Mee Mumbai Dairy Part I

Getting an opportunity to visit and live in mumbai was a dream come true for a small town guy like me who was madly in love with the film industry. From the very first day the quest began to gain more and more information about cinema, that had been a childhood passion. the marching steps stopped at a small film firm that used media for social change. My association became firm with the organization with regular meetups and sharing of thoughts on cinema. Here I got an opportunity to shoot for a short film that covers all the social and economic diversities in Mumbai. The movie was to be shot as a part of a film festival within a time span of 101 hours. So there I was with my first film assignment, a city still stranger to me and a mumbaikar partner to work with me.

For the very first meeting to discuss about the film we decided to meet at the churchgate station. The first time that day when I switched on our handycam and looked through lense , I saw mob like I had never before, this was the mob that represents Mumbai and its life that includes hard work to keep the clock of life ticking. The scene that we witnessed during the peek hours at the station could be easily termed as a cinematographer’s delight as we shot thousands of heads moving in one direction. After churchgate station, at mcdeez we just sat to see the footage and figure out the complete storyboard of action. Suddenly my codirector (a creative gal from Mumbai) threw a question at me as to what have I noticed about the city and my answer was like anyother outsider from Mumbai could have given, I talked about film city, 24x7 life of Mumbai and yes the open culture and the red light hangout, but deep inside somewhere I wasn’t satisfied with answer and her look and way of saying ‘ok’ was enough to clear me of my doubt. Suddenly an idea came to her mind to shoot in a local train and the next movement we were off to our journey on a local train to a unknown destination. As the train left the station we saw small kids hiding from the eyes of ticket checker frisked into the moving train with a small dirty bag in his hand. When he managed to get a space in the crowded train he started off with his business and that was of selling comic and colour books in the train. I couldn’t have missed the opportunity to film the boy who was hardly 4-5 years of age. As we tried to get friendly with the kid and startoff with the shoot 3 of his partners came to scene from different part of compartment, we got their story, that was somewhat similar to that of my dad who started off at the age of 5 with the business of selling petty items in the train at a small margin to support the family and in them I found kids of the future who would be proud of their dad just like me. We were about to reach Bandra that was where the kids were supposed to get down and suddenly tension started to get mounted on their faces as they had been involved with us and haven’t even sold a single book. We somewhat understood the reason behind there tension and it made me feel mean so I decided to buy their four comic books, but apart from me paying them I also wanted something from them and that was a footage of all of them smiling and being happy and believe me that footage is my favorite and the best one in the film.

The station arrived and the kids jumped off and this time I saw a glimpse of happiness on the faces of kids and soon they disappeared in the massive crowd but gave me a hangover that I wont ever be able to come out off. Train was about to move and we too decided to getoff too. Stepping down on the platform made me realized that this was the journey towards the transformation of my life and it was the wisest decision for me to shoot this film which was going to be more than just a film for me. Walking towards the end of the station made us feel that the film was about each and every person residing I this beautiful city no matter where one one belongs to, this is everybody’s city…. So that was the time she first gave the name “MEE MUMBAI” which was our first and the last choice as the title of the film.