Lockdown effect: Creativity breaks shackles
Mona
As the lockdown has sent the world into a new normal, filmmakers across the world are giving virtual cinematography a shot. Right from cinema giant Martin Scorsese, who made a short film during the pandemic, to Ram Gopal Varma, who made a feature film, there have been some brave attempts across the world giving films a sci-fi flavour.
While some of the projects to come out dealt with the lockdown effect, highlighting the challenges humanity faces, others jumped up to the very digital life that one felt instantly transported to.
Homemade has brought together stories by renowned filmmakers from across the world — some fiction, other lockdown diaries. As many as seven films, with names like Ladi Ly, Paolo Sorrentino, Kristen Stewart and David Mackenzie on board, are part of Homemade, which has been released on Netflix. Each story is of less than 11 minutes!
Gurinder Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges, Kumiko, Ronak and their pet Babalu Boba come together in The Unexpected Gift. Chadha shot the film at her London home and it celebrates the time they spent together, making sense of the new normal – online schooling, haircut at home, rolling aloo paranthas and enjoying the unexpected time together!
Nandita Das, while turning her cook into a cameraman, shot Listen to Her over three mornings! As the world saw a surge in cases of domestic abuse, this short film, put together over online video calling apps, is a seven-minute eye-opener that brings the reality of the pandemic to the screen.
Meanwhile, Ram Gopal Varma shot Corona Virus during the lockdown. “The irrepressible Ram Gopal Varma, ‘Ramu’ to many … ‘Sarkaaar’ to me … makes an entire film about a family in the lockdown, shot during the lockdown …titled: Corona Virus … perhaps the first film to be made on the virus … this be the trailer,” Amitabh Bachchan tweeted about the film in late May.
It was a horrid video of a trafficked woman in the Middle East that led to a home experiment, which turned into a full-fledged feature film — C U Soon is a Malayalam movie that came out during the lockdown. Released on September 1 on Amazon Prime, this mystery thriller, written and directed by Mahesh Narayanan, has Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran as the cast.
A different format
It is one among the quickest films to reach the audience. The kind of feedback, appreciation and love it is getting feels great. That people gave a shot to this film with such a different format is a very happy feeling.
At one hour and 38 minutes, this screen-based movie, which released on Onam, seems to have won viewers as well as critics alike with the gripping drama. And it has all been shot on phone!
Roshan Mathew, one of the three main actors, says it was the easiest ‘yes’ he had said to any project till date. “When I started working, I had a list of people I wanted to work with — Fahadh and Mahesh Narayanan were part of that list.” When halfway through the lockdown he got a call regarding this project, he was on board instantly. “The film was made at a very fast pace. I wished the shoot had lasted a little longer, as I enjoyed the process of acting with Fahadh and Darshana, and being directed by Mahesh. We shot largely at the apartments that we rented, a hotel in Kochi and administration building of a hospital where no one came visiting, and a few other areas.”
That people are giving this experimental film a shot makes it a heartening experience: “The film is already out on Amazon and people are enjoying it, which makes it an amazing experience. A gripping story at the base of it makes
it special.”
mona@tribunemail.com
