0:0 pm

Synopsis

0:0 PM gives us have an insight into the lives of two friends Chandu and Mohan who work as Post Mortem (PM) servants. The job has taken its toll on Mohan. He is completely dependent on alcohol and unable to work without it! Chandu realizes the risks his friend faces and counsels him to stay away from alcohol and take precautions against various infections they all are vulnerable for. On the other hand Mohan ventilates his feelings as to how he is being ill treated and not taken care of by his people back home. Mohan’s health deteriorates and has no choice now but to stay at home, Chandu on the other hand keeps his daily routine going only to come face to face with the horrifying truth of where this profession can lead...

As other students of Social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai I too opted to do a research as a final year student. Students doing research were considered to be hip, intelligent and god knows what… so I too decided to try and be one. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion I needed to be serious and find a subject that will really interest me. However two days after submitting my proposal, I was called for the meeting with the HOD who to my disappointment informed me that I couldn’t do research on my chosen topic on the Post Mortem (PM) servants as the topic was morbid. The HOD tried to convince me to do something either on old age people or child sex abuse. I realized that it was not my cup of tea neither would it have sustained my interest for long. Hence my dream of doing a research project never got fulfilled.

As we passed out I got a job with Taru in Delhi, where I worked for nine months before joining Jamia Millia Islamia. Somehow the topic stayed with me, with each visit to the morgue when one had to go to fetch the bodies of one’s near and dear ones, I wanted to know more about these guys who work there, who most of the time were drunk, had expressionless faces and were corrupt too. Their job interested me. Even as a student filmmaker when we used to discuss, I always use to tell them that I want to make a film on the PM servants.

Time passed by, I had worked with various Production Houses in the capacity of Assistant Director (AD). It was during the post-production of the feature Ek HaseenaThi on which I was one of the ADs that I thought of directing something and what was this something going to be? A ‘dhaansu’ subject, I told myself. Which I already had - the lives of PM servants.

So again I started doing some research, meeting PM servants, visiting morgues, trying to get out more and more information about what it is like being a PM servant, what are the work conditions, how does it affect them psychologically, especially when there is no proper training as per my knowledge for someone to become a PM servant. Over here Mohan, the PM servant who works at the JJ hospital, Mumabi morgue was of great help. He has been working as a PM servant for close to two decades now and his experiences were invaluable.

In the mean time Kodak films came to my rescue as they decided to sponsor me three cans of 16mm film which was quiet a motivation. And working in the Industry helped me get key technicians like the Cameraman, Editor et al for free. My friend Ramani Ranjan Das went out of the way to help me with money and most important al all moral support. Actors like Dadhi Pandey, Murai, Ravi Kale and Seema Adhikari) were friends and promptly asked me as to when should they report to shoot. Amit Parmar and Mangesh are editing films for Ramuji (Ram Gopal Varma) in whose Company I still work as an AD and they too readily agreed to be ‘on board.’ The rest of the requirements were got by taking a million favours. I begged my family and borrowed from my sisters, borrowed a thousand rupees from my parents as their contribution and from other friends as well. It feels good to know that so many of them supported me in whatever I did.

Now Ramani and I had decided that come what may, we would shoot this film in a real morgue, as making an empty room a morgue wouldn’t get us the authenticity of the location. So we approached the JJ hospital, but the moment the Dean heard of our request he flatly refused. But I did not give up. I went and approached the Shivaji medical college in Thane/Kalwa. The local forensic staff over there were very cooperative. One of the doctors even took us inside the morgue and allowed me and Ramani witness the procedure of how a PM is conducted. It was quiet shocking and my respect for these people grew all the more when I saw the doctor instructing the PM worker to cut the stomach of the deceased and smell it to verify whether the dead person had consumed alcohol, it was quite shocking. Unfortunately however, my plans for shooting there did not work out.

