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Golden Age Creative Adda | Golden Age Diary | Astrophysicist

December 29, 2009 | 04:49 PM

Paani - inspiration vs efficiency in screenplay writing

As I work hard in completing the detailed screenplay for Paani, I come across something that I am sure other creative people suffer from - at least I hope they do. How do you really know if something is really good or not unless at that moment of writing your feel a surge of inspiration - a surge of emotion ? Something inside you that tells you a big 'yes'.

And how many of those inspired moments do you need in a film both in conceiving it and in the execution of it to make it inspirational for the audience ? For the film to transcend, as it were from prose to poetry ? The problem is that you could wait forever for inspiration - sitting staring out of the window as I am right now. When people ask me why I have made so few films, the real answer is that I trust my heart and not my mind. And to live through the heart all the time can be completely and utterly exhausting, frustrating and ultimately self destructive. So where does one find the balance ?

In just getting on with it. To trust that in disciplining oneself into the mundane everyday process of just being efficient and writing, the inspiration may (and usually does) come and suddenly you are alive, and your eyes blur with tears and your heart beats faster. Your fingers type without you asking them to, and you are inspired !!

Remembering that not every moment in a screenplay can be moments of great inspiration. First you will never finish it, but also you will exhaust your audience's emotions in the 2 hours they sit in the movie theater. There is the technical aspect of screenplay writing which says that "between great inspirational moments there need to be pauses and connective tissue to ease the viewers mind to the logic of story telling. It is likely that without these pauses the viewer at the end of the film will just go 'huh ??'

PAANI is a love story based in a City where the Water Wars have broken out between those that have Water and those that do not. At a time when Water has become a weapon of social and economic control.


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December 25, 2009 | 03:22 PM

Who does this planet belong to ?

IMG_0978.jpg
View of the Church behind the Hotel in Innsbruck where I normally stay. Beautiful as the church is - this is the first time in years the locals recall there being no snow here on Christmas. It's the same lament all over the Ski slopes too. There has been little snow, and of course the word on every persons lips this year is 'Global Warming'. And everywhere the feeling in Europe is that the politicians have let us down.

Of course media is playing the blame game. Some blame the US and Obama for not following the Kyoto treaty - while others blame China (and India too) for playing a great game of one upmanship with the US and President Obama. Whatever happened it just showed that the current political system is completely inept at solving any global problem.

Who does the planet belong to ? Surely the fundamental resources belong equally to all beings on this planet - no one can argue that the air belongs to everyone. Every Chinese man woman and child has the same right to the fundamental resources necessary to keep life going as does every Western man woman and child. No more no less.

So why are we looking at Carbon footprints of nations as a whole ? It should be measured per capita, and if so, the whole equation changes. Will the West ever accept that ?

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December 22, 2009 | 12:00 AM

Paani - can the making of fim be a community event ?

Why should a film be just one event ? Is it possible to share the evolution of a film - and create a community around it ? To share my thoughts and those of the others around it so the ultimate experience for the viewer is more personal and involved ?

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December 18, 2009 | 10:16 AM

Copenhagen talks are a complete sham : the wisdom of the prostitutes

In protest the prostitutes of Copenhagen offered free sex to the delegates of the Conference on Climate Change. They knew that nothing else would come off it, so just come and have fun u guys - and since your tax payers paid for all of you to fly down for a sojourn have a few drinks on us too.

What is Copenhagen about ? Posturing ? Politicking ? Individual political profiling ? The whole meaning of the climate conference is lost in meaningless and endless documents and words. The environmental cost of leaders of the world is stunning if nothing comes off it - and it seems nothing will. Meaningless stupidity.

I feel sorry and ashamed that I joined thousands of people around the world to encourage our Prime Minister to go. I did not realize it would have been so easy to subvert the process through such incredible complexity. It is so obvious that not one of the heads of state actually mean what they say.

The planet suffers from over consumption, period. 5 % of the populations consumes 80% of the worlds resources. So we HAVE to learn to live with less. We have to think about everything we do, right from simple things like how much water we expend in a shower, to the environmental cost of packaged food, even to number of clothes we buy, knowing that cotton growing is a hugely water consumptive activity,
We need to reevaluate the way we live.

And yet there is such a contradiction in what we call economic recovery- the so called Stimulus Plans all over the world ! They all work on getting the consumer to go back to consumption levels before the economic meltdown world - wide. The government of the United States is celebrating a a pre - Christmas shopping frenzy in the US as a sign of economic health -

But what about the health of our planet ?

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December 17, 2009 | 12:25 PM

Water Wars again ? Can we turn Bangladesh into a Desert ?

