Volunteer Testimonial - Arati

We shared with you all about Perception Managers joining Team "IAM". Let's also hear it from Arati on how she got involved with the project.

Perception Managers has had a long term association with Onir's movies from Bas ek pal to Sorry Bhai & now I Am. It's a priviledge to work with Onir once again on I AM which addresses issues that concern and affect each one of in some way. Onir's sensitive and delicate handling of My Brother Nikhil is been seen and appreciated not just in India but globally. We wish Onir, Sanjay Suri & the entire team Good Luck and look forward to great association on this project.

Sunayana Kumari Joins Team 'I AM'

Hey Everyone,

Wanted to share with you all about Sunayana Kumari, another new joinee to the team "I AM". Here's what Sunayana had to say about how it all happened for her

A brief conversation with actor Rahul Bose (no, unfortunately he’s not a ‘friend’, as a lot of you might presume) led me to this gig. “So you’ve studied journalism and now you want to work in films?” – he quizzed me rather skeptically over the phone. After listening to me answer in the affirmative, he told me that he’d call me as soon as something came up. While I was expecting to receive this ‘call’ by sometime next year, my phone which lay next to me began to buzz his name again in a matter of seconds. Once he was on the line, he wasted no time and asked if I would like to assist in Onir’s latest project. “Onir, as in the director of My Brother Nikhil?!” came my inapt response to that query. From my shrill tone it became fairly obvious to both of us that I would only be too glad to work on this project.

I was scheduled to meet Onir for an interview on the 27th of July, which was a Monday. Sunday night therefore was spent going over blogs dedicated to this latest venture by Anticlock Films. As I sat on my bed reading about the series of shorts and learning that while meant to entertain they were also based on significant issues in our society, my excitement level began to soar. I remembered the uncharacteristic, emotionally charged speech I had made to my parents in a bid to let them allow me to work in films. I had said to them that eventually I’d make films that were politically and socially conscious and hence noble and hence they should let me and so on and so forth…. But here I was about to do just that in my very first assignment. Yes, I consider my self lucky.

Luckier still because I am part of the best team ever. The team comprises of individuals who are sophisticated in their knowledge of film making, kind to me and above all, a lot of fun. The Omar shoot has been a great learning experience and I can’t wait to start work on the remaining shorts

WHY MEGHA ?

In the beginning there was chaos, and nothing but chaos… and I stepped into the chaos looking for an answer….

I remember from the time I was in school in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, Kashmir was the place my mother always wanted to come to… a place of romance and beauty…. Years passed by… we never made it to Kashmir … and then the unrest… but now the dream that lay dormant in her was a living dream in me. I was looking for an excuse to visit this place…

About a year and half back I read the story of a successful Kashmiri Model in Bangladesh. One fine day he was arrested as a suspect RAW agent. After 40 days in prison he was deported to India. On arrival at the Delhi airport he was arrested as an ISI agent and kept in Tihar for three months. He was released because of lack of evidence, but not given a clean chit. The contradiction in the whole episode excited me….

He flew down to Mumbai and I met him. There was the man – once a model, now a suspect, a man with a broken nose, a limp and a few scars standing in front of me. Over the next few days we spoke and I realized that his story is not what I wanted to make a film on, but it started the process of another story in me. His conversations with me raised many questions in me. These were fragmented thoughts, scattered images and half spoken words.

Then I decided that I had to go…. On the 14th of October 2007, I was driving out of Srinagar airport-“WELCOME TO PARADISE” the sign board read… and all around it were bunkers, armored vehicles, barbered wires and army men. I heaved a sigh -Paradise indeed! This was the paradox that was to become a part of my sight and sound over the next few days. We drove straight to Azaan’s (my friend and guide) house. This would be my abode for the next few days as the family absolutely refused to let me stay in a hotel. I am glad that I did not insist. This was the first time I was living with a Muslim family. And the experience was most enriching. So many misconceptions, so many apprehensions – all destroyed over the next days as I ate, slept, chatted, and discovered Srinagar with Azaan and his family.

Once back in my Versova flat I try and give shape to my story but I realize that now it is perhaps more fragmented, scattered because that is what I feel about Kashmir… The shape is shapeless.

