26 hours a day - Wow! Now I can livvveee more!

Wow! So you mean I will have 26 hours a day then? Amazing! That’s exactly what I have been looking for Machan! See, if you had asked me this question three years earlier when I was lazying my Under Graduation college I would have gnarled ‘oh man come on! I am longing for life to move a little faster than my USB modem, now don’t tell me you are gonna give 2 extra hours a day. No machan please!’ But now, my answer would contrast my UG mind. That’s because a couple more hours would help this budding film maker to find time to realize his year-old dream of ‘starting to become an actor’.I always wanted to be one! I can spend an hour in watching the selected ‘Al Pacino’ clips in You Tube and try bringing out the original actor inside me. As a loyal ‘budding director’ I am supposed to focus on my area of study and not shatter focus, but now since I have an extra two hour, I can divert a little and try being an actor! Okay, that’s with the one hour. What about the other 1 hour? Aaah! Finally, now those little monsters can be happy! I can play a clown to my little nephews. They have been pestering me for this since last new year! Yeah right! Every night before going to bed! With the face painted, the head covered with a cap (that we wear inside the helmet) white gloves on the hand and dancing and acting in rhythm to a tune (probably the BGM of ‘Tom and Jerry’ I torrented last week). Ooh! Then I shall become the modernest children-storyteller, who doesn’t tells stories to kids, but performs them all as a mime play! Wow! Budding film makers gotta livvvveee life like this! Alright! So when is this ’26 hour’ thing starting?? Hello?? There?

The Chase - 5 min - Awareness Short Film

Creating awareness material for global warming or climate change had been a huge sensation then in college (2009 Winter). Teachers were a lot encouraging when I took up NSS's work to paste 'plastic awareness' chart works at places inside the campus. We weren't doing anything effective like a project, but the awareness was wide. Everyone was talking 'global warming'. It was a 'hot topic'. Like any other in the crowd I wasn't doing much about it too, other than just talking about it.

But I had one trait within myself which I found was a rare thing. Somewhere before then I had read that the plastic that is littered on sand (never decomposes as we already know) gradually gets into the sand and then hinders water entry on that particular little space. Since then I had decided that I shall not litter a bit of plastic material on ground. So wherever I don't find a recycle bin to dispose any candy wrapper, I just put it in my pocket or my bag. And dispose it later when I get home.

This habit I thought could be propagated as a 'first step to personal discipline on saving the environment from pollution'. The idea was hitting around my head for a week. And then I had come up with a message for the NSS chart work: Plastic - A Toxin in sand, a Resource in the dust bin! And a week after that this one liner became the one line for my first short film, which later transformed into a PSA.

The screenwriting part was pretty easy and there were no dialogues. I had drawn a rough storyboard (which had to see a lot of infringing during the shoot) and then had arranged a rehearsal meet for the cast. Friends are angels when it comes to shooting your first project. They do it for free and they pay you with invaluable dedication. I was more lucky. And the very unique thing about this project was, it was a pack of 7 students from Computer Science background who were shooting. And we hardly knew the basic 'Do's and Don'ts' of short film making. But still, we were acting like knew what we were doing! And yeah, we didn't mess up.

I had to add two more environment based messages in the script to make it quite a worthy watch. Just PSAing this plastic idea would just make it a 1 min thing. I wanted to give a little more. So then popped the other two ideas of 'switching off your bike in signals' and water conservation.

Frankly speaking it wasn't a great work. Not a great script, but as a PSA, it was a good visual I thought. So it wasn't really serving as my storytelling sample. The brighter side: This experimental film taught a lot many things in film making, the 'most fundamental's. The Do's and Don'ts at the editing table, how to manage a candid shoot in a public space etc. This is what I would call 'effective self-learning'.

I have more to say, but you would end up spending half an hour reading my post, when the film is just 5 minutes! So go to the link and watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw3oftY-sOI

Unarviyam Media

Unarviyam Media is involved in creative avenues such as:

Short films

Theatre

Corporate Shows

Corporate Videos

Photography

Documentary

We are looking forward to work on projects focused upon 'quality art & entertainment'.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa - A critical and elaborate review

Another example of how an ordinary story could be made into a great movie, by applying a fresh and dynamic ‘treatment’. A ‘wannabe Film Director’ falls in love with a typical and conservative city girl who works in the IT and they end the relationship, in less than 7 months from the day they declare their love, for the conventional Indian reason: parents are not okay with it!

