Dear world,
Just to let you know we have unleashed a monster in over a hundred screens around the country today. We are calling it X: Past is Present.
It’s a monster that has taken us two and a half years to tame.
And now, it’s out in the theatres.
The truth is we never thought it would be this big a release.
When we all got together, we just decided to go out and have some fun doing our own thing and in whatever language we were comfortable in, without any regard for the market and see if we could build a larger film out of it as one story.
Art has been around since the first man scratched the wall of his cave with a stone to express something. For 2.8 million years now.
Myths have existed for at least 5000 years. Films for a little over 100 years. Film studies for half that time. Professional film criticism as we know it today for maybe half of that.
The only thing we can be sure of is this. What we know is just a speck of dust on a canvas that’s been lying around for 2.8 million years old.
Yet, we believe that our observations of the popular story telling format of cinema over the last few decades can be used as some measure of evaluation.
As a film critic and someone obsessed with stories, I have always wondered about the vast unknown. I have had an issue with this very idea of judgment or the unwritten rules deeply entrenched in our minds that one kind of cinema is better than the other though it’s purely a matter of personal taste and preference.
X: Past is Present was started an idea to build a bridge between the different cinemas of India. The idea was to embrace each form of expression, every sensibility and style we find in the mainstream, the regional, the arthouse and the underground – without judgment.
A massively curious experiment of creating a monster with genes of different kinds of cinema and see if we could tame it.
We don’t know we have. And that’s the whole truth of it.
Once we finished making the film, we had to figure out if the world was ready for it. We have to thank Drishyam Films to be brave (or foolish) enough to spend three times the production cost in marketing the film, just to bring it to you in these star obsessed times.
It’s a ballsy experiment from not just us filmmakers, but producers Drishyam too.
But I believe that this experiment is far from over.
Because, you see, reaction is the most integral part of the experiment.
We want to know what you think. We want to know if you would buy a ticket when something like this hits the screen.
We want to know if it makes sense to spend our energies in trying to dive into the unknown ever again.
We want to know if this monster lives on.
It’s a monster we are closely studying. And learning from. Some day, we hope this experiment tells you what to do or not to do.
It taught us a few things. And continues to, with every reaction we get.
So bring it on. Be a part of it if you are as curious as we are.
Here’s the Trailer of X: Past is Present
And here’s where you can book tickets.
MADRAS INK. 