Movies | Mahdi Ahmed

Posts from the ‘Movies’ category

WHAT IS YOUR LIMIT?

It’s crazy that my last post was three years ago. There have been many reasons for my absence and the best excuse I could think of is that I was busy. More on that later since at the moment, right now, I am excited to share the first official trailer for the new movie in production which I wrote. It’s called Hahdhu. Translated into English, means Limit. I will get back with the details of this movie as I start posting hopefully on a regular basis. So, without further ado, the trailer. Enjoy.

This movie is slated to release on 06 September 2017.

Cheers!

AND THE WINNER IS…

I have no explanation for my absence except that I have been away from publishing any posts here for one year, two months, three weeks and four days. That’s four hundred and forty nine days.

The night of April 29^th, 2014, ILSHA MALDIVES FILM AWARDS 2014 was held at revamped Olympus Cinema. The little film called INGILI (Finger) which Ravee Farooq, Hussain Munavvaru and I produced and released on May 16^th, 2013 was nominated in 14 categories. It was behind DHILAKANI (Fire Sparks) written by me, leading the awards with 16 nominations.

INGILI which barely managed to break even its budget commercially ran away with most of the awards including BEST PICTURE. Here’s the list of awards that INGILI bagged that night.

BEST PICTURE

BEST DIRECTOR

BEST ACTOR

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

BEST SCREENPLAY

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST MUSIC

BEST SOUND EDITING

BEST SOUND MIXING

BEST ART DIRECTION

BEST NEWCOMER ACTOR (MALE)

DHILAKANI took BEST ACTRESS and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS awards. It was an added joy for me since DHILAKANI which was thrashed critically, most of the heavy criticism targeted at the role of the leading actress. Most felt she was portrayed like a loose canon. But for me I saw a terrific character arc in the role delivered with composure by none other than superstar, Niuma Mohamed. It was her third consecutive best actress award. Awesome!

Sadly, I watched the whole show from Colombo.

Cheers!

INGILI TRAILER AND THE FINAL TEST SCREENING

Last night we concluded the test screening of INGILI (Finger). Our selected guests were veteran filmmaker Mohamed Hilmy from whom I have learnt a lot on making films, Mohamed Munthasir aka Munco who is a renowned theatre actor/writer/director/producer and finally Ahmed Shakeeb who is a film producer and owner of film studio, Movie Maldives.

After the show, Munco tweeted, ‘Attended a preview night of INGILI tonight, I enjoyed it and the effort was good. Like the flow and feel. Hope to watch it in theatres soon. Thanx for the invitation guys.’

Later Hilmy on his facebook status updated, ‘Last night I attended the preview of short film INGILI (finger) I would say it is a good gamble which will give confidence to new thinking & experimental films. I congratulate Ravi & Mahdi. Keep going, my best wishers are with you.’

On behalf of INGILI production team, our sincere gratitude goes to Hilmy, Munco and Shakeeb.

Based on the constructive feedback of last night, Ravee did few trimmings here and there this evening. The film looks better now, much better!

The shooting of Traphic Jam music video is getting a bit delayed due to their busy schedule. And if we can’t shoot it before 23^rd of this month, then we have to wrap it up during the first week of March. The official premier of the film is scheduled for 9^th March.

As promised, below is a link to the new trailer of INGILI aired on Filmy Udhares of TVM on 8^th February 2013. Your comments are most welcomed.

http://youtu.be/VNDSwpaNilE

Cheers!

ALL ABOUT INGILI

‘I was thrilled to watch Dhivehi film, INGILI. It’s a must-see.’ Those were the very words tweeted by Kayano from the popular local band Traphic Jam right after watching a preview of the movie. Kayano’s friend, Naaif who also watched the preview tweeted, ‘Breakaway from local movie stereotypes for sure. Thanks for the screening.’ The pleasure is all ours, I mean the producers.

Yesterday, the producers held a meeting with a very important person who helped the production in many ways. We discussed on premiering the movie in K. Gulhi, the very island where we had the shooting. The producers have decided to donate the ticket sales of the premiere night to the school fund of the island. This is the first time any Dhivehi film is doing such a thing. We thought we couldn’t have wrapped up INGILI (Finger) without the help of the youth of K. Gulhi. And this was the best we can do for them in return.

Director Ravee has started the color grading work of INGILI. He’s aided by CGI genius, Ahmed Shinan. Ravee is set to complete the task in ten days.

Meanwhile the shooting of music video Ingili by Traphic Jam is being planned together with the band. The music video will be featured in the end credits of the film.

As planned the new trailer of INGILI will be released on coming Friday on TVM’s Filmee Udhares. The trailer will be made available on both facebook pages of the program and the movie. And I will be uploading it on youtube and on this blog as well. So stay tuned.

Cheers!

A WORKING TITLE AND A NEW TRAILER

A brand new trailer of INGILI (Finger) is all set to be released on February 8^th 2013 on TVM’s Filmee Udhares. This trailer will feature the promotional song, Ingili performed by Traphic Jam especially for the film. This song marks the band’s first song for any Dhivehi film. As for the new trailer, it looks terrific and is aimed at youth. I sincerely hope that this trailer will restore their faith in Dhivehi cinema. Fingers crossed.

