Film City is a bee hive of activity today. Besides the UPO shoot, another Tamil mega and a Telugu mythological flick are advancing pretty fast, not quite far off from where we are. And the Telugu devis and devils permeade the scene right above us, at the first floor.
I am entering the set after a week they started working on it. Had never been to a Police Commissioner’s office all my life but can now confidently say what it would look like. Mr.’Bullet’s magic touch has turned the humdrum surroundings into that make belief particle of the universe with all and sundry items smelling heavily of the khaki brigade, lending a certain ambience to the scene with their careful ‘aging’ .
A door opens and walks in the Commissioner.
The Malayalam numero uno who gave us the unforgottable Thanmatra, Vadakkum Nathan and Vanaprastham is treating us to an encore of an entireley different kind now.
I am duly introduced to the Commissioner and he fondly enquires about my Ambalapuzha connection. How on earth did he come to know of it?
Its all here. I have this to say about my family deity, you see? Ambalapuzha Sri Krishnan.
He shows me a bound volume kept open. That is the UPO script in Malayalam transliteration. The Commissioner has read the script cover to cover before coming to work.
A thorough professional and a great artist. Above all, he is a man with no airs and is pretty down to earth, absolutely.
Silence please. Start. Rolling. At speed.
‘And action’.
A soft, deliberately slowed down voice like that of a hypnotist raises and melts down, blending efforlessly with the police ambience as a counter point, as the officers scurry around and march into the frame.
And this ‘hypnotist’ lad is a UK trained sound engineer who had an internship with the grand old dame BBC working under at least six leading sound mixers for prime time serials. He is a keen historian and an interesting perfomer in front of the camera too. We last saw him as the mischievous kid pulling out the brakes from KH’s car, didn’t we? And, he also tweets regularly, in case you are interested to know..
Action.
I am wearing the sound engineer’s head phone and can hear the Commissioner loud and clear in his efforless Tamil and English with an occasional switch-over to nammude swantham Malayalam.
Yogi is waiting for you in the caravan – someone whispers to me nearby.
Yogi’s Mac is on and he is going through the script. I too pull my lap top out and here we go, adding the numerous frills and nuances to the script as we proceed, amidst banter and a good laugh at some real good anecdotes he narrates, proceeding briskly with the reading all along.
Wait.
Yogi waves me to stop. He has a brilliant idea about a particular scene – a trivial change which adds an interesting dimension hitherto not present, to the proceedings altogether.
But Yogi, are we not shooting it now?
Not yet. He jumps out of the Caravan and rushes into the set. I brush aside the Telugu gods and demons climbing the stairs endlessly chattering on their mobiles and follow Yogi into the sets.
Now, I have the uneasy feeling that all the eyes are on me. I look around.
Namitha.
Behind me, the sultry siren is leisurely walking up the steps, to the Telugu shooting floor.