Starring : Raghubir Yadav, Usha Nadkarni, Vijoo Khote, Sameep Shah,Devaki, Arvind Wahi, Mukesh Nathani, Arun Varma, Akash Salgotra,Veena Kapur, Smita Jadhav, Banwari Lal Jhol, Ramesh Kapur, Sujan Samant Scriptwriter : Jyothi Kapur Das Cinematographer : Chirantan Das Audiographer : Debashish Mishra Editor : Surya Sinha Music : Manoj Pradhan Producer : Swadesh C. Kapur Production Company : 27/3 Productions Director : Jyothi Kapur Das Language : Hindi with English subtitles. Duration : 10 Minutes Screen Ratio : 1:1.33Format : DV

Synopsis

Ramesh's day starts off with a quarrel, and he leaves for work in a bad mood. But the day holds surprises for him. And, a rude shock. Nevertheless, he deals with it and gets what he wants at the end of his lucky day.

I'd been home for more than two years, having a baby, then enjoying it - and my total lack of career was killing me.

My husband, Chirantan had shot Urf Professor - a feature-length film on DV, a year earlier. A lot of other people I knew were planning on shooting DV films. It struck me that here was a cameraman, literally under my nose, experienced in this cheap, and effective new way of shooting films. I could use this! And, I could use it for free!

I had an idea for a short-short film and put it down. The film was on the disk in screenplay-form within a week.

Then, I got to thinking about whom I could con into producing this film. Who had some surplus money, no EMIs to pay, an interest in films and an ego that would be appeased at seeing his/ her name as Producer..?

Of course. My father. I got to working on him and in just 2 days of arm-twisting, he broke. He'd give me money to shoot the film.

After that, everything was on a roll. If the cameraman was in-house, I did not have to look too far for my other technicians either. Debashish Mishra, the audiographer is an old friend and so, easy prey for free work. His wife, Swati Bhatia handled production, moonlighting from her paying job.

While writing, I could see Raghubir Yadav as Ramesh. I mailed him the script and he liked it. I had worked with Vijoo Khote earlier while assisting Abbas-Mustan. I thought of him for a small role and sent him a copy as well. Vijooji not only agreed to do this tiny part, but he also suggested an actress for the role of Som's mother.

Usha Nadkarni is a fine actress and a well-known one. I did not know her personally, so was a little tense about asking her to work for the pittance that I could pay her. Luckily, Ushatai's sense of adventure worked in my favour. She agreed to do it. Swati short-listed actors for the other roles and within two days our cast was ready.

All I'd ever directed before was my Continuity film at the Institute. That did not count in the Real World. So, the night before this shoot, all I was wondering was how I was going to say 'Action!' and 'Cut!'

The Great Day dawned. Fourteen actors, five locations, two shifts to shoot the film in, and one not-weaned baby. We picked up camera, sound and Bubu equipment (diapers, food, boiled water and clothes) and set off.

I was shooting without an assistant and that was hugely pressurizing. Not only was I directing, but I was also giving out production instructions and I had a baby to be thinking of, simultaneously. The fact that my actors were professionals and all had been provided scripts and been briefed in advance, really helped.

My crew was very tolerant. They took their cigarette breaks when I had to feed Bubu, to put him to sleep. The locations belonged to my family, so at least he wasn't in a new place. But, he was severely traumatized by the separation from me. After a while, I just started shooting with him on my arm. Luckily for us, he seemed to realize that "Action!" meant Silence. Not one take was NGed because of baby noises.

The shoot over, I was so stressed-out that it took me another two months to edit the film. Begging favors (again!) from Manish Jhaveri, who owns Delta Systems, I cut it in two days on a Media 100. While I was working, Bubu ate, slept, played and did potty at the studio.

Debashish joined us on the third day and we completed the entire sound design, except for the music. By the way, the montage of Ramesh dancing in his house had been Debu's idea and it did wonders to the film.

Manoj Pradhan is a cinematographer who works on ad films and corporates. He is an old friend, so I know that he also has a fine sense of music composition. Initially, he was reluctant about composing for a film. I convinced him that the risk was mine and we finally got to work.

Sujata, Manoj's wife, is a computer professional. The three of us fished around for information and finally this is how we went about the music. Manoj's ancient Yamaha PSR 620 synthesizer was hooked via a MIDI cable to the PC. They had a recording software loaded and we started. Again, interruptions were caused by Bubu's demands on me, but this time things were easier. Also, I think he had started to get used to a working mother (I wish!).

The music completed, we went back to Delta. The music was laid, some clean-ups and last-minute changes were done and we now had our film on our hands. All that was left were the subtitles.

The subtitles were sponsored by Sankalp Meshram. He sat with me one day and worked on them on his Final Cut Pro. Ruchika, his wife, formatted the credits. I used their VCR to make all the PAL copies I'd need for various film festivals.

Of course, I got fee-waivers from some festivals. I only sent it to places that were free, and those that would accept PAL masters if selected.

The film has so far been selected to two festivals. Ausfest2002, to take place in late October in Brisbane, Australia; and, Female Eye Film Festival 2002 in November in Ontario, Canada.

I look at Lucky Day now and wince at a lot of things, feel proud of some and generally happy that at least I've made something that some people like. (At least that's what they tell me when they see the film)

But, what feels really good is having done something while being a full-time mother. Both, Bubu and I have grown with this experience. I guess, there must be bunches of women film-makers out there who want it all, but are scared of putting their career on hold. I was one of them. I've climbed the fence and found the grass greener.

Jyoti Kapur Das graduated from the Editing course of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 1994. Based now in Mumbai, she worked as an editor till 1999. Switching streams to direction, Jyoti then assisted in the Hindi film industry. This short film is her first independent work outside FTII.