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  • About GNGM

    Reviews

    “A cerebral joyride”
    Karan Johar, filmmaker on REDIFF

    “Among the most charming and creative Indian independent films”
    J Hurtado, TWITCH

    ★★★★✩
    “You don’t really need a big star cast… you don’t even need a big budget to get the techniques of filmmaking bang on…”
    Allen O Brien, TIMES OF INDIA

    ★★★★✩
    “An outstanding experience that doesn’t come by too often out of Indian cinema!”
    Shakti Salgaokar, DNA

    ★★★
    “This film can reach out the young, urban, upwardly mobile, but lonely, disconnected souls living anywhere in the world, not just India.”
    Namrata Joshi, OUTLOOK

    “I was blown away!”
    Aseem Chhabra, MUMBAI MIRROR

    “Good Night Good Morning is brilliant!”
    Rohit Vats, IBN-LIVE

    ★★★✩✩
    “Watch it because it’s a smart film.”
    Shubha Shetty Saha, MIDDAY

    ★★★✩✩
    “A small gem of a movie.”
    Sonia Chopra, SIFY

    ★★★✩✩
    “A charming flirtation to watch.”
    Shalini Langer, INDIAN EXPRESS

    “Interesting, intelligent & innovative”
    Pragya Tiwari, TEHELKA

    “Beyond good. Original, engrossing and entertaining”
    Roshni Mulchandani, BOLLYSPICE

    * * * * *
    Synopsis

    ‘Good Night Good Morning’ is a black and white, split-screen, conversation film about two strangers sharing an all-night phone call on New Year's night.

    Writer-Director Sudhish Kamath attempts to discover good old-fashioned romance in a technology-driven mobile world as the boy Turiya, driving from New York to Philadelphia with buddies, calls the enigmatic girl staying alone in her hotel room, after a brief encounter at the bar earlier in the night.

    The boy has his baggage of an eight-year-old failed relationship and the girl has her own demons to fight. Scarred by unpleasant memories, she prefers to travel on New Year's Eve.

    Anonymity could be comforting and such a situation could lead to an almost romance as two strangers go through the eight stages of a relationship – The Icebreaker, The Honeymoon, The Reality Check, The Break-up, The Patch-up, The Confiding, The Great Friendship, The Killing Confusion - all over one phone conversation.

    As they get closer to each other over the phone, they find themselves miles apart geographically when the film ends and it is time for her to board her flight. Will they just let it be a night they would cherish for the rest of their lives or do they want more?

    Good Night | Good Morning, starring Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams, The Love Guru, Quarter Life Crisis) and Seema Rahmani (Loins of Punjab, Sins and Missed Call) also features New York based theatre actor Vasanth Santosham (Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain), screenwriter and film critic Raja Sen and adman Abhishek D Shah.

    Shot in black and white as a tribute to the era of talkies of the fifties, the film set to a jazzy score by musicians from UK (Jazz composer Ray Guntrip and singer Tina May collaborated for the song ‘Out of the Blue), the US (Manu Narayan and his creative partner Radovan scored two songs for the film – All That’s Beautiful Must Die and Fire while Gregory Generet provided his versions of two popular jazz standards – Once You’ve Been In Love and Moon Dance) and India (Sudeep and Jerry came up with a new live version of Strangers in the Night) was met with rave reviews from leading film critics.

    The film was released under the PVR Director’s Rare banner on January 20, 2012.

    Festivals & Screenings

    Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Mumbai 2010 World Premiere
    South Asian Intl Film Festival, New York, 2010 Intl Premiere
    Goa Film Alliance-IFFI, Goa, 2010 Spl Screening
    Chennai Intl Film Festival, Chennai, 2010 Official Selection
    Habitat Film Festival, New Delhi, 2011 Official Selection
    Transilvania Intl Film Festival, Cluj, 2011 Official Selection, 3.97/5 Audience Barometer
    International Film Festival, Delhi, 2011 Official Selection
    Noordelijk Film Festival, Netherlands, 2011 Official Selection, 7.11/10 Audience Barometer
    Mumbai Film Mart, Mumbai 2011, Market Screening
    Film Bazaar, IFFI-Goa, 2011, Market Screening
    Saarang Film Festival, IIT-Madras, 2012, Official Selection, 7.7/10 Audience Barometer

    Theatrical Release, January 20, 2012 through PVR

    Mumbai
    Delhi
    Gurgaon
    Ahmedabad
    Bangalore
    Chennai
    Hyderabad (January 27)

    * * * * *

    More information: IMDB | Facebook | Youtube | Wikipedia | Website

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Suderman on Spiderman… Again!

October 14, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Hey People!

I finally finally watched this brilliant follow-up to Spider-Man last night! Now, I just feel like kicking myself for having missed out watching Spider-Man 2 on the big screen.

