I've sent out emails and facebook messages (calling is pretty much impossible) to the people I met while in Bombay. No word yet, but we weren't living in the tourist-y districts in the city, so I'm holding out hope.

I keep refreshing my news sources, hoping for more information, hoping things will get under control. Obviously there's nothing I can do, but this is killing me in the interim. As crazy as my time there was, I fell hard for Mumbai. And to see it like this...

I've been putting off the Important And Meaningful Final Post because I haven't been sure how to approach it. And now it's over a week since I arrived in the United States. Gah! Um um. My bad.

.

Complacency has been one of my biggest problems. I have a tendency settle into a routine that I may not like, but I maintain it because it's safe. I let things happen to me, rather than being responsible for my happiness. This had become particularly pronounced in my most recent year at college, and I was very discontent.

Essentially, my journey to India was exactly what I needed. Right place, right time.

I had the strange, and welcome, experience of being almost entirely on my own (our program coordinators allowed us complete independence when we weren't attending 'classes) in a foreign country that I have been wanting to visit for ten years. I had the advantage of living in a fairly average, non-touristy part of Bombay. I stayed in a typical building complex, wherein every other apartment complex was occupied by families.

It wasn't easy or comfortable a lot of the time. And that's the point. The nature of my life there forced me out of my tendency to unhealthy solitude, as well as divesting me of my constant paranoia of taking any risks. It was either that or being bored to death, really. :P By going out and exploring, I slowly fell in love with Bombay.

.

"This should be interesting," my mother once said to me, months ago. "You'll either like bollywood a lot more, or this thing could completely kill it for you."

"Hm," I said, unresponsive at first. And then I laughed; "I hope not! What would I do with all the DVDs I bought?!"

I wasn't sure what I would get out of this program, when it came to Hindi film, but I think I'm starting to understand. We interviewed a number of people in the industry, but things truly got interesting when the formality faded, and candid opinions emerged. I got the sense of a film industry that is now at an interesting time in its "life." I heard a lot of debate over the relative merits of Bollywood, and no two opinions were the same. In the end, however, I have a lasting impression of creativity and energy. It should be interesting to see what movies come out of the industry in the next few decades.

.

This should be my last entry in dhadak_dhadak for some time. I might post again if Tas emails pictures to me, but otherwise this blog will remain closed until the time I go on my next trip abroad.

Thank you so much for all your comments, IMs and emails while I was in Bombay. They made me happy, without fail.

I want to go back to India. Bomaby, yes. Other parts of the country, too. And I won't be so helpless on the language front, because I will start studying Hindi soon!

Earlier in this entry I mentioned that the city shook me out of complacency. I don't think that was limited to India. I feel energized and awake for the first time in months and months. My final year of college starts in a few weeks, and I'm determined to take charge of my life.

And, you know, watch a lot more movies while I'm at it.

-Stephanie

MUST STAY AWAKE FOR JUST TWO MORE HOURS.

I can do it. I can.

Yes, I'm in America.

Aaaaagh!

My trip went like this:
-A cab ride to the airport on Saturday night. My flight was at midnight, and I left the apartment complex around 8:00, to make sure I'd get to it in time. Maybe that sounds early, but my instincts turned out to be correct, because the cab ride took approximately 45 minutes due to rush hour. And then getting through immigrations was a clusterfuck, but a surprisingly efficient one (if that's not an oxymoron?) Security was heightened because of the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Got through with about an hour to spare.

-And then: fifteen hour flight. I'm fine until about the seven hour mark. Suddenly I start getting really anxious and want to parachute out of the plane. Since the stewardesses really weren't cool with that, I asked for a glass of wine. That meant I slept for a grand total of an hour and a half. The rest of the time was spent watching movies and playing solitaire. My attention span was shot so I only managed to watch two full movies.

-Seeing Mumbai from the sky, this time as I flew away, was an emotional experience (so was witnessing it for the first time.) Seeing America again was equally emotional. I landed around 6:40 am (Yes, I flew for fifteen hours, left at midnight, and landed just before 7 am. Aren't time zone differences special? :P), getting caught in the chaotic hell that was JFK Airport. I think my favorite moment had to be when I was going through this one part of customs (I had to declare the foreign items I was bringing into the country.) At this point I was feeling mildly crazed, and trying desperately (and probably failing) to reign myself in because I really would prefer to be let back in the country.

Customs guy: *Friendly, really* So were you with friends in India?
Me: Yes. Well, some of them became friends. It was a class.
Customs guy: Oh, that's interesting. What was the class about?
Me: Hindi films! Well, Bollywood I guess...
Customs guy: *Blink blink* But aren't all those movies the same?
Me: D: No, no, no! That's just the common myth. There's more variety than you've been led to believe, I swear.
[Pause]
Me: And now I'm lecturing someone in customs. I'm so sorry!
Guy: *Laughing* That's alright. Long flight, right?
Me: Yes, pretty much.
Guy: *Still laughing* Welcome back to America.

-I had a three hour layover in JFK, and then flew for an hour and a half to D.C.

-Met up with my family in that airport YAYYYYY.

-And then drove for four hours back to our home in rural (kind of, sort of) Virginia. Kept falling asleep in the car, and then waking up and chattering away.

