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A song for Hyderabad
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Sridhar Reddy's debut feature `19 Revolutions' goes beyond the standard NRI film format, says MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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SRIDHAR REDDY did not want to make "a regular NRI movie. It has been done before and done well." Talking about his debut venture, 19 Revolutions, Sridhar says the idea for the film came up from "a random conversation on Road # 2 in Banjara Hills. I was remarking about how good the road is (my Telugu is terrible) and a gentleman commented `what good is it to me? I do not have a car to drive on it.' This set me thinking."
Born and brought up in the US, with stints practically all over the globe including Warsaw and genetics in UK, Sridhar decided to set his film in Hyderabad because "Hyderabad is still evolving. I look at the twin cities as not Hyderabad and Secunderabad but the old and the new Hyderabad. Urban anthropology interests me. And Hyderabad is dynamic and still in search of its identity. That confusion is reflected in the youth."
And so you have a film, which starts with the premise of stealing a biryani - it does not get more Hyderabadi than that! Revolutions is about "power - the wielding and the abuse of it. What it means to be young and growing up in India. I believe we are in midst of a Cultural Revolution. With freedom comes great responsibility. On the one hand you have the joys of capitalism and on the other are the traditions and culture."
Sridhar loves "to study the world and find out how things work." And he has gone about it in super detail with three graduate degrees (in anthropology, molecular biology and mass communication) and two MBAs. Sridhar decided to make films as "he loves science but loves films more." About the title, Sridhar says the number is "not arbitrary. The reason will be revealed in the film. We have revolted against every known rule as far as character development, plot, narration, attitude and taking goes. The movie takes place between 6 pm and 6 am."
The tone of the film is "edgy. It has elements of the noir with a heist, two guys and girl and sarcastic humour. There is also a dance, a kind of waltz/salsa which is three and a half minute long and in a single take." While the physical humour in the film is to "remind us of our humanness," the graphic violence is because "to show power you have to show suffering."
Describing his cast as spirited (Shreya - the SS Music VJ, model Tarun Arora and Viswa from Chennai) Sridhar is all praise for Gulshan Grover who presents the only adult perspective. Greatly inspired by the French director Godard and Satyajit Ray, Sridhar is all about finding his own cinematic idiom ("why make a French film in India?"). Describing his family as being very supportive, Sridhar has five films ready to roll after Revolutions is wrapped up.
Scheduled for an April release, Revolutions will be followed by "an Indo-British production, which would trace the history of India in 120 years against the backdrop of the Kerala martial arts form Kalari payattu."
And if you are wondering how Sridhar manages to do so much in a day, it is simple - do not spend anytime sleeping! "Since my student days, I sleep for about four hours." Why waste time sleeping when one can live a waking dream?
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