AlternateTake Adda

Brandon Ingram is an actor and author, based in Colombo. He has been working in theatre since 2006; 2020 marked his film debut as he played Arjie in Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy in a performance full of a gentle slow bloom. In our conversation with him, we try unpack his association with Funny Boy and diverse assortment of interests and multi field roles across the years , all fuelled and bound by his singular interest in storytelling.

Rehan Mudannayake is a Sri Lankan actor and director who made his mark as the charismatic and charming Shehan in Deepa Mehta's 2020 film Funny Boy. His suave, insouciantly confident presence in the film happens to be his first acting gig. He talks to us about preparation, reception, key touch points the film sparks , the peripheral conversation, influences, and contemporary Sri Lankan cinema.

In a brief chat, Bhaskar Hazarika lets us in on the various camera trickeries in Kothanodi, the hiccups of shooting a debut in Majuli, emphasizing his working solely in the interest of the story, keeping subtexts secondary. Among other things, he explains the audience manipulation achieved in Aamis, why he did weigh ahead on how much he could provoke, and insists on audiences taking more responsibility for health of indie films. 

Don Palathara explains why he doesn't necessarily view his films, Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam and Everything is Cinema as companion pieces, how he ensured a fluidity of camera in sync with the car in the former and explored the ways in which politics of language is geared for personal agendas. He elaborates on his resisting all forms of politically correct representations, the songs that tail the recent three films, the production and reception aspects, among other things.

Ivan Ayr-directed film Milestone actor Lakshvir Saran talks to us about the workshops that gave him a clear idea of the director Ivan's perspective, decoding and inhabiting the lived-in experiences of the truck driving community, the gradual process of habituating himself with the cabin space. Saran elaborates on an actor's need to be humble and the film being a vanity check and also shares some anecdotes from his Venice film festival experience and getting to watch The Disciple with Chaitanya Tamhane. (We are temporarily back from our hiatus only for this episode.)

Q talks about how 5 years of making his documentary Love In India were his definitive film school, encounters with Run Lola Run and Visitor Q changing his life and his discomfort with western storytelling mode. He elaborates on working in the lo-fi fashion, the political underside to being an independent filmmaker, and insists why he's most averse to the consumerist urgency of delivering an ultimate satisfactory high to his audiences. He shares fascinating snippets from his diverse work, such as the songs of Gandu being created within an hour, why he believes Bengali cinema has already perished for years now.

Across a sprawling conversation, Aseem Chhabra enlists and elaborates on his favorite films from this year, sterling performances across film and series that riveted him, and also gives us a low-down of the films he got to watch at all the virtual film festivals that he adored. And of course we had to include speculations about Oscar nominations and he also speaks at length about Jallikattu being selected as the Indian entry and it's implications.

Film critic Poulomi Das talks about being drawn by investigative journalism and culture reporting, how she tries to maintain an economy in her writing , emphasizes the importance of publications backing long form entertainment journalism and the lack of reportage on the film festival culture in India. She explains the functioning of Berlinale Talent programme she was a part of in 2019. She also talks about the ailments of the cluttered Bengali OTT space, and shares few film recommendations.

Over a telephonic conversation, Karma Takapa, director of Ralang Road , spoke to us about trying to break down the image of a beautiful hill town and shifting the perception of a place. He elaborates his desire to explore Sikkim beyond a visitor's exalted perspective and why the animal motifs in the film weren't deeply structured at the writing stage. On working with non professionals, he emphasised on the need to tap an inherent facet of the person rather than constructing a wholly different character from scratch. In a tone which he stressed as not being despondent, he talked about filmmaking being too besotted with narrative centric aspirational template and the dire importance and often luxury for indie filmmakers of getting an opportunity to make a second feature film , and the challenges of setting up and sustaining his production house , Human Trail Pictures.

Kabir Singh Chowdhry, director of Mehsampur, explains his approach to filmmaking as that of an ethnographer. He talks about his constant discomfort with feeding off people's traumas for artistic purposes, insists on Mehsmapur being a foreword to the ultimate project Laal Pari. He also insists that his lockdown film Monomaniacs originated from a desire of conducting therapeutic group activities, as well as capturing the prevailing sense of loss, and why he thinks Chandigarh is a kind of vacuum city. He also gives us generous glimpses into his new project revolving around fossils.

Mike McCahill had always wanted to be a journalist of some nature. He recalls being deeply influenced by the early independent cinema of Spike Lee, Tarantino and Linklater in the 90s, talks about the dangers of approaching the star rating as shortcut than shorthand which he prefers, and ruminates on certain shady practices of film festivals. He also delineates his enduring long term association with MAMI and Indian cinema. He advises aspiring writers on film to religiously watch stuff outside their comfort genre and read all kinds of criticism. He swears by Lijo Jose Pelissery, and to know his favorite football teams and beloved Indian films , hear the interview!