Superheroes are best seen on the big screen, after all.

It’s late for a review but what really hit me about the movie was that it didn’t make treat Spiderman as a superhero. It just treated Spiderman like Peter Parker, with all the problems any kid of his age would have. This thesis, his classes that require attention, a girl he likes, a pizza delivery job he’s finding tough to keep, a part-time assignment of taking pictures of Spiderman for the Daily Bugle, paying his rent, being there for his Aunt… all in addition to the responsibility of saving the world, while his Spiderpower and glue seems to be running out.

If Spiderman really existed, I’m pretty sure this is how his life would have been.

Ah, I think I said I’m not reviewing it… But I want to run you through some of the lines in the movie… Awesome!

I loved the gyaan in the lines:

Dr. Octavious gyaan on love (to Peter):

Peter, love should never be a secret.
If you keep something as complicated as love stored up inside, it’d make you sick.

Uncle Ben’s ghost’s gyaan on the need for balls (to Peter):

All the things we talked of honesty, fairness, justice…
all those times I counted on you to have the courage to take those dreams ahead…

Aunt May’s gyaan on why heroes are important (to Peter):

Kids like Henry need a hero…
courageous, self-sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us.
Everybody loves a hero…
People line up for em, cheer them, scream their names and
years later they’ll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one…

I believe there is a hero in all of us
that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble …
who finally allows us to die with pride…
Even though sometimes
we have to be steady and give up the things we want the most…
even our dreams..
Spiderman did that for Henry
And he wonders where he’s gone. He needs him.

MJ’s gyaan on the responsibilities of love to Spidey:

I know you think we can’t be together.
But can’t you respect my decision?
I know there will be risks, but I want to face them with you.
It’s wrong that we should be half alive, half of our selves…
I love you… So here I am standing in the doorway…
and I’ll always be standing in your doorway.
It’s about time somebody saved your life.
Say something.
Now think. Is this what you would call comic book stuff?
Which is why I think Spider-Man 2 rocks as a movie, it goes beyond the comic book juvenilia, it uses a language which is so real, situations which a superhero of that age would have faced if he really existed in the 21st century.
Great stuff. I’m just hoping for a re-release!
Off Topic:
I finally created links to other bloggers sites ALL BY MYSELF!! I’m so excited about it, cuz I don’t quite understand HTML code and stuff, I just cut and pasted bits and pieces and put them together. And I’m super happy! It took me an hour though! Now Karthik and Ramya are just gonna copy it from me! Hmph! He he!
And I also brought AdSense in though I doubt if

a. I’m gonna drive that kinda traffic at all?

b. Even if I do, are they really gonna pay?

But hey, I got nothing to lose!

To my air-conditioner, with love!

October 14, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

This one goes out to a little girl who sent me the sweetest piece of writing I’ve ever read.

(Ha! Who doesn’t like nice things said about them?)

So, I got this five-page long diabetically sweet handwritten letter by this 17-year old girl who said I was her “favourite journalist” and that she has been reading “my stories for years.” She even listed all her favourite stories, some of them so long ago that I don’t really remember writing some of them.

I really have no words to explain how touched I am reading what she called “fan mail.” So much that I must say that she’s not just being a fan, she’s an air-conditioner to me… She’s that cool. He he!

Like I what I told her in my mail back to her, yesterday I really felt like this guy who’s just suddenly been given the Oscar without any nomination, only that I didn’t have my acceptance speech ready.

I don’t know if I am overreacting because I really haven’t got this sort of a letter ever before.

Actually, I’ve got a handful of postcards which had a few nice words to say about specific stories but then I also have the dubious record of receiving about a 150 mails for a sooper blooper of a story where I had quite foolishly mentioned Shravanabelagola as a Buddhist shrine (:P yeah, Jain shrine as the letters reminded me later). Then, there have been nasty stinkers from organizations, complaining about bad reviews, all of which I really didn’t/don’t really give a damn about. We journos see stinkers all the time and we put them right where they belong, the bin, of course!

But this one is not about stinkers. This one’s about this girl who taught me at least a coupla timely lessons.

In this era, when MBAs walk out of B-schools to command 5 lakh per annum salaries, when BPOs have ensured even people with two years of work experience make double that amount, journalists still get paid what they used to, a decade ago.

Lightmen and Spot boys in the film industry today get paid more than us. That’s no exaggeration. [Aside: Did you know these blokes get paid Rs.450-700 per shift (depending on language) and work double shifts every day?]

In this distressing, depressing situation, when you are really wondering if you really want to continue with the job, a letter like that surely comes as a the blast of fresh air. Hence, the air-conditioner analogy.

And suddenly, the job doesn’t seem that bad at all. It’s okay if they pay me peanuts. It’s okay if people with MBAs and in IT sectors get paid more. It’s okay if your juniors are starting out with better paid jobs … because they are never going to get the kind of satisfaction you get out of yourjob!

