Fuser - lost and found aka our motorcycle diaries

(Warning: a very self-indulgent post)


Right in the dead of the night, a music piece begins to haunt my mind space, and slowly but steadily pierces straight down to my heart - cliché.

I get up and for the next few hours there's no sleep. another cliché.

I twist, turn and try to shut my eyes. But the strings of that music piece don't shut. Life is cliché.

The music 'moves' you, stirs the insides of you... nudges the drudged soul and makes it travel... travel back to those 'wonder' times! "De Usuahia a la Quiaca" - Gustavo Santalola. What an amazing piece of music that is! One through which myriad images are born. Several memories and still more stories. The stories happened a few years back but the hour of the night was same...the same as the time this night - right now as I write this.

The times, when we traveled like refugees across the border, like no one would spot us - but with the gay abandon of the aimless wanderers, the hippies without their hash... It was life that had happened, it was life that we were high on...
And in the book of life, these night rides would fall under the chapter "discovering ourselves"

If we sum the distance traveled every night, we could well reach somewhere near where the heart truly resides inside.
We took to roads at deep into the nights, rode along till early mornings on those empty streets of that wonderful city.
We drove ourselves into a different city, which presented itself to only those who seek... not for 'a cause', but through exploration...exploration for the sake of exploration!

"How could I have known that this city was tailor made for love?" as goes the monologue in the film Hiroshima Mon Amour.

We traveled on our motorcycle, when people with homes in the city were in deep slumber-safely guarded by their dreams, when the politics of the roads changed - when ferocious dogs ruled those vacant lanes, when the barricade police too had dozed off sitting on their wooden benches, when the tired lampposts were waiting for the dawn to break and the bonfires lit by watchmen were living their final sparks.

And this is not romanticizing. This is romance!

Our most reliable companion - our 'Mighty One' - our motorcycle was neither very brand new, nor an old haggard, neither too flamboyant nor dull... but much at peace with itself – and yes probably our only witness of those wondrous nights.
It still is the only witness. And if she (the motorcycle) had the power to write, she could have well written the closest outsider account ever.

She had shown us the city in its pristine form - and the city at its glorious best - its huge flyovers spreading across like veins and arteries that ran into the heart of city, its under-passes, like the mouth of a hungry dragon, its intimidating empty roads and the striking life that blossoms on them. 


Once, I remember... she wasn't perhaps in the best of moods - or beings - or just in the need of some plain attention! She made us walk the wide stretch at 4 30am on a December morning – We took it carefully, holding onto her...right in the middle of a cold night in search of a petrol pump!

But she was always there when we most needed her.

To open skies, cool breeze, heated discussions, empty roads, frank opinions, thunderous rains, beautiful places, dark clouds, heavy traffic and the heart.

I am missing her even as I type this.
I can get her with me again.
I think I will bring it to this Big City, but then
- I don't want her to choke herself in the black smoke of this Big City, I don’t want it to get herself lost in the many many traffic snarls here.
I don't want to be its "beginning of the end".

Is it about her - the motorcycle - or is it about the journey that nurtured the most important relationship – the journey that traveled the crucial distance… that from the heart to the soul and back!



conclusion: the love story is on, but the motorcycle is being missed.

© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Road, Movie trailer

Here's the first 30 sec promo released by director Dev Benegal.







© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Ten Teachers without whom life wouldn't have been the same.

I almost never ever celebrate any festival. Its been like that, apart from the 2008 holi, there has never been much celebration in life when it comes to festivals since last seven odd years. Probably, i never thought i would make to movies and finally when i made it, life's been a celebration in itself, so whats the need of the festivals?.

But there's this day called Teachers day. Since the time I thought "Lets venture into movies", I have never ever failed to wish people who are responsible for adding value to my this journey. I am writing as if i am some accomplished artist or something. But its ok, everyone is a celebrity on facebook and on their Blogs. So I will let it be.

On this wonderful day, let me take the pleasure of thanking the following ten people who taught me many important lessons in life - lessons that change the way you see life, lessons that contribute in your upbringing and lessons that will always be with you, wherever you go. The people and the lessons are in no particular order.

1. Thank you Prof A.F Mathew for allowing me to come to Mica (during 2004-05 weekends) so that you can give me an hour of patient hearing. Thank you for telling me that movies are meant for much more than just entertainment, and of course thank you for introducing me to alien terms like Micheal Haneke, Walter Salles and several others. Sir, life has never been the same after knowing those alien terms.


2. Thank you Manoj Nair for not allowing me to sit in the campus interview for Almarai Foods, Riyadh. If selected, the money would have lured me to the desert, and i may not have found the magical world of movies. Later on, thank you for being there and encouraging me during the transition from advertising to cinema. I cannot forget those chai sessions in Ahmadabad, even when you were loaded with your IIM subjects.


3. Thank you Rani Dais ma'am for telling the class in Basil school that "even if hardik doesnt get an engineering seat after boards, he should not fret. He can do better in many other careers"
For the reader, sorry for that self-appraisal note, but when a student is feeling miserable with his sad scores in mid term class XII exams, that sentence is a huge respite in a confusing career with competitive friends around.

4. Thank you Mr. Harsh Purohit for taking the risk of adding a fresh dairy technologist to the copywriting crew of one of the most dynamic advertising agencies. Thank you for all those little nuances about writing, presentations and clients. I still follow them to the core.


5. Thank you Prof. Shohini Ghosh for those wonderful lectures on images, their politics, films and documentaries. I wish those lectures would have been more in number. It changed the way we thought about media and films. I had almost 100% attendance in second year, coz i thought you would come any day for a surprise lecture and i better not miss it. Thank you also for rejecting me in 2005's interview at Jamia, I was a different person when i entered in 2006. :) :)

6. Thank you Gangaraju Swamy for giving me shelter in your room no. 114 during dangerous ragging sessions in first year. Thank you for those delicious conversations during dinners at the tasteless Hostel Mess. Thank you again for supporting me during early Mumbai days. (Actually to Gangaraju I cant thank enough!!!)

7. Thank you Shailesh for all those wonderful childhood memories, classroom pranks and introducing me to good hollywood movies.

8. Thank you Yazad in renewing my interest in photography and how digital photography can change your vision. I can now start to think the possibilities of sfx in an image. But am more thankful for showing me the way in how to live properly, how to keep the kitchen clean, how to make tea and how to contribute when you share the flat.

9. Thank you Mr. Dev Benegal for almost whatever all I know about practical filmmaking. From introducing the concept of script supervision to introducing me to the wonderful world of Apple technologies, from encouraging an assistant's ramble about world cinema to making coffees during edit sessions. The last one year has been priceless!!


10. Thank you Bombay/Mumbai. There isn't a better teacher for a young ambitious man in this world. The lesser i say the better it is. As the cliche would go: "The city surely has possibilities to make your dreams come true. Aise he nahi chale aate hum jaisen yahaan..."


Happy Teachers Day to all the wonderful teachers out there in the world. You guys are doing a great job.

With love and respects.
Hardik Mehta




© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Road, Movie - the group on facebook is ON

Something inside me is beaming like a kid - Road, Movie is finally getting a world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2009. Wow! it cant get bigger than this. Although i always wanted a Cannes, coz the script was right up there. The film, the director, the screenplay - they all deserve to be at the world stage.

And i have the extreme pleasure of being the moderator and the creator of the Facebook group for Road, Movie. Keep in touch on the following link

There so much to share on this film, its making and its post production work. I will be posting my stories and experiences on it shortly.





© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta