I hope it's well done!

I woke up in the morning with a hangover to beat all hangovers. Hiroo (The DOP) called later in the day asking if anyone got the number of the truck. Even now much later in the following evening the wooziness is still there. I think we got a little smashed at the wrap party and a little silly later by drinking some more at home. But it felt well deserved.

Mastang Mama (50% Mast- 50% Tang) wrapped last night with the filming of the ‘Paisa’ song. I am looking back with a mixture of happiness and sadness. The road ahead is both inviting and daunting. Also now the realization that the die has been cast is finally hitting home. We are committed to the visuals we have shot, there is no going back from here. I do hope we have done them well. At this point I have no perspective on what we have created. Everything looks great and crappy at the same time. The only consolation is that better filmmakers than me have gone through this phase.

As I move on into the post production phase the mind is now looking ahead. What should I take on next, where is the next one coming from? There are a few scripts ready but it is still early days to commit to any one story. There have been feelers but it is still early to get into any active discussions. I am keeping my options open.

Arundhati Roy strikes again

Once again Arundhati Roy has political parties of all hues frothing at the mouth. This time it is her comments on Kashmir that have both side of the spectrum coming together. It is amazing see her achieve something so monumental by simply speaking her mind. Even major national calamities don’t have these parties speaking in the same voice.
Though I don’t generally agree with much of what she says on this one occasion I feel she has a point. For a very long time I have held the view that you cannot live with someone who doesn’t want to live with you. It is a simplistic argument but it holds true in any relationship. Be it a partner in a marriage or a grown child in a parent’s house or, on a larger scale, entire communities living in a country. This is especially true for a country like India which is an amalgamation of diverse identities who have come together to live under one constitution. The simple assumption is that we must want to belong to India for India as an idea to work.
In light of this India’s obsession with Kashmir just doesn’t make sense to me. Here is a community that hates Indians. They have been reluctant ‘Indians’ from the very beginning. They don’t feel the need to contribute to India in anyway. They have their own little world that is sustained by monies paid by the Indian tax payer. The Indian state has bent over backwards in trying to keep them happy over the last 6 decades. Special economic packages and constitutional acts have done nothing to endear the Indian state to the people of the valley. The political rhetoric is so strong that nothing India ever does will be good enough. The calls for azadi are today louder than ever. Frankly I think the time has come for India to cut its losses and let Kashmir go. India has spent far too much in human and economic terms on a piece of territory that is unproductive for Indian purposes and wholly unresponsive to any efforts made in amalgamating them in the Indian mainstream. In the end they have to want to be a part of India, they have to want to contribute to India and they have want to let their identities merge with India for this relationship to work. Otherwise it is a one way street. We give and give. They take and spit on us back. I quite agree with Arundhati; India needs azadi from Kashmir too.