Indie Works In India | Under Lens

Finally Indie is getting recognition. Given the deeply rooted structure of studios where money spoke loud and only few survived to enjoy the ruins, this was a distant dream. It took more than 4 decades for parallel/alternate/indie cinema to find a space, it has finally arrived. Among different highs, we saw some amazing independent films making their presence felt beyond the film festivals. PVR Rare deserves an applause for their contribution.

 

Kshay: What can be Kshay’s genre? It’s not important but still a valid question. A drama with edginess of a thriller. It plays with your nerves and keeps you engaged despite of the fact it has a one word story – obsession. Indie in true sense, Kshay comes up as a brilliant effort on celluloid.

 

Gattu: What was the last film for children made in India which made some sense? Maybe I Am Kalam. Gattu fills in a big void. A very sweet little film which brings smile on your face.

 

Miss Lovely: Nawaz rocks! Miss Lovely is an interesting take on the forbidden world of C-grade cinema. It’s an interesting take on a relegated section of industry which makes millions laugh and thousands eat. In terms of percentage, they can beat likes of Dabangg and 3 Idiots any day. Its forbidden. Well, so is weed.

 

Innuendo: Usually, indie films have a linear story. Innuendo has three plots. Arvind Kamath managed to keep the pace going with three different stories, each having subplots and undercurrent messages. The title makes more sense as the credit rolls.  

 

Shahid: Hansal Mehta is a respected name. The respect increased manifold with Shahid. It’s not brave to fight goons. It’s brave to stand against wrong and prejudices. Shahid Azmi did so. By making a film out of his life, Mehta did the same.

 

Peddlers: Vasan Bala. You know him. If you get an opportunity to watch Peddlers, you will never forget. An edgy story aided by brilliant work of camera might make you forget the fact that it was largely shot in guerilla way. Another Indie to core.

Innuendo | Multi-layered Indie | The Critique

Indie in India is growing. They might not have set BO on fire but have definitely made a mark for themselves. Innuendo is one such indie effort. Made on a paltry budget, it successfully converted some of the handicaps into an advantage. Arvind Kamath along with a talented team made a movie that delivers well. One needs a vision to make a good film, budget is secondary.

 

The story of Innuendo revolves around three subplots – a mother trying to come close to her son, a writer and his imagination and a bunch of friends celebrating. The first subplot comes out very strongly and undoubtedly is the strong point of the film. The thirst subplot is the weak link. Though three stories seemed to be pretty insulated from each other, one can reason the connect easily. From script point of view, it’s an achievement of some sort. Innuendo literally means  an insinuation about a person or thing or incident. By the time credits roll, you realize how nicely title reflects the content of the movie. Usage of metaphors is equally laudable.

 

Performances are pretty decent. However like most of the indies, in some scenes one might find actors trying to act too hard. It might be a little turnoff though. But overall, the interpretation of characters comes out well on screen. Camerawork is good. Music is a little overdone, in my humble opinion. Editing is very crisp. Overall, technically and from performance point of view, it’s pretty decent. Direction is really good. Execution of some scenes is studio quality.

It’s not path breaking movie or something that will change the world. However, it’s a strong and honest effort. Indie... carry on the good work...

 

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

 

 

 

 

Innuendo And Arvind Kamath | Golden Podium

Indie is growing. It’s taking on challenges upfront and so well. Innuendo, an Indie movie made by Arvind Kamath is all set to go live. Totally relying on the content, Innuendo is a promising venture. TRM got an opportunity to have a little chit chat with the Director and here we go... 

Q: Arvind, we have heard that one of the highlights of your movie is the unconventional story plot. Please cast some light on the story of the film...

AK: Well there is nothing unconventional about the story or plot, it's a very real take on stories that we witness day in day out. The story is about a single mother trying to rekindle her relationship with her teenage son, a failed writer trying to revive his creativity and a group of friends trying to revive an unexpected situation and how these characters willingly or unwillingly cross paths.