Sir , Now India making a Dam at the river of Barak ...Which will cause the North-east part of Bangladesh to become a desert ... Would love to know your views about this

For more >
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipaimukh_Dam

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/27/bangladesh-india-no-to-tipaimukh-dam/

The war Of Water Just been Started By India !!!


-Rajib
A Rahmaniac from Bangladesh

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December 05, 2009 | 09:44 PM

Water : It's the new Power

Watch this video , and guess what the story of Paani is ? The last statement in the video is a hint. It's not the money - it's the Power. That's where we are heading - a world where Water is power - and Power corrupts. Of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikb4WG8UJRw&feature=player_embedded

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November 21, 2009 | 09:29 PM

AR Rahman and I at Ajmer Dargah Shariff of Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti

I want to thank A R Rahman for taking me to Ajmer to visit The Dargah Sherriff of Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti. It was my first visit and going with AR Rahman made the visit even more amazing. It is very difficult and perhaps not right to write or express the feelings unless one has had time to live with them for a while.

Rahman and I were working in the music of Paani when on the way back to Mumbai I found myself sitting next to him on the flight when I had just said bye to him ! He was going to Ajmer and asked if I would come and of course I went. I saw that as a sign for the beginings of Paani.

My only regret is that I was not there for the early morning Qwaali.

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October 25, 2009 | 10:00 PM

Is there a Ganga in your Amreeka ?

Dear Shekhar

When I joke ( I know that I am not joking) with my 75 years old widowed mother in Rishikesh, who revers and loves Ganga more than anything, that 'better you die soon since Ganga is going to disappear', her ever smiling face becomes pale with gloom when she replies back, " I am going to run and jump in the lap of my mother Ganga before it happens". She refused to move with me to the US, despite my repeated persuasions for 20 years. " Is there a Ganga in your Amreeka ?" Her this question would gag me to say anything further.

Ultimately being her only child, I had to move back to India five years back.

We both are born and brought up in Rishikesh and like thousand other citizens of this small town, have silently (and cowardly) seen things going from bad to worse. A bunch of 'devotees' which performs Ganga Aarti every evening with loudspeaker, flowers and oil lamps, remains oblivious to the horrible stench of sewage, which falls in the Holy river, not more than 200 meters down.

The least we could do is to admire your sensitivity & concern to our self propelled inevitable climatic disaster. People like me are deeply touched by the intensity of your pain and feel helpless in front of the gigantic self centered ugly greed of our callous society.

Painfully

Dinesh

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The end of a Civilization ? Will the Holy Ganga dissapear ?

Water and the nature and course of rivers have for centuries defined the rise and fall of civilizations. All over the world and all throughout history. Be it the Nile or the rivers that are nurtured and fed by the Glaciers of the Himalayas.

Which have been receding at an alarming rate. Himalayan Glaciers directly or indirectly nurture 1.3 billion people in India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal through the rivers they feed. Civilizations have risen around these rivers and customs, religion and faith has been defined by their existence. What happens when these rivers disappear, as they will in the next few decades if climate change goes on as it is ? Where will we be if the Ganga disappears ?

It has happened before. The great Indus Valley civilizations like Harappa disappeared when the rivers changed course. We stand on the cusp of this disaster.

Are we going to be consigned by history as the lost civilization ? A civilization destroyed by it's own Greed and inability to understand that natures bounty is meant to be worshipped and not abused ?

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September 20, 2009 | 10:39 AM

Raise your voice against Climate Change at the UN for the 22nd onwards

Do you want to send the political leaders at the UN that are dithering about making the most fundamental changes that are required to save our planet ? If you do, then write back on this blog asap and I will make sure that all the messages are sent to the UN before or during their conference on Climate Change.

Be sure that the rich and powerful will not give up their need for greed and political imperative. Be sure that the interests of short term politics will fight hard against legislation that hurts their positions of power. Also be sure that the common claim that " Climate change is something that the original polluters of plant (read : the West) have caused and therefore must be responsible to clean up" is stupid.

Climate change will affect Asia the most. Our populations are far far larger here. We need more water from our rivers, more food from our land to sustain us. Our Glaciers are in retreat, and so will be our rivers. Our Forest cover is almost gone, as is our sustainable ground water. Uncertain monsoon patterns are/will wreak havoc with our crop growing patterns and bring down our overall growth.

Be realistic and think. We stand on the brink of social upheavals over water. This is something none of us can ignore as it will be hitting faster than most people realize.

Write, shout, make your voice heard ! Our lives depend on it.

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