Synopsis
An homage to the noir genre, Manorama:
Six Feet Under is about an amateur detective
in a small town who finds himself caught in a
web of lies, deceit and murder. SV is a government
engineer but his real ambition has always been
writing detective fiction. Unfortunately, his
maiden attempt, a novel called Manorama,
sank without a trace and he has been reduced to
writing for cheap pulp magazines. Stifled by the
dreariness of small town existence and frustrated
by his failure, SV’s life takes a turn when
the wife of a powerful local politician arrives
at his doorstep with an irresistible offer; the
chance for SV to play a real life detective by
spying on her husband. Intrigued and tempted by
the opportunity to redeem his self worth, SV accepts.Upon
completion of his assignment, things take a turn
when SV discovers that the woman is not who she
claims to be. The situation get further complicated
when she is killed in a mysterious accident.Sensing
foul play, SV begins investigating her death only
to discover that nothing is what it seems to be
and that redemption doesn’t come easy….
Manorama: Six Feet Under was not the
first feature film I wanted to make. There was
an earlier script called Chasing Rainbows
that I had peddled around for a few years. It
was a more expensive script to produce and the
standard response was to bring in a few stars.
Now, most producers don’t really care about
script and story; if you have stars attached,
the project is pretty much a go. Not having access
to any heavyweights, I decided to work on a cheaper-to-execute
story idea. The plotline and characters for Manorama:
Six Feet Under had been floating around in
my head for a while so I roped in Devika Bhagat
to co-write the script.
 I
think the noir genre is generally pretty attractive
to a certain breed of filmmakers since it has
all the trappings for a general audience plus
a darker, cynical outlook with philosophical undertones
that has intellectual appeal. We tried to follow
the general visual motifs for noir but invented
an Indian context for them. The strong use of
light and shadows was the primary principal we
followed. The use of slated lights (venetian blinds,
etc) was translated to jallis, etc. Neon lights
translated into the use of kitschy home decorations
and fireworks (the film is set around diwali time).
The overall intention was as much to capture a
small town feel as to infuse noir motifs into
the filming style. The final result, I think,
is a nice inventive blend between the two.
The film was originally to be produced by Redice
Films . But they were unable to raise the sort
of money that I felt was the minimum amount necessary
to execute the film properly. So I approached
other people as well. Eventually Shemaroo Films
came into the picture and agred to back the project.
And so, we were on!
We shot the film for 48 days (3 days over a planned
45 days) but if you discount days lost to fog/rain/sickness
(5 days) we pretty much came in under schedule.
The shoot was quite eventful but I’d say
that on the whole the shoot went off pretty smoothly.
There were the standard problems of weather, crowd
control and logistics but those were pretty much
to be expected. The weather in Rajasthan was freezing
and unseasonably wet. We’d purposely tried
to keep our night exterior shoots for the end
of the schedule (end Feb) to try and circumvent
the cold and fog but the weather still got to
us. Other issues were largely budget related;
almost every single picture vehicle broke down
at some point just as we were ready to take the
shot. Overall, though, we shot the film in a pretty
straight forward narrative style using a very
formal and traditional film grammar, with camera
movements and angles used only for dramatic effect.
The one thing I realised was that an extended
location shoot is great for crew bonding. The
cast and crew got along really well and managed
to stick together to pull through difficult situations.
In fact, talking of cast and crew, I was pretty
satisfied with the cast that we eventually locked
on but we went through many iterations of casting
possibilities some of whom were unavailable/unwilling/unreachable
and others who were unacceptable to either the
producers or myself. The crew consisted partly
of people whom I had worked with in advertising;
(Cinematographer, Art Director, First AD) and
others whose work I checked and liked (Sound,
Makeup, Costume, Editing) I then met up with all
these people one-to-one to discuss the project
after they had read the script. The test was to
see if we seemed to share the same basic approach
and sensibilities.
 I
always hate everything I’ve done the first
time I see it all edited together. It takes me
a little time, to live with the edit to start
seeing it objectively. Since the film was shot
in a pretty straight manner, the edit is also
pretty straight forward (no fancy cuts, effects
etc. - just focus on simple storytelling).
I think any work has its pluses and minuses.
There are some things that I think work really
well in the film and others that I cringe at every
time I see them. Given a perfect scenario, I’d
reshoot a couple of scenes that I’m particularly
unhappy with. On the whole though, I guess, I
use my embarrassment scale to gauge the final
worth of the film. So, is the film something I’m
happy being associated with? Yes, Yes, Yes! People
too have responded quite well to the film and
the bouquets seem to outnumber the brickbats.
The attention and buzz it has received despite
being a low budget underdog of a film is heart-warming
to say the least.
The film goes into general theatrical release
on September 21st. Since tt’s a genre piece,
it wasn’t really designed with a festival
audience in mind but it was screened in the Indian
competition section at the recently concluded
Osian Cinefan in Delhi. It was also the closing
film at the Thrissur film festival in Kerela.
There’s a few more festivals in the near
future in the US and UK and others we’re
hoping to hear from soon.
Post the release, I’m toying with reviving
Chasing Rainbows. I’m also developing
and co-writing a couple of other ideas. Let's
see...
Navdeep Singh graduated from the Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1997
with a BFA in film. After directing commercials
in London and Los Angeles, he has been directing
TV commercials in Mumbai since 2001. Manorama:
Six Feet Under is his first feature film.
To know more about the film, visit www.manoramasixfeetunder.com.
|
