Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Briefly, surely

Video director Shareen Mantri speaks out

ALL FOR THE EYEBALLS Shareen Mantri at work

`If Britney Spears does it, it's lively, if Deepal Shaw swings the Spears way it's termed cheap,' complains Shareen Mantri, the video director who made Deepal a household name with the "Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar" music video.

Shareen says she is out to do a job and does it according to what her client demands. "I have to follow the music company's brief. If they want to promote their song as an item number, I have to make it raunchy to catch the maximum eyeballs."

Song support

She claims her video has made a many a mediocre song rise up the charts. She cites "Hansini" sung by a below-average singer Ravindra Singh as an example. "We have to tell a story in four minutes. It's not easy as many seem to think," says she. Shareen did a course in fashion photography before joining noted music video director Jagdish Mali.

She established Eye Candy Works where besides videos she also directs advertisement campaigns. Shareen doesn't believe in using lights creating hallucinating effects and special effects in music videos, something that's popular in the West. "It doesn't work in India. I want to keep it straight. But I do use lots of raw stock. It helps in editing."

If "Kabhi Aar Kabhi Par" made people sit up and take notice, "Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon" with Mumait Khan gyrating to her direction made Shareen a specialist in item numbers.

"It is not that I just specialise in item numbers. I did `Yeh Lo Mein' with Genelia. It had old world charm with some comic elements thrown in. Recently I shot the Saloni band's number "Bheegi Chandni" in the snow. As I say, my job is to find creativity within the brief."

One of the difficult parts of her job is to involve the singers in the music video, shares Shareen. "Some, like Babul Supriyo jazz up the video but some are complete non-actors but still want to be part of it."Meanwhile, for Shareen, videos are just a way to get to her dream. "I want to direct a film."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail