Of course nothing special but it's like reuniting with a friend you saw a long time ago. He's been a role model, considering the 20 different pies I always have my hand in.
Thanks and regards,
Bawa Simp
The boys hinted at some guest coming on to the podcast. Wonder what this curly haired guy does. Are we going to witness most views in 24 hours on a TISS episode tomorrow? It better be Bollywood Bhankas!
Edit: It's deep into the night where I'm at but I'm actually happy nervous for Bawa's entry!
P.S. All you people downvoting me for not wanting a horror series, Bawa (and simps) don't do horror okay.
This Independence Day, I watched Hey Ram. It's a Kamal Haasan movie, but SRK and Rani Mukherjee have minor roles too. It just kept going and going but the protagonist's angst really gets to you! The Hindi version easily available on YouTube itself.
Some trivia: In addition to Hindi dialogues, SRK actually dubbed his own voice in Tamil and it's his Tamil debut. Also he did not take any fees for his role!
Just finished watching Pritam and Pedro. Collectively the duration of all episodes is a little over 3 hours. It could have looked just as fine as an indie feature. Assuming both release on an OTT, what are the considerations in breaking a story into an episodic series versus a singular feature?
I'd also like to understand if there are any econometric reasons that go into this decision beyond the story/screenplay.
I recently went through the screenplays of Bareilly ki Barfi and Maqbool, two very different films, both adapted from some old story. I was struck by their character construction where you're almost never reminded of the original story.
I've often explored different time and settings for some classic tales and they often feel apt and interesting. I'm curious if folks have stories about how an adaptation came to be, what changes transpired and why they worked in the new world. Sometimes a character is broken into two, or two are fused into one, the gender of some might be changed, and so on. What do you look for in doing these?
I was watching Sarang's pasara episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qomBMtr5dyg) on Bhadipa. I was amazed to hear that he quit being an actor after 12 films were fully shot and never released. Can you imagine if he would have become a mainstream actor? I can still see him pull off a lead role and be a director like a Farhan Akhtar.
I've been lately trying to watch along the Breakdown Besties podcast (www.youtube.com/@BreakdownBestiesPodcast). I tried to do a similar exercise mapping Dhurandhar across Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey idea. Of course I had to force-fit some things to match it to the framework.
Would appreciate thoughts on whether I'm missing a beat or making a mistake in breaking things down. I'm basing it on my memory of the film so some incidents may have gone up or down.
In the framing, it's important to note two worlds or goals and when they actually intersect or stay independent. What surprised me in this exercise is how much of this had to be done at the edit table when they had footage worth two films already!
# Ordinary World:
- [SPY] India: IC 814, intelligence teams bound by political reigns
- [GANG] Karachi: A gang-war between Baloch and Pathans; Rehman being the protector of his people
- Hamza a strong looking man spawns in the middle of Lyari. His intentions are unknown so far.
# Call to adventure:
- [GANG] He is spotted by Arshad Pappu's men, is about to be assaulted.
- [SPY] He is somehow saved by a siren (magic/Aalam) and gets a job in Aalam's shop
** we still don't know what adventure he was on to: gangster or spy. Just that he chose to be discreet
# Refusal of the call:
- Opportunity cost (SPY and GANG): He could have been a flashbanger had he hit back at his assaulter
- He chose to stay silent, sweats it out in Aalam's shop for a year, lives and cries at the state of his life (but we don't know his past at all)
** could he have learned of something of importance to India but failed to register it as important?
# Meeting the mentor:
- [SPY] He already meets his first (smaller) mentor: Aalam, when we see them discussing India and he learns what it means to work his way up in Lyari's underworld [this is the first time we realize he's a spy and wants to infiltrate Rehman's gang]
- [GANG] He stages his real meeting with the mentor when his first "adventure" of getting recognized by Rehman in terms of saving his kid from an attack (of which they already know about).