A long post in forthcoming, because I have a lot more to say about Mumbai. For now though, I'm actually experiencing a strange reverse culture shock. I'm DEFINITELY glad to be back in America, but things seem so different to me. It's a homecoming, but a slighty skewed one! It's just so... quiet. Especially in my home. Where are the honking cars? The people in the neighborhood? The birds in the window?

Why can I see the blue sky again? Why are the trees so green? Why is traffic so orderly? Why are there so few cars?

Where's the bollywood music in stores? Where did it all go? Why can't I hear Hindi anywhere anymore?

What time is it? I know what time it is (nearly 8:30 pm!) but my internal clock is all smashed to pieces.

Yes. Missing Mumbai and confused and happy and tired and and and...

I won't lie though: Taking a shower with warm water for the first time in a month was HEAVEN. And now I sleep eat!

More coherent entry to come soon, I swear.

Hm, our entire day today was taken up with movie editing. I saw that one coming, considering all the procrastination we'd done. Heh. It was worth it, in the end.

Ah well. We still completed everything. So I guess everything's all done. Strange.

Afterwards, we went with Nimish to a restaurant that we'd visited back in the first week. The one with the vodka pani puri, that is. I had another one...

Yup. Still as disgusting as I remember.

That said, I need to somehow get my hands on vodka pani puri when I'm back in the states, because I know I have college friends who would appreciate such an experience. :P

I'm leaving tomorrow, and I feel like I should write a Deep and Meaningful Blog Post on the eve of my departure. And yet I'm so tired that the only though I'm capable of is "Man, I'm going to miss getting to eat with my fingers when I'm home."

So yeah. Another day, then.

I can't believe I'm leaving Bombay.

We had to film one more scene tonight after we realized we needed it after looking at what we had filmed thus far. It had to be filmed outside and night, when no one was around in Upper Govind Nagar. OK, that's not hard at all. The streets are pretty much devoid of people by midnight.

The problem was us. We were just feeling lazy.

Script form (obviously paraphrased, but pretty true to life):

[2: 30 am, a productive night in our guest house.]
Me: I know we have to finish tonight but-
Aman: You just can't be bothered?
Me: Yeah...
Aman: Same.
Tas: We have to finish tonight, though.
The power in Mumbai: *Flips out*
Our tv and half our lights: *Die* *No music videos for us* *NO DVDs either*
Me: Nooooooo!
Aman: Damn it!
TV: Hi, I'm installing new updates!
Tas: What
Aman: The
Me:: Hell?
Tas: I thought only computers did that?
Aman: But I wanted to watch the rapid fire round!
Tas: I guess we could finally film?
Aman: How? We don't have our actress! We need Sweta.
Tas: Oh yeah...
[Much discussion of Vidya Balan's age ensues.]

[Half an hour later, Sweta comes back.]
Aman: OK, let's film now. Let's get it out of the way.
Sweta: NO. I am NOT going back there.
Me: Why?
Sweta: The guards hate me. They were cursing me out just now.
Tas: *Glare* OK, now we have to film down there on GENERAL PRINCIPLE.
Sweta: NO
Aman: We have to!
Sweta: I'm TIRED. I refuse. Um, um. STAR POWER.
Aman: I am the director and you are a struggling actress. Your life is terrible.
Sweta: D: Tas? Stephanie? Help?
Tas: WE. ARE. FILMING.
Sweta: D: D:

[We pile into the elevator, and start singing for a second or two before we realize that, oh hey, it's 3 a.m. and people are sleeping.]

Stray dogs: HOOOOOWL!
Me: o_O
Aman: We film over here.
Sweta: But the lighting here is better.
Aman: Over here. Now.
Stray dogs: HOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!
Aman: Ok, so in this scene you have to look paranoid.
Sweta: That dog has GREEN EYES.
Tas: Good. That's good! Imagine that dog is chasing you.
Sweta: STOP. I want to finish filming now.
Monsoon: Why hello there!
Me: ...Well, there you go.
Aman: Yeah, we can't film now.
Me: Unless we did, you know, an item number.

And now Sweta's gone back to sleep, and the rest of us are not tired at all for some reason. Our TV and DVD player still don't work, so we're sitting around and sharing our personal ratings of the attractiveness of various bollywood actors on a scale of 1 to 10.

Hard at work, as always!

My lack of sleep from the past two days caught up with me, and I took a nap around noon. When I woke up, I found that all three of my roommates had scattered off to different locations in Mumbai. For the past few weeks in Mumbai I've gone everywhere with my roommates. It just seemed more sensible, considering that they all can speak Hindi (and Gujarati, Punjabi and Malayalam between the three of them!), whereas I only have English and German to my name. I've gotten to see a lot of the city this way and certainly don't feel like my lack of independence has made me miss out. And, hey, they've helped me bargain in markets too.

In my first few days in Mumbai I would have killed for a chance to have the apartment to myself. I was so tired and disoriented back then that any quiet moments were a blessing.

But after ten minutes of solitude I realized I was bored. I was so bored it was almost physically painful. And then I knew that I couldn't just stay here. My computer and my books and my DVDs will always be around, but Mumbai won't. Not for me.