Abraham Maslow can go f*** himself, I get more gratification with this kind of response than the money I could earn with an MBA or by burying myself in IT.

People. The one thing I want from life. I’m gonna be super happy if I can win more people than money. Only a rare few like Superstar Rajnikant are able to do that.

This girl studying architecture yesterday said she wants to pass out of college, do journalism at Asian College of Journalism and then join The Hindu and do one story with me!

And I had to

a. Check if it’s a prank by my colleagues

b. Find out: am I dead or what and am I in heaven?

c. Read my stories again and see what’s so good ‘bout them!

I just completely understood the meaning of the word overwhelming. I suddenly feel charged again. Yes, I want to be a filmmaker but I don’t want to give up journalism. The expression of part-disbelief, part-jealousy on the face of a very senior colleague told me everything: Not every journalist gets letters like this.

Not that I’m proclaiming myself as some super journalist. To be honest, I’ve never ever seen myself or ever taken myself too seriously as a journalist. I’ve always believed I’m a filmmaker at heart just using this job as a temporary and steady source of bread and butter.

I can write, yes. But journalist… no… I got a long way to go before I become one. Having said that, it is not my intention or ambition to be one. I want to be a filmmaker. A good one.

But I’m not gonna give up what I’ve built and collected over the years, especially, because these include people. Even if it is just one girl and her family. The letter was also an indication that maybe I have it in me to do this to more people. Now that I’ve seen blood now, I’m gonna try turning into man-eater from just being a paper-tiger. He he!

Thank you, my air-conditioner, for helping me keep my cool. For changing the very air I’ve been breathing and to help me make up mind about a thing or two.

I want to retain my place among people because I’m loving it. I don’t want to be greedy and say I want more out of this job but I want to retain this base. I want to keep this thing going and still make my movie, which, is only going to be another way to reach people. Even if it means not being paid for this job.

There surely must be a way out to do both – to pursue journalism and films, fact and fiction, reality and dreams.

Or at least, I hope.

The Balle Balle Freeview!

October 12, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Ash surely must be Gurinder Chadda’s Chaddi dost or maybe she just got into hers (Chadda’s lesbo Chaddis, of course) to get this role.

Why else would Chadda throw away everything she has earned so hard, after bending it like Beckham, suddenly change her game by swinging her balla (bat in Hindi stupid, you need a Doodarshan commentary refresher) at a total bouncer? Aur, yeh hai chakka! (And it’s a six/eunuch in Hindi!)

It’s beyond the boundary awrite, but not in the cricketing sense. At the risk of sounding insensitive to the third sex, the movie is more like a eunuch at a Zebra crossing than a crossover film. It’s not really Bollywood, it’s not Brit or Austen, nor is it Amrikan’s romantica (well erotic becomes erotica tho romantic becomes romantica na!)

I’m digressing… Gurinder surely seems to be in love, not just with marketing India to the world but also Ash to Hollywood. So throughout the fillum, an Ash-smitten Chadda seems to feeding her lines sayin: “Belle Belle, Thoda aur Le Le”.

Hollywood? The closest she comes to any wood is that she’s wooden. Let’s say Hollywood ignores it because she’s perfect Dollywood material but then our Miss will not kiss and insists on getting outta a swimming pool in a wraparound that could be mistaken for a long skirt. Seriously, no exaggeration. Watch the fillum.

Wait, actually, don’t. I’ll tell you everything you wanna know.

Ash plays a juvenile snooty, judgemental B with an itch who forms her opinion about ‘Am-I-Darcy-or-am-I-Hugh Grant’-dilemma-ridden Martin Henderson, based on what a total stranger on the beach says. Ash instantly falls in love with this Hollywood’s answer to Sallu Salman, only to later learn that he’s a prick who roz (that’s supposed to pun with rose, silly) wants a different babe. But then salla, even a simple villain’s role ain’t well etched out. After getting Darcy’s sister preggie before she turns 17, our firangi Sallu takes forever before he can even muh-lagao Ash’s sister Lakhi (Peeya, the only person to have actually performed in the film apart from Mr.Kholi, yet another crossover stereotype.)

So before the prick can deflower this little rose, Darcy and Ash (yeah, Ash plays Ash in all her films na!) beat the crap outta him with a Prem Chopra rape scene in the background in a movie hall. Haan bhai haan… People in London are still watchin Prem Chopra’s rape movies and understandably so since crossover cinema of today seems to suck! And how!

And then, the movie thankfully gives way to the most entertaining part of the film: The fun end credits. The rest of the movie was just those going ghaghra over bhangra naach gaana dance wance sequences.

Now since you’ve read the review of the movie, do write and tell us: What could be worse than Bride and Prejudice?

The Hindi version, of course!

