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Memories

Memories

I dream

Of flights that memories can buy

Opening

My white wings, sailing through the blue,

And resting

On burning gold clouds of desire;

But it’s a dream,

Just too thin, to make flights,

 

And so I drop

With my transparent wings ablaze,

Like birds

That cannot flap their wings twice,

Head down

Rolling through the cure of life,

 

A cure

Not made of soft memories,

And not

Of hard atrocities,

But a cure nevertheless,

A wound,

Every bit soft,

And yet so sharp,

 

So as I sit,

In bitter mud, crying,

Nursing wound, that would one day,

Relieve me off the pain,

A butterfly drenched in color,

Sits on my eyelashes. Quiet.

She drinks the salt

And turns sepia,

 

Memories,

A part to kill,

A part for cure.

Gazal

न किसी से कोई गिला रहा, न किसी के रास्ते चल सके,
ये अमावसों के चाँद है, न ये पल सके ना ही ढल सके

अबिलो-गुलाल उड़ा लिए, दिये सौ तरह के जला लिए,
कमज़ोर थे जो दुआओं में, मयखाने में, वो संभल सके,

बहती रही नदी प्यार की, पर जाने कैसी ये प्यास थी,
जो समन्दरों को मिले मगर, उसको न कोई निगल सके

उनको यकीन कि सही है वो, मुझे ऐतराज़ 'सही' है क्या?
मुझे तू बता एक चीज़ जो, बन तो गई ना बदल सके

बरसों जहन में छुपी रही, न कही गयी एक बात वो,
कहे लाख किस्से बहार के, पतझड़ को पर नहीं छल  सके 

मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा

मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
-----------------------------
तिरंगी पताका ले ले कर,
उमड़ी है सड़कों पे टोलियाँ,
याद लता की आवाज़ों में,
कर ली सरहद की गोलियाँ,
त्योहारों की बैसाखी सब,
हम जब लेना यूँ छोड़ेंगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा

(जन्माष्टमी)
चाई की कीटली, बूट-पोलिश को,
रोज़ किताब सा बाँचते है,
दो रोटी, एक पांव की खातिर,
सिग्नल पे नंगा नाचते है,
कान्हा की मटकी का माखन,
जब बच्चें ये बाँट के खाएँगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
(दीवाली)
नोच नोच खाते है बदन फिर,
नोट नोट बिकवातें है,
घूँघट की धार पे पंख काट,
चूल्हों पे उसे सीकवातें है,
माँ सीता को अंगारों पर,
जब राम नहीं चलवाएँगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
(शिवरात्रि)
जो सड़कों पे बहता है लहू,
ना मैने बहाया ना मेरा है,
अब इंसान बचा जो सब में,
मूक, अँधा और बहरा है,
विष से भरा शिव का प्याला जब,
हम घूँट घूँट पी जाएँगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
(ईद)
चलता है ऐसा ही यहाँ पर,
जुगाड़ लगा और रिश्वत दे,
बेटा, मेहनत की बात ना कर,
आगे बढ़ते सब किस्मत से,
ईदी में अपने बच्चों को जब,
सच की सेवई खिलायेंगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
(क्रिस्मस)
मंदिर मस्जिद चर्च बना कर,
बेजान प्रतिति पूजते हैं,
कन्दिल की रोशन परिधि पे,
भाई हाथों से छूटते है,
पाएँगे प्यार पड़ोसी का,
जब प्यार उन्हें कर पाएँगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा
त्योहारों की बैसाखी सब,
हम जब लेना यूँ छोड़ेंगे,
मैं तब त्योहार मनऊंगा

Gujarati Gazal

અશ્રુ લખેલ નામ વંચાવ માં,

વાવેતર સપનાં ના વાવ માં,

 

વાતો ના મહલે રાતો ભરી'તી,

"કાશ" વળે ઍ વાતો પતાવ માં,

 

અનુભવ બની ભલે સાથે રહેતી,

યાદ બની પણ પાસે આવ માં,

 

