An Experiment called Ghoda 22
When I started working on Ghoda all the characters were
clear in my head. These are characters from my feature film (in the making - Mullu Murudu Moorkhan pambu). I wanted to
experiment and play with the characters. But more important than that I wanted
to hold conversations that will all lead to something. Some directors put conversations
which don’t lead anywhere but they become so interesting that they stand out
and fascinate audiences everywhere. However in ghoda everything had to lead
somewhere. Two people in car will not talk about their favorite movie or how
they scored the best stash in town. They will talk about things that will
decide their fate.
The second and most important aspect of the film was that it
should be silly. Not ridiculously silly but silly however. People buying a gun
like they buy a sari or dupata. Bargaining firearms like it is fish. How the
perpetual violent underworld is not as violent as the family life. How every
man is an island but how every island makes a pattern. How silly to watch
something which should still make sense but won’t linger once the film is over.
How it should cinema and not cinema.
The third experiment was controlling pace of the film
through performance rather than relying on an editor. This is the net result of
reading “In the blink of an Eye” where performance alone is the key to
storytelling and every visual and every audible detail only adds to these
performances. It is not a dance where people keep thinking about how the
filmmaker achieved this piece but rather they should be grooved in the essence
of the scene. Another aspect that I wanted to push was that the scene will not
end when the audience expects it to end. There will always be a 2 minute more
of conversation and that too relevant conversation.
Ranjan Raj as chotu the driver
Ranjan Raj as chotu the driver
Rahul Rajagopal swimming accross Tsunami island malvan
Ram Menon improvising on the mood and emotion of his character
Script reading
MOnika as Sandhya
Amol Pathare as Mudali
Ram Menon
Sushant Shetty
Monika Sharma and Ranjan Ran out of character
The wide shot suggestion by Rahul Rajagopal works kickass
The early morning crew Guru Charan, Girish and actor jamshed
There is a religious side to the film too which I would like
to say a ‘balanced violence’. The gun is being fetched by muslim gun seller. (How
sterotype of me). The gun seller sells it to his boss who is a tamilian hindu sri ram sena man. His assistant is a
myopic moral policing hindu hoodloom. The lady who buys the gun is na a whereas the person who helps her buy it is a hindu who is referred
to as a non-believer in one of the scenes. The other thought put in the movie
is that no one should notice these religions and if they do I have failed.
My basic chaos in not believing in any philosophy but curios
to everything happening around will reflect in all my work which eventually
makes it lacking in a singularity of philosophy. I am yet to overcome this.
