.

PRE-PRODUCTION//PROPS AND COSTUMES

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Te originalactress rom thekeyatala slum.

Te area outside thehouse in keyatalaslum.

Reerence image ocostume and props orthe film.

Reerence image o themain road on which thelottery seller sits.

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Roshni, off and on set.

Naireet, off and on set.

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A portion o my shoot schedule and requirements on set.

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An excel sheet or the shot division o scene 10.

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POST-PRODUCTION

Te film is made in the editing room. Te shooting o the film is about shopping, almost. Itslike going to get all the ingredients together, and youve got to make sure beore you leavethe store that you got all the ingredients. And then you take those ingredients and you canmake a good cake - or not.-Paul Seymour Hoffman.

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Editing elt relatively easy in the beginning. Since I wanted to stick to my

sript I laid everything on the timeline in order and started cutting afer.However, even beore the edit, as I was reviewing my shots, many had comeout differently than I had imagined and minute continuity issues startedarising too.

Afer my first cut, it took me another five tries to achieve something I couldconsider as viewable.

However, in the process o it all, it took me the most amount o time torealise that the film I had scripted was different rom the film I had shot andthe film I was editing, and i I wanted a good film then I would have to moveaway rommy initial idea in many ways to create something better out owhat I had.

Overall, I enjoyed editing a lot and or the first time actually had un doing

the sound design or this film.

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Te initial stages on the timeline beore my rough cut.

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What the film looks like on the timeline now, with the extra work on sound.

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Te sound design needed lots o oley and extra location sounds to givethe essence o a busy slum. Instead o using music, I decided to use old

hindi songs playing rom radios in multiple places in my film.

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Te final colors o my film. I have never been very good with color correction but Idecided to do it mysel or my film. Since the colors were already very rich, I only played

around with the contrast, brightness and exposure and tinted certain colors a little.

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CONCLUSION

Te most honest orm o filmmaking is to make a film or yoursel.- Peter Jackson

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And I could not agree more. Filmmaking has always been so real or mebecause I draw rom memories and observations and aim to create somethingwhich is always very characteristically me.

My biggest learning was to take on the role o a script writer, director andeditor seperately, without merging them all into one.I realised that seperating mysel rom my film emotionally would only help itmore and let each process o pre-production, production and post-production

stand out or itsel and create its own work o art.

Mistakes became a common place in this project, even more so, because Ilearnt to accept where I was going wrong and make the required changes.I also learnt the biggest lesson - that a film cannot appeal to everyone and isonly made or one audiene - yoursel.I you cannot strive or the best and negotiate in your own head what de-

cisions to take instead o listening to someone else, then it might as well bemade by someone else.

Tis film holds a special place or being the only one I have shot in Kolkata soar and being the last product I make as a student at Srishti, and i I have tolook back and trace my progress rom July 2011 to today, I will be nothing butstunned at where I have come, both proessionally and emotionally.

o conclude, I must say, that the last semester and last 4 years have been awhirlwind o emotions and sel-realisation and endless events and non-stoppushing mysel to finish what I started off.

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I think maybe making films is something innate you cant really teach to begin with.- Richard Linklater


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Srishti Institute o Art, Design and echnology.2015

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