I put on one of my salwar kameez (I haven't worn any of them since I bought them, for some reason), pulled back my hair, and went out of the apartment. And I walked. I walked and walked and walked and walked without any particular destination in mind. I'd been sitting still for so long, that all I wanted was to be in motion. I was happier than I had been in days, helped in no small part by my choice to wear the salwar kameez. It was so comfortable! My favorite moment was when I passed a crowd of kids heading back from school. As they walked by they all said "goodbye!" (in English) to me. Heh.

After looping around my district I decided I wanted to go shopping today. Shopping for clothes, in fact. Unfortunately, there was nothing nearby that would help me in that venture. I still had no desire to return to the apartment, so I flagged down an auto and asked the driver to take me to Oberoi Mall. I was a little wary about doing this because I've never left Malad East on my own before. But, eh, it was fine in the end.

Sidenote: Mumbai's malls have monsoon sales. Awesome.

Back when I learned that I was definitely, for sure, going to India I had happy visions in my head of all the clothes I would buy. Not saris, exactly, but the things I can wear back in the states without looking like an otaku for India (I wonder if there's an appropriate term for that?) It hasn't quite panned out like that for me, unfortunately. I'm happy with the salwar kameez that the tailor made for me, but looking for clothes in the mall was a huge waste of time. The clothes there had the same problem I encounter in America. Namely, they are mass produced in a way that, for the most part, seem to fit a body type that does not exist in nature.

I did not buy any clothes today, but I'm still happy that I went. Window shopping is its own kind of fun, I ate well and I got out of the house for hours and hours. Still going to buy more clothes at some point. I will not be thwarted!

I was worried that I wouldn't get back the guest house, actually. Oberoi Mall and Malad East are quite close to one another, but many auto rickshaw drivers will glare at you and drive away if you ask to be taken to our district. This is because they have to drive up a really steep hill to get there, and they'd rather not bother. If it's rush hour, they're even more likely to refuse. (The whole thing reminds me of the town I go to when I want to see a Bollywood film in a movie theater. Cabs refuse to admit that town exists, I swear.)

I exited the mall and saw a bunch of rickshaw drivers standing near autos with the "for hire" sign up. I spread my hands and said "Malad East? Anyone?" After a couple minutes of confusion, everything worked out and I was home within ten minutes.

I still didn't go home right away. I noticed that our neighborhood's DVD store was still open, so I went in and bought Bunty Aur Babli (finally replacing the one that went to the DVD company in the sky) and Fanaa. I've purchased so many DVDs while in Mumbai. I can't help it. The prices are so good.

"Alright, I have to ask this time," the cashier said as he handed me my change and receipt. "Do you live in Mumbai? Are you a tourist?"

"I'm taking a class here," I explained. "But just for a month. I'll be back in America in a few days."

A few days... ACK! Many of my friends have said that you only start to feel comfortable living abroad after three weeks or so. Well, I've gone past the three week mark and I've found that to be the case. Unfortunately, I have to leave soon, and I feel like I have so much left undone.

More like rats.

UGH.

WHY IS THERE A RAT IN OUR KITCHEN?

( OK, so it goes like this... )

Since Wednesday is meant to be film editing day, we had to get filming done on our final project. I'm in charge of post production, so our director (Aman) and actress (Sweta) were the ones who had to do the majority of work. It was surprisingly fun, even though I'm reminded once again how long it takes to film anything. So much can go wrong.

Personally, I'm excited to throw in an outtakes reel, since I am of the belief that most movies should have those.

We're currently watching Chup Chup Ke. It's definitely not as good as Jab We Met but it's making me laugh really hard for some reason.

So, I mentioned that it's actually sort of chilly outside, right? Well this morning, the water for my shower was SO FREAKING COLD that I nearly screamed. I couldn't figure out if something's changed or it the water's always been that cold and I didn't notice because it was hot outside and it was a welcome thing.

I expected a lot of things from Mumbai, but being cold was not one of them.

Yes, rain.

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.

Hello, monsoon.

It's not bad at all, actually. It's just been raining on and off for four days and it's oddly cold outside. I thought this sort of weather would be like Virginia in August, but it's not. It feels closer to Pennsylvania in April/late March out there. Strange. It makes Mumbai seem quieter, more conducive to contemplation. And through it all, the rain keeps falling, puddles keep overflowing, and people hurry about their business under umbrellas (or not, as the case sometimes might be.)


Yeah, it's like that.

In a week I will be back in America. I keep thinking I need to take pictures of Mumbai as I go about in rickshaws. In some ways, writing a blog about this trip was a mistake. So much of this experience has been visual, and hard to convey with words. Every guide book says that this city is comprised of contradictions, but it's something that needs to be seen up close to be understood fully.

A week left. Less than, really. I'm more than ready to be home, and yet not at all. I feel this way when I'm driving from one location from another. Through the polluted air, and past crowded markets, cars and all sorts of people. And cows. And OH MY GOD WAS THAT AN ELEPHANT?

The changing movie billboards let me know that time has moved on. Kismat Konnection and Love Story 2050 ads have given way to Mission Istanbul and Money Hai Toh Honey Hai. The Katron Ka Khiladi billboards remain, however. :P

I love it here. I hate it here.

I will mis this.