In other news, the opening title sequence of INGILI was completed last night. CGI maestro, Ahmed Shinan was commissioned to do the task which director Ravee has already seen and concluded as simply awesome. I will get to see the sequence on Saturday.

Also staying with INGILI, producer Munavvaru and I will be having a meeting on Saturday with an important person who helped the production greatly to discuss the preparation of premiering INGILI. Most of the details are still under wraps so I won’t be talking much on this topic. But one thing I can reveal is this. A date has been set for the premiere. I will go more into the details once the date is made official with the release of the new trailer. What’s the point in talking about it afterwards, I guess.

I mentioned in my recent post, PILLOW TALK about my newest writing gig that was re-outlined with my wife, well, guess what? I have given it a working title as LOABEEGE AGU (Price of Love). Two days ago I have started rewriting it. I’ve already completed 18 scenes and the rewritten part looks rock solid than the draft.

Meanwhile the draft was based on a real incident which was witnessed by the producer who commissioned me to write it, the re-write has a similar plot but is based on an incident happened to a cousin of my wife. So the re-write is going to be very different. And oh that reminds me, I have a major scene to write. Please excuse me from this post, for now.

Cheers!

CALCULATING INGILI (FINGER)

Late yesterday evening, the three producers of INGILI (Finger) met with an entrepreneur at West Park to discuss if he was interested in the theatrical and DVD distribution of the film. Unlike any other meeting we have had so far, this meeting contained numerical figures and calculations, I mean lots of both. I think we must have had spent about 45 or more minutes with the calculators of our smart phones.

To be honest, at first I was lost, thanks to my impressive mathematic skills when I was in school. The teachers ran out of starts and gave me full moons. Anyway, after a lot of explanation, I did start to understand the mathematical work outs. We wrapped up the meeting with this entrepreneur showing strong signs of, well, drumrolls, taking up the distribution. Fingers crossed.

In this meeting we have also agreed to fast track INGILI for a February premiere. Yay! We do have an agreed date but it will be made official somewhere in early February. Finally! But before that, we still have so much work to do. Producer/ director Ravee will be coming up with a schedule to shoot the music video of the song aptly titled ‘INGILI’ performed especially for the film by Traphic Jam, the most popular heavy metal band in Maldives. This music video will be used in the end credits of the film.

A night ago, Ravee invited a popular music couple for a test screening of INGILI. Their feedback has really raised our spirits. They never expected the film to be entertaining. Both of them agreed the film never had a dull moment despite the story taking place in one location with just two actors. The husband who is both a good critique and an ardent Dhivehi film lover said that INGILI is the best Dhivehi film he has seen so far. Whoops! I’m getting lifted from my chair…

Cheers!

PILLOW TALK

Last night my wife and I had the strangest of pillow talks. I discussed with her on my next writing gig. Now, does that kind of talk ever qualify as pillow talk? I guess a talk will always be a talk and when you are lying on a pillow talking, what else can it be called other than a pillow talk?

My next project actually is rewriting a draft screenplay written by Zareer, my writing partner and myself several years ago for a once very active studio, now a very dead volcano. For reasons I’m unaware of, they somehow failed to settle our payment. So this draft has been lying on the shelf collecting dust and spreading with cobwebs.

Then earlier this month Coco Hassan, a good friend of mine who’s a renowned cinematographer in the local film industry called me. He said a newbie producer was interested in producing a film and wanted to meet me on writing a screenplay. The very next day we met.

I mentioned to them about this draft which was loosely based on a real incident that my original client witnessed firsthand. Then they asked me if my original client would agree on the deal since it was loosely based on their story. To answer this issue, I return to my pillow talk once again.

A similar incident which was more related to the screen story of my draft actually happened to a cousin of my wife. And it happened quite recently and some part of it I have witnessed with my very own eyes. That’s why I asked my wife to relate everything she could recall of the incident including the background of everyone involved.

As I lay next to her holding her hand, when she began, all I had to do was close my eyes. The way my wife narrated the whole story was like watching a movie. When she was done, we both then discussed on molding the events in the draft to the events she had narrated. It was the most beautiful screenplay outlining I have ever done so far.

However, I knew something was not right when my wife was agreeing to whatever I was suggesting. She’s always on her critique mode whenever she deals with my screenplays. She’d cut it, dice it, mince it, grill it and burn it. But this time it wasn’t happening until the very climax. That’s when she pulled out her knife set at me. She disagreed to the ending. Then I asked her how she would want it. The ending she suggested was simply terrific. Then we both tweaked the ending here and there. After the whole session was over, she asked me the usual question, ‘buney?’ meaning ‘say it.’ And as usual I gave a kiss on her cheeks, a big squeeze and said, ‘Thanks honey!’

Cheers!

PLAY SCHOOL, A PREVIEW AND THIS IS A PROMISE

Yesterday I completed the final episode of the last five episodes I was commissioned to write of VAUDHEKEY MIEE (THIS IS A PROMISE), the thirteen episodes television series that’s being directed by Abdul Fatthaah which was started airing on TVM few weeks back.