He he!

So everybody

Bolo Bolo…

Ash sucks, Sush rules! Didn’t she look a million bucks in Main Hoon Na? And she could act too!

Post Script:

Suderman likes to officially thank Ravi for his super sweet words on my blogs in his site.

Suderman’s Top 5 — Assorted!

October 12, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

People!

This has been long due. But I’m just too lazy to mention why I like these films. But most of them don’t need reasons. They are just soooo good!

Top 5 – Romantic Comedies



1. 50 First Dates

2. Shrek

3. There’s something about Mary

4. Pretty Woman/ My Best Friend’s Wedding

5. Notting Hill

Top 5 – Whacko comedies



1. Austin Powers – International Man of Mystery

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. Kung-Pow

4. Dude Where’s My Car?

5. Ali G in Da House

Top 5 – Buddy flicks

1. Bad Boys 1 & 2

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. Rush Hour 1 & 2

4. Lethal Weapon (All)

5. Nothing to Lose

Top 5 – Classy/Witty comedies



1. Bowfinger

2. Groundhog Day

3. Bridget Jones’s Diary

4. Finding Nemo

5. Mask

Top 5 – Spectacle movies



1. The Matrix (all)

2. The Lord of the Rings (all)

3. Kill Bill – 1

4. Spiderman

5. Batman/Terminator 2

Top 5 – Violent movies



1. Natural Born Killers

2. Pulp Fiction

3. Kill Bill

4. Fight Club

5. Taxi Driver

Top 5 – Thrillers



1. Memento

2. Minority Report

3. The Usual Suspects

4. Reservoir Dogs

5. Sixth Sense

Top 5 – Dark flicks



1. Natural Born Killers

2. Seven

3. Monster

4. Boys Don’t Cry

5. Traffic

Post Script:

I watched the Hindi version of Bride and Prejudice yesterday! Will post the review of that tomorrow. Meanwhile, just a word of warning. Watch it if you must, but in English.

Until then,

Balle Balle!

The screwed up Tamil film industry!

October 10, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Kamal Hasan told me this off-the-record. Anyway, its something my paper wouldn’t print. So I get to share it with you guys here.

The Tamil film industry has an inward penis.
It extends in the wrong direction.
So it ends up screwing itself.

Ha ha! Nobody could have said it more accurately. I recently wrote an article for my paper on the mechanisms (or the lack of them) of the Tamil film industry.

Read it here.

Each point mentioned in the story deserves a larger story. The industry is grossly disorganised.

Anyway, a couple of weeks before I did this story I wrote something on the lack of scripts. You can find that here.

Yes, piracy was surely an issue. But it was like the termite feeding on wood which was already rotting. Here’s another story I wrote before I discovered the dirt within the industry. This one is just on the amount of damage video piracy was causing. Read it here.

How I wish I could write a book on the subject. Any publishers out there? 😛

Cheers! I’m off for a movie again! 🙂

BTW, I’ve also updated my Top 5 Hindi comedies after my friends objected to The Hero being listed under comedies. But to be honest, the absent minded idiot I am, I totally forgot my recent favourite Munna Bhai MBBS. Read it under my blog titled Ooops!

King of Bollywood v/s Bollywood Calling

October 9, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Wacao!

I just got back from a movie. And I feel good. Movies totally charge me up. Unless I’ve watched something like Monster, that is. Talking of which, hmmm… Monster, though depressing, really had me totally engaged, inspite of an ugly looking Charlize Theron. Remember, she won an Oscar for it last year. Well, you can read my review of that here.

Anyway, today was about King of Bollywood, starring Om Puri And Sophie Dahl.

I was in splits for the first half of the movie. And then slowly, somewhere along the movie, the smile just kept fading away. I mean, its great to take potshots at Bollywood, don’t we all just love to do it? But, 50 jokes alone don’t make a movie. King of Bollywood is a one-sided argument. It is just a caricature that makes fun of Bollywood conventions and cliches in the most cliched way, that after a point it’s not funny at all.

A good scriptwriter should know where to stop. This movie just goes on and on and on, poking fun, exaggerating stuff, big time. Apart from Om Puri and his right hand Ratnesh, nobody else seems to have any soul or appears real. Sophie Dahl, especially, is just a pretty doll.

Surely, this lady with seemingly great potential required more depth in her character, here she just ends up being as a victim of the very system she pokes fun at. Though her character Crystal is supposed to be in total awe of Bollywood, the tone she uses in making the film is very ‘Tehelka’. It’s more like a smart ass sting operation, trying to blow the lid of Bollywood and expose the scams. Surely, the scriptwriters ought to have cracked that for themselves first. Is she an enthusiastic Bollywood/Karan Kapoor fan or just a snoopy smart Alecky undercover documentary filmmaker? What about those hidden spy cameras? Does she see the footage at all or they are just an idea of her cameraman we don’t see in the movie? Awrite, I’ll accept her falling in love with that dude, but why would she agree to act in a Bollywood film after getting a ringside view of things herself? Lets say maybe because she always wanted to be an actress, but when Om Puri asks her that, she says “No,” looking really amused. Because “she is in love,” is ridiculous!

