When Masala Padam releases by May 15, its director and co-producer Laxman Kumar plans to bring out a four-minute docu-music on 130 years of the motion picture industry. “It will be the title song, and will be animated. Since the film is about a genre that forms a major share of the films being made, I thought I should pay a tribute to the industry,” says the director, who prefers to be known as a filmmaker.
Laxman says ‘masala’ movies (films with song, dance, drama and fight sequences) are part and parcel of the Indian way of life. “When we learn filmmaking, we learn about all genres, except ‘masala’. It does not have a theory. So, when I wanted to make a film, I got curious about this style. Masala Padam is like life peppered with different spices. Every character represents an element of a ‘masala’ film,” he says. This is Laxman’s first movie as a filmmaker. He is co-producing it with his friend Vijay Raghavendar. He started out as a cinematographer for Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu and did other films, including Kulla Nari Koottam , Poda Podi and Pagan .
Born and brought up in Chennai, he did his diploma in mechanical engineering and worked with India Pistons before taking up photography. The film’s cast includes Mirchi Shiva, Bobby Simha and Lakshmi Devy.
Short films make it
to the big screen
When director Karthik Subbaraj of Stone Bench Creations produced Bench Talkies , an anthology of six short films, he wasn’t sure it would run to full house even twice.
But to his surprise, the movie ran housefull in cinemas for around two weeks. “When coming up with the project, we thought it would only cater to niche audiences. However, the response we received was so overwhelming, we got calls from places where the compilation wasn’t even released,” he says.
There was a time when aspiring filmmakers had limited opportunities to showcase their production and relied on platforms such as Youtube or Vimeo. However, with films such as Kerala Café , 5 Sundarikal , Bombay Talkies , and the recent Bench Talkies , all anthologies which have made it to the big screen, young filmmakers seem to have a found a stage that was earlier meant only for feature film makers.
With the digital revolution, filmmakers these days are finding it easier to make short as well as feature-length films. “Making a short film is not that difficult. One can make a 2-5 minute short with a good mobile camera and cheap editing software,” says Saurabh Subhashchand, a second-year film editing student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. For youth who want the freedom to articulate their thoughts, short films offer a platform.
P.K. Maayan, founder and general secretary of South Indian Short Film Makers Association (SISMA), believes filmmakers can express their feelings in a short film, but in a full-length feature, the platform provided is a commercial one, and they have to keep the censor board, producer’s will and funding in mind.
(Reporting by
Deepa H. Ramakrishnan and Yesha Kotak)