I'm more than eager to come back to India, but I want to see other states, next time. I keep reading and rereading my travel guide and dreaming up future plans. And when this happens, I will know Hindi. I'm determined. (Though that still might not help me, depending on which states I choose!)

To close, I will say that things are tense right now because of this. I'm reading the news and feeling very sad right now, to be honest.

I gloss over sexism in this blog, but every so often, the people we encounter on sets and studios make it pretty obvious that they aren't taking us seriously. While more than a little frustrating, I don't let this sort of thing bother me overmuch. When all is said and done, I'm still benefiting from these visits. So, hah hah, I win in the long run. However, everyone we've met this week has been like that and, in some cases, actively making it harder for me to learn anything. For some reason it all really got to me today, and I was angry. I hope tomorrow is better.

I did manage to glean some stuff from it all. It's post production week and we've gone through initial editing, sound effects, dubbing and so on. My favorite two post production activities have been color editing and special effects. YashRaj films is so paranoid about their movies, by the way. When we visited someone who was editing the colors in Bachna Ae Haseeno, he said he was only allowed to show us work on a frame of the ocean. Apparently showing the actors at all constitutes as a spoiler. :P Anyway, this was cool, because it reminded of a more hardcore version of photoshop. They have to go through every frame of the movie and make the colors brighter and more vivid.

And special effects are just cool. We met with a woman who'd done work on everything from Saawariya to Tashan and we got to see in depth examples of the kind of effects she added to those films. Race is weird, because most of the night scenes in it are actually filmed during the day. She went in and made everything dark, added lights to buildings in the background, etc.

After this, she took us around a computer studio, where people were working on upcoming movies like Ghajini and Chandni Chowk to China. At one point Deepika Padukone is holding an umbrella in the latter movie. OH NO. SPOILERS!

I guess that's a good enough transition to talk about my brief venture into YashRaj studios. The executive officer who was showing us around decided to take our chances there, even though we still have no idea why he did that. (Believe me, getting to tour YashRaj studios would be awesome, but shouldn't we have called ahead first? :P) Security was pissed off that we were there, but they decided we could stay long enough to have tea or coffee.

We hung out in a huge hallway with a coffee bar, and believe me when I say YashRaj studios is pretty hardcore. My favorite thing was the Inexplicable Enormous Fountain. So I've got my tea, I'm stirring sugar into it, when Karan Johar walks into the hallway and right past me. For some reason he did a double take when he saw me, and I'm pretty sure I did one when I noticed him, too. Well, that was surreal.

Last night we went to see Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, and the experience was rather like the one I had with The Dark Knight. No, the movies are not at all alike, but they're both movies that have had tons and tons of praise heaped on them by the media. I was expecting not to like either of them due to over hype, but wound up coming away impressed and happy with both. Thus ends one of the weirder movie comparisons you will ever read.

Jaane Tu... does not have a particularly unique plot. It's about two people who are made for each other, everyone knows it, but they take the entire movie to figure it out for themselves. In the meantime, complications ensue. It's a story you've heard before, but the movie's strength is in how it takes a familiar tale, and revitalizes it through creativity and energy. There are filmi elements (some of which are hilarious), but the characters talk and act like real people, for the most part. Plus, they all actually look like they're in their twenties. Overall, it's a great film and I'm glad for its success.

I can't believe my youngest brother and I are carrying on a Spiderman vs. Batman debate, via email.

I'm currently in our office area (really just a room with two computers), surrounded by swivel chairs and drying laundry. Everyone decided to clean their clothes today. We all had to jockey for space to hang our clothes to dry out to dry. My parents called me as I was precariously hanging out the window, looking for space for my own shirts and pants.

However, our efforts were all for nothing, because around 10:00 pm it started raining extremely hard, and it was necessary to bring the it all inside, and arrange everything so they won't dry on the computers' wires.

Obviously, we decided not to leave Mumbai this weekend, as I'd anticipated. There are a number of (mostly timing related) reasons behind this choice. There's plenty to see in Mumbai, so I think we'll be okay, somehow. :P

Saturday
We got a cab again to take us around the city, but this time we did more shopping and less touristy stuff. I was happiest when we stopped at Fashion Street. This is... what it sounds like. A long, long street packed full of stalls selling clothes. Most of the options I could get in America. But! Sherlyn and I found very nice fabric for a good price and we later took our clothes to a tailor down the street from our apartment. I'll be getting my three salwar kameez on Tuesday, and they'll obviously fit better than if I bought ready made clothes. Woo!

Dinner was amusing, because we had it at a place that was like a cross between Chinese food and a steakhouse. We picked it because we were starving and everyone was doing that "oh, I don't know where I want to eat" demurring sort of of thing. So Tas took matters into her own hands, said "I've been here. It's good." And, lo! Dinner!

It was good, by the way.

Mumbai, and my classes here, can be stressful sometimes. And yet, there are quite a few moments that make it all worth it. One of the best, and most unexpected, was on Saturday evening, as we were driving back from dinner. The city's lights at night were mesmerizing, and my delight at hearing Bollywood music on the radio still hasn't worn off yet. It was during Kabhi Kabhi Aditi from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (which played twice for some reason. But it is the number one song in the city, so it makes sense) that I realized how happy I was for coming here.

