Yesterday evening SEEZAN confirmed that he delayed the production of VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA, indefinitely. Then last night, the location scouting trip the production team of INGILI set for K.GULHI on Friday had to be, not only delayed but cancelled. That means K.GULHI is no longer in our scouting list. We came to know that K.GULHI has no location whatsoever that would accommodate the visuals of director RAVI.

The set needs to be built on a location that has thick foliage all around and should give a menacing feel immediately. Sadly, K.GULHI has no location of such.

The production team started working on a backup plan immediately. Luckily we were able to hold talks with K.HIMMAFUSHI. The production team is yet to receive an answer from them. Consider this plan D.

We know we are slipping further and further away from the schedule, but we are not worried since we still have 22 more letters from the English alphabet. However, our panic button would set off if we run up to plan X.

If plan D bombs, we have plan E and F on standby. More news on these two plans, if plan D fails for real, that is.

As for the status on storyboarding, RAVI and his DP are working on it feverishly.

VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA (FAITHFUL TRICKSTER) was handed over to SEEZAN yesterday at the same place where he first assigned me to write it. More than a year ago, he and his then producer, HASSAN sat with me at the terrace restaurant of CENTRAL HOTEL that gave us a view overlooking Male’ in 360 degrees. It was an evening. The sun was beginning to set.

Fast forward to yesterday, the same place, the same time, however without HASSAN, I sat with SEEZAN to submit the draft screenplay of VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA. It was a memorable moment in that sense, I guess. SEEZAN was ecstatic. He assured that he’d read the screenplay last night. So I am hoping that he’d call me with his feedback sometime today.

If he has any feedbacks or amendments, I have timelined to rewrite within two days, but only if his comments are justifiable. But if I find his changes spoiling all the fun, then I am going to refute with him until he proves me wrong.

Yesterday, SEEZAN also showed me a teaser poster concept of VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA which he will run as a slide during the commercial break of his upcoming movie, KARUNAVEE BEYVAFAA (TEARS TURNED UNFAITHFUL or something like that) which opens on April 7th. I think he comes up with strange titles that speak of being faithful or unfaithful. That’s no problem as long as he stay faithful to the noir feel I have created in VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA.

SEEZAN is scheduling to officially launch VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA around 25^th of April where he will unveil all casting details as well. He promised a surprise on that day. Can’t wait to hear what it is. After official launching, he and his producers are scheduled to fly to Nuwaraeliya for location scouting. Well, that’ all for now and will return with updates as they come…

Today, 29th March of 2009, a day before the deadline, I have completed twisting  VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA (FAITHFUL TRICKSTER) which was started writing under the title, THINESKAN LOABI (LOVE TRIANGLE). After more than a year of shelving, writing, shelving, writing and retitling, I have finally exorcised this curse off me. I may have finished writing a day early but I will be handing over the draft with spiral binding, of course, to SEEZAN on Tuesday. I just want a day, to go through the screenplay from beginning to end, see if it holds on its own or if the plot has left any unanswered questions since there’s lot of red herrings and twists and turns thrown at every possible corner. This has more twists than a pretzel, I must say. I have also given full attention to make it easier for the audience to understand the intricate plot and will once again examine that too. That’s all happening tomorrow. I hope I don’t get any impromptu ideas to add more twists.

Last Friday and Saturday I have worked from six in the morning till twelve in the afternoon. Then resumed writing from four in the evening till eight at night. I finished the screenplay today, before twelve.  I guess when I get in to the right groove, there’s no letting up. Probably, the third act was more fun than the first two acts since tables get turned unexpectedly with every passing minute. What I enjoyed writing most was the build up to the climax and the climax itself and the unexpected twists and the twist that comes after the final surprising twist. Okay, I am lost here! How are these twists arranged again?

How much tempted I am inclined to give a summary of the plot, doing that would definitely spoil the fun. It’s really hard to resist this urge to reveal the plotline, that’s why I am writing off this post for now. When this temptation subsides, I will return with SEEZAN’s feedback. I just hope he can get out of the entangled plot easily. If that happens, I believe I have achieved!

It’s now official that the screenplay I am writing for SEEZAN will be called VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA (FAITHFUL TRICKSTER) and not DHUNFINI (FOG). Alas! SEEZAN made this decision in an interview given to AAFATHIS daily today. He made this move after discussing with several talents working in Dhivehi film industry including his producer. Two days ago, he mentioned that his producer also liked the official title. It seems that that title has the ability to tease the moviegoers on checking out who a TRICKSTER is, who’s also FAITHFUL. Anyone in real life and not in reel life who is? Anyhow, I guess from a commercial point of view, they have a point there.

However, I am going to wrap up this screenplay under the working title, DHUNFINI. It’s more relevant to the storyline and gives me more depth visually when I am writing.

As for a status update on the screenplay, I have started writing on the new changed structure. And I must say that it’s going good. My deadline is end of this month. Hopefully, I will give SEEZAN a draft on 31st.

Referring back to that interview, SEEZAN promised that he’s going to give the moviegoers a BIG surprise on the casting of the second leading actress in the film. I wonder who she might be. Let me guess… I have no idea. I just hope she fits her character though. .

