Frame work
PRAKASH KAMAT
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Young filmmakers had a fulfilling interaction with veteran filmmaker Sayeed Mirza in Goa the other day.
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DECONSTRUCTING CINEMA Director Sayeed Mirza
`It is just a beginning, but it is wonderful. As a starting point for all of you, it is incredibly good.' That was a pat on the back for young filmmakers from Goa from veteran filmmaker Sayeed Mirza. And then a word of caution: "Filmmaking is a deadly serious business, please remember, a lot of hard work and effort goes into it." At a special screening of six best short films from `25 Frames', a competition of short films organised by the Goa Directorate of Art and Culture in association with Vinsan Graphics Production, a local film production group, as part of the recently held International Film Festival of India, Mirza was all praise for the debutant directors.
He told the youngsters, "When you have a time constraint like 2-6 minutes, it would always be advisable to go for an idea rather than a story, because a story needs time to develop it."
At the end of the two-hour interaction Rajtilak Naik, a photographer with a local Konkani daily "Sunaparant" whose film won the second prize, said, "I now realise that I should have given more stress on visuals and long distance camera work rather than too much of `words and background narrations'."
The topic
The topic of the unique competition, which saw 16 films being submitted, was "You and Me". The time limit was 12 hours for shooting and 12 hours for editing, to make a film of two to six minutes' duration. "This initiative will go a long way in creating film culture in Goa," said the Director of Goa Art & Culture, Prasad Lolienkar.
Dnyanesh Moghe of Vinsan Graphics felt this kind of short filmmaking could be a launch pad for youngsters to become successful filmmakers. First prize winner Mary de Souza's film "You and Me" was made in just two-and-a-half minutes. Mary's use of a simple technical device of "split screen" received a praise from Mirza, who said, "filmmaking is a mixture of several things. If you want to catch the essence, use cinematic devices."
To another he remarked, "Improvisation plays a great role in filmmaking."
Rajtial Naik's "Ehsaas" was a story about loneliness. It talks about the loneliness of a waiter Ahmed. The director has tried to philosophise that anybody can be a good friend, not necessarily a human being. Why not a tree, or a river, or night itself!
The work of Rajiv Shinde, a Goa Fine Art College professor, is a straightforward film played on the theme of corruption.
The director skilfully used mirror and audience to depict a corrupt person sitting in his office about to accept a bribe. "I know a film cannot change the society or its outlook towards corruption, but I wanted to create a little guilt in the mind of people who do such things," said Shinde.
A debate
Uday Chari's film about a physically and mentally challenged person evoked a major debate.
"I have tried to tell a story of how the loneliness of a human being tries to take expression through drawing," said Chari. "When you use devices, please use them very carefully," Mirza told Chari. "Critically important that when we use a handicapped person, we have to be very responsible."
"Aarsa"(Mirror) by the director duo of Narayan Karade and Kunal Manerkar depicted the story of a common man caught in a daily routine to show that our outlook towards the world is a reflection of our own self.
"I admit, there were technological shortcomings in the film," said Kunal answering a question from Mirza. Mirza asked the young directors, "Do you have to have a message in a film?" His advice to the director duo was "to get maximum from a film, get pains and angst of a man." He also advised them to start reading books on technology and all subjects if they wanted to take up filmmaking as a career.
"Cinema is a mixture of music, painting, sound, light, colour, history, society, et al, it is a very vast domain of knowledge," said the veteran filmmaker.
"Filmmaking is a journey, an adventure, a struggle. There is no narrow path and shortcuts."
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