Movie Murmur

  The schedule at the 'Manipal Film Festival', 2013 The subject matters of many of my films are often based in the state of Karnataka in South India. I should admit that there is an ulterior motive here. The idea was that it would enable me to squeeze in a quick trip to Udupi, the town in which I grew up, to visit my parents who were staying alone. In the 1990s I was extensively involved in the non fiction tele-serial ‘Surabhi’, and for quite a while although based in Mumbai, I was the ‘Karnataka man’ in the organization. Anything that was to be done in that state, and I was the chosen one. It was my right, so to say. I have been in Mumbai for over twenty two years and all these years I always did feel the need to maintain this connection. With both my parents having expired in quick secession a couple of years back, it did occur to me on several occasions as to how long this connection would last. I have been looking at subjects from other parts of the country f...

Shankarghatta - a view from the university My lectures at the Mass Communication Department at the Kuvempu University fell on the City Municipality Elections voting day in Karnataka. The University itself is named after Late K.V. Putappa (Kuvempu) considered as one of the fathers of Modern Kannada literature and is situated at Shankargatta, a small town on the outskirts of a reserved forest area that is around 45 minutes drive away from the city of Shimogga. Well, Shimogga is Mr. B. S. Yeddyurappa's constituency and Yeddyurappa's stories on corruption  cases are well known. The land that he owns right on the Shimogga-Shankarghatta road along with a 'few lkilometer long' compound wall that is attached to it forms a prominent part in the 'things to see' list and that the housing rent at Shimogga doubled to Rs. 3,000/- for a three boredom house as soon as Mr. Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister of the State of Karnataka forms a prominent part in the 'th...

I was in Pune last week to conduct a six days short film making workshop for the TV direction students at my Alma Mater, The Film and TV Institute of India. Ravi Dawala, who was facilitating the workshop, and I interacted a lot during this period. We discussed about a host of topics which included amongst other things - the Big Bang theory, Stephen Hawking, the grand design, atoms etc… We also dealt with the question of making independent self funded films - like the one I am presently working on called Haal-e-Kangaal' (The Bankrupts) and the difficulty of finding an audience for such films, when we are not going through the mainstream distribution system. All of a sudden Ravi asked me a question, ‘Why are you making the film that you are making?' For a second I was speechless. Why was I making films at all? And then I said, ‘I have made the films that I have made because I have said that I would make them. Now, after having said so, if I had not made those those films,...

Please watch this five minute short film that I had made in 2003, the first short film that I had shot on Digital Video on my then brand new Sony PD 150. I promise you some fun. Heart Troubles of Ramchand Yavatmal Tiruchinapalli Azamghar

 The Children of Kannur In the month of July, 2011, Deepak Paramanand and a few of his friends ran a summer camp for a few under privileged kids in the village of Kannur, in Bijapur, North Karnataka, India. They conduct these courses every year, where teachers volunteer to teach the next year portion for the kids. The children are also engaged in a few cultural activities. In 2011, they showed 'Putaani Party'. The children who acted in the film were called for the screening. After a healthy discussion with these children, the next day the children of Kannur marched through the lanes of their village making a case against alcoholism. They petitioned the Gram Panchayat (Village Governing Body) asking them to stop units in their village that sell illegal liquor. The insistent children brought the government officials and the police to the scene. The children were aided by self help and some women's groups. The Panchayat then decided to ca...

Promo of Rice and Rasam ( ಅನ್ನ ಸಾರು ) Synopsis: ‘Rice and Rasam’ captures the daily struggles, routines, joys, conflicts, and the nomadic lives of an ensemble of professional artists of two units of a touring theater company as they struggle to remain relevant and survive amidst dwindling audiences; and in the face of rapidly changing economic, cultural and political contexts. Producer: Rajiv Mehrotra, PSBT Director: Ramchandra PN Duration of the film: 52 mins Also watch the  excerpt of Rice and Rasam (ಅನ್ನ ಸಾರು) At Kannada Blog -  Yenaark If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE                                                       ...

