Logbook of a Screenwriter
Soumitra Chatterjee has been like that father figure whom you don’t miss till the time he is no more. He is much like that cornerstone of your being that you have taken for granted. So when I heard, sometime around Durga Pooja last year, that he was severely unwell and hospitalized, it came as a jolt. He was 85, true,…
8 CommentsWhen Subhash Ghai came to the Subah Savere studio to promote ‘Taal’ – he had a preconceived notion that he might be meeting a bunch of arty-intellectuals who are neither aware not appreciative of his work. But Nilendu Sen, the producer of the show, soon convinced him that this was not the case. The way he did that was a…
17 CommentsTo be honest, I never had the opportunity to work directly under Nilendu-da. During my early years in the Delhi News TV circuit, I might have seen his signature gallis-mounted frame a couple of times during my not so frequent visits to the Moving Pictures office at Jangpura, where I used to go meet my friend Laura Krishnamurthy. I remember…
17 CommentsI don’t remember when and why I read Aristotle’s Poetics. Might be one of those lazy afternoons in Kolkata’s Nandan complex library, where, after college, and after a couple shots (of tea!) down – I thought maybe Aristotle would give me a dummies guide to dramatic storytelling. If I could use it, even in bits and parts, perhaps that could…
6 CommentsEditing is the process where the story takes it’s real shape – but that’s what we already know, don’t we? What we probably do not know is the role that the film-editor plays during the entire creative process of a film. Yes, he is there, all along, and not just as a spectator – as an active storyteller. That’s how…
2 CommentsWhen Sreekar Prasad, the ace film editor, agreed to talk to me for my blog, I was totally baffled. I have grown up drooling at his work, from the time I bunked school to watch ‘Raakh’ till I gaped in awe at the visual opulence of ‘Ashoka’, from the understated poignancy of ‘Vanaprastham’ to the coming of age with ‘Dil…
4 CommentsSoumik Sen is the friend who gave me a Woody Allen omnibus as a marriage gift. Whether the gesture had some kind of symbolism I can’t say. It’s just that I continue reading it, till this day, when I am out of wits. The way I remember my friend and colleague Soumik is very different from what he is now.…
1 CommentMy friend Nishi happens to be quite an inexplicable person; even while we were in the university together I often wondered how she managed to pack so much into a single day of standard dimensions, and still remain cheerful and uncomplaining about almost everything around her. I still do not have an answer to that. She loves to travel; and…
4 CommentsThere’s absolutely no reason why advertising legend Stanley Pinto should give me an interview. Yes, I had infrequently tried my hand at advertising copy writing, rather unsuccessfully. The fact that I did that to tide over my frequent bouts of depression as a natural fallout of being a documentary script writer, isn’t a strong enough reason to impress him –…
12 CommentsIt’s not every day that you get to interview someone like Farrukh Dhondy. All I can say, films he has worked in have been films that inspired my very early thoughts about choosing a career in screenwriting. I remember breaking down the ravine sequences of ‘Bandit Queen’ when I was barely 20 something old – to learn editing and sequence…
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