Narendra Modi didnt go to a film school. He was self taught and wanted to be in films. With basic education he started doing odd jobs, became a spot boy preparing tea on the sets, turned into a production guy and finally gets to assist big directors who were making big budget films in the regional film industry of Gujarat. He was assisting them but he was least happy with their kind of lacklustre films. He knew he could do better than them. So after years of learning he started making some videos and then short films. He was unnoticeable, a one among many, but he carried on learning the craft. One of his long-short films “Gujarat model” became a bumper hit. It got him multiple awards, accolade, international screenings and recognition. He became a renowned short-filmmaker. He brought short filmmaking into limelight and taught many so-called filmmakers trying to find a break in the industry as how to do it. They understood that script is important and you can’t fool the audience. So make a film which is true and honest. But the government was rude and kept his film unreleased. Infact they openly criticized it citing that like “Gandu” or “Black Friday” it is highly heavy in content and the audience can’t digest it. With this he became a rebel, a poster boy. Modi knew that the time has come to take on the government and to venture into the main territory, the feature films. And so he wrote a script. A script on development, governance and growth called “Acche Din”. BJP, a renowned but a has-been production house who saw many failures with poor filmmakers like Advani and Gadkari for the last many years gave him a chance to market his film if only his idea and the script is nothing short of a killer. BJP was dying to taste success at the box office. They didnt need a 100 crore film but a film which can become a classic, a cult and will be remembered for years. Their last successful writer-director was Ataj Bihari Vajpayee who made films for them in the early 2000, the statesman was also a poet and wrote his own lyrics. They somehow trusted Advani but he went overboard and made too expensive films like “Rath-Yatra” Part 1, 2 and 3 which crashed heavily at the box office. Funding was less for Modi, he needed more support as the film was big in budget. Being an indie-filmmaker he likes to do things differently. So started the media campaign “Ab Ki Baar”. Modi came in front of the people with his glorified pitch for crowd-funding his film. The country went mad with his dialogues and treatment which he showered upon them during the fund raising events at Delhi, Varanasi, Kashi and Jammu-Kashmir Soon the international labs started noticing him. They were looking to fund a universal film, a film which connects with everyone. And they saw influential filmmakers of the last century like George Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt in him. And then came forward the funds and support from the film fraternity of Japan, America, Europe, Sri Lanka which wanted to make great films, great cinema. The crowd funding campaign was a blockbuster for Modi. More successful than the yesteryears bumper blockbuster, indie-animation “Yes we can”. The director of that film, Hawaii born ‘Barack Obama’ got a Nobel in the peace category for a well presented but a very poorly written film. Now Narendra Damodardas Modi has got the once in a lifetime chance to make a film. A film for an audience of more than a billion. He is constantly in touch with all of us through his Facebook account sharing his behind-the-scene stills of his shooting locations in Bhutan and ISRO. He wanted to film a rocket-launch scene and did it with ease and confidence. Even Nolan’s Interstellar is not that much in the news though it is a space saga and 100 times bigger in budget as compared to our films. We have to believe in Modi after all he has learned all the steps of filmmaking. He learned on the job, he started as a spotboy, serving tea on the sets but his vision was to be a director/producer and a filmmaker. If he can make great short films then he can surely make a great feature too. After all, he has casted well; he has Sushma and Arun in the lead with Amit Shah in the supporting role. The big camps which are there in the industry for a long time and producing all their films with their favourite actor and only on one single theme called Rajiv Gandhi-X yojana, Rajiv Gandhi-Y Yojana and Z yojana is too afraid now. Along with the support of other big production houses like BJD, Janta Dal, Trinamool, CPI they don’t want to give a release date for Modi’s film. The distributors are all corrupt and will obey them. The big camps will try their best to prevent Modi from first completing his film and then releasing it. They will try to censor it, remove the significant scenes or may be give Modi a small release through PVR Director’s Rare and that too for 3-4 days. They know that the ticket-price will be high and the audience will not buy it and this independent film like most of them will also die a silent death. But hey, this is Modi. May be he is our next Subhash Chandra Bose or Sardar Patel who were responsible for the cinematic movement Independence for India. May be he’ll get us an Oscar, the US is already planning his first screening very soon. May be he’ll get us a Cannes, a silver bear. If he is a Son-of-a-gun (as he has already proved with his 56 Inch-MM reel on which he is shooting the film), he will make great Cinema. And in the coming times on IMDB, along with the Godfather and Pulp Fiction we will see this film rated as one of the best. But for that we have to give him time, we have to be patient. People are already criticizing his first teaser “The Railway Budget” and the trailer which came out yesterday “The Union Budget”. But hey, we haven’t seen the whole film. So chill!! We have to pray and we have to keep the faith going. Not hope but faith. May be after him there will be a plethora of filmmakers coming from the deepest pockets of the society to become a filmmaker. Bec, this guy who left his marriage and personal life for cinema will surely inspire a whole lot of us!! Vande Mataram!! PS: Plz dont ask why I wrote this. I just vomited it in one go. Dont kill me with grammar mistakes, it was always bad.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:42:19 +0000
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