...Of course, soon after that realization, the cab hit a bump. And because there were no seatbelts on the seats Tas and I were sitting in, I bounced up and nearly bashed my head in on the ceiling.

Oh, Mumbai. (My 'epiphany' still stands! XD)

Sunday:
After staying up into the small hours of the morning, we all slept in very late. We had plans to go see The Dark Knight that evening, but we left much earlier, because the guest house quickly gets boring. We walked to a market in Malad East. I didn't buy anything, but I was grateful for the walk. I hadn't noticed how much time I've spent in rickshaws/in class until this afternoon, but it turns out I was missing that.

We then traveled to Oberoi Mall, to watch The Dark Knight. ( My Hollywood movie review is getting all up in my Bollywood blog! No spoilers )

I forgot to mention this back in the entry where I talked about seeing Kismat Konnection, but movie theaters in Mumbai are hardcore. Going back to American movie theaters will be such a letdown. One can immediately see the difference just from the food offered. There's popcorn, yes, but also samosas and pretty high quality pizza and so on.

The theaters are huge, with comfortable reclining seats. Before the movie, the Indian national anthem plays. Oh, and this is the first time I've ever actually observed the intermission in the films. And then an additional trailer plays before the second half.

Yes, they stuck an intermission into The Dark Knight. Since it was not included in the actual movie, it appeared literally in the middle of a scene. The audience howled protests at this development. I think it's a sign that the movie was good, judging by that reaction. :P

I like how responsive the movie goers were today. There wasn't much talking, like at Kismat Konnection, but a lot of laughing and clapping. My favorite moment was when a happy plot twist occurred about halfway through. The theater burst into applause and cheers. I was already into the movie, but joining in with this made it even easier.

I write too much. Pictures instead.

( From today. )

Gah, today's class was a nightmare. Normally I've enjoyed at least one aspect of every single visit and/or interview, but this was terrible. We went to the set of a competitive reality tv show about dancing. At first, I was curious because I find reality television, as a cultural phenomenon, to be pretty interesting. One of my main interests in sociology is sociology of popular culture, after all, and reality television has become a big deal in recent years. Also, purely from an entertainment standpoint, I am addicted to Top Chef and Project Runway (to a lesser extent.) So, while once again we were straying from movies, I wasn't bothered. After all, the other tv sets had been worthwhile!

The problem with today's show was that it was a special episode, wherein the competitors were children, all younger than thirteen. The whole thing was a hellish mix of harsh stage parents and unhappy, stressed out kids. It was incredible how quickly the smiles would vanish from their faces once the music stopped. Meanwhile, the show's directors would order the participants around "like they were puppets" (as one of my fellow students pointed out.) When we left the set, I think we all felt very sketched out and unhappy.

Other things I've done:
On Tuesday, we visited the sets of a different tv show, and talked to the actor who played The Evil Patriarch. Between this show and Monday's tv set, it's become pretty clear that tv actors are in it for the money. I mean this in the nicest possible way; Most of these actors have another goal in life, and work in television because, hey, you've gotta eat. The actor I spoke to on Tuesday explained that movies are his great love in life, but he can only do them every so often. In the meantime, tv it is!

Oh, and Tuesday the monsoon in full effect appeared, finally. I thought all the bouts of rain in recent weeks had been it, but I was wrong. We were touring Tuesday's tv set, when I heard it start to rain. It sounded like the insane, overwhelming rainstorms that appear in Virginia from time to time. The difference here is that in Virginia, the rains recede after fifteen minutes, Here, it just kept going for what seemed like hours. I was weirdly reminded of the snow storms I encountered growing up in upstate New York, in terms of intensity.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday on the set of Freeze, an upcoming movie starring Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Rahul Dev. While there, we spoke to pretty much everyone. Director, associate director, scriptwriter, cinematographer. The scriptwriter was probably my favorite, mostly because his life story sounds like it should be a movie itself.

Bipasha Basu wasn't there, but I got to briefly speak to Rahul Dev and Neil Nitin Mukesh. The former was rather self deprecating, while the latter was polite and nice. Hurray for that. And, wow, it is strange to see people in real life when you're used to seeing them in movies.

In the meantime, I've watched several movies. Page 3 was well made, but something of a letdown. Bombay to Bangkok was surprisingly cute.

And we also went out to see Kismat Konnection. Er, the movie going experience was more interesting that the film itself. :P I'm sort of disappointed, because I really love Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (one of the director's earlier movies.) Unfortunately, Kismat Konnection dragged, and the leads did not make up for it.. I think all the filmgoers lost patience as the plot slowwwwly went on because, soon after the interval, audience members were carrying on non-hushed conversations and openly heckling. Heh.

There was one scene that reminded me of my life in Mumbai, though. At one point Shahid Kapoor is taking a shower and his water stops working. So he runs to his fridge, grabs a water bottle, and showers that way. Woo.

Next week we're doing post production stuff.

So, this is officially a "Film and Media Studies Program." Today is where the "media" part came in, because we observed the set of a Hindi TV serial, rather than a movie. I have to confess to having not been all that excited by this. I know next to nothing about Hindi television, so I wasn't at all sure what to expect.

