Sivaraj Parameswaran

The day of enlightenment, some day in September 2012 probably 24^th.

I was watching “Manalane Mangayin Bhagyam” movie on a Tv channel. I got hooked up with the story where the hero gets a curse and happens to become a woman. It irked me the idea but still wasn’t satisfied with the theme got bored in developing the story.

On the same day I ended up watching “Hot Chick” movie. I got hooked up again with the storie's content which was similar to “Manalane Mangayin Bhagyam”. 

This time the idea became more clear and I got the base story inspired from these two movies. I wrote the story and screenplay in one go. But the dialogs were incomplete.

Sat with Govarthan, Karthic and Praveen, narrated the script they liked it. Praveen  helped me in penning the dialogs. Govarthan played the lead.  Karthic was ready with the camera. Everything happened in a span of a week. The locations were confirmed. The artists were confirmed. All was set.

In a week’s time shooting was over. And we had to find an editor. That’s when Anand suggested Karthic Christopher who was assisting editor Antony that time. I met him and gave the work. 

Sadly, Christopher was a new recruit and was hooked up with loads of work. We had to wait for 3 to 4 months’ time for him to get free. Somehow I didn’t want anyone else to do the work. So I waited 4 months long and finally we sat in one go and finished the rough cut. Dubbing was done in a week. We saw the output without the rerecording and music. I wasn’t satisfied with the output and had my doubts about the comedy. 

Govarthan gave me confidence. He convinced me saying once the music and foley is done it would be complete. Now we had to find a music director, Govarthan introduced me to Caine Sidarth. 

A young chap who was doing his engineering. He saw the movie and laughed. This is where I got my first confidence. The music was done in other two weeks and the final trimming I had to wait for Karthic Christopher again. 

In between we had a short film competition in Bharth Engineering College. We didn’t have the final output yet. But we decided to participate with the partial output we had. 

To our surprise the response was heart-warming. Students laughed and enjoyed the short film. The professors weren’t satisfied because of the profanity dialogs but they still laughed silently. And we won “The Best Short Film” award for the first time with a half-baked output.

In a week’s time the movie was complete. D.A.Vasanth took care of the foley and dubbing corrections. 

Now the toughest of all task, I had to screen it to Balu Sir. I was scared for what he would comment on it. The movie was screened, for the first 7 mins there was pin drop silence, no one laughed for any scenes. I saw Govarthan he was terrified. I was sweating inside. Just then when I was about to give up, everyone in the room laughed. I immediately turned and looked at Balu Sir to see whether he was laughing. Gladly he was and from then the room was in laughter. All my strength came back to me. The movie was over.

We were made to sit for the interaction session. Balu Sir commented first. He said “I never thought you would make a short film?  thought you were a lazy ass and fit for nothing." People laughed. He continued "Am happy to see you have made very good attempt with this film” 

Just then an alumnus, I forgot his name he asked "Is your short film copied from an English movie named Its A Boy Girl Thing" I was about to answer his question. Instead Balu sir answered him "This is his inspirational work in which he has put his soul". I answered him politely saying "My friend you just saw one movie named Its A Boy Girl Thing but I can give ample examples of the same story line which was made in Hollywood and Tamil Cinema as well" I listed out the names of the movies which had the same story line Hot Chick, Freaky Friday, 13 going on 30 and Manalane Mangayin Bhagyam - a Tamil classic black and white movie. Balu sir smiled at what I said and gave a classic example saying "Titanic was remade 5 times in the same language and yet you remember only what James Cameron directed".

He wished us everyone especially Govarthan for his acting performance. Karthic for his Cinematography. Caine for his Music. D.A.Vaasnth for his Foley. Christopher for his Editing. And obviously Me for what I am.

The End