Synopsis
A young film school graduate has written
an ‘angry and hungry’ script. His
chest thrust out, he marches confidently to the
typical commercial Film Producer’s house.
The Producer, a ‘life school graduate’,
however slams the script. He gives the young Filmmaker
some profound words of wisdom, explaining to the
rookie what ‘real’ Indian Cinema is
all about. “It’s a pure vegetarian,
colourful thali.” he tells him. The Producer-Guru
‘initiates’ the director- disciple
in to the world of ‘Rice Plate Filmmaking’
where nobody is hungry, nobody’s angry and
by the end of it everybody is plain happy - the
audiences, the makers and of course the box office
counters.
The late Gul Anand, Film Producer and well known
Foodie, once said to me that
“Popular films should be like the popular
food of the land. Mumbai Industry films are like
Mumbai restaurant rice plates”.
Mumbai Rice plates have a bit of everything –
they are colourful, have different tastes and
different textures. In fact, offering many dishes
and value for money - ‘Sasta, sundar
aur tikaao’ as the line goes. This
idea stuck in my head somewhere.
The last time I had directed anything was way
back in 1998. After a nasty, disabling accident,
I had turned writer for the following seven years.
Now, almost healed, I was itching to get back
to directing. Inspiration and the opportunity
came, when I chanced upon a website of the Berlinale
Talent Campus which will take place in Feb 2006.
It sounded pretty interesting. They were inviting
up and coming filmmakers to present either a one-minute
show reel or a five-minute theme based film made
specifically for this festival. The topic was
Films on ‘food, taste and hunger’.
This would serve as a qualifying film for the
Talent Campus AND if of further merit, would make
it to the Competition Section of the Festival
of Slow Food in Italy, in April 2996.
The late lateef that I am, as usual, I had chanced
upon the opportunity pretty late. I quickly wrote
out my script and rushed to my cameraman, FIII
batch mate and friend Sanjay Nair. Together, we
conferred with his wife Maya, who multi-tasked
as Producer and Casting Director. She had one
look to the script and said ‘ho jayega’
and that is exactly how the film got made. Ho
gaya!
We had an apology for a budget – just a
few thousand rupees from my savings. However,
once we got going, it POURED help. Actors, technicians,
assistants, equipment, post production facilities,
music, catering, and almost everything and anything
came on good will and love, a desire to help me
to get this film ready. The Filming experience
was so much like the five-minute continuity films
that are made in the Film Institute at the end
of the first year. We were getting props from
the houses of friends; some body was getting this,
some body arranging that. Actors were assisting;
my parents, wife and kids were the ‘extras’.
With in couple of days, it was all set. We were
ready to shoot. We shot on Beta format. I was
more comfortable with it. I have no idea of DV
as yet. When I directed last in 1998, it was probably
not even around professionally. Also, my cameraman
Sanjay had his own reasons to shoot on this format.
He felt that the kind of DV cam available in our
budget was not the best for the kind of fiction
work we were attempting. More over, for the same
budget, we were getting a beta set up to shoot,
courtesy his good will with the equipment guys.
So Beta it was.
We shot for two days. We had four locations.
Day one was restaurant, roads (nightmare!) and
a preview theater. Day two one ‘serial bunglow’
where we shot the Filmmaker’s room, the
Producer’s home and the turn table shots
of the Rice Plate.
 Editing
started the very next day. Jabeen, the editor,
patiently explained to me how the FCP works, as
she went about her work with brisk efficiency.
For me it was a two-day crash course in digital
postproduction. It was fascinating to watch how
flexible editing had become and there were so
many possibilities of edit patters and also visual
correction.
The edit finalized, I rushed the cut on a VCD
to Vivek Philip for the music. Vivek sat up the
entire night in his studio and composed the music
for Rice Plate. The next afternoon, he showed
the film to me with the music. Man wasn’t
I happy! But there was no time to exult. I straight
hopped in to an auto, and rushed back to the editing
room. Jabeen had finished the subtitling by then.
After pasting the music, mixing and rendering,
our master beta tape was ready.
From this beta master we took a transfer on Mini
DV (the festival wanted the film on Mini DV) and
couriered it to the Berlinale.
I have yet to hear from the Berlinale about the
status of film. Their website says they will get
back by the fifteenth of January 2006. My fingers
are crossed!
So how has the film turned out? Well, there have
been mixed reactions. For me like any Filmmaker
who looks at his own work, some bits of the film
work, many don’t. On the whole, I felt the
tone of the film needed to be much more stylized.
Also, there needed to be more story development
and a stronger punch in the end. Well, I can go
on and on about what could have been! But yes,
I am pretty satisfied that I finally moved out
of my Writer’s chair and made this little
film.
I look at this film as my ‘baby step’
towards returning to direction. I hope to make
a few more short fiction films in the near future,
keep practicing, and then take my feature length
scripts around. I don’t know how I am going
to find the funds for these shorts. Maybe one
month I will do some hectic television script
writing, and next month shoot a short and then
back to television scriptwriting! Or if there
is anybody who wants to bankroll my shorts, well,
he or she is more than welcome to do so.
Meanwhile, I have just got to know that ‘Rice
Plate’ has been selected for the Mumbai
International film Festival 2006 in the International
Competition section. Makes the effort of making
the film worthwhile!
Finally, a big thank you to each and every one
who has held my hand during this ‘baby step’.
Charudutt Acharya graduated from the
FTII in 1995 specializing in Film Direction. He
has assisted in feature films, directed stand-alone
TV drama episodes and made a couple of short fiction
films. He has also worked as a scriptwriter for
over a dozen Television fiction shows in different
genres and scripted a feature film as well, Vaastu
Shastra. Rice Plate is his latest directorial
work. To know more about the film you can contact
Charudutt at charudutt@vsnl.in.
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