Bhaand Master: "short film"

Monday, May 31, 2010

A City lost-and-found & the Stories from my Childhood

I love the idea of shooting randomly... just to keep capturing, without end points - the 'everyday', the 'not often' and the 'first time ever' all alike! And the city of Bombay provides a fertile ground for the 'constant capturer' in me - without (mostly) being stared at, or asked to stop! One could nearly merge with them while recording them/it all.

And one fine day, I put it all together on the edit table, the many beginnings... middles... ends... in different orders - till several stories are wrung out!

I am an unabashed fan of Bombay, (like countless others), and have had the privilege to spend my childhood years in the city .
From Nov 1982 to July 1993. 11 years. What an amazing time to experience this city.
That was an era - before the monsters of globalization, corporatization and economic liberation took over the great financial capital of the country. When people still went to Maratha Mandir, Novelty, Minerva to watch 'tax-free' movies, When the city and its beaches were still the source of evening entertainment and when traveling in the local trains would be a pleasure.
I was a 'very suburban' 'middle-class' 'Bombay kid'. (All three need to be in the inverted commas - cause the categories are strict :); and I was all three) We lived in the Bank Office quarters, in Malad. It was a childhood well spent.

July 2008, since the time I returned to Bombay, I had never even chanced a visit the place where I grew up. Or even to an area close to it!

The visit kept pending.

(Thats another aspect of the city. If you 'seek' work, it will give you so much, till the day, you put your foot down and cry out (to yourself) - "bas yaar, ab kuch apna bhi kar lete hain..").

So somewhere in March this year, Psycho, Yazad and I decided to visit 'this' place 'where I grew up' on a weekend - and with my camera.
Thats how the film 'happened', err... the beginning of the film, a trailer, some middle...

To make it a complete film, to find an end(s) we will go back again. For now, here's the trailer:

A City lost-and-found & the Stories from My Childhood
A Short Documentary by Hardik Mehta

the trailer for A City lost-and-found & the Stories from my Childhood from hardik mehta on Vimeo.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Chal Meri Luna

A short story for the short film:

Shot in 2005. Edited in 2010, Chal Meri Luna is a short film with such a long journey! It was intended to be made as the first silent film by two friends who had discovered the joys of cinema from the moronic machines of a factory. If exaggeration was an art, I would love to term this effort almost like Lumière Brothers!

The film was shot over a length of 7 to 8 sundays with borrowed equipment and vehicles. Soon we realized, films cannot be made over sundays!. We took to films but forgot about this footage. On a fine evening in March 2010, the footage was rediscovered. This is the edited version.

chal meri luna from hardik mehta on Vimeo.