SHORT FILM ...!!!!
What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we hear this phrase ??
Bunch of amateur studs pooling their store room resources together to prove something, using their low-fi cameras, shaky shots, Local locations, shooting on weekends over multiple cups of chais out of their pocket money, adding voice-overs and sounds that sound like they come from the next universe, believing in their own little Make-up-break-up romantic stories and trying their best to fulfill their little fantasy of seeing themselves on screen or in the director's credits.
But how about a short film from some one who is different among the usual lot. From someone who can stand out and say, " This is how an Independent film should be made". From someone who has SOME knowledge of what cinema is and the power of this wonderful art-form. Some one who respects movies and has all the knowledge of those tools and trickery and uses them to great effect to paint his thoughts on silver screen. He did exactly that in his first Short-film Back-Space - A Path-breaking trend setter in terms of amateur film making by making a movie entirely from an I-phone. And now he is back with his second venture, a 1-hour Independent movie, Madhuram. And Boy .!!! .. he is back with a bang ...!!!! . He is none other than Phanindra Narrisetty.
Madhuram is a love story or a story of love - as the tag line says. As soon as i smelled this Romantic tinge in that title when i first heard about it, i was turned-off. " Why is Phanindra- the guy who made the awesome back-space, has fallen into that trap of making a romantic movie like every-body else ? Isn'it he different ? what the hell is he doing ? " ... These are the first impressions that popped in my mind because i was fed up with all the Romantic crap that this Short film industry was throwing at us. I was craving for something different from different people like Phanindra, and let be me honest here, i had the least of expectations on this.
But I owe an Apology to Phanindra now as I was proved wrong
I WAS PROVED WRONG :
I was proved wrong as soon as i heard that terrific voice over driving the entire movie, something only people like Martin Scorsese have mastered. I was proved wrong when i realized that the backbone of this entire movie was that endlessly engaging conversation between those lifeless characters of a coffee cup and Mr.Specs actually, that actually bring life to the movie. The way Phanindra brings this Cup and Mr.Specs into his universe out of thin smoke and makes them the most important layer of his film is truly magic. You will have no idea when you un-consciously become so attentive to what they are talking about. Phanindra's dialogues play Abraca-dabra on your mind and i will talk about this in length. I was proved wrong when i saw Phanindra not only giving emphasis to Love, but also sparing some time to tickle all our pop-cultaral icons, from rajni-Kanth to Al-Pacino to Savithra, and addressing issues in a single line at flash speeds. Dialogue writing Magic again. I was proved wrong when i saw that story had a Multi-Layered non-linear treatment. Christopher Nolan Style. It was divided into seven chapters. Quentin Tarantino Style. Hyper-link format story telling, Steven Soderberg style. Bottom-line, Phanindra proved me wrong in every single frame of the movie Madhuram and in his own style, has Punched all the formulaic Romantic short movies right in their Scrotum.
WHAT I LOVED :
I loved Every freaking thing ...!!!
Lemme start with dialogues. The way the dialogues are written, it makes you wonder how many girl-friends this Dialogue writer ever had. Because they were not just lines, they were bullets. My assumption on a lighter note is that the writer must have been a terrific player with women because those voice-over lines, dialogues and conversations were simply terrific. They were witty, intelligent, satiric, comic, romantic, puzzling and mysterious and they were being fired like missiles in this entire 1-hour movie. Exactly the stuff women love. If the writer can engage a 100-thousand audience for one-hour with his dialogues, then engaging just one girl for eternity is no big deal for him. LOL . But I write all the above in my sense respect towards Phanindra as i am in the awe of his Pen Power. If a pen is mightier than a Sword, then Phanindra's pen here is mightier than a fucking rocket. Phanindra the writer is the real hero of this movie. And he gonna amaze a lot of people just with his pen. That dialogue of Micro-Love story our hero tells to heroine from 37:00 and 37:30 will make you pause the movie and reflect back to your past. It'll make you wonder How many micro-love stories you have lost in your life. That dialogue is something that i will etch in my heart for the rest of my life.
Phanindra the Director is no less. He commands an absolute Iron grip in every single frame and every single element of his movie with optimum clarity. Imagine this, you have half a dozen characters plus the lifeless characters of Cups and Mr.Specs, you are supposed tell a love story, but not in routine style, make it multi-layered, hyper linked, non-linear, divided in chapters. You are not supposed to confuse your dumb audience but you should not bore them too. To add pepper to your wound, you have to impress them in a genre which has been running in the blood and veins of popular Indian Cinema since ages. And you have to do this in a low budget and yet not compromise on production values and not make it look like another short film made by some Tom-dick and Harry of a B.tech college. I can only imagine how an Independent Director needs a hundreds of cigarettes to tackle the tension of getting his movie done, but The Director of madhuram here never loses track in all the scheme of things i mentioned above, keeps his cool, holds his nerve with patience, never lets his movie fall apart, holds it together firmly with the thread of his Imagination and succeeds in bringing up a memorable independent movie. Madhuram sets an example for all the aspiring Independent film makers thriving to make their name right now and Phanindra has provided them the oxygen they were waiting for.
Madhuram the movie itself is amazing. Starts with a fictious mythological back-story, unusual for a love story, and then challenges you to catch your breath amist all the multi-layered story telling style of phanindra, filled lot of twists and turns, emotions, flash backs, flash forths and heap of hyperlinks between the characters and leaves you speechless in the end. Two elements i enjoy the most in Phanindra's movies is the terrific editing and brilliant use of sound-mixing. We saw that in back space, but Madhuram takes it to the next level. With right proportions of jump cuts, match cuts, smash cuts and split cuts backed with terrific voice over, this movie serves as an editing text book for an aspiring editor. Phanindra's acute ear to the use of sound and the juggling between the dialogues, music, voice-over and the sounds is something so easy to over-look and very hard to actually execute.
Cinematography is simply BULLSEYE. Perfect canvas for a perfect story, another example of how a good director always extracts the best from his crew. Same of applies for music. If there were Oscar awards for short films, This would have definitely won for the music. The toughest challenge for the music director giving the back ground score would be, to catch up with Phanindra's lines but yet avoid choking itself with forceful insertion. I enjoyed this behind-the-curtain-race between the Background music and Phanindra's dialogues so much that, the one song in this movie dint feel redundant for a guy like me who hates songs popping out of no where in desi style. I am especially in love with that music bit at 10:40 where the hero picks a ear-ring from floor followed by that terrific Piano bit from 10:57. If that Mr.Cup-with-voice is the narattor of Madhuram, then the Back ground music is the voiceless narattor of Madhuram. Terrific music and this Music Director will go a long way.
WHAT I WISHED :
There are a few short comings in this movie though. Though the actors did a terrific job of delivering those Tongue-in-Cheek dialogues of Phanindra, the conversation between the Ravi and Chandini were a bit Cliche. I wish their lines were as strong as the Narrators'. The addition of the Mystery-post-card-girl character in the end was quiet redundant though it completed the story Arc of Phanindra's character. Phanindra's character himself could have contributed a bit more to the story instead of merely adding another layer to it.
Nevertheless, all these weak points and short-comings become infinetly smaller in front of the Larger canvas Phanindra had managed to paint. And this painting is going to be the Monalisa of Independent Romantic Telugu Short films in the future. I hope the Leonardo Da-Vinci of this painting goes a very long way down the lane and re-defines as many genres as possible and show them ''conventional' people how its done. !!!