Images, images…. The magnificent Chinar trees, the cold fresh air, the extremely polluted and dirty Dal lake, the piercing looks of the army Jawans, PTV blaring everywhere, Café Arabica, Boulevard road, The posh new cottages, the burnt Habakadal with its memories of migrant Hindus, the beautiful woodwork that adorned ceilings, doors windows etc, the magnificent Dastgir sahab, the absolutely adorable kids( what was striking is how kids seem to roam around so freely in groups without any fear), the pony tailed today’s fashionable kashmiri boys, the colourfully dressed beautiful confident kashmiri women, the nun chai(salt tea), the food( I was eating all the time), The lonely army jawan, the wandering shepherds….

The day I was supposed to return back home I took a long walk up the mountain road… and at one point where it overlooked the whole city I sat down. I felt immensely sad – sad for the valley caught in this conflict of two nations, sad for this valley where trees were disappearing, heritage structures falling apart and ugly new malls coming up. Sad for the jawan whom I was trying to photograph when he stopped me ‘mera naukri jayega( I will loose my job)… paanch minute baitkar bath hi karloh( why don’t you chat with me for five minutes)”. I sat with him as he spoke about his home in the far west, about being unloved and unwanted by the local people, about being on the brink of death all the time, about a desire to speak to someone other than his colleagues.

I smiled as I thought of the young Kashmiri girls who refused to believe that I was a director, and thought that they were far better looking than the Bollywood actresses.At the same time I felt uneasy when I saw the look many of them had when a group of pretty kashmiri women passed them. I thought how I would feel if I had to pass by a man with a gun every ten minutes….I would not be happy. I know it is much more complex, but this is definitely not it! They were not complaining because things are much better now, and they have accepted this as a part of their lives…. Would I be able to do that- I am afraid not, because they also represent memories of torture, abduction, rape and death.

I remembered my walk through Habakalal, trying hard to control my tears as I stood before the house of a Hindu friend who had to migrate after the militants murdered a family member. I remembered all the stories he had told me about the house, about the chinar outside his house, about the bridge across the river on the way to his school, about the loud speaker blaring in the night asking the kafir’s (Hindu’s) to leave…. About the house with eighteen rooms… so many memories.

Later in the night in the privacy of my room I wept… wept for all those people who lost their homes, live lives in refugee camps and who have the right to this “paradise”. I remembered my home- in Bhutan, remembered how we had to leave because of political unrest, how it affected my mothers health for good, remember our car pulling away from the house of my childhood, remember the students from my dad’s school standing on both the sides of the road and throwing rose petals on our car… and my dad’s face, unflinching, strong, trying hard to control his tears waving to the kids says a good bye to the school and house he built 25 years ago.

Memories jumble, emotions erupt, images intermingle…. And I know the script is beginning, the film that I have to make- a film set in kashmir, about the loss of identity, loss of home, of history, of fear, of hope and despair….That is perhaps where the germ of MEGHA started. I started working on a script on Kashmir with Merle Kroger called THE FACE…. But somewhere the story of the dual loss was disappearing.

As we started the “I AM” series I thought that it would be maybe the right platform to start the process. I spoke to my friend and writer URMI JUVEKAR (writer Oye Lucky Lucky Oye) about the concept. She readily agreed to write the film.

Working together with Urmi has been again something that both of us have been trying for a while …. And somehow it never happened after 1994….Fifteen years later it is happening now. … MEGHA was born……

This is a film that tells the story of the paradox that is Kashmir. The story of 300,000 migrants, who have lost their home and identity. This is the story of a population stuck in a conflict situation where nothing moves.

This is the story of two friends MEGHA and RUBINA which reflect the two sides of the same coin…..

CAST

We at ANTICLOCK FILMS offer you an opportunity to be a part of a process of the making of a film, to

be a part owner of a film. You can do this my contributing monetarily for the making of the film. To that end, we’ve established four different ways to help:

· Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 – Students category. Acknowledgement on the website and the end credits.

(Treated as donation)

· Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 – Acknowledgements in the end credits( Treated as donation/pledge)

· Rs 25,000 to Rs 100,000 – Return of your contribution at the time of the final film release and

acknowledgement in the end credits

· Rs 100,000 to Rs 15,00,000 – Acknowledgements in the beginning titles of the film and

proportionate share in the profits.

Total budget of each short film is – Rs 30,000,00 (Rupees thirty lacs)

Funds in Place by Anticlock Films – Rs 15,000,00 (Rupees fifteen lacs)

Please spread word and help support a film that wants to make a difference. Thank you.