વર્ષો તરસતી ધરતી ને આભે,

છૂટું વાદળ ઍક બતાવ માં,

 

ચાલશે શ્વાસો મારા વગર પણ,

વાતો આ ખોટી મને ભણાવ માં,

 

મૌત લગી મેં રાહ જોઈ' તી,

હવે તૂ જુઠ્ઠો પ્રેમ જતાવ માં,

 

ઈશ્વર ભજું તો મળશે સફળતા,

નવી નિસરણી મને વાતાવ માં,

 

ડૂબીને ઉપર, હું આવ્યો છૂં,

ડૂબતો સમજી હવે બચાવ માં,

 

નિર્ધન નિખાલસ જનમ માંગ્યો'તો,

"શાહ" ઘડીને ફરી સતાવ માં.

Cannes : My Experience - Concluding Part 5/5

Watching Films – The Climax

 

 

At Cannes the organizers care a lot about the quality of film screening and showing respect for the filmmakers. And this is evident in every little thing. From the computer systems to watch films at short film library or the little screening rooms to arguably the world’s best theatre – Grand Theatre Lumiere, everything is top notch.

I watched about 80 odd short films at the short film library.

 

 

Ofcourse our very own Prateek , Sopaan and Rishi had their Muktibodh and Ghazal being played there. Also we had the Srilankan Film by Bimal and Umesh which was one of the best I had seen. There was a short film by Deepak Sharma called Wapasi, which had a very good feel to it as well, though tad long. I loved a film called “The Train” by a Chinese director “Joy” – we liked each other’s names for its similarity. There were films from all over the world, from a good documentary by a guy called Gavin on Esports to a Mexican animation film; from an adaptation of Henri Ibsen Play to a Swiss Comedy. It is just not possible to even list the films that I loved.Big cheers for all these filmmakers who are making short films, as there is no support infrastructure in place for short films across the world – both funding and selling it is almost impossible.

 

The only downside in the festival for me was that I started feeling homesick after first 10 days. It was these screenings of films that gave me the best company in the later days.

 

Everything about screening the feature films at Cannes is designed to make you feel special.

 

You walk on the famous red carpet wearing your best tuxedo and a bow tie (a red or a golden one if you are a little more experimenting types), the invitation collector in his best tuxedo scans your card and the invitation and you walk slowly towards the Orchestra / Balcony seat that you have the invitation for.

 

Two beautiful girls after asking whether you like to talk in English or French , will direct you to your seats. People will all rise up when the cast and crew arrives. After a small introduction of the cast and crew in French and a little director’s statement, the movie screening begins with you visually climbing the stairs that lead up to the famous leaf of Cannes Film Festival. It is all too ‘Surreal’ (a word that Prateek prefers using).

 

We attended the premiere for – Timbuktu, Mr.Turner, Incompresa, Titli and How to train your dragon along with the Cast and Crew. The sheer feeling of how the crowd cheers the filmmakers and how they give a real standing ovation at the end of the film for 10-20 minutes brings Goosebumps. At the end of the show you want to be the man/ woman they are cheering.

Though, the best movie watching experience undoubtedly was the celebration screening for Pulp Fiction on the beach.

 

 

People waited in queue for 3 hours to get a seat. And then just before it played itself on the huge screen, the star cast and director entered. Quentin Tarantino introduced Uma Thurman and John Travolta as if they were some wrestling stars. And just like the language of his films he called the people who did not watch pulp fiction in last 20 years “Mother F.ing losers”.

 

 

 

Next of course was Titli – the only Indian selection in the un certain regard section. It is a gritty well-paced film with solid performance. Strong footed in the environment that its characters represented, it tells an unflinching tale of a man “Titli” who feels trapped within his life and family.

 

 

Incompresa by Asia Argento – an Italian film telling the story from a little girl’s perspective also suited our film watching sensibilities in a great manner. It was both funny and twisted. Little girl, who was the protagonist, was present at the screening and looked very confident.