** It is important 'how' he meets his mentor. He tried to protect the mentor's children, refuses cash and wants in into the game
- Rehman, through Uzair educates Hamza about the business, the gang life (cigarettes, football)
** So far his primary goal is still to rise up the ranks of Rehman Dakait's gang
# Crossing the first threshold:
- [GANG] The 'unfamiliar world' is now familiar to the hero. He is one of them. Trying to smoke cigarettes, kill the rival gang and oversee production at their factory
- [SPY] While the above shows him crossing into the world as a gangster, the spy arc still needs to cross-over. Enter the 26/11 preparation [not attack]. Hamza informs about this attack; his first activity as a "spy"
- He rises through the ranks when his strategy of attack is picked up -- shows us his strategic thinking and wit
# Tests, allies, enemies
- Test1 [GANG]: Baloch sequence and preventing Rehman from taking Iqbal's deal; testing his position as Rehman's close aide -- fails!
- Test2 [SPY]: The 26/11 attack occurs, Hamza is distraught. He meets his mentor on the spy arc (Aalam) and vents about his failures.
- Test3 [GANG]: Successfully saves Rehman from SP Aslam and Jamali. The girl's role can be backfilled but not too important to his arc. However she's an important channel to create new allies Jameel Jamali and SP.
** still don't know if he's just using her, many more filler scenes to justify key tests for Hamza
# Approach to innermost cave:
- Post 26/11, the GANG and SPY objectives have unified. Kill everyone involved in the attack on India and get more power to reach the unreachable "Bade Sahab"
- The diary scene/sequence shows utmost determination; plotting Rehman's capture/death with new 'allies' shows planning. Both traits are important to building up to to the climax.
# Ordeal:
- Hamza sees major gruesomely destroying an Indian spy's face [maybe I am mixing up the order]. He also learns more about the big plans for fake currencies going into India
- Rehman signs up for a new consignment for a big attack -- Hamza cannot let it happen this time!
# Reward:
- Mixes up dates at the wedding. Commits to SP to bring an isolated Rehman to him. Important to show the risk of failing SP somewhere to add stakes.
- Sends Uzair to the Balochis; it's important to highlight "siyasi baatein" don't interest him so he goes to the Balochis while Hamza stays with Rehman
- Fight sequence: Now Rehman is barely alive!
# The Road Back:
It's literally the road back. Hamza needs to prove that he actually tried to protect his boss and not actually kill him. It's subtle but needed since he risks getting debarred from both (SPY and GANG) the worlds he has entered
# Resurrection:
Hamza makes sure everyone knows how hard he tried! The ghost of Rehman actually appears to be "resurrected" to scare Hamza. Can he battle the demons inside?
# Return to the elixir:
In this case, it's more of the homecoming for the viewer where we learn where Hamza was coming from and how. It's about coming back to the world he started in and tried to change, so he lives to go on this same journey again some other day.
Through a stroke of luck, I was cast in a 2-person hour long show, which was someone's bachelor's thesis. I was the protagonist and supposed to be doing it all, singing, fighting and making monologues in each scene.
However I had a really difficult time remembering my lines. We did one stumble and one run before the two shows this week. Every time I would just miss lines, skip something or say something which made the light/sound get confused.
At the end of the show, everyone came and said "nice to see you perform again", but nothing on the lines of "you did good" which of course I didn't. I asked a very close friend for feedback and she said I felt very artificial, wasn't clear with my delivery and in general looked very under confident. In parallel, my co-actor was amazing; knew his lines, salvaged my blanking and just great overall.
I skipped work for 2-3 days in the last week just to get it all in my head but not a single run when I landed all the lines or cues. I feel terrible. Of course the show wasn't what it could have been; but on a selfish note I feel no one in the university will cast me again -- both because of the bad performance this time and that I only got this one because I knew the director from a previous show I did. Now that they're graduating I wonder how I'll get any roles in the future.
About me: I am a grad student in a non-theater discipline but want to seriously work on my skills and like acting. I've done some work before this but of course not extensively.
Have y'all failed terribly and come back from it?
Not an outrage! Very likely that I missed it, but in an hour long montage of Shivaji Maharaj growing up, there doesn't seem to be any reference to Dadoji?
Of course, creators have cinematic liberty of choosing specific angles of a character's life to move the story forward.
For example, I love that they captured his elder brother's life, something which most stories/films ignore.