KUDOS TO KOLLYWOOD

Wishing every reader out in cyber space a sooooper dooooper 2012
where gladness and good health flood your life forever, where hitches and glitches feature never in your vocabulary or dictionary!

On New year’s eve this song played and re-played in my mind and from it stemmed my 1st post for this year:

iravaa pagalaa kuLiraa veyyilaa
ennai onnum seiyaadhadi

What apt these lines are, as an ode to love penned by Pazhani Bharathi in Vasanth’s Poovellaam kaettupaar, sung by Hariharan and Sujatha, with my dear ‘bro’ Suriya dancing in the rain…truly wonderful which I decided to adopt for ‘talkie with rekhs’ today!
Night or day, rain or sunshine…sea’s temper tantrum with the wind and sky pitching in, garnished with special efx and vfx of thunder and lightning…
but our dear ‘Kollywood’ is unfazed…totally undaunted by Mother Nature proclaiming her power!

Deadlines, D-day, H-hour have to be met, no excuses can be given, simply because it is release of a film and money involved is ma$$ive.

Despite Cyclone Thane hovering over our heads, I maneuvered through the paLLams (‘pot holes’ is being too easy on the state of the stretch between Valluvar kottam and Vadapalani!) to my destination, Director Pandiraj’s office.
I found him sitting all forlorn ‘cos he felt he won’t be able to get his ‘Marina’ censored in time (after all the efforts he had put into it) to send it for our national awards.

Since I am going through this phase in life where God has been extremely kind to me, I thought let me try my luck. My fingers went on ‘active mode’ dialing Prasad, Real Image, Censor board…that’s when I found each of them were in their own
zip zap zoom mode of meeting near to impossible deadlines, before we bid a cheerful tata to 2011.

Jaya Vasant, Senior manager, client relation, rose to the occasion as she always does and said she’d try and wave her magic wand. Dinakaran came on the line…
he heads the PXD dept, Prasad film lab, in charge of content and business development. I was stunned to hear from him that they had 13 films that were releasing that Friday and were working 24 hours to meet the deadline…6 A.M to 6 A.M round the clock in 3 shifts. Ironically one of them was Puyal veerar
(Storm warrior) that weathered Cyclone Thane!

Since Pandiraj was still trying to figure out how to get ‘his baby’ out of the woods, despite the ‘iravaa pagalaa’ syndrome, I called the CEO of Real Image Arvind. Incidentally just to enlighten those of you who are unaware of this, we owe the shift from traditional film prints to Qube cinema to the pioneer-duo Senthil Kumar and Jayendra Panchapakesan who brought in the digitalized-display era in 2004 to Indian cinema…life became less harrowing for the producers traumatized by their depleting bank account!

Real Image had their share of films to complete at breakneck speed:
Exit speed ( Asura vegam!), Vettai Nayagan dubbed version of Telugu movie Golimaar, Abhaayam (danger), Maharaja, Paavi, 18aam kudi ellai aarambam, Mahaan kaNakku, Karuththa kannan, Vazhi vidu kannae vazhi vidu and the situational ‘storm warrior’ and more!

But they still obliged and included Pandi’s Marina…and I thanked God for bringing back the endearing :- ) on Pandi’s woebegone face! I always have a special corner in my heart for independent producers paying heavy interest and putting in their meager resources, simply because they are ruled by their passion for cinema.

Janaki Sabesh the regional head immediately gave me the facts that she had on her finger tips…she is truly a woman of substance! I was connected to Balaji, manager, marketing.
Balaji and I have traveled this subtitling journey, together for many films, and we share a common woe. Most producers and directors, almost 99.9999999999% of them do not give Real Image the necessary time required to fine tune the final product. Poor Balaji is caught between the rock and a hard place (I wouldn’t like to call anyone the devil or the deep sea!) almost always. DoP insists on a final view while the distributors are not prepared to wait. Rightfully so, I think their claim is reasonable. Especially when it has to be sent overseas. Singapore, Malaysia, Europe need the film in their hands a week earlier for their own censor clearance and subtitling in their respective regional languages. So if a film is releasing on Friday the 13th(!!) of Jan, then the content has to be given to Real Image on the 3rd. Otherwise end result is Balaji will soon be like the classic character in Victor Hugo’s novel, Hunchback of Notredame!

But on a serious note, R.I never fails to bend backwards to deliver in time. I told Balaji that even if one single film rectifies this then truly the pen is mightier than the sword!!!

Back to my Watson avatar! This is why I believe ‘life is all about serendipity and destiny’! Imagine my shock and surprise when I bounce throughout the ups and downs of Kodambakkam high road and come back to our office to find Senthil and Prasad in deep convo with my husband! Senthil is technical head of Prism & Pixels a vfx studio started by Raju and Gopi. AND they were regaling accounts of how they didn’t let the gale impede their schedule!! They, like me, have a soft corner for debut directors and producers and 1st time heroes! One of their films Meera udan Krishna starring the director Krisshnaa as Krishna needed their full fledged attention in its D.I stage. They were closeted in their office head-deep in work oblivious to the ear-piercing winds and pouring rain, co-ordinating with the producer Arun Vijay and director / hero rolled into one! They also had their hands full with Ambuli the 3D film, Dr Saroj Kumar a soon to be released satirical Malayalam film, Chingaari a Kannada film starring Darshan, Padam paarththu kadhai sollu with the ‘Aanmai thavarael’ hero Tharun…and succeeded in meeting their deadlines just in the nick of time.

NFDC was busy with Allide nammane illi bande summane (Kannada) and Aravaan (Thamizh) ‘spotting’ to send for the National awards. Their ‘spotting’ team Sachin, Mahesh and Kailash has to plod through the puddles and travel all the way from their residence beyond Tambaram and report to work at 8:00A.M in Egmore!

Oh and how can I be without mentioning Pixion Chennai, with Madhusudan, Operations head who is such a perfectionist, a man I can totally connect to.
Pixion had to finish within the stipulated time ‘As the river flows’ ( Assamese- Hindi) DoP being my dear friend Madhu Ambat, Dr Saroj Kumar ( D.I) and Muppozhudhum un karpanaigaL (vfx for its trailer, Telugu version) a film that’s most eagerly anticipated first trimester of this year. Harisuthan and his team worked back to back not only ensuring all their clients were fully satisfied but also delivering as promised despite erratic weather conditions!

Gemini lab D.I division had their hands full and overflowing with Casanova and Second show (both Malayalam), the most talked about ‘3’, Crazy loka (Kannada) Lucky (Kannada) Sundar C’s Masala café trailer, urgent C.G work for K.V Anand’s Maatraan (Tamil), Nandeeswarudu, (Telugu), 6k grading for Nanban (Tamil), 1st time ever in South Indian cinema!
Wow! They have a hand in every language south of the Vindhyas and Mother Nature couldn’t stop their fervor!

kadalaa puyalaa idiyaa mazhaiyaa
KOLLYWOOD-ai onnum seiyaadhadi
That’s the point I am trying to make and I hope I haven’t missed the wood for the trees!
Kudos to Kollywood for her diligence, dedication, hard work and ability to rise to the occasion when needed…and ‘standing tall’! I have referred to Kollywood in the feminine gender ‘cos after all isn’t she our Thamizh Thaai!
A huuuuuuge thanks to the one who gave me this idea to start 2012 on such a positive note and to all my friends in the industry who without a second’s
hesitation or annoyance pitched in their might, within the blink of my eyelid.

Jai ho to our film fraternity!
rekhs