We also enjoyed “How to train your dragon 2” in 3D. The best part of this film was that kids were allowed to watch the screening. And there were tens of those little ones, in their small tuxedos and flowing gowns. I hope to bring my son to one such screening.

Watching a classic like Roberto Rosselini’s Fear (1954, starring Ingrid Bergman, was also a special experience). Many scenes literally felt too long a cut.

 

The French film 2 days and One Night, starring Marilon Cotillard was another power packed performance based film. The film is shot like a docudrama and rests heavily on subtleties of acting. Jimmy’s Hall was also an interesting Biopic, about an Irish man who opens up a hall for dancing, where young people met. And he was considered anti-Christian unbeliever for his act. The cinematography and feel of the film was special.

 

 

Talking about cinematography one of the best shot films was the one that won Palme D’or – Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan - A 3hours 16 minute drama which was wonderfully intricate and painfully slow for Indian or Hollywood standard. Our lives are slow, boring and repetitive and movies work as our escape route, so our movies are anything but that. These films feel slightly like a slice of life film for their characters and that makes it slow. The dialogues and conversation in Wintersleep, cinematography and acting were all the best one could wish for.

 

The same was true for Mr. Turner and the Chinese film Fantasia. While Mr.Turner was beautifully shot (probably the most beautifully shot) film, I could hardly make it to the finish line for Fantasia. Sample this, there are 2-3 scenes in this film where you see a landscape of rising and falling hill tops by the river side. A little kid walks from the other side of the hill, goes down on the trough and then climbs up on the hill nearer to the camera and then he stops and looks at the horizon – all in a single cut.

 

 

 

The Salvation was a western which played absolutely like an Indian film. Too Predictable and over processed. Coming Home, another Chinese film was quite better with a beautifully shot love story of a man who returns after 20 years of imprisonment to his lover, who couldn’t recognize him.

 

The lineup also had some twisted stories like Maps to the stars (which many did not like for its theme based on incest) and Lost river (Ryan Gosling’s first directorial Venture which uses colors and Cinematography to depict a dystopian city in bleak times).

Post all this we were tired, and we wanted to skip the last film of the festival – Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas. We decided to go attend the screening and walk out in 10 minutes if we don’t like it. It was a very good decision. I think this was THE best written film of the festival. I was glued to the story and its metaphors completely from start to finish. Juliette Binoche and Kirsten Stewart have acted beautifully in the film. A must watch.

 

 

It was a life, we never dreamt of ; An experience to keep for years to come. I know I will make more films and I hope I will attend more festivals in future but it will never be the.

A special thanks to Infosys for encouraging people following their hobbies in their free time. And a special thanks to you for reading, if you have made it this far J. Hope you enjoyed reading what I wrote to summarize my experience.

 

 

Cannes - My Experience Part 4/5

Networking – The Twists and Turns In The Story

How do you network at Cannes? Well you just go with the flow and keep the deck of your business cards ready. That is about it. People are there to network and you might find an important contact anywhere while peeing in a crowded toilet or queuing up for watching a film.

We made a good little group of Indians, Srilankans, Mexicans, Italians and Spanish guys at the short film corner. Like most of the groups, our group also went hopping pavilion parties and drank well. For 2-3 consecutive evenings by the time we reached Turkish Pavilion, after Short Film Corner, Indian pavilion and European Pavilion, most of the group was high and they bonded well. Learned that unlike French who seem to be kissing the air, Mexican literally kiss your cheeks to greet you. And being the only non-alcoholic married middle aged Indian guy in the group, I wasn’t comfortable with that. I did tell them how Indians greet, either a Namaste or a good handshake. The Mexican girl was slightly confused as to why no one else seemed so bothered. I gave up, trying to explain her. But yes I think this is the group that I will be in contact with for the longest time in future. And yes you need to try Turkish Coffee whenever you get your hands on it!

 

A glass of Strong Turkish Coffee

 

Our day in Cannes used to start at around 8-8:30 and we used to come back home by midnight. For the entire day, all we used to do was, watch movies with filmmakers and meet people. Imagine doing nothing else. The sheer number of people you meet is overwhelming.