My lack of interest turned out to be unfounded, because this was my favorite visit thus far, primarily because the actors were so friendly to us. They were curious about our presence and in between takes would come talk to us extensively. My favorite moment was when I talked about Philadelphia with the actress who played the grandmother on the show. (She's traveled pretty much everywhere in the world.) All of them have been involved in the entertainment industry in many ways, from plays, to movies, to television shows. On the whole, they were down to earth and fun to talk to.

The activities on this set were both similar and incredibly different from the movie shoot. Once again, the experience was highly chaotic. They finished putting together the set five minutes before shooting began. One of the actors said they get they're handed their scripts thirty minutes before they begin work. And, of course, there are always dozens of people running around. It was funny to see all the actors (around seven in all) calmly gathered on one side of the set as they filmed their scene. The other half was crowded with workers and observers.

So, there's a significant amount of insanity going on. But at the same time, a LOT of work was finished. After all, an entire episode was completed today. This is in direct contrast with the two minutes (if that) of film that will be gleaned from Thursday and Friday's film shoot. The reason behind this is that, as one actor explained to us, these episodes must be completed in rapid succession. The episode they were working on today will be aired a week from now. As a result, everyone has to work together and cooperate as much as possible.

I'm ending this entry now, because I'm actually really frustrated. Mostly because I have issues with shyness, and that's been messing me up while here. Whenever I meet new people on sets etc, I generally ask few questions because I'm afraid to speak up at all. Once again, this happened today, and I'm annoyed with myself. I need to work on this, because I want to get the most out of this experience...

The past few days have been busy, which is the reason behind my lack of updating. We spent Thursday and Friday on a film set and watched the filming of a musical number.

I've seen many song picturizations by now. While the music remains one of my main draws to bollywood films, the musical numbers now have a tendency to wash over me (With the exception of some of the truly strange ones. being shot in one take, for example! Shot on top of a moving train, for another.) However, this "field trip" drove home that movie making is far from effortless, even when it comes to things that appear relatively simple onscreen. I spent two days on set, but probably only saw what will amount to two minutes on screen.

They had rounded up dozens of tourists to appear as concert going extras (one of my friends and I always keep an eye out for extras in movies. We nickname the funniest ones 'Awkward McExtra'). They had to jump up and down and scream and dance to about thirty seconds of the song. This was the largest number of foreigners I've seen since getting off the plane. At one point my classmates and I talked to two of them. They happened to be tourists from France, and they agreed to be in it because they thought it sounded fun.

We were there as observers, not to help out. I had no tasks but to watch the proceedings and talk to some of the people that walked by. I was never bored, though. It was fascinating to watch all the elements that have to come together to make a scene in a movie. I think we're visiting more movie sets in the coming week...

My classmates and I conducted two interviews on Thursday and Friday, as well. The first was with a cinematographer. We had watched one of his movies beforehand, so at first I was asking him how he had achieved the look of the movie (because there were some shots that I thought were really cool, and I wondered how he'd accomplished them.) However, we soon went off on a long tangent about the industry itself, discussing everything from foreign locations in movies, to workers' rights. Our second interview, this time with a scriptwriter and director, was similarly successful. In fact, the discussion went on for so long that he wound up taking us out to dinner.

These meetings haven't been going quite as I'd expected. As I said, they all tend to quickly go off track and encompass many subjects that relate to Bollywood. But I prefer it this way, and believe that I'm learning more in the long run than I could have ever anticipated.

Saturday was Awkward Tourism Day. As I stated previously, we got a driver to take us around Mumbai. We decided to hit up a number of the well known sites, such as the Gateway to India. I loved driving around Mumbai and listening to the radio, but I did not like the tourist trap areas. It's impossible to, say, look at the Gateway without someone getting in your personal space and trying to sell you things. Mumbai is crowded everywhere, but it was particularly noticeable here. Also we went to a restaurant that obviously caters to foreigners and the prices were ridiculous.

Today (Sunday) was much more successful. I had spent the past few days with my roommates, whether we were on sets, eating dinner, or driving around the city. I decided I needed to get out of the apartment on my own, or otherwise I would lose my mind. So I explored the streets and shops nearby for a couple hours and had an awesome time! It had the effect of clearing my head and I continue to feel more at ease in my surroundings. I decided, somewhat predictably, to buy several movies right before heading home. Mwahaha!

Currently, I'm trying to decide where to go next weekend...

Incidentally, one of the movies I bought was Swades, and I watched it this evening. I definitely liked it! So I'll post this as my song of the moment:

Okay, not so much in Mumbai.

The elevator in our apartment complex is actually sort of like a dumbwaiter. The door to it looks kind of like a gate. I wish I had a screencap of the elevator in Bluffmaster (or something) because it looks exactly like that. You have to shut the door yourself every time you leave it, and until you do it plays a song to remind you to do it. The melody changes every day, and this morning it's Silent Night.

I did laundry last night. There are two options for this. You can pay someone to do it for you, or you do it yourself. I'm accustomed to washing my own clothes (as in tossing them in a washing machine :P) so I chose the latter option. Guess how I did here? If you guessed "with a bucket!" then... you're correct.