· Contact: anticlockfilms@gmail.com

· Amar : +91 98337 48111

Connect

· Facebook: http://facebook.com/iammegha

· Twitter: http://twitter.com/iamthefilms

· Website coming soon : www.iamthefilms.com

· Cheques to be made for Anticlock films and sent to :

181 PARIKH BUNGALOW

FIRST FLOOR

ARAM NAGAR II

J.P.ROAD VERSOVA

ANDHERI WEST

MUMBAI 4000 61

INDIA

DIRECTED BY ONIR

PRODUCED BY SANJAY SURI AND ONIR

WRITTEN BY URMI JUVEKAR

DOP : ARVIND KANNABIRAN

EDITOR: IRENE DHAR

SOUND DESIGN : ARUN NAMBIAR

MUSIC : AMIT TRIVEDI

Bianca Saldanha Joins Team 'I AM'

Hey Guys,

Hope you are doing good.

In the mad rush of work we missed updating you about another member that joined team 'I AM', but better late than never.

Here's what Bianca had to say about how she got involved

I came to Bombay just 10 days before I joined Anticlock films and all the while I was playing safe trying to look for editing gigs. A lot of people I met from the industry discouraged me from looking for work on a film production set saying I wouldn’t be able to pull it off due to the hard work and long hours. I don’t know if they were being sexist or plain nice, but having just graduated from film school, I was no stranger to working the graveyard shift. Weekends were always few and far between. I once worked non-stop for 37 hours on my student film, doing what I love, while never letting anything weigh me down.

And so in my pursuit of achieving my goals, an aunt of mine got me in touch with her best friend – Aunt Indu (Purab Kohli’s mother) – who is a friend of Onir’s. She forwarded a copy of my resumé to Onir and I ended up meeting him at his office the following day. A script reading, a few discussions with Amar and Onir, and I was on. I joined the “Abhimanyu” bandwagon just 10 days before we went into production, and what a ride it has been since then! All of this took a while to sink in but I think it actually hit me on my first day on the sets of Abhimanyu when I was seeing what I had been dreaming of for the longest time. And that is being on set - of a film in the making; of dreams materializing.

I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be selected to be part of this team and their projects. No, I’m not about to lay it on thick, but all I will say is during the entire time of my study in Toronto, the only hindi film I actually sought out to buy and watch was Sorry Bhai!, and only because it was made by Onir. Well, you didn’t know that Onir, but I guess, now u do!

What with the Abhimanyu shoot just being wrapped up, and Omar almost close on the heels, all I can say is that working with Onir, Sanjay Suri and everyone else at Anticlock films has been my most amazing work experience by far! And with Megha, Afia and Rudra left to round off this 5 short film series, I’m only looking forward to making more memories!

Bianca Saldanha

Megha Proposal

Megha Proposal

Anticlock Films Presents - Team OMAR

I AM OMAR

Featuring
Rahul Bose
Abhimanyu Singh
Arjun Mathur (as Omar)

Banner: Anticlock Films
Producers: Sanjay Suri and Onir
Director: Onir
Cinematographer: Arvind Kannabiran
Story Screen Play: Merle Kroeger and Onir
Dialogues: Ashwini Malik
Music: Vivek Philip
Playback Singer: Karthik
Lyrics: Amitabh Varma
Editing: Irene Dhar Malik
Sound Design: Arun Nambiar
Engineer: Sameer C
Art Director: Sujith Sawant
Still Photography: Thulasi Kakkat
Make up Director: Elton Fernandez
Costume Designs: Manish Malhotra
Publicity Design: Siddharth Dutta
Graphics: Sidharth Meer
Asst Directors: Amar Kaushik, Sundeep Malani, Akhil Chaudhary, Archis Achrekar, Bianca Saldanha, Kumari Sunayna, Sumith Arora
Assistant Cameraman: Reddy, Vidushi Tiwari
Online Marketing: Mayank Dhingra
Making of Omar: Rajeev Kohli
Production Manager: Mohan Joshi
Production Assistant: Rakesh Jain, Rajesh Patel, Lalith
PR and Promotion: Arati Salgaonkar (Perception Managers)

So how do you find Omar's cast ?

I AM NewsLetter

Hello Guys,

This post is to announce that we plan to start a newsletter for 'I AM' films. This newsletter will be used to share all the latest about five short films before they are put on the web. So the newsletter subscribers get to hear it all before rest of the world.

Also, this newsletter will give you the chances to stay connected more tightly/closely with the team and fans. You can share your feedback and help us do a good job

If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, drop an email to abhimanyu.anticlockfilms@gmail.com

Thanks