 

And the day starts. No we did not spend our time and money in that Casino!

 

Met an Indian actor working in Hollywood, who was nice enough to guide us. He introduced us to Sudhir Mishra, A director from Qatar (who talked about Santosh Sivan like a very close friend), a British Indian Filmmaker and a Hollywood producer, though we had no idea what to talk to them. I liked this camaraderie thing, where people want other people to meet as well. I went to a Yashraj film party as well along with him and it really was full of people I would have liked to be – Kanu Behl, Gitanjali Rao, Avatar Panesar and many more. We saw Kamal Sadanah as well, and the children who grew up in 90s that we are, I and Sopaan (a cinematographer friend and an ex-infoscion) we almost were about to sing “Dil cheer ke dekh tera hi naam hoga” to give him an identity.

 

On a quick lunch break gobbling some fruits, I met an interesting writer-director from U.S. who was there with a comedy film and who had many Indian friends including Siddhartha Mukherjee (writer of Emperor of Maladies).

 

Premieres of films were also good places to connect to people.

 

 

In one of the premieres (screening of Timbuktu), a lady sitting next to me asked me to click her photo, so that she can send it to her daughter. Later while talking to her I realized she is CEO of a firm of 200 people and manages to make films as hobbies. She has been visiting all big festivals and markets for last 5 years - Quite a personality. She left 10 mins after the film started. She guided me in those 10 -15 min on how to tackle legal matters for films and gave me contact of legal firms dealing in films. Found a programmer for Abu Dhabi film festival, a French writer, a UPENN student, who was sitting next to me in one or the other screening.

 

After an absolutely unassuming break after a tiring day we met Ricardo, a film festival programmer for Indian Film Festival of The Hague. What a personality! He spent almost an hour with us, chatting on how we can make our trip to Cannes more fruitful and interesting.

 

 

And of course there were planned networking sessions by India Pavilion where we met range of folks ; Producers to whom we pitched our films, filmmakers, a French winemaker looking for sponsorship opportunities (who was surprised to know that he can’t sell wine in Indian movie halls) and his Japanese wife who was a photographer, Indian Animation producers and so on. An interesting person I met there was an Italian actor, a nice girl who wanted to work in Bollywood. I remember the 3 lines she mentioned “I loved Mother India. I want to work in Bollywood. I can dance.” Made me think how the world perceives our Cinema.

 

Then there were freelance artists from Paris – a fashion designer who worked on themes of Hindu mythology, an Indian classical dancer, a freelance diplomacy document writer and so on who were visiting Cannes.

 

Walking the lanes of Marche du films, we came across many people from Indian press. Some of them were really intrigued to know that I am an Infoscion and I am a filmmaker and I don’t see why it should be different J. One of them, a nice gentleman who was interested in talking about NRN with me, had actually recommended my name for adding it to the delegates from India list (he chose me randomly out of all the short filmmakers, it seems).

 

 

 

There were other Bengali filmmakers from TCS and PWC as well, which was very reassuring.

 

The sessions with filmmakers on various topics, arranged by India also worked as a networking opportunity in many ways. There were sessions with Titli cast and crew, Kamal Hassan, Ramesh Sippy, Guneet Monga and many others.

So at the end of the festival, you are left with hundreds of cards, email Ids and phone numbers. Now it is up to you how you want to take it forward. It has been a week I am back. I have not been able to attend even half of the cards, and I really want to be in touch with all of them. There already are a few interesting email exchanges that are happening with a few. A British filmmaker shared a list of his favorite British movies that I might want to catch up; a German producer has shown some interest in my stories (it is very reassuring to see professionals telling you that this is ‘interesting’. I don’t know may be I was looking for that kind of assurance to build confidence.)

 

Most of these people, who are there for business, left by 21^st / 22^nd of May and the festival was supposed to be till 25^thMay. This left us with 3-4 non-networking days. And we did what one should do at a film festival in those 3-4 days – watched films.