It's easy enough. You put water and detergent in the bucket, soak your clothes in it for half an hour, and then hang them out the window to dry. This morning it was pouring out, so we had to bring out clothes back inside and let them dry on racks. `

A wedding procession was marching outside our apartment last night as I did this. There was a band that played for half an hour or so. And at random intervals, people would set off fireworks, and the street outside would be awash with light.

We did go to a movie studio yesterday. Sort of. It was actually Whistling Woods International, a college that deals in the movie/tv making arts. It was started by Subhash Ghai and is pretty much one of the only colleges of its kind in India. It was started in 2006 and is a two year program, so it recently graduated its first class of students.

The idea here is that most people in the film industry have been self taught and find it difficult to make contacts within the industry. This school provides people with greater technical skill at a younger age and helps them break into the industry with more ease.

We went on a tour of the place and got to see where they watch movies, take classes, do film editing etc. Apparently all sorts of people from the film industry show up here (there are sets here, so it's also used for movie making) and at first students are all excited to see them. Then they become accustomed and jaded. XD My favorite story was how Salman Khan often uses the gym facilities here alongside the students. Heh.

Our tour guide also did a presentation on the issues facing Bollywood in recent years. Basically technology and entertainment mediums are growing at a rapid pace in India, and naturally this is influencing movies. I understood more why so many foreign companies are showing an interest in Bollywood.

I'm not sure how I feel about that last part. I like the idea of it on some level, because it might make it easier for me to see Indian films in nearby theaters when I'm in America. (Yes I'm greedy) However, I have this fear of all entertainment industries all over the world eventually being swallowed up by some mega corporation. And then movies would look amazing, but would be bland and dull otherwise. I have no idea how valid this fear is, but I can't really help it.

Anyway, the advisory board at Whistling Woods is pretty sweet. And I'm jealous of the list of guest lecturers that I spotted while at the college. Ashutosh Gowariker! Nagesh Kukonoor! Shabana Azmi! Madhuri Dixt! Aaaaah!

Today we're interviewing a cinematographer. I'm looking forward to this because cinematography is one of the aspects of film making that I find most interesting and yet know little about.

Saurabh Shukla was indeed awesome. And funny! The meeting with him was highly informative, and I think I "get" Satya more than I did just after watching it. It's not based on any particular true story, but he was inspired by Mumbai as it was in the late nineties. Apparently the film makers were very anxious prior to release because it went against the romantic 90s movie mould.

They were also intending to have no songs in the film, but decided to add them after getting nervous. Shukla disikes two of the songs now, but is happy about a couple of them (including this one. Much more catchy than it has any right to be!) Nowadays I get the impression that Indian movies are far more diverse, and that someone trying to make a movie with Satya's subject matter would not need to be so concerned.

When they showed the movie to a test audience of sixty people, the film goers hated it, especially disliking the morally ambiguous characters. There was some discussion of changing the movie around to make the characters more palatable. But then the creators decided to release the movie they'd already created. Weirdly enough, though Satya's a pretty violent film, the censor board was so happy with it that they didn't ask for any changes!

Shukla was, in fact, one of Salaam-E-Ishq's script writers! He wrote the dialogues for Govinda's storyline, which I think was the one I liked the best from that movie. In light of this knowledge, I'm going to post a video of the title song. Because I had it on repeat all throughout 2007.



After we concluded our meeting with Shukla, we went to the studio for White Feather Films. As we were driving to it (Via rickshaw as always) we passed by Vishal Bhardwaj's office. AAAAAAAGH! Bhardwaj is one of my favorite directors here. I asked Sandeep (one of the program coordinators) if we could meet him. But he's not in the city right now. ;_; WOE! Anyway, at White Feathers, we met up with Sudipto Chattopadhyay, a new-ish director. He's made more movies than his imdb profile says, though. He has an upcoming movie (Pankh) coming out with Bipasha Basu, Lillete Dubey and a newcomer guy. He described it as a "mind fuck." Heh. We saw the trailer and it... looks like it. But the plot, as he described it, sounds like it could be good.

This is exciting news, though I'm trying to not get my hopes up: It would seem our program director is trying to pull strings to get us into Mission Istanbul's movie premier. !!!!!! DO WANT! :D :D Our chances are only 50% though, so I'm not going to bank on it.

...Now I've just jinxed it.

I'm going to miss this channel on our TV that plays music videos from bollywood films all day. This one is on at the moment. It's from Johnny Gaddaar (a pretty good thriller movie that I own.) I don't remember this song at all in the movie though. Maybe it was in the credits? Ah well, I'm posting it because it's good.



Today we're going to tour a movie studio.... I think?

Yesterday we had our first day of classes. First we were instructed to watch Dus Kahaniyaan, a movie comprised of ten short movies, by six different actors. It was worth watching on its own merits because it was pretty different from other things I've seen, though some of the movies were better than others. Here's a youtube video of a song ("Vichodeya Ne") from one of the stories that I liked:



It was also part of our program because one of the directors in it, Hansal Mehta, is our program director. We met up with him after seeing Dus Kahaniyaan to hear more about the program objectives. He also gave us a short history of Bollywood and some of the issues currently facing it. It was highly interesting because, though I've read many articles about Bollywood (I took a class on it two years back), I've never heard a lecture on this topic from an insider's perspective.