I’m collaborating with Fatthaah at writing a serial or anything for that matter after almost five long years since the popular series HINITHUNVELAASHEY KALAA (SMILE, YOU). And it feels good to be writing couple of episodes for him once again. And I’m still aware of his style and craft. The current serial is very much his cup of tea and I have given him enough scenes he can direct even with his eyes closed.

In the last five episodes, I tried as much as I can to tie up the loose ends of the first eight episodes he had written. He wanted the final episode to be a real tearjerker and I have created so many situations where the actors can cry themselves so much that if need be, they can dry up their tear glands by the time the serial ends and long after the end credits roll.

Fatthaah has already read the four episodes and confirmed them good. As long as he’s happy, I’m happy.

Last Friday night, the producers of INGILI, they are in no particular order, Ravee, Munavvaru and myself held a preview of the film for selected guests. After the show was over, we all had a good chat and listened to their feedback. Ravee was busy taking notes. Most of the feedback was positive and they all enjoyed the film which was restricted to a small hut with just two actors for the entire duration of the movie. Everyone praised the lively conversation of the two actors.

The very next day director Ravee made corrections to the final edit based on the very constructive comments given by the selected guests.

The three producers met yesterday to discuss on the final preparation of the movie. The main agenda was negotiating with a high profile studio for theatrical and DVD distribution of the film. The owner of this studio was eager to make a deal and will give us an answer inside this week.

We are hoping to release INGILI on February.

I have left the best for the last. As parents, the most exciting thing that happened to my wife and I were taking our son to school for the first time. The academic year started on January 14^thand as the day drew closer, we were dreading the thought of taking him to school. It was an unexplainable fear that was creeping inside both of us ever since we enrolled him. But my son was feeling quite the opposite. He was very eager to start his very first play school.

He was in top form when he got ready. He was dancing and smiling and teasing with his cousin who was a year older and was starting junior nursery at the same school. The story was completely different once he entered his class. He started weeping. Infact all the kids were crying. The play school was more appropriate to be called the crying school. The whole of last week he went to school, well, he cried in the class. But with each day, he’s adjusting himself to his class, his teachers and his classmates. And he cries a lot less now.

So before I start to weep a tear or two, I say Cheers!

THIS IS A PROMISE, I WRITE

After carefully going through the already written eight episodes of VAUDHEKEY MIEE (THIS IS A PROMISE) which was written and being directed by Abdul Fatthaah, I have started writing the remaining five episodes. A little while ago, I just finished episode nine.

But I must confess that outlining the last five was not an easy task than I first thought it would be. Mostly when I outlined, I was forced to tie up several loose ends. And even in the last five episodes I had to redefine some of the key characters. Since the first four episodes were already shot, I didn’t have much choice to tweak the other written four episodes which goes behind the camera on 10^th of this month. I wanted to do few adjustments here and there but realized that doing so would require rewriting all of them, meaning I won’t be able to complete them when the production resumes.

So I decided to leave them as it is and continue outlining the last five. I had to do a lot of research which again was done very little in the already written eight episodes. I hope to complete at least episode ten and eleven before Fatthaah leaves with his cast and crew to Eydhafushi of Baa Atoll. To do that I have only two days. And I have roughly a week to complete all five.

So without spending too much time, I cut short this post for now and turn my focus to write episode ten.

Cheers!

DAY ONE OF 2013

It’s only the first day of 2013 and I’m already finding myself occupied with work. Here are the updates.

I’m commissioned to complete the remaining five episodes of a thirteen episodes television serial called VAUDHEKEY MIEE (This is a Promise) which was started writing by director Abdul Fatthah for TVM. He is also directing it. He has already completed shooting the first four episodes and will sail out to the islands to shoot the other four. So before he completes the production, I need to write the rest which is also based on the same island.

Fatthah and I go long way back with television serials. The most serials I have written are for him especially HINITHUNVELAASHEY KALAA (Smile, You) of fifty two episodes which had a nationwide following and most of its episodes had an island setting.

He has given me a short deadline for the current task and I have the most difficult of hurdles to cross, reading the eight episodes he has written. Did I ever mention in any of my previous posts that I hate reading? Yes, I do, big time.

Then there’s a new producer whom I met last night through a good friend of mine. He asked me to write a full feature which is set to begin production around March. Fortunately, I have a draft screenplay which I co-wrote with my writing partner, Ahmed Zareer for a production company who’s yet to pay us for our work. It’s been two years since then. However, this screenplay never saw the light of pre-production and was eventually shelved. Somewhere last year, I remember asking for their approval that I pitch it for a different producer. They did give me green light, verbally though. Anyway, I have mailed this draft to this new producer. I’m expected to have a feedback in a week’s time.

Then there’s another screenplay under a similar spell which has been shelved for three long years. But for this one, I have got the approval in writing, via the SMS I have exchanged with its producer. This screenplay is on standby to a high profile actor/ director/ producer who wants a screenplay real soon in case he doesn’t get the screenplay he asked from my writing partner Ahmed Zareer delivered before the short deadline.

Well, that’s all for now.

Cheers!