Though the film does give you considerable insight into everyday Bollywood affairs, it does not do any justice whatsoever, to explain Bollywood’s take on things.

Which is why I think Bollywood Calling was a much better film, a very classy, balanced one. It spoofed Bollywood, but it wasn’t just an exaggeration. It was real, it did not insult the hard-work and sincerity put in by the technicians. Behind the satire on Bollywood, the movie had a soul. The inanities of Bollywood was only a backdrop for the protagonist to find himself and discover Bollywood, the way it is, as it is… Not lopsided at all, a more detailed insight, more like the documentary Crystal should have made if she really was a good filmmaker.

Instead, Crystal spends her time making a film ridden with cliches — casting couches, old heroes playing college kids, astrologers and underworld dons calling the shots! Surely, King of Bollywood is ten years late to the party.

But then, Bollywood Calling was made by a more seasoned filmmaker, Nagesh Kukunoor. So there.

Having said all this, I must add that King of Bollywood is surely worth watching. Total timepass.

Spidey, Jerry and Me!

October 8, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Wow!

What a great day it has been!

As always.

Thanks to Dicky Fox (he’s Jerry Maguire’s idol, remember) who said:

“Clap your hands every morning you as you wake up and say,
This-is-going-to-be-a-GREAT-day!”
My day started with Spidey.

I just couldn’t sleep on returning home this morning after the night shift. And so, in loving memory of Spiderman 2 which I missed, I dug out the first part from the DVD rack. Now, the more I see it, the more I love it.

Spiderman would definitely be a part of my all time Top 10 favourites. Never has any comic book movie been more ‘real’. When I say real, I mean the characters – they are so human. The scene when Pete has that last conversation with his uncle … Man, that is the kind of stuff which makes the movie what it is!

Pete is so real when he snubs his uncle after he’s given him the line of the movie, the line which soon found its way into Main Hoon Na posters: With great power comes great responsibility.

Oh, before I forget, that was one hell of a kiss. As MJ, dripping wet in rain to the delight of the boys in the audience, removes a part of Spiderman’s mask and goes on to deliver the kiss of the year! *Suderman makes a mental note: Must start practicing hanging upside down*

Yes, I slept like a baby after watching the movie.

Got up to hear from Abbas and rushed to his place for a script meeting and who do I find there?

Jerry Maguire. My man!

I don’t like remakes that much but I’m more than convinced that this is one movie which needs one or maybe two. I want to make both of them — Tamil and Hindi. I would probably shoot it with Abbas for the Tamil version. Only that, my Jerry won’t be a sports agent. My Jerry will be a PRO… a public relations officer, that is … in the film industry. He should be tired and pissed off with industry conventions, ageing superstars with readymade star heirs to be launched as heroes, the image trap and formula films, casting couches and indecent proposals made by horny producers and desperate starlets.

Like in the original, my Jerry too will be a popular PRO until his birthday when he sees his drunk starlet girlfriend flirting with every possible guy at the party who could give her a role. Jerry is drunk, he’s 33, he gets this headache, heartache rather and goes into his room, his shell and as he sees through the half open door of his room, he can see it all — as it is. The dirt in the business… where the bold and the beautiful flirt with the ugly, rich and the horny.

Just a few moments before that, an aspiring actor who had gatecrashed the party to meet Jerry, was ridiculed, made fun of and thrown out by his ilk. He remembers the other small things that had probably led him to where he was. Angry with himself, he walks out of his own party. Outside he finds the aspiring actor entertain urchins on the road with music from his car stereo.

He goes back to his room, inspired. He’s all sober and he’s realised what is missing in the business. Soul. Honesty. Integrity. Reward for talent. Creativity. He pulls out his handycam and makes his birthday speech — the equivalent of the Mission Statement Jerry came up with. And he shoots clips from the party to illustrate his point and sends it to the press… He makes sure that every newspaper, every TV channel, every website gets a copy.

Our Jerry is now an outcaste. Nobody in the industry wants to touch him after the incident. And that day, Jerry has a visitor… the same aspiring actor he had thrown out during the party. The eccentric goofball entertainer. How Jerry takes this one guy and puts together a team of talented, committed and sincere technicians and makes a movie with all he has believed in is the rest of the film.

I’m calling the film ‘No Problem’… Abbas will play Jerry, Kulashekar… who, for industry requirements, had changed his name to Cool Shaker! How Cool Shaker becomes Kulashekar once again is what this movie will be about. No Problem because that’s what Cool Shaker says all the time before he gets the most unethical things done in the name of showbiz.