I was very close aborting this film when one day my dad came and asked me to meet a friend of his the JJ Hospital. The said gentleman was quiet an influential person and he put me through to the Minister of State of Health’s PA. I even managed to get a letter from the Minister requesting I be allowed to shoot in the morgue. But to my surprise the Dean still refused to let me shoot in his hospital. By now I had made my mind that no matter what, this film will be shot in this morgue at JJ only, especially when the forensic staff was so happy that someone was making a film on the PM servants. And the location suited my purpose in terms of space and shooting logistics. So I again approached the Ministers PA. He directed me to Mantralaya as the Dean had asked me to get the letter of permission from his immediate senior, the Principal Secretary, Education Department.

The red tapism at the Mantralaya was another experience altogether. When I went to the Principal Secretary’s office, his PA directed me to go and see his Deputy first. I went there, but was stopped by the Deputy’s PA and was asked to submit my application at a particular counter. When I told the lady that it was urgent and I have been trying to seek permission for three months, what I got from her was a lecture. She questioned me why did I approach the Minister first? On requesting her again and again, she did not let me meet the Deputy Secretary. I too stayed there, waiting for an opportunity to sneak in. And finally I did, with the help of the peon there. Meeting the Deputy Secretary in contast was satisfying as he was warm, polite, nice and most important of all understood the importance of me making a short film. He assured me that he would help me and put me through another officer of his, with whom I was to follow up. Though it took me another three months to get the permission from them, I think it was worth it. The day I received the permission papers happened to be my birthday. I could not have asked for a better gift.

Now I had my location and I was supposed to shoot in two days time. Some technicians withdrew at the last moment as they were scared at the thought of being inside a morgue surrounded by all types of dead bodies. As I had the morgue only for a day, I finished shooting all the scenes set there in quick time. Though I had to wait for a dead body to arrive till almost seven in the evening as I wanted to shoot one real shot of a dead body being cut open which is there in the film. I was about to pack up in despair since no body had come when Soorajmal, another PM worker came running to me and told me that there was a body they were going to cut open and I could immediately come and shoot. On seeing the body, we were all shocked to see it was a two year olds body lying on the stretcher to undergo a PM. But there was no time to get emotional. More so we our time was over, I asked Ramani to just set the frame so that the cut is seen diagonally on the frame, poor guy being a professional did not say a single word as Mohan cut the body without wearing gloves as I wanted to make that point that sometimes many of these PM workers do not take precautions, while Ramani kept the shot rolling till the can of film ran out in the camera.

Two days after the shoot, one my actors, Dadhi calls me up and abuses me in a friendly manner saying, he is now unable to sleep!

After the shoot, it took me almost a year to finish the post, Editing without anybody’s knowledge, or shifting projects from one editing machine to another when Ek Haseena Thi got over, or for that matter waiting for the background score which Salim Merchant and Jhonny happily agreed to do even though they were extremely busy with their own projects, getting it dubbed, having senior Industry people like Karnail Singh and Chaudhury to do my effects or for that matter getting Mohit Shetty of Q lab to print my film from 16mm to 35 mm for free. But at the end of it, it was worth it!

Then came the time to showcase the film. I was lucky enough to have got my film invited in the Indie Film Club on NDTV Profit where Mr. Anurag Kashyap was the guest filmmaker. He insisted it be screened at the Mocha film club, where Mr. Ashok Purang of Showbiz action invited my short film to be screened at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Later on it was screened at the Indraprastha College’s International Students Film festival. Things had started to move.

The most prestigious screening my film has had has been at the 9th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), 2006 where the film was included in its International competition section. Last but not the least, I recently got a mail from the managing trustee of Kalpanirjhar Foundation, Kolkata - Mr. Sandip Ray. His colleagues saw my film at MIFF and they have decided to screen it at the fourth Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival 2006 under the joint initiative of the Foundation and Goethe Institute – Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata to be held in October this year. And I have just heard that the film has been selected by the Indo-American Arts Council's film festival to be held in New York this November.

Surendra Hiwarale (Surya) is an alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Jamia Millia Islamia (1999)and has been associated with Mr. Ram Gopal Varma for the last four years. The film has also been nominated in the international competition section of the 6th Kara Film Festival - Karachi International Film Festival, Karachi, Pakistan. He is looking forward to direct his first feature film soon.