For Abhiroop Basu, the primary challenge in Laali was to make something awkward believable and compelling. He insists on 'thehrav' being the cornerstone in making the short, talks about being drawn to time chronicles, the soullessness of contemporary Bengali cinema, an industry being stuck in the same references, the climate of hero worshipping in the nation and the lack of space for expression. He also shares his concerns on studio tie ups with OTTs roping in massive stars to feature in shorts and the ensuing paucity of freshness, and reminds of the necessity of learning to laugh at ourselves. He gives plentiful scoops on some exciting new projects.

Megha Ramaswamy is a screenwriter, director and producer. She has written Bejoy Nambiar's Shaitan, directed two short films , the documentary on acid attack survivors Newborns and Bunny, an exploration of the many fears and fantasies of childhood. Her debut feature directorial is What Are the Odds, a glimpse of a day in the life of two teenagers in Mumbai who discover friendships in the strangest of places. It's marked by cheerfully insouciant storytelling, and revels in the dreamlike wonder of life.

Rohit Mittal, director of Autohead, spoke to us about his film being a product of the noise and chaos of Mumbai, investigating the truthfulness of documentary. He likes his camera to stay as intimate as possible to the actors, and he believes that the only responsibility artists have is to stay true to their personal voices. He also gives us a peek into the slew of projects he has been juggling, his next feature Pop City slated for an OTT release around year end.

National Award winning film critic Saibal chatterjee spoke about that entry point into writing on film, how the film federations memberships opened up his world, his learnings from decades of staying the course in his profession, jury experiences, and shared his thoughts on the Bengali contemporary cinema, and the Bengali OTT space, why he's most concerned for the longevity of filmmakers in Bengal who are at least making some dent and shifting away from the usual modes and styles of storytelling, and offered us a peek into what upcoming shows he's excited for .

" In those fleeting moments (in a theatre, when everyone reacts with similar precision to a line of dialogue), you feel human, not alone, and you feel wondrously connected". Tanul Thakur combines fine eloquence with a rip roaring sense of humor. Among other things , he talks about single screens as great leveller of all tastes , the constant conversation of the audiences with the screen, the multiplexes theatre chains as 'architects of intimidation', the gentle, humane and empathetic way in which Roger Ebert approached films ( if you haven't , check out his piece on Ebert). He also stresses on the vital need to have more pursuits besides covering Hindi films, as a means to stay sane. He also talks about the almost now-cartel like PR structures that's detracting entertainment journalism from having any nuanced engagement .

We got just some 20 minutes but her infectious enthusiasm was palpable throughout, and her sparkling congeniality laced our conversation. Film Companion founder and leading film critic Anupama Chopra talked to us about Indian film journalism getting precariously indivisible from PR works of a film, shared her thoughts on the streaming space , some guilty pleasure films, the experiences of being the MAMI director, why we have to move away from a star driven conversation on cinema , and more. Her advice to aspiring critics ? Just open a blog and start writing !

Arati kadav wanted the tech in Cargo to be endearing instead of being intimidating. She talked to us about her nostalgia for analog and retro sci fi, the particular joys of its inherent clumsiness . She spoke about staying determinedly passionate about sci fi despite projects being shelved which she only took valiantly in her stride and as a challenge to push herself into that space even more , and also emphasised the importance of the kind of collaborators in filmmaking who also look at their jobs as a growth opportunity and being open to as many creative suggestions as possible. Besides giving peeks into fascinating back stories of the side players, of course , she also talked about how that amazingly infectious Megha Ramaswamy's song Forget Me Not came into being.

Vint Chandrashekharan spoke to us about the journey from the idea of an anthology short to feature form Bodhi, the intensive research that went into it, carefully and sensitively straddling the issues the film treads, casting and production intricacies and the staid, stagnant government and public response to the farmer suicides, and more. Most importantly he stresses the need to keep the conversation around independent cinema alive.

In this chat, Cat Sticks director Ronny Sen spoke how he's interested in the inherent capability of the image to breathe, on being labelled a crusader of addicts and being perceived as a Foucault-quoting psychiatry basher, working with the extraordinarily talented cinematographer Shreya . He also stated the war for indie films can be won only if there's more interests, and that before thinking of ameliorating the lives of addicts, we have to first look at addiction as a disease that's incurable but that can be arrested, which is obsessive , and has nothing to do with morality and it's more of a biological conditioning. To be assertive, but not violent, and give them dignity and respect is what's essential.

We were delighted to be in conversation to be with few of the filmmakers whose shorts were selected in Indian competition and Animation at BISFF- Amyth Patkar (Black Label), Tathagata Ghosh (Miss Man), Tarun Jain ( Kaala), Aarti Bagdi (Free Fair Fearless), Divakar Kuppan (Fox of the Palm Grove ).

Devashish Makhija's cinema investigates and indicts vicious power structures, gender play, and speaks urgently, and uncompromisingly about the bleak realities of marginalisation and dispossession. He has made several terrific shorts including Taandav, and two features , Ajji and Bhonsle, both which seem to exist in worlds despairingly close to each other. His work refuses any easy complacency for the viewer . We had a freewheeling conversation with him about what went into making Ajji and Bhonsle, negotiating the thorny realities in his films, and more.