(Downloadable; can be used anywhere) BV Karanth - Baba - A documentary film on the renowned theater personality Shri BV Karanth. Based on his autobiography 'Illiralaare, Allige Hogallaare' (I can't stay here, but I won't also go there...); complied by the Kannada writer Vaidehi . Produced by Films Division Duration: 93 Mins Camera: Sameer Mahajan Sound: Santosh Kumar Additional Camera: Pandurange Gowda Executive Producer, Editor & Director: Ramchadnra PN Stills from the film Working stills during the shooting of the film.  If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE

'Miyar House' is scheduled to be screend at the Tata Theater in Mumbai at 2.30 PM on the 6th of February as a part of the Mumbai International Documentary Film Festival (MIFF). Schedule at MIFF If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE

In The People’s Republic of China, thanks to its one-child policy , I believe there is a generation of people who have grown up without having an aunt or an uncle. At some point in life, as it grows up, the single child would be having no relatives at all; except its spouse and its own single child, if any! It is frightening to be alone.

www.Tripbase.com My blog 'Movie Murmur' has been awarded 'The Tripbase 2011 Blog Award '. in the Mumbai category along with a few other Mumbai based blogs.

A still from 'Miyar House' 'Miyar House' is a 76 mins documentary film that took ten years in the making - blame it on fear, confusion and lethargy! But finally when it is ready now, despite any any institutional funding, I am pleased with the results. I thank Ajay Raina, Sameer Mahajan and Santosh Kumar for helping me realise this film. If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE Other links Watch the trailer IMDB Wekipedia Facebook Sonk Films

A friend of mine sent me a sms the other day, to ask if we could meet at four in the afternoon at Infinity. Around two, I boarded an auto to Adarsh Nagar. Normally, if I asked eight autos, the ninth one would give me a boarding pass. But this auto driver was special, he was just the second! As we passed the flyover that is being constructed on the S.V. Road that would head right on top of the Western railway tracks and go into Jogeshwari East, I found myself saying, ‘If this is completed, any and every auto from east would come to West and visa verse’. The auto driver saw the half constructed flyover, but choose to keep mum. Maybe he was not interested. ‘Do you know how long will it take for the flyover to get completed?’ I persisted. ‘Don’t know sir… But there is a lot of money in this flyover business’ he replied. ‘Ah… so he does talk...’ I thought. And then the words began to flow, ‘Sir, they keep constructing these flyovers where ever they get space. And when they don’t get the spa...

Manohar Patel is an agriculturalist and a self styled wild life documentary film maker. He is outspoken and direct in his communication. Srikant Kelahatti is soft spoken, persuasive, methodical and a practicing charted accountant. Both are environmental activists, both love theater and are avid film buffs. They run an institution called 'Maithreya Institute for Environmental Studies.' Conservation of grassland ecology around the Tiptur region in Central Karnataka, illegal quarrying that have all but destroyed the nearby villages and the dumping of third rate environmentally harmful industrial technology by the west are some of the day to day issues that they deal with. Thus, both face physical threats from the anti environment lobby that they have pitched themselves against. In the evenings when they get bored with their day to day existence they call up each other and identify a nearby village – making sure from the electricity board that there is no scheduled power cut in...

The vehicle that Madan had arranged turned at the Corporation circle at Bangalore. I was woken up from my thoughts by Sampath, ‘Where Sir in Corporation?’ I looked around – the Corporation area that I had known no longer existed. I could not figure out where Badami House was located. Twenty six years back I had gone there to attend a film appreciation course. After circling for around ten minutes Sampath finally located Badami House. I ran upstairs, was greeted by an eager official who asked his peon to add a chair in his boss’s office. Another official ensured that the chair actually went inside. It was only then that I was escorted inside, where around fifteen men had already gathered and I was terribly late. The top official from the information department was presiding over an informal gathering of National Film Awardees from the state. There were two lot of them – This year awardees; it included me and the last year awardees; they had forgotten to honor them. I was made to s...

I own some old dusty diaries – around ten of them, each representing a particular year. They normally contain some hurriedly written phone numbers and host of ‘things to do’ lists - lists that I religiously write each day I wake up, but most times forget to refer to. I must have opened just one of the diaries once in the past two years; and I must confess that I don’t feel like throwing them away. We all love junk, don’t we? Friend Pankaj Advani loved it so much that he shot the climax of one of his films in a junk yard. And I loved the character who sat on a heap of junk with a stengun in hand – it seemed that he loved his junk. Lilly, a distant relative from Baroda firmly believes that if we don’t use a thing for two years, then it should be disposed off. My second cousin Subbu from Bangalore drastically reduces this time to three months. Wish we had the skill and training to recognize junk as and when it occurs. Most times, we take most of our junk to our graves. Recent...