The Making of Mausams: And Action!

Its Saturday again and we're back at Shilpa's house. Its a meal-time scene, Shweta and Naren are already at take number I-dunno-what, when I walk in. Ikea lamps are glowing benignly all over the dining table and Shilpa is framing the shot from a corner of her kitchen.

The inner room has kind of become a makeshift trailer and the make up artist Shahana is busy at work. Shivanu's mom is on her annual visit and is enjoying the whole fuss in a corner. Mascara wands, brushes and tiny plastic pots full of glittery colorful stuff lie littered on the bed, while Shahana nimbly works her magic on Poorna's face. This interests me, so I ignore the actual shoot for a while and focus on the beautification.

The make up department is not to be taken lightly. Cameras are not kind. They do not care about your darling, effusive personality or your strong spirit or the beauty of your heart. If you are in the germinating stages of sprouting a double chin, then camera will obligingly reveal this to you and also to the rest of the world.

'I love making people up. I could do this all day,' Says Shahana as she sketches a sharp black line under Poorna's eye. ' There, that'll make your eyes really pop.'

'Shahana are you sure this eye shadow isnt too much?' Poorna looks lovely but she's obviously quite alarmed at her transformation, 'God I don't know anything about make up, I feel so gawar! God, how am I going to manage to do this for every shoot? '

After some more backbreaking work Shahana looks back at her work of art with satisfaction. She has successfully feigned a look of fresh, natural, non-chalant beauty, under a few layers of make up. Its truly marvellous.

Shooting is tedious business. Naren's whipping up dinner in this one and hundreds of takes later, all the vegetables aunty needs for lunch have been diced to perfection. Shilpa, perfectionist as usual, takes and retakes shots until every single line, tone and frame comes together in one shot and satisfies her. I get exhausted just watching.

Meanwhile, Shivanu in his capacity as co-producer seems to have decided against hiring a spot boy, choosing instead to double up as one himself. By the end of the day, all the girls agree that in the universal husband contest (or co-producer contest, if you will), Shivanu wouldn't rate so badly.

Thanks to aunty and Naren's cut vegetables, everyone has a hearty lunch. Once the morning shoot is successfully wrapped, everybody loosens up a little. Naren gets all trigger happy with his DSLR upsetting Shweta at one point,

'Delete that. DELETE! I look fat in that photo.'

Allow me to stress here that it would be in fact quite a challenge to make Shwetha look fat, even if someone wanted to.

'Ha!' goes Shahana,' See she's a real actress now. Actresses, they always think they are fat. Put that on your blog!'

I guess Shilpa Inc. are really making a movie now and everyone seems to be growing into their new found careers :D

The Making of Mausams: A Weekend Rehearsal

Its 9.30am on a Saturday morning. An unusual scene is unfolding in Shilpa’s living room. 6 or 7 young adults have willingly dredged themselves out of bed, awaking at the crack of dawn at 7.45 am, to catch a quick cab, or a not so quick train ride, to Bishan Loft. Family duties and weekend indulgences are exchanged voluntarily for pulpy orange juice served so hospitably by Shivanu. It is all for the sake of Art. There is a moderate amount of chatter but in their heart of hearts, everyone’s just asking one question.

Where the hell is Vineet Kumar?

‘Seriously, I’m gonna slap this guy, once this whole shoot is done,’ our director quietly fumes, ‘for all the pain he’s caused me, over the years.’

At 9.45, a telephone call confirms that the man in question is indeed, on his way over and in fact, he has been approaching Bishan Loft for the longest time. However, he complains that it was the insipid cab driver who was just lolloping around the area, unable to zero in on the front lobby for some strange reason.

About 20 minutes later, Vineet bursts through and blusters a more detailed version of the same explanation involving the cabbie, who had graduated from being merely an idiot, to entirely evil and vindictive. The whole drama is, however, original enough to melt away any resentment the rest of the cast might have felt, drumming their fingers for an interminably long hour waiting Vineet, alias Suresh to show up.