More news on the screenplay later.

Location scouting has begun for experimental film, INGILI which will be produced under the banners; R2, DV PRODUCTIONS and NQP.

The production team has been contacting several islands to find the one and only location that will be shown through out the entire duration of the film.

However, the production of INGILI has set of preferences for the location where the highest priority is enough space for the camera dynamics. If need be, a set will be designed on an existing location. There will be lots of water works as the film takes place on a very stormy night. Expect some lightning too. Thunderclaps can be added at post production. Therefore, the latter is not a problem.

The production team has received snaps of some of the locations available in F. NILANDHOO and N. KENDHIKOLHUDHOO. More are expected from other islands including AA. BODUFOLHADHOO who has shown a keen interest on having the production of INGILI there.

Hopefully, before director, RAVI returns from India, he will have enough locations to choose from.

The only two actors in the film, has started prepping on their roles.

More on INGILI later.

I have recommenced working on the screenplay that I began writing more than a year ago, or is it more? Never mind, I have either developed amnesia or have lost track. Hello! What’s this blog I am writing?

In a strange way, writing this above mentioned screenplay have been obstructed by unforeseen circumstances not excluding the thrill to write even though it’s supposed to be a suspense thriller. How ironical is that?

Regardless of what curse I have fallen in to, here’s a brief recap on how writing this screenplay began. Actor/ director, SEEZAN and his producer, HASSAN approached me first. Isn’t that how I always start writing, someone approaches me first? Oh my, I really am amnesiac. Anyhow, SEEZAN and HASSAN wanted me to write a screenplay which was to be based on a concept by the former.

I began structuring the screenplay with a working title called THINESKAN LOABI (LOVE TRIANGLE) which demanded more time to structure since I had to convolve the storyline from start to finish holding the suspense until the climax. Few weeks later, tragedy struck. SEEZAN and HASSAN split leaving me at a crossroad. I was uncertain of who would be claiming the ownership of the screenplay. I was waiting either one of them to call and clear the air. Somehow, I never bothered to call neither. Days passed in to weeks, weeks in to months and finally a year had passed. No one called. So, I decided to shelve the screenplay until SEEZAN or HASSAN clarified my issue. Bet they never thought I was having a serious issue.

Finally, several days later, I think it was more than 365 days, SEEZAN met me and confirmed HASSAN and his split. When asked, he explained that he would be claiming the rights to the screenplay since it was his concept in the first place. Well, he had a good point there. HASSAN failed to call me, so I concluded that SEEZAN as the proprietor. He even confirmed to finance the screenplay. That’s when I was forced to take out the screenplay back from the shelf and had to wipe up all the dust that had gathered on it… atchoo! God bless me!

I restarted writing with a changed working title called KEHI (TRICK) However, few scenes later; I shelved it again to work on couple of other interesting screenplays since (a) I never had a deadline for KEHI and (b) SEEZAN was on a busy schedule with several projects that would eat up several months from the calendar. Since then, KEHI has been lying in the shelf for dust to gather on it once again. Well, not really. Am I stupid or what? KEHI was saved in to my laptop from day one. Looks like, my condition is beyond amnesia.

Fast forward to today. I am living a recluse with amnesia and insomnia? No, a month ago, SEEZAN wanted to fast track the project. He even time lined the production for a May start.

I retitled the screenplay from KEHI to KEHIVERIYAA (TRICKSTER). Unfortunately, SEEZAN was not happy. Neither was I. We had a quick brainstorming session to decide upon a relevant title. We did come up with interesting names like FARUDHAA (CURTAIN) and so forth. But all of them failed to win us over.

Then one day, still brooding over a title, we came up with DHUNFINI (FOG). It rang out mysterious and I found the title very meaningful. However, SEEZAN was less enthusiastic. He wanted something that would easily entice the general audience. He was opting for a title that was long, probably with two words or a sentence even. His choice was VAFAATHERI KEHIVERIYAA (FAITHFUL TRICKSTER). Now, I was contradicting his title. When I write, my working title should always sound and feel comfortable for me.

I decided to go with DHUNFINI for the time being. But he wants to confirm a title since he wanted to officially announce the production. Guess he could go with any name as films tend to change their names many times before their releasing.

Okay, enough with titles. A week ago, I gave SEEZAN the first hour of the screenplay which consisted of 35 scenes. He was largely happy, but wanted few changes from here and there. But above all, he wanted massive changes in the second half including broadening of characters that were made minor in the already written part. The biggest challenge was to hustle character development of the role that he was cast to play. Working on these changes have given me a migraine attack. Yes, even now! I have been restructuring the second half from scratch including making deliberate changes to the first half in order to accommodate the changes that were brought to the second half. Am I making sense, here?