This will probably also be the only Hindi film I would make and only, I repeat, only if I get Shah Rukh Khan to play Tom and Saif to play the actor. A friend suggested this combo to me. And yes, Juhi to play Renee… Hmmm… now, all I need is someone to SHOW-ME-THE-MONEY!!

He he!

As I type this, I’m also watching The Hero… the most expensive comedy ever made in Bollywood. If you guys haven’t seen it, do that… like, now! I can guarantee you at least 50 laughs in the 150 minutes of the movie!

Suderman goes nuts!

October 7, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

*Yaaawn*

I can feel it. (not the nuts, you dirty dirty dirty!)

Or rather I can’t feel it. Life.

That’s the thing about night shifts.

You get caught with yourself and that’s when you realise the complications that makes you.

But for the time we spend with ourselves, we are pretty simple people. All of us. Chilling. Hanging out. Laughing. Living. And feeling good! (No, good is NOT a woman, you dirty dirty dirty!)

But the moment you step out of the circle and confine to yourself, that’s when all the people inside you come out. One wants to watch Spiderman 2 and is cribbing that it has now gone out of the halls. The other wants to go to Pondicherry, like now … and spend time at the Park Guest House, sitting by the sea on that park bench with the wave spraying its love on your face or on second thoughts, maybe it is just lust. It just wants to touch the body! (Oh, what are you typing, you dirty dirty dirty!)

Another me realises I’m going nuts. Maybe cuz I get paid peanuts. So much that, that every time I sleep I see nuts. Everytime I dream, I see nuts. Everytime I look into the computer, I see nuts. Everytime I think, I see nuts. Everytime I pee, I see… well, nuts! (What are you typing, you dirty dirty dirty!)

And yet another person inside you is still wondering what went wrong in the last relationship. Another wants to give it another chance. And yet another smart cookie is reminding the other that the past is best left for the autobiography. Another one is listening to ‘Yeh Fizayen’ from Main Hoon Na on the discman and another is occasionally turning towards the TV to ensure he does not miss out on the Swades promos! And another is typing a blog while yet another wants to get into a nostalgic mood and start writing the next chapter of The Making of That Four Letter Word. And another wants to write a story for the paper because at least people are gonna read that at the end of the day. How many read a blog? Pick a number from one to ten.

So who’s my favourite me?

I guess its been Suderman, off late.

At least, he’s definitely better than the previous Evil Devil who just had one mission: To make sure God’s ass turns blue (And no, it’s not what you are thinking, you dirty dirty dirty!).

Well, the difference I think is that Evil Devil wanted to kick God’s ass for coming up with a flop script for life but Suderman is someone who made an entry to this planet because the world needed more heroes. There is so much depression setting into this world. The sentinels of evil are slipping in (that sure sounds like The Matrix, I agree) and people are getting too serious about themselves. They sit depressed, like the fate of the whole world depends on what they are gonna do next and brooding over what’s happened to them, much like how Evil Devil, my ex-personality used to. Now imagine what happens to the world when more and more people start going into their shell. Who’s gonna take care of the rest of the world? Who’s gonna bring happiness into the lives of people around? In their search for love, people are losing the lust for life. Yes, lust is the word.

Thus was born Suderman and his enterprise Just Lust Private Entertainment Unlimited, with the sole aim of bringing happiness into the lives of people.



Suderman realised that though God is the scriptwriter, it is you who is the director of your own life. It is upto you to decide how long you want your sad scene to last. Repetitive soppy scenes are for soap operas. If you want your life to be rocking motion picture, rock n roll, like now.

Lights. Camera. Action. (And no, rock is not just about that four letter word you are thinking of, you dirty dirty dirty!)

Post Script:

What have I written? What did I smoke? What did I drink? What did I eat?

Oh, yes, I remember. My box full of protien supplement: Peanuts, of course!

Flashback: Year 1999

October 6, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Funny how embarassing it is to read the first ever version of your first ever feature length script. I will take that version to my grave. Happened to read it as I dug out my diary of year 1999.

As I flip through the pages of my diary of year 1999, I really regret quitting the practice. The only written record I have till now is of what led to us writing the script for this movie.

But that’s great, at least I know when it all started.

August 5, 1999

I woke up at 4 in the evening, as usual.

I say as usual because this was the period between when I passed out of communication school (left Manipal on July 12) and joined The Hindu on September 1.

Fifty days of bliss. No responsibilities, no deadlines. Lazed around, woke up late, met up with Murugan, who was in India, like he always is around August every year.

August was like the month all of us guys in the gang met up and caught up with where life had taken us. Ro was Murugan’s girl then. She used to tell her Mum she was going to NIIT class and land up at his place in the afternoons.