It was a brilliant move from Gautham Menon to have banked upon working on the looks and expressions of Trisha and Silambarasan to bring out a totally fresh Jessy and Karthik, and has succeeded in making the audience go deep into the characters. To support the effort of bringing freshness, Cinematographer Manoj Paramahansa has put in great work and used brilliant lighting giving the screen a ‘never seen before’ feel! And to perfectly enhance the aura created by the above two components, then comes the genius Rahman’s totally fresh music. The mind soothing music perfectly complements the feel of the movie.

It is quite impressive to see Simbhu’s and Trisha’s performance. So much improvement in the girl's acting, she uses her chin so much to differentiate her expressions beautifully. Bites her lower lip and uses the chin to express anger and irritation. She couldn’t be seen any cuter. Of course she has ‘lived’ the character. Simbhu’s is an unbelievably a total image makeover. The actor has reinvented himself making us forget his previous image completely. And a decent play by the other supporting actors, but the casting could have been even better. New faces could have been a better choice.

The laudable work in this romantic drama is the incredibly pleasant scene chemistry brought out in a very fresh feel between two very familiar faces which the Tamil audience have watched for a long time before.

Even though the film's conflict had a good strength, the place where Jessy declares to drop off is a bit weaker. In the break-up conversation that midnight in front of their house she gives reasons and is in such a mess to end it up and send Karthik off. Of course she had spoken to Karthik before of the possible issues but the parting scene seems to be weak in reason. It could have been better. Also, the time duration of them hanging out together as happy lovers could have been extended a little. It was just ‘6 months’. It could have been an year to make the break-up appear more serious and impactful. A relationship that as just for some 8 months is not deep enough to stir emotion in the audience.

The scene at the open restaurant couldn’t have been any better. A desperate Karthik and an angry Jessy. Amazing performance by both of them. And what exactly is the purpose of the scene when Karthik drops Jessy in a street near her house, after they spend time alone at Ganesh’s newly built house and return when is Karthik shown getting upset? Jessy leaves after a ‘bye’. Quite a normal situation. A critical back ground music plays and Karthik is shown upset. What does he get upset for? The sequence is confusing.

The fairly good screenplay, dialogues and actor performances have put in enough levels of realism ('yedhaartham' as they fondly call in Tamil cinema). Guess what the foremost weakness of the movie lies in? ‘Dialogue’ I am not commenting on the total set of dialogues in the movie, but almost 70% of it. Not that they are not good. But they aren’t tightly stitched. Gautham seems to have been a little careless about crafting the dialogues. Of course, practically the dialogues are valid since common people would talk in such ways, but still there was a large unused scope in the film in portion of dialogues.

At many places the dialogues expressed amateurishness of the writer. For instance, in the scene where Ganesh and Karthik move out from the Church after Jessy stops the wedding, “sir ippo enga sir poradhu, vaazhkayoda paadha enge podhunu therilaye…? Ganesh: cross roads of life nu solriyaa…nalla irukuda un philosophy…” What sense does this dialogue make? Majority of the dialogues in the movie fail to give the satisfying effect. Not to hate the few of them that were very poetic: “avanga yaarum un kannale enna paakla pole”, “ulagathula ethanayo ponunga irundhum naa en sir jessy ya love pannen” etc. Although the dialogues didn’t fail big to tell the story better, they should have been carefully taken care of, after all Gautham seems to have intended to make quite a perfect film.

And yeah, the humour chemistry between Ganesh and Simbhu has worked out pretty well! Ganesh’s typical Tamil voice has added to the humour essence. Audience loved his expressions, especially during the tensed conversation between Simbhu and the latter at the Church. But what’s with the dubbing? The lip sync for Ganesh was so poor, in all scenes and made it look very odd.

Next damage: There were a few scenes and shots which totally disturbed realism and made it seem that the Director was trying to push information in a deliberate way rather than ‘showing’ it. Two such examples - Scene 1: When Karthik tells his dad about his ‘film maker ambition’ for the first time, when they are in a casual walk. The scene is so artificial. Instead of realistically showing, the scene ‘tells’ information. Scene 2 (rather a shot): When Karthik hands over an envelope to Ganesh telling that his first film project has been approved and the latter is going to be his cameraman. They just sit on a sofa and the shot begins like a stage play. I mean these were places that were stitched so loose.