For days now I have been stuck structuring and making adjustments to the written part. I am still moving plot points around adding new ones here and there. In spite of this, I must confess that working on these changes have opened up for new surprises. They have given a good build up for the third act and the climax. And the screenplay, it has a more noirish feel too. I am keeping my fingers crossed that SEEZAN, who is set to direct as well would give his translation the same feel and atmosphere:  It’s late on a full moon night. A bat flies over the lifeless trees with a haunting cry. An imageless shadow starts to form through the  static fog that has engulfed the garden area. The shadow begins to appear more distinctive forming a shape of a human. Slowly, through the fog comes a woman in her mid thirties. Her face beaten to a pulp…

I will be done structuring within a day or two. I am pushed to speed up writing. I have to hand over a draft at the end of this month. Besides, I really need to wrap this up as I have set my eyes on a news article about a chilling true incident. I was so fascinated with this article that I have already gathered all the information related to this incident from all the online dailies. I think I can work on an awesome nonlinear screenplay.

But that’s not going to happen any time soon until I am done writing DHUNFINI? Or is it FARUDHAA? Or is it KEHIVERIYAA? Or is it KEHI? Only time will tell what name to call this screenplay which I have been writing oh so long time ago. It’s a personal record, even considering the titles…

Yesterday I have completed writing INGILI, an experimental  feature film to be produced by RAVI, MUA and myself. Surprise! Surprise! This will be marked as my first gig as a producer.

The screenplay is based on a three page short story written by a student at the 2007 national short story competition. He was only 14 years then. Recently we, the producers bought the story from him including all the rights for an amount I choose not to disclose.

It was I who first came across this story two years ago, while I was judging the short stories of age group 13-16 years of the aforementioned competition. No sooner narrating this story had started, each story was narrated for the judges by a narrator, from the opening paragraph I started visually seeing everything like a complete film with all the camera movements and music. The story felt unique and above all, original. I felt strongly that it should be told in a film. After the judging session, on my way home, I couldn’t think of anything else but that story. It was deeply registered inside my head.

That night, instead of sleeping, I kept thinking about it. I just counldn’t concentrate on anything else. I knew I had to do something. Next day, I started writing it as a screenplay. It was unbelievable that I wrote a prologue of 7 pages without ever having to touch the events that take place in the actual story.

This was when I realized I could extend my screenplay from 45 minutes to a feature length of 90 minutes. However, after the seventh page, I decided not to continue without getting an approval from the writer first. Instead, for some odd reason, I shelved the whole project until around November last year, I once again read the 7 pages and the concept started knocking my head constantly only this time harder. I called up a friend of mine who conducted the competition and retrieved all the information about the writer and how I could buy the rights to his story.

Two years, several screenplays and uncountable coffee sessions later, I narrated the whole story to RAVI and MUA. We meet almost every evening at coffee. They were blown away completely. With in few days, we contacted the writer and his father. They agreed to our terms and so did we to theirs. We sealed the deal on a late Friday afternoon of 27^th February 2009 at a coffee house called Palm Deck. Or was it a coffee house or an open air restaurant?

I resumed writing the very next day. Since the screenplay had only one scene, one location and two characters, I structured the whole screenplay like several scenes with in one scene. I planned writing a bit each day. It deals with two extreme characters, who start off the story routinely but as the story progresses, their inner selves are peeled off layer by layer, the tension mounts by the minute and reaches it’s peak at the climax. Consider this film a part psychological and a part suspense thriller.

Eight days later, I completed the screenplay. I must say that during these few days, I turned insomniac. I found myself wide awake, constructing the screenplay in my head and then transferring what I had constructed in to my little black book. During the four holidays that came inside that week, I was up at 0530 in the morning to write.

Now that I am done writing, I have given the draft to RAVI, who is set to direct. And I have asked my dear wife to have a read which she will do with in next two days. Once she and RAVI give their comments, I will do a rewrite. Once that is done, I will hand over a copy each to the two actors playing the only two characters of the film respectively. They will not only comment, but will adjust their dialogues to their liking. After that, I will go back to rewriting and will finalize the screenplay. Afterwards, I will sit with RAVI for storyboarding. We have already done casting and will reveal them once we plan the production.

I guess I have not said much about the plot. That was deliberate. This screenplay is kept tight-lipped and under wraps. However, I will be revealing as much as I can about the pre-production, production and post production. And soon, we will be creating a facebook group on INGILI. Until then, I remain suppressed.

AHAREN a film I co-wrote with MOHAMED HILMY and directed by BAARU SHAREE which was proclaimed a flop at the box office has made its debut on TVM last night, as a 5 part mini-series. AHAREN will fill the TVM Monday night slot vacated by HINITHUNVELAASHEY KALAA which ended on 11th November 2008.

AHAREN literally translated ‘I’ was co-produced by UNFPA as part of a gender sensitization project that tackles the issue of violence against women. The film also has a subplot concerning drug addiction. Take note that it was not released with any intention of raising a profit. Does that mean whatever this film did at the box office doesn’t make it a flop? I don’t know, I am not the judge here. I am just stating the facts. Who am I rebutting, anyway? Me, I or myself? Guess the title has gotten in to my nerves.

Apart from AHAREN being a flop, it will also be remembered when most of its cast and crew raised their disappointment when the film was not submitted for the 5th National Film Awards. The cast and crew are yet to know from the producer why it was not submitted. I haven’t the slightest clue. Did the producer forget?

Anyway, lets see how AHAREN fares on small screen. Is the audience paying to watch this film on TV as well? Thought this was a non-profit project.