Q: There are two different perspectives in the story. There is a depth in the lead characters and they tend to complement each other in a beautiful way. How did you sketch these characters?

AK:  As I mentioned earlier it's a very real take on stories that we witness, and this story was built upon many small incidents/experiences I personally witnessed in the last few years of my life, so I sketched the characters based on those people whom I met through those experiences and to fit them into the fictitious story I had woven, I just tried to be them and see how they would react to situations which helped to a certain extent.

Q: Any special experience you would like to share?

AK: For me the whole process of making "Innuendo" along with my wonderful team has been a very special experience I'll cherish for life. 35 people among which 25 were unknown to me before Innuendo readily agreeing to work with me on my 1st film is nothing short of a special experience for me. One small incident I'd like to share is during our 2nd schedule we had worked for 2 days & nights continuously without sleep and it was the 2nd night by then most of crew had given up due to exhaustion and started disappearing one by one from the set and then me and my friend Bharath MC(DOP) realized that it's just the 2 of us and the actor, we continued shooting because we had to finish the scenes in that location which had to be vacated the next day so we multitasked, me(direction, sound & logs) Bharath(camera, lights & Art) and managed to complete the shoot. Next day I started making fun of my crew, but honestly I want to take this opportunity to apologize to my cast & crew whom I put through a lot during the shoot.

Q: Innuendo, I believe, is a typical Indie movie. What were the different difficulties you faced in making this movie and how did you managed them all? 

AK: Well just like any other Indie film, our film & team had our fair share of obstacles but faith and determination helped us sail through. Some of them I can think of right off the top of my head are..

• Difficulty in finding an actress to play a small 2 scene role (very important for the script) when all the other casting had been done, then a good friend Tanushree Ishaani (also an actress) stepped in. I would always remain thankful to her.

• Difficulty in getting locations within our budget, but our location manager Supritha Sanjay did a great job

• My DOP fell sick just a few days before the shoot and a dear friend Bharath MC stepped in as a savior whom I always wanted to work with on my first film and it was destiny that played a role

• Schedule went haywire due to the weather issues but all my cast & crew understood and did overtime so that we meet the schedule

• Post production got delayed because of personal emergencies for a month

And many more like these which have turned into sweet memories now

Q: Last year Anurag Kashyap's That Girl In Yellow Boots and Onir's I Am made a strong impact on how World see Indian Cinema. Indie is shaping India's image across the waters. Where do you see Indie Cinema in India leading to? Will it turn commercial or retain the sanctity of parallel cinema?
   

AK: I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to really talk about or predict where the indie trend is leading to but I for sure can tell you like every other aspiring/indie filmmaker, I would like the gap between so called commercial and parallel cinema be bridged to the extent of co-existence, because we need all kinds of stories/films and monotony gets boring. I just believe in good cinema and I would like to see good cinema selling so that hungry filmmakers can go on making good cinema with abundant freedom of expression not bound by the tailor made commercial rules or by the wrong bracketing of art/parallel cinema.

Q: One difficult question, in 2006 a movie with the same title was released. Story line is somewhat similar. One can easily draw parallels. Was that movie an inspiration or this is a co-incidence?

AK: Well to answer your question, it's purely a co-incidence but I'd like to explain further.  Matter of factly even I got to know that there are films titled Innuendo only when I was trying to list my film on IMDB, and there are not just 1 but 4 films by that title already (1 feature and 3 shorts). Now the co-incidence is that the plot line of one of the shorts produced in 2006 sounds similar to part of my film's plot, but it's nowhere related. That film is a horror and mine is a drama. Infact I titled my film only during pre-production by when my script was completed which took 1.5 years to write. Without speaking further all I would like to say is you will see it yourself soon.

Q: A message you would like to give to our readers...
  

AK: I'd like to quote Edward Zwick here "one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a perpetual student"

TRM would like to convey best wishes the entire cast and crew of Innuendo. God Bless.