Hats off to Rahman! Another magnificent set of composition that has perfectly blended with the mood of the film. The movie had great choice of locations. Another conscious move from Gautham to enhance the pleasance of the story by choosing elegant places to shoot. My only worry is that when there was so much easy scope to make it a masterpiece with a few more moves, Gautham failed to make it one. The film could have been more phenomenal if he had been more meticulous.

Did you realize? Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa has a negative climax (Karthik and Jessy fail to realize their marriage and live together) and yet this ‘Tamil’ film was a super hit! Well, that’s a fruiting experiment. Vinnaithandi Varuvaya: A beautiful and poetic romantic drama which has a totally fresh and pleasant aura having a few imperfections here and there. All the imperfection didn’t matter to the youngsters who sure loved the movie thanks to that they could relate more to Karthik, Jessy and their families. Nevertheless a worthy watch!

UNARVIYAM Presents 'THE CHASE' - Our first short film

The long was not so worth it. But the good news is that the 'long wait' is over ! :)
Now, get ready to live through the most unexpected plot ! :)

THE CHASE
Releasing this October 2010

A UNARVIYAM FILM

the aesthetic walk..

The scooty’s kicker pedal was broken. Dad had kept the broken piece separately near the night lamp at the gate. I started using the button start. I drove to the grocery shop nearby. I parked in the shadow. A small shop. I took ladyfingers and chillies, in the plastic basket they had kept, and gave it to the shop guy for weighing. I looked at the shop guy.. keenly observed his mannerisms..(storytellers and directors got to and like to observe people a lot) he had placed the ball pen in his ear fold.. as if it was a pen stand.. most of the shopkeepers do that.. traditional style.. because it is very easy for them to grab it quickly from there and write bills. “19 rupees “he said.. I paid and as I waited for the change I noticed the little kid who was dedicatedly looking into the glass of the box where the confectionery was kept. ‘Bourbon’ caught his eyes strongly. He bugged his grandma (almost around 60) who was carrying the baby (probably the guy’s sister) on her waist. He said in the usual kiddy moaning tone “grandma I want this..” She did not refuse.. but he still added a “pleassee” She slowly took out a 20 rupee note from her little purse as she looked through her thick glasses. The shop guy gave me the change. I took it. As I watched all these in the shop,I slowly, pleasantly, got into my usual aesthetic mood. ‘Aesthetic’ The scene and situation at the shop inspired some aesthetic smell inside me. I started thinking how to make it as a scene in case I get to have a scene like this in any of my films in the future. Storytelling is such an interesting job. The passion of my life. The mood was so pleasant. The scene at the shop seemed to be so nice, like the scenes in the aesthetic films which I have watched in ‘UTV World Movies'. I got the cover from the shop guy, and slowly walked back home..thoughtfully..on the way in the arisi mandi the boy who was made to sit at the cash table was singing loud “en ucchi mandaila girrungudhu…….”with so much expression..closing his eyes tight.. I giggled to myself.... Aesthetic mood.. the faces of people, their mannerisms.. sounds on the street, the cattle walking dead slow on the pathway.. sometimes when the mind is very light and relaxed and I see ordinary situations like these.. it inspires me a lot.. I get to think that scenes in my films have to be realistic like these.. with only a little bit of dramatism..Storytelling has to be this way in the screen.. Pleasant walk it was.. I reached home.. dad was watering the little garden. I felt something was missing. Something.. no not in my mind.. nothing philosophical.. something was missing....something…physically.. I shooed away the crow that sat near the night lamp at the gate. It pushed down the small pedal dad had kept there as it flew off. It was scooty’s pedal. Got to give it to mechanic in the evening, to fix it. Dad looked at me, as he was holding the hose.

He said “what..? “

I replied “what....?”

“Where’s scooty ?”

“Scooty uh?”

”yeah..where’s scooty?”

“Ohhh my..........!”

I rushed back to the shop !!!!

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My Blog is open to corrections and comments. :-) The only thing I bother is to express and help refine and improve the land we live in. But kindly give only neutral, valid comments. Forgive my (unintentional) mistakes in my writings and stand for my cause. WELCOME INDIANS !! :-)