Sunday, January 30th, 2005
Sorry for the interruption
This is to say Kamath’s Café is still open. Sorry for the unannounced break and thank you for popping in. I owe you an explanation. So here it is: in the third week of December, shortly after the last piece appeared, Atul Kasbekar, who is a friend and business partner, was invited to make a short film for the Kala Ghoda Festival. Five photographers were being invited by the Festival organizers to make a film around the theme ‘music in cinema’.
Atul asked me if I would take a stab at writing the film. We tossed a few ideas around, latched on to two of them, decided we would flesh out both and take a final call. Along the way, a third concept emerged, it seemed stronger than the other two and Atul said to work out the script. Then, Atul left for Goa on holiday and I left for Vapi on work. Work continued over the phone and email. Atul would leave the cozy confines of his hotel or beach chair to go look for a cybercafe and check mail twice a day.
By the time Atul returned from Goa, it was my turn to head there for a friend’s wedding. It was my turn to hunt for cybercafes amid the many shacks, restaurants and tavernas of sunny Goa. Do unto others and all that.
With the script in place, I prepared to take an afternoon off in Goa and contemplated filing my column from the local cybercafe.
But Atul called to say he had done a few production meetings and it turned out the film had some logistical problems. It would also entail going way over the stipulated budget but that was the secondary issue. Atul said funding was not a problem if we could find a way to crack the logistics within the given time frame.
After a few attempts, we thought it wise to go back to the drawing board. Mercifully, the cupboard was not bare. We still had our first two concepts. One of them, a film set at the Home for the Aged (which I featured on 1st December 2004) was very close to our hearts. It just needed a strong ending.
The ending was cracked, the Little Sisters of the Poor at the Home for the Aged were kind enough to give us permission to shoot at the Home, the protagonist of the film, Joseph Das, a remarkably talented gentleman whose name also forms the title of the film, was a willing and enthusiastic lead man.
The film was screened at the Horniman Circle garden last Sunday. The crew worked free of cost. So apart from studio rentals for post production, the money received towards making the film was given by Atul to the Home for the Aged.
Now, that’s what I call a happy ending.