Mahdi Ahmed

Hopefully today, if not surely tomorrow, one of the co-producer slash actor of INGILI will fly down to his island of birth to build the set required for the production of INGILI. We, the production team were unsuccessful at finding a right location director, RAVI has visualized. Since we were skidding behind schedule, location hunting was halted and turned to plan B. We have decided to build the required set that was designed giving careful attention to camera movements. More than anything else, RAVI wants fluidity in his storytelling.

After helming a short film for ETERNAL PICTURES last week, on Monday, RAVI will sit down with his long time cinematographer to start work on INGILI storyboards. He has confirmed 5 days to wrap storyboarding.

We have also confirmed a talent to compose the music for INGILI. All the names including cast will be revealed officially a day before the production starts.

INGILI is being fast tracked for a mid-April shooting and an early June release.

SEEZAN has spoken. He has given his comments after reading the draft of VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA. Below is a brief summary of the long conversation I had with him on Friday afternoon.

First and foremost, he wanted the climax to be corny, the way I see it, that’s the only way the climax would turn up if his changes are incorporated. Unsurprisingly, like the trend of many local directors and producers these days, he wants the audience to cry an ocean. What, from a film that was written with a noir genre in mind! Anyway, he gave me his version of the climax or what he imagined, at which I was not able to digest even a little bit. I felt that not only his climax would make the characters and their inner selves unbelievable but the whole concept would turn unrealistic. Last but not least, he wanted more melodrama at situations where drama or melodrama was not required.

After much thought, I came up with a possible way to make the climax closer to what SEEZAN imagined but less what he imagined. However, to achieve this, I need to write few extra scenes that would lead up to a climax that would satisfy SEEZAN. Well, in this afternoon’s conversation with him, I explained to him of the new climax. Luckily, he was convinced. Phew!

It took more than thirty minutes to make him understand my point of view. For some odd reason, by then I was mentally tired, but I managed to ask him about other changes he wanted. He had a total of five additional changes, all of them to which I only agreed when he justified his reasons. That was when I switched  myself to listening mode meanwhile making shorthand notes of what he was trying to explain. After he was done, we hung up. I must say that even though I disagreed to most of what he said, at the end of the day, it’s his baby I am writing and I am fully obliged to write and rewrite to his standards.

I will begin rewriting in a days time, and hopefully within three days I can submit a screenplay that SEEZAN approves of.

My last post was on November last year. Now it’s 2009, and a month has already passed from this year. Often I have asked myself, what the hell have I done lately? Now after 2 months and few days later, I am going to answer that question to the best of my ability.

To be honest, I haven’t done much. However, last year marked a good year for me in writing. Unfortunately none were produced. Most of my screenplays were shelved due to budget constraints. Only 00:00 was green lit. Even that has fallen in to a getting-delayed curse. But good news is that 00:00 will start principal photography in mid March, that’s next month. That’s something to get excited about.

I must confess that I felt tired after writing so much last year. So obviously I needed a break to reboot my brain cells. That I did on December. I took a holiday with my wife to amazing Cambodia. We stayed in Phnom Penh where everything’s cheap and the traffic is a jam. We also visited the wondrous Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Usually I am a wet blanket myself when it comes to sight seeing, but Angkor Wat took my breath away. Thanks to my wife for dragging me there and in the end we ended up having the time of our lives. Actually this trip to Cambodia was like killing two birds with one stone. First it was a much needed holiday for us. Secondly to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. We married on 16th December 2004. We also declared this our second honeymoon since our first honeymoon ended in tragedy in Phuket on 26th December 2004. That was the day the tsunami hit. We made a narrow escape, luckily.

After returning from Cambodia, immediately I started working on a concept Seezan discussed earlier last year. I even started writing to some extent and then for some odd reason or two stopped. Now I have resumed writing on this suspense thriller with a love triangle that unveils in NuwaraEliya, Sri Lanka where the two from three play each other with tragic consequences. The working title of this one is called KEHI meaning TRICK. At first I had scheduled to wrap up writing in January. But due to unforeseen circumstances such as getting busy at office and many more, I was unable to finish. So cometh February and I am hoping to hand over the first draft to Seezan by the end of this month.

In the midst of writing KEHI, I did something I haven’t done before. Halted writing it and finished another one. Sometimes these norms are meant to be broken. This another one was not only a quickie but a shorty for Ted, the finest Dhivehi film maker on my map. It was a short film screenplay of 10-15 minutes which Ted is going to make for an NGO with an anti-drug agenda.

I have delivered that screenplay titled HIYANI, translated REFLECTION. It’s about a drug addict girl who on her final minutes of fragile life reflects on her past. The screenplay shows how sinister forces in society turns innocent people in to addicts. Then again, its up to each and every individual to decide the path that individual wants to walk.

Ted’s contract has 2 short films. The first one’s written. And the second one is also to be written by me. But Ted is suppose to construct the structure of that screenplay. I am eagerly awaiting for him to finish his part which I am sure he will do in no time. It’s always a pleasure to be part of his team.

Coming back to Seezan’s screenplay, so far I have written the first 30 minutes of it. But I need to fast track my work on this one, even though the structure has been made. This year I have resolved to write more than I have written last year. So God help me achieve this goal.

When I am done rewriting RAANIYA, I might start working on ’40’ which is a drama set in a sleepy suburb of Male’ with very shady characters. Once again ’40’ relies heavily on a twist but of another kind. What’s with these twists these days? I haven’t a clue why I am so overly obsessed with twisting my screenplays with twists after twists.

But twisting goes back a long way. I was first fascinated with twists when I saw USUAL SUSPECTS. Then there was FIGHT CLUB. But twists twisted my mind with SIXTH SENSE. Then OTHERS forever twisted my fate.

I did a little bit of experimenting when I wrote VAAREY for then Ministry of Atolls Administration teledrama in 2000. It had this dramatic twist which kind of work at some levels. I was able to hide the truth from the audience and worked my way towards the twist at the end. When I wrote VAAREY, I was influenced by the SIXTH SENSE, which was released the previous year. VAAREY was an excellent experience that started the tale of my twisting. Since I am talking too much about twisting, Elvis is trying to contact me from his grave. He wants to know if I have turns with my twists.

Months back, I have developed the whole structure of ’40’ with my co-writer AHMED ZAREER. Visual director SHAREE was attached to direct. But just as writing was about to begin, there was a twist. SHAREE insisted on halting the project. He found ’00:00′ more tantalising. However, once writing ’00:00′ was completed, there were more twists. SHAREE’s schedule changed, the production was delayed for months, and then the producer left the project due to all these delays. In the end ’00:00′ was acquired by DV PRODUCTIONS. And to date, that project is still facing more delays. First, the production was delayed when shooting fell into the month of Ramadan, and now the political tension in the country has suspended the project indefinitely.

Coming back to ’40’, I have already negotiated this project with a studio. And now it’s almost a done deal. The studio is scheduling to begin shooting during the first quarter of 2009, and they will do all they can to get hold of SHAREE to direct.