CONTINUED FROM PART I....
March 3- Called on the Mohant Laxminarayan of the Viswanath temple. The purpose was to persuade him to give us facilities for shooting inside the temple (something which had never been done before). Pandey, our intermediary, had insisted that I shouldn't be reticent but should 'project my personality' which he was sure would clinch the deal. Two things stood in the way: (a) my lack of chaste Hindi and Mohant's lack of any other language, and (b) the fact that the chairs we were given to sit upon had been designed for the maximum comfort of bugs.
It seems at least two more visits will be required before the great Mohant condescends to give a nod of that immobile head of him.
Stopped on our way back at the temple, we were told that we were in time for the Saptarshi Arati. A spine-tingling experience. Those who miss it miss one of the great audio-visual treats. Pity I can't use it in any except a decorative manner in the present film....
March 4- Visited the Durga temple. People who come here with the intent of offering a prayer to the deity usually do so with half a mind, the other half being on the monkeys. These animals go about the place as if they owned it. Irresistibly funny, they sometimes go for your bag of peanuts with alarming viciousness. But when they swing from the bell-ropes and perform an impromptu carillon, the sights and sounds are no longer merely comic.
Rich possibility of a scene here, with Apu.
March 8- Worked on the script. The opening is a problem, always is. Long shots establishing locale are a cliche. But should one entirely dispense with them in a film which opens in Banaras? The urge not to do so is strong.
As in Pather Panchali, I find it has helped in not having a tight script. Working in these circumstances one must leave a lot of room for improvisation within the framework of a broad scheme which one must keep in one's head.
March 15- At the ghats at 5 a.m. to shoot pigeons. Memorable fiasco. The shot was to be of the pigeons taking flight in a body from their perch on the cornices and making enormous circular sweeps in the sky, as is the way with them. We had a fairly potent looking bomb which we meant to explode to set the pigeons flying. The camera was set up and Subir had set the match to the fuse, when, with barely half a minute to go, Nimai started making frantic but indefinable gestures. We could sense something was wrong, and Subir made an eloquently mimed appeal to the bomb to refrain from exploding. The bomb went off, the pigeons performed nobly, but the camera didn't turn. And then we discovered that the motor had not been connected to the battery.
Luckily, after three or four sweeps the pigeons were back on their perch, and with the second bomb (we had four) we had our shot.
Took the 9'o'clock train to Moghulsarai. Ramani Babu (seventy-year old resident of Banaras we picked up on the ghat) with us to play Uncle Bhabataran : also Karuna and Pinky. Shooting inside a third-class compartment. Sarbajaya and Apu leave Banaras with Bhabataran. Train crosses bridge. S and A look out of the window. B eats an orange, spit pis out of window. We give the old man an orange but he consumes it before the camera is ready, so we give him another. Shot is ok, subject to the Tri-X performing as expected.
TO BE CONTINUED...
March 3- Called on the Mohant Laxminarayan of the Viswanath temple. The purpose was to persuade him to give us facilities for shooting inside the temple (something which had never been done before). Pandey, our intermediary, had insisted that I shouldn't be reticent but should 'project my personality' which he was sure would clinch the deal. Two things stood in the way: (a) my lack of chaste Hindi and Mohant's lack of any other language, and (b) the fact that the chairs we were given to sit upon had been designed for the maximum comfort of bugs.
It seems at least two more visits will be required before the great Mohant condescends to give a nod of that immobile head of him.
Stopped on our way back at the temple, we were told that we were in time for the Saptarshi Arati. A spine-tingling experience. Those who miss it miss one of the great audio-visual treats. Pity I can't use it in any except a decorative manner in the present film....
March 4- Visited the Durga temple. People who come here with the intent of offering a prayer to the deity usually do so with half a mind, the other half being on the monkeys. These animals go about the place as if they owned it. Irresistibly funny, they sometimes go for your bag of peanuts with alarming viciousness. But when they swing from the bell-ropes and perform an impromptu carillon, the sights and sounds are no longer merely comic.
Rich possibility of a scene here, with Apu.
March 8- Worked on the script. The opening is a problem, always is. Long shots establishing locale are a cliche. But should one entirely dispense with them in a film which opens in Banaras? The urge not to do so is strong.
As in Pather Panchali, I find it has helped in not having a tight script. Working in these circumstances one must leave a lot of room for improvisation within the framework of a broad scheme which one must keep in one's head.
March 15- At the ghats at 5 a.m. to shoot pigeons. Memorable fiasco. The shot was to be of the pigeons taking flight in a body from their perch on the cornices and making enormous circular sweeps in the sky, as is the way with them. We had a fairly potent looking bomb which we meant to explode to set the pigeons flying. The camera was set up and Subir had set the match to the fuse, when, with barely half a minute to go, Nimai started making frantic but indefinable gestures. We could sense something was wrong, and Subir made an eloquently mimed appeal to the bomb to refrain from exploding. The bomb went off, the pigeons performed nobly, but the camera didn't turn. And then we discovered that the motor had not been connected to the battery.
Luckily, after three or four sweeps the pigeons were back on their perch, and with the second bomb (we had four) we had our shot.
Took the 9'o'clock train to Moghulsarai. Ramani Babu (seventy-year old resident of Banaras we picked up on the ghat) with us to play Uncle Bhabataran : also Karuna and Pinky. Shooting inside a third-class compartment. Sarbajaya and Apu leave Banaras with Bhabataran. Train crosses bridge. S and A look out of the window. B eats an orange, spit pis out of window. We give the old man an orange but he consumes it before the camera is ready, so we give him another. Shot is ok, subject to the Tri-X performing as expected.
TO BE CONTINUED...
The next one will be the last part !! :D
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