So that fine day, I landed up at Murugan’s house, interrupting their conversation. Ro left soon and another friend showed up. Having nothing else to do, we called Ro again and told her we would drop in at her place. We turned up at eight at her place, made polite conversation, what with her Mum around. And we left in forty minutes, after meeting her aunt who was a classical singer, who for some reason, seemed to be very impressed with Murugan’s good boy behaviour. Poor woman didn’t seem to have the slightest clue what this good boy was capable of.

We then left for dinner. Raghu. Murugan’s best buddy Prashant and Mani joined us at this quaint place called Opal Inn for food, after which, we chilled out the usual joint ‘The Potshot,’ (this was the time when pool was cool) till about 12.30 in the night. We bid Raghu farewell. He was joining the Colorado State University and leaving the next day.

It was a practice for Murugan to drop me home, used to call him ‘driver’ and it was only during these ‘drops’ back home when we actually talked serious stuff. I clearly remember how Raghu’s impending departure set the tone for the conversation. We were a close knit gang and life was taking us different places. Raghu was leaving the next day. Murugan would leave by the end of the month too to Pittsburgh. He was applying to medical school the next year. And that would change his life altogether. He probably might not be able to take the 45 day vacation to India that he had been taking in the last five years. Five years before that was when we passed out of high school. And we had managed to be in touch, catch up with each other and in a way involved in shaping up each others lives. I was all set to start job-hunting if I wasn’t going to get a call from The Hindu, the only place I had applied to, out of sheer arrogance. I had the experience, I had a really offbeat resume and I was sure they would hire me.

So life was all set to take us different places. We were all very different people. Some of us were changing. And some of us weren’t. An otherwise cool and casual Murugan, who lived one day at a time, now was talking about the need for commitment in his life. A smart, clever, planner Prashant was now feeling a little down about missing out on a few things during the pursuit of his goals. And there I was, as confused as ever.

Murugan listened to his heart, every moment. Lived every moment, loved every moment.

Prashant listened to his mind, every time. He followed this five year plan he had for life.

And I just could not figure out if I should listen to my heart or my mind.

We were all different guys in a gang in a phase of life where we had to decide what we were going to do with the rest of our lives. This, we realised, was a universal issue.

It would make great material for a movie, we agreed. We instantly decided we would call it Made In Madras. Hyderabad Blues was a hit, Bombay Boys had done pretty well, earlier that year. And we thought it would be a great tribute to the city we loved. A city we grew up in.

But that was not to be.

Before we could discuss more, we reached my place. I got out of the car and wished him bye.

August 11, 1999

It was a bright day. I woke up earlier than usual. 11 a.m.

Reached Murugan’s place by 3.30, checked email on his computer and what did I see?
An email from Deputy Editor, The Hindu, asking me to appear for an interview at the office on the 14th of the month.

A cyclone of some sort lashed the city that day. We were watching the last solar eclipse of the millenium on TV, when a power cut interrupted the relay. Who says this stuff happens only in the movies?

So we happened to discuss Made in Madras yet again.

My life was all set to change. There was a good reason I came back to Madras leaving an advertising job offer I had with FCB-ULKA in Bombay.

I had always wanted to do advertising, so much that my only email account then, had adwala for an ID… In memory of that dream, I have still retained my adwala@hotmail.com address.

Advertising, in Madras, was dead around that time, a profession with not much scope because all the best brands and most of advertising happened in Bombay. So there was no way I could pursue advertising in Madras.

And I had decided I wanted to be in Madras because after two years of living by myself in Manipal, I wanted to be closer home. Closer to people I loved. Closer to friends. Closer to Di.

Yes, Di.
The girl for whom I came back to Madras.
The girl for whom I had given up advertising.
The girl I had last spoken to in February that year.
The girl for whom I was now all set to make a movie.

‘Mast’ about Rashmi: The next Pop iCon?

October 6, 2004 · by sudhishkamath

Rashmi Nigam is my latest crush.

Well, she’s the babe from that music video who went on to become the star of Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao. Yeah, the one in the satin saree who makes that biting gesture in that ‘Ja Re Ja’-‘Stayin Alive’ mix.

Sigh!

Every passing day, I am more than convinced that life can really be larger than a movie. Less than 16 hours after I saw the movie, I met her. Rashmi Nigam. In flesh and blood.

🙂

Well, as a journalist I’ve come across plenty of stars and starlets in the last five years. But only a few of them really had ‘it’. “It,” if you’ve seen Bowfinger, you will know is that quality a person should possess to be a star… you shouldn’t be able to take your eyes of that person, every single thing she does should keep your eyes glued to them and your body tuned to her existence.

Amisha Patel, when I met her about four and a half years, had it. I didn’t want to wash my hand after shaking hands with her. But my Mom wouldn’t serve me dinner! 😦 So I finally gave in and washed my hands.