Mehta has an interesting story of his own. He's never had any formal film making training of his own. He got into directing because "I had stories I wanted to tell" and apparently went around showing people a short film he made until someone offered him a job. He has a blog over here and it's definitely worth a read.

Today we're interviewing Saurabh Shukla, an actor and scriptwriter. To get ready for this meeting we were told to watch one of the movies he wrote, Satya. Satya's one of those movies I've been curious about, because I've always heard it favorably compared to Ram Gopal Varma's (the director) later work. As in "Ram Gopal Varma sucks now! Why can't he make movies like Satya or Company instead of RGV Ki Aag or Nishabd?!" :P Satya was indeed very good, although I'm struggling to think of interview questions.

According to imdb (that bastion of accuracy), Shukla also wrote Salaam-E-Ishq. What a weird contrast! I wonder if it's true, or IMDB is lying again?

In the interest of helping out my readers who don't know much about bollywood, I direct your attention to this newcomer's guide to Bollywood. It's one of the best I've ever seen. This one is good, as well.

So I'm sitting here in a window seat and watching the street down below. We're on the seventh story of our apartment complex, and there are two buildings across the street that are about five stories. One nearby house has a ton of christmas lights over it. I thiiiink that means a wedding's been going on, but I'm not sure. There are always birds flying around, brightly clothes drying on laundry racks, and all kinds of people walking around. In the distance I can see that skyline of Mumbai.

The other students and I are currently trying to plan our weekend trips. This Saturday we're going to get someone to drive us around Mumbai and show us the interesting sites. I've been here for a few days, and I've really only seen the street outside our apartment and some shopping areas. Now that I've become somewhat more accustomed I'm ready to see more. I think on other weekends we plan to visit other nearby cities and states. We'll see.

This morning I woke up really early. 7 a.m, in fact. I looked at my watch, just sort of went "NO." And tried to fall asleep. (Breakfast wasn't until 9 a.m. at the earliest.) But sleep was not forthcoming, so I decided to shower.

But our apartment has no shower. None that I could see. Hm. Mysterious.

I checked my email for a bit, then decided to doze until the others started waking up. When I noticed one of my roommates wandering around, we introduced ourselves. And then I asked where the showers were. "Well that's the thing," she said. "We have to shower with... a bucket."

Yes. A bucket. You pour water over yourself with a bucket, catch all the soapy water with a larger one and then pour it down a drain when you're done. I have no idea how common this is, but it's what we have to do. The apartment only gets cold water, but I don't mind that bit because it's so hot outside (Still no sign of the monsoon.) Honestly, it's not so bad. I just wish I had cut my hair as short as some of my friends'. Currently it takes quite some time because my hair is so long. Maybe it'll get better once I'm used to it.

After showering I went in search of water bottles. We soon went shopping in markets and one of the malls. Oh, and we got everywhere by auto rikshaw today. That was... something. I mentioned Mumbai's "traffic laws," right? There's a vague sense that people drive on the left, but other than that it's anything goes, pretty much. People and automobiles dart in and out of traffic, and cars drive really close to one another. There's persistent honking, not because it's not a warning, but to inform other drivers that you're near them.

Random: When we were driving to the mall we spotted Amisha Patel and a bunch of other people in a filmshoot. Weird.

Anyway, so there was a couple hours of shopping. Two from the film class went to see Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na as we had planned. I had been all excited to go see it, but by that point I changed my mind and opted out because I need a nap. I went back to the apartment and did so for quite some time.

Speaking of time, my sense of it is completely lost between my lost day due to the flight, waking up so early, and now from napping for four hours. It's quite strange. I guess this is part of jet lag? Perhaps?

I'll be honest here. It's not that I'm unhappy, but I'm not exactly happy either. I'm not sure of anything at this point. I'm pretty overwhelmed and disoriented. Not to mention, a little surprised that I am overwhelmed in the first place. Why am I so tense in general? Why am I shy around the other students here? I'd looked forward to this, and had read tons of things about Mumbai before I came. So I knew what to expect, and thought I'd be a better traveler than this.

I guess knowing and experiencing are different things, entirely.

Gah, sorry about this entry. The thing about writing online is that some of the nuance is lost and I sound more bleak than I truly feel. I'm sure I'll be happy here soon. I just wish I could make this panicked interim speed up!

*Waves at family members who I know are reading this blog!*

I am in India.

Wow.

So strange to see that written on my computer screen.

First impressions so far: Beeping cars, huge billboards for Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, extreme extreme humidity (it's monsoon season, but it wasn't raining when I landed), bright lights, bright colors and air pollution. Oh, the air pollution.

This makes it sound like I'm hating it, but I'm not. There's been very little time to experience anything substantial, and so very little opportunity to form opinions. I saw the airport and then took a cab to my current location. If nothing else, I have now experienced first hand the "traffic laws" here.

Flying into Mumbai airport was possibly one of the most unique experiences of my life. I was tired as hell, nervous, my stomach was protesting how little I'd been feeding it and my eyes were complaining about all the movies I watched (er. More on that later, maybe.)

But then the pilot said we were beginning our descent...

And the city lights appeared. Mumbai.

I'd be landing soon, I thought, in a daze.

I've actually made it here.