Two private screenings of "Lilkee" last week. One to a small group of Gujarati women writers, Abhivyakti with a full farsan turnout, including lovely red guava juice from Bhavnagar. The second to a film club of 8 and 9 year olds at Shishuvan School in Matunga, organized by the Pomegranate Workshop.
I cannot yell if my life depends on it, so it was Dhanno who took over the noisy, excited children and their scores of questions.
"Did Lilkee really live in the village? Was that her real mother, her real sister? Where are they now? Where are her friends?"
Seeing Dhanno's cell phone peeping out of her pocket, one child asked, "Where was her cell phone in the film?"
One little girl wanted to know how we had got a shot of the beach from so high up. A little boy answered, "Oh, they must have done it from a helicopter." I said, "No, there was a hill, and a fort, and we took a shot from the top." To which he replied, "Oh, you could have done it from a helicopter".
An important scene in the film is when Bittu, the baby swallows a bead, and the children take him to the doctor, and Tutu comes home and does not find the kids at home. After endless queries about Bittu's welfare, and whether he had really swallowed the bead, and whether he was really crying, a couple of the kids wanted to know why in the film, we don't actually see the children going to the doctor. One of them piped up, "Because they did not find an actor to play the doctor." Another said, "They did not want to show the operation." A third said, "Because the children did not go to the doctor at all."
Each one of them had their own favorite moment in the film, for someone it was when Lilkee went to school, for someone else when the girls went to the beach, for a boy when they all played football, and for another boy when Dadaji told Anushka that you should always do what you think is right, even if no one else agrees with you.
Dhanno had to sign 50 autographs and give her cell number to all of them. She was feeling very pleased with herself, certainly. And she had her two best friends along to show off to.
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8 comments:
What fun! There's a childrens' activity centre here, like PW, and they've started a film club for the kids who come there. I've told them about Lilkee, and very likely there will be a screening some time. Will try and coordinate so you can come?
Would love to. Was very nervous actually, because the children wanted to see action, adventure, comedy, before the screening.
how wonderful! and when do we get a private/public screening? when when??
amazing!! hey screen it no, please..
Sur, Mukul, Am working towards it. Keep getting caught up in all kinds of other things.
Yes - looking forward to seeing it.
hey banno of bumm bumm bholeland, i read your blog often and really enjoy it, you have a fantastic sense of humour..i skip over from sur's blog often and figured it was time to leave a note. congratulations on the completion of Lilkee, I wish I could see it too, hopefully it'll get lots of awards and be sent to America soon. I remember reading treatments on your blog when I was pregnant, my dhanno is now almost a year old and I am dreaming about her starring in my film...=) Good luck with the distribution, be aggressive, don't be all modest..get it out there!
Thanks, Kuntal, Anja, Well, the good news is that CFSI is now actually making an effort to show the film (and a few others) to commercial distributors. The Star Entertainment people liked the film, and want to see it again. So, I have my fingers crossed.
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