3, Old Lane

Well I decided to write another post even though I'm tired and coffee only serves to make me sleepy but I shall not sleep till I finish this post. Not that I would have slept otherwise for so many reasons. So here's a picture from the shoot of my film called 'Nothing in particular'. The story goes that I had to make a film. I had to put up a presentation of four years' work and I could only do that once I finished a film in completion of those four years. I hung around this space called the old canteen where this picture was taken. There was a small kitchen where you could get snacks in the evening and a coffee machine. I drank innumerable cups of coffee and smoked about a million cigarettes there. I always had a notebook to write in and I scribbled away incessantly all the time literally drowning in the pages. Sometimes when I had nothing to write about I wrote about my handwriting. In fact I wrote about my handwriting quite often. The girl sitting behind me is Tanuja who was one of my closest friends. I'm not much in touch with her now. She has two lovely boys and runs a design company called

'The Fool'. So I hung around wondering what to make a film about and no ideas came to my head. So I continued to scribble in my notebook. One day I went to Arun my teacher (in the picture on the right) and read some stuff that I'd written and he really liked it. He encouraged me to turn it into a film and I did. It was mostly about the transience of student life. I haven't seen the film for a very long time now. I think the last time I saw it was when Anshuman wanted to see it. Anshuman really liked it. I remember an ex boss who saw the film asked me if

I was drunk or high when I wrote it and I laughed and told her that I was high on caffeine. The woman sitting behind the table is my lead actress who essentially played me. I wrote the script and everything was ready to be shot but I hadn't come up with a title for the film. Arun was very patient throughout and I finally came up with 'Nothing in particular'. I will forever be thankful to that film for
giving me the title of this blog.

I made little cards for each shot and was at my organised best for the shoot which was mostly thanks to Arun. He is a very methodical and organised man. So that's the story of my film about nothing in particular and everything in general. I leave you with a few lines from the film. These lines are significant because when I was recording the voiceover my voiceover artist Tanuja became quite emotional and had to retire to the bath room to cry. She did come out of the bathroom to finish the voiceover and the film got made.

Here are a few lines that you hear as the film ends

"Today at this time in life you sit with your tears behind your eyes, your voice behind your tongue, your head hurts, your eyes hurt... you must have forgotten to drink water as usual.
So many people have walked through the alleys of your mind, so many have strayed into the cubicles of your heart that your memory walks out on you saying, " When are you leaving? "