If it hadn’t been for the crowd, he wouldn’t have known of his existence.

And so he says..

“The pacing feet and faces unknown, amidst the crowd I stand alone..

I dare the walk, I sing my song, with faith in my heart, I choose to Unbelong..”

A short film made by me for the BBC MyWorld Film Competition 2010. Made over 2 weekends, it was shot entirely in Mumbai using my humble yet efficient Sony digital camera.

It’s my first attempt at film-making and i had great fun doing it. A big THANK YOU !!! to Dhairya, Mihir and Dev mama for all the help and suggestions, the film wouldn’t have been this beautiful without you guys. And as for you, thanks for dropping by, i’d love know what you feel about the film, do you choose to ?   …Unbelong.

anand.

An absolute rekindler of the undying human spirit, to not just fight for survival and Win it but inspire others to Win the battle too. And that’s exactly what this film does to you. As You come out of the theatre, there is a renewed strength in your step and a conviction in your walk. It inspires you to fight for your dreams, even if the dream is just “a happy home”.

Sachin Khedekar, who plays the protagonist – a simple middle-class clerk Dinkar Bhosle, is brilliant. His marathi oratory skills leave you speechless. All that you hear after that is a sea of claps. The monologue where Sachin Khedekar talks about the apathy of marathi manoos, amongst sculptures of great Marathi people like Lokmanya Tilak and Babasaheb Ambedkar, is very creatively executed and brilliantly scripted. The credit for such uplifting and stirring dialogues goes to Mahesh Manjrekar and Abhijeet Deshpande.

Mahesh Manjrekar as the maratha king, is extremely powerful in evoking a sense of awe in you for the Chatrapati. His eyes have it all, a fact that is evident in the posters aswell. Makarand Anaspure’s onliners in shudh marathi are quite hilarious too, but they take a few seconds more to understand, especially if your mother tongue is not marathi.

With the national elections in India, the timing of this film couldn’t have been better. And the film’s dig at various social issues including sensitive ones like non-marathi people issue etc. is very commendable. It shows the sheer power of a brilliant script.

The film is a must watch, even if you are not a marathi manoos. For a simple reason that it evokes the basic emotion common to all mankind, and i.e. self-esteem. It gives you a terrific boost towards chasing your dreams and fighting all obstacles to win what’s rightfully yours.

It’s feels great to see marathi cinema churning up such gems.

This is the 4th marathi film that i’ve loved; the previous 3 being Shwaas, Tingya and Valu.

anand.

YAYYYY !!! I dunno about you but i was definitely cheering for it. I was jumping in my room when i saw A R Rahman getting the Oscar for the Best Background Score and also Jai Ho.. He truly deserves it. There is purity, innocence, beauty and sincerity in whatever he does and has proved the consequences of doing so.  The same holds true for Danny Boyle too, i mean look at him, the kid in him is still very much alive and you could see it even when he was sitting nervous with childlike excitement in his eyes, at that Kodak theatre. And the way he jumped on stage when he got the Oscar for Best Director… Oh man !!!  Danny and Co. you truly deserve this. Awesome work guys.

Well there were a lot of people here who criticized Slumdog to no end for portraying the wrong picture about Mumbai; well you must instead be thankful to Danny Boyle and Co. for showing you the side of Mumbai which you would never have got an opportunity to see otherwise, so consider yourself fortunate enough and stop pulling down those who do good. oops… sorry i got carried away…

Hmmm.. as an animator’s point of view i must say, the chase sequence in the beginning, the one during the riots and the one when they escape from Maman for the first time…  truly had me, in terms of the camera angles, the ‘spacing’ of the shots (a beautiful mix of slow and fast shots), the framing and not to forget the awesome score. When its DVD will come out i would definitely want to study those sequences  – the camera angles, the composition of the shots and hope to learn a thing or two from this magnificent piece of art, and apply it to my animation. And to those of my friends who haven’t seen this one yet, Go see it.. and im sure you will thank me for it…

Till then keep that optimism on, and if you have surplus, dont forget to spill some of it around, have fun and god bless.

anand.

love,
anand.