Then Trisha. Even when she became Miss Chennai, I knew that this babe had “it”. In fact, I think I must have been the first person to have taken her autograph (much before she became popular as an actress). Yeah, it sure was embarassing for a journalist of some repute to ask for an autograph from a star (I’ve never ever done it with anybody else but her) but I was completely in awe of this wonderful girl. I clearly remember, we were at Hell Freezes Over, the disco which has now been shut down. It was Valentine’s Day eve. There she was looking absolutely gorgeous as I walked up, scribbled a note and passed it on.

The note said: Hi, I’m Sudhish. From The Hindu. Two things. 1. An Autograph 2. An Interview.

This babe was not even a star. She was just Miss Chennai when I did that ridiculous thing. And No, I wasn’t drunk or anything. It was a very impulsive thing to do and I was just four months into the job then.

She smiled. She was floored, I think (Or maybe behind that smile, she thought: “What a lech!”). She said “Forget the autograph. This is my number and we can meet up anytime.”

So, that was that.

Then, Priyanka Chopra. I always thought she was dumb until I finally met her. We would have chatted for a couple of hours. She surely had “it.” She was in a bright red tight top and she told me I looked like Manish Malhotra! 😛

And now… Rashmi Nigam. It happened two days ago.

Here’s what I wrote out of that for the paper. It’s yet to be published.

‘Mast’ about Rashmi – The next Pop icon?

It was certainly love at first bite. Yes, she stole my heart (and of many others like Pritish Nandy) the minute she made that ‘biting’ gesture in that music video of the ‘Ja Re Ja O Harjai’ remix.

Pritish Nandy said, “If a girl can wear a saree like that, dance likethat and bite like that!” before running out of words to describe his discovery.

He signed her on for Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao, a movie whose otherwise painfully long length I did not mind at all, because of the presence of this absolutely gorgeous young woman. Yes, Kajol’s sisterTanishaa also happens to star in the movie, but this one is Rashmi’s film. Her portfolio.

If Kabir Sadanand, the director, got anything right in the movie, it was casting Rashmi as Sonia. Don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’tentirely bad. It’s great in parts, it has some wonderful moments (yes, excluding the parts where Rashmi lights up the screen with her presence), it has about 15 genuinely funny jokes, a brilliantly funnyYash Tonk as Goldie and a charming, talented, grey-eyed bloke in Akshay Kapoor to keep the women in the audience happy. With a little editing … like, you know, with an hour less (the movie is over two and a half hours long), it would be a decent movie.

In its current form however, ‘Popcorn’ is just any other half-fresh yet not-that-corny film you can expect out of a promising debutant director, a flick which falls short of a ‘Mast’ watch tag.

Before we start the interview, Rashmi pops the question that any journalist would want to avoid after watching a movie like ‘Popcorn’: So, how did you like the movie?

“Well, I think you are one of the reason why anyone should watch this film,” I tell her quickly before giving her my opinion on the length.

How did it all begin?

(Seriously, how many questions can you ask a starlet who is one film old?)

Rashmi was at a restaurant with her friends when a gentleman from Sony auditioning for the role. Hmmm, he must have noticed her biting. “I almost forgot about it,” Rashmi recalls. A week later, she landed up at the audition, danced for a Beyonce number, and she was in.

“I was trained in Manipuri and Kuchipudi,” the starlet explains, before going into her Flashback. Approximately 18 years, 95 days, 13 minutes and 5 seconds before (that’s how the movie’s narrator takes the audience back and forth in time), Rashmi Nigam was born in Goa. Rashmi was then raised in Delhi, studied abroad for a bit and approximately one year, 79 days, 58 minutes and 13 seconds ago, worked as a graduate trainee in the petroleum division of a multi-national company. Her photographer friend persuaded her to get her portfolio done.

Her school experience in dance theatre gave her enough confidence to do ads, then the ‘Ja Re Ja’ music video happened. Before she knew it, Daler Mehndi signed her on for his latest video ‘Bolo Sha Ra Ra Ra.’

And now, one-film-old Rashmi is already familiar with the standard cliches that well established stars belt out confidently. “I’m here for good,” “I’ve found my calling,” “I want to do different roles. I don’t want to be slotted.” “I’m doing a totally different role in my next film.” Of course. Only that the script isn’t ready. Yes, Rashmi will start shooting for another film with her producer Pritish Nandy Communications, by the end of the year.

Meanwhile? “I’m taking a nice Popcorn break,” she smiles. “In this industry, there are either lulls or so much happening that you can’t even breathe … so much excitement. So, now I get back to spend time with my friends. I’m starting to watch movies in DVDs to update myself.”

About 10 minutes, 5 seconds and .36 nanoseconds after she said that, I shook hands with my latest crush.

Blessed are those, who become journalists.

He he!

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