‘Isse koi gussa bhi nahi ho sakta,’ Uthra complains as Vineet beams like a happy little boy.

All at once, everyone’s occupied themselves with frantically mugging up their lines.

Shweta carries her script around and chants the lines over and over, as if studying for a Sanksrit exam. Uthra seems to absorb her lines straight off the page by staring at it. Shivanu potters around looking at everything with interest. Though Poorna is confident enough, she seems to be meditating on her lines. Naren is obviously the good kid who has studied his pages many times over the past few weeks, so he just watches everyone else, possibly practicing the dreamboat look his role demands with considerable success.

Shilpa meanwhile, sits calmly on a table facing the pandemonium, legs crossed and back straight. Much like the Buddha himself, she delivers little jewels of wisdom, twisting the screws of the character over the actors a little tighter with each comment. Once again, Vineet demands some attention, although his problem is rather contrary.

‘Why are you acting? You’re supposed to just be yourself for this role. What happens to your voice when you’re in character? Stop being weird Vineet. Stop trying to act!’

When it’s time to rehearse, an interesting transformation occurs. At first, everyone’s a little stiff and self conscious. People forget what to do with their hands. Confused accents waltz in and out. Then gradually after a few tries, the right expression settles in and diction gets more natural.. Everyone gets it perfect for about 80% of the time, but the remaining 20% is precious idiocy.

One person, who needs no direction whatsoever ever, is the brilliant Navneet, who in all appearances is slouched like a flaccid leek over the couch, neck down, conversing with his chest hair. But when it is his turn to speak, the character arrives with all the ease and confidence of a master.

Okay, I’ve seen enough of this fun morning to know that if rehearsals are this eventful, then the actual shoot will prove to be a real phenomenon.

The Making of Mausams: The People

If you know Shilpa Krishnan, then you’ll know that she’s making a movie. No, I don’t mean one of those Handy cam shot, iPhoto edited short home videos, but a real 90-120 min feature film, with a real production schedule, pretty people, background score, outdoor shoots, indoor shoots, dubbing, editing, trailers and teasers. Yup, it's the real deal. And all this to be achieved with a close-to-zero budget.

I was curious of how this project, which is beyond mammoth considering everyone involved in it have full time jobs/husbands/wives/social lives/other-things-to-do/all-of-the-above, was turning out. So I strolled over to Shilpa’s place one morning to check it out. Having publicly announced embarking on this entirely crazy and wildly exciting idea of ‘making a film, proper’ half a year ago, Shilpa Inc. definitely seem to be on the way to pulling this off.

Here's a quick look at the people behind Mausams:

1. Shilpa- the One and Only. Writer, cinematographer, editor, producer and director extraordinaire. Mrs. Shivanu Shukla.
2. Shivanu - Co-producer and anti-hero. Mr. Shilpa Krishnan
3. Shweta-. Protagonist.
4. Naren- Planted to gain tween fan base.
5. Poorna- Love interest.
6. Navneet- character artist #1
7. Bala- character artist #2
8. Vineet- comic relief, mainly off-screen. Hero of the next post
9. Uthra- best actress in a supporting role
10. Nitya- Production manager. The Shepherd.
11. Shahana- the beautifier.
12. Adarsh/Sid- Camera men.
13. RamC- Remote cinematographer, currently based in Zurich. Conference calls his shot ideas. Still under 21 (bah)
14. Prasanna- Beethoven. As in tempestuous composer.
15. Me- Fly on the wall. Scribe and official drum-beater.
16. Yash and Sudha- fellow drum beaters.
17. Kurian - Still Photographer
18. Rachit - Website Designer
19. Jeni, Anto, Kokhwee, Jayesh - Other supporting actors
20. Jenif (M.E.T Films, Dubai) - Consultant and overall moral support
21. Supriya Shukla (Shivanu's mom) and Sudha Krishnan (Shilpa' mom) - Official chefs to cater for indoor shoots

Yes, at the moment, this is turning out to be an entirely expat-Indian venture. But of course, that shouldn’t deter the rest of the world from joining forces.

More from the sets of Mausams coming soon!