Filming finished. I can't believe it! It went very well, very quickly. All the scenes were set before hand and were mostly very short; a second or two, merely for the image. I worked some shadow puppets, held some lights and at the end I performed the silks routine I had choreographed for Papin and me. It all seemed to go very smoothly - I can't wait to see the photos and the footage!
It really feels like the first day of my holidays. We got home after the filming and I finally got to bed about 1am last night and we were all up again at 6.30am to do the Old City tour. It was well worth it. There was Kim, Indira and me, then two australian women and an Indian man and his son. We meet at the MG Hotel which is a fairly top end Indian hotel (about £60-£100 per night). Pretty swish. The guide started us off at a havela which is an old wooden house with really intricate carvings on the pillars and walls. It was 200 years old, but the style of architecture is 400 years old. These houses are so beautiful!! Then he took us around all of the back streets, in amongst these old houses, tiny secret passageways, all full of rubbish, dogs, shit and piss and people just living there brushing their teeth. It was pretty cool. You are shown through tiny passageways you would never find on your own, even if you were a bit of an explorer. I would definitely recommend it. They offer the tour with breakfast at the end as well for an extra 250 rupees, but that's quite a lot and I think you could probably find a much nicer breakfast nearby for a fraction of the price. We just went home and had chai and toast. Yum!
So after breakfast I showered, chilled for a bit and then headed back into Darpana area. I went back to the istri wallah to put in a couple of things for me and Kim and got a friendly "kemcho" as I suppose I'm pretty easy to remember. Then Indira and I headed off to Satellite - which is miles away - to pick up the tailoring we've had in there since our visit to Gamti Wallah, right at the beginning of the India trip! We had been looking forward to getting our Indian outfits and we've finally managed to get them less than 1 week before we have to go home. We did all of this while Kim had a meeting with Mallika Sarabhai to discuss the future of the project from the result of the rehearsals and filming. All of our clothes from the tailor came out fine; she still didn't really listen to a lot of the things we'd asked for, but fortunately the end result (after a few changes here and there) was good and overall I'm pretty happy. As we all are.
The place we're staying is opposite the railway tracks. As you come out, if you turn right you get to the Calico Museum which is the old textile museum with the crazy tour guide. Opposite that is a not particularly amazing, but very big, Hindu temple. Indira is very into her incense and ashrams and temples and stuff, so she'd been interested in going since we arrived. There are also, dotted around the city, lots of little shrines; from ones in the middle of a roundabout to tiny little ones at the foot of a tree. Indira has stopped to take a picture of the little shrine on our street when this couple, who were on their way to the temple, invited us (in Gujarati) to join them to pray. It was while pooja was going on so it sounded as if there was a huge party of drums and bells. As we approached it just got louder and louder, and when we got inside it was deafening. You ring the bell if you're going to pray at a shrine in order to wake up the gods, but this was crazy! Inside there are lots of little shrines leading up to the main one where all the drums and bells are, and by the time you get to the top of the steps outside the door I couldn't even hear the bells and drums; just a blanket of noise wrapped around my head! And the smell of incense was overpowering! Anyway, Indira prayed to some shrines and reluctantly, but to the delight of the other temple goers, waved a feathery mop thing side to side which we thought may be to waft incense up the gods, but we weren't sure. We were chatted to by an enthusiastic old man about Hinduism, but it was in a mixture of English and Gujarati, drowned out by the deafening clangs, so I couldn't really understand what he was saying. I managed to make out that going to pray at a temple is recharging your soul, like going on a walk is recharging your body, but that's about it.
When we got home we saw Kim who was pretty pleased with her meeting with Mallika. She had expressed her concerns about wanting to create a four person show, but knowing it would have to include the entire company if it was performed at the Sarabhai Festival in December. She was obviously worried about doing that, then scaling it down suddenly and quickly for touring in Scotland. But, Mallika seemed to think that'd be fine, saying she'd done it before. Mum was also worried what role Mallika would want in it as she didn't have a particular role in mind for her, and originally she thought of her as a producer, but during the project she thought Mallika may want to perform as well. She was quite pleased to perform the lead woman if Sonal wasn't chosen for the role (she had been playing it during the development). Anyway, the final word was that Mallika wanted it, but she wanted to have a little think first before she made up her mind; she wanted to know what the best thing for the project would be. Her doubts about turning a full company show into a four person show were quite strong and she wanted to make the best decision. I have been hoping she does it, because despite all the struggles of working here to do it here means not only would it finally happen, but it would be fully funded by Mallika. Most of all, it would be an utterly amazing experience! If we didn't do it here, we'd have to raise the money at home which could take a considerably long time and it means we don't know if and when the project would happen. Kim would have more creative control, but she may want Mallika's input in the end. Anyway, she is going to think, talk to Puppet Animation Scotland, British Council, Mallika and her partner to see what she thinks the best thing for the project would be.
We shall see...
Off to Bhuj! Holiday time!!
No comments:
Post a Comment