Thursday, 3 May 2012

Meet The Girl Who Made Vicky Donor Happen

Nishi Tiwari in Mumbai

Did you know that Vicky Donor's Beeji, who has become one of the most popular characters from the film; was not a part of the film initially?

Juhi Chaturvedi, the film's writer and the brain behind its central theme, reveals that the character was added in the script's sixth draft. She and director Shoojit Sircar thought that a Punjabi household with just two members was too weak.

There are countless other stories about the film and her life that she narrates in the course of an animated conversation.

The film bug bit this advertising girl when she wrote dialogues for Shoojit Sircar's second and yet-unreleased film -- Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Shoebite (later renamed Johnny Mastana). So much so that ad guru Piyush Pandey, who was her boss a couple of years ago, would see her ad script and joke, "This is an ad, not a film. Cut it down." 
Meanwhile, Shoojit Sircar was also looking for a new project to start work on. That's when she contacted him with the idea of an infertility specialist looking for a sperm donor. Sircar didn't respond immediately but took to the idea after thinking it through. The duo then sat down to write the script.

"The skeleton of the story was clear in our heads and we just took off from there. What really worked in our favour was the decision to only write about stuff we know. We were also very conscious of the fact that we were dealing with a very sensitive issue. So while we intended it to be light-hearted, we had to be extremely cautious that the humour didn't border on slapstick, we can't make fun of it because emotions are attached to it", she says.

"So we took a different path and tried to make it charming and light-hearted while also trying to remove the stigma attached to it," she continues, "And that's why Dr Chaddha (Annu Kapoor playing the infertility specialist) uses phrases like 'angry sperm', 'greedy sperm' etc to describe his star donor's various moods."

kabir Poem - Brother, I've Seen Some

Brother, I've Seen Some

Brother, I've seen some
Astonishing sights:
A lion keeping watch
Over pasturing cows;
A mother delivered
After her son was;
A guru prostrated
Before his disciple;
Fish spawning
On treetops;
A cat carrying away
A dog;
A gunny-sack
Driving a bullock-cart;
A buffalo going out to graze,
Sitting on a horse;
A tree with its branches in the earth,
Its roots in the sky;
A tree with flowering roots.

This verse, says Kabir,
Is your key to the universe.
If you can figure it out.

Kabir

Kabir Poem - Between the Poles of the Conscious

Between the Poles of the Conscious

BETWEEN the poles of the conscious and the unconscious, there has the mind made a swing:
Thereon hang all beings and all worlds, and that swing never ceases its sway.
Millions of beings are there: the sun and the moon in their courses are there:
Millions of ages pass, and the swing goes on.
All swing! the sky and the earth and the air and the water; and the Lord Himself taking form:
And the sight of this has made Kabîr a servant.

Kabir