The rear bench raring Kindness and Filmmaking
Creative ideas turn into smiles when fulfilled. The Creative energy excites me as it is something which has to be sustained throughout one’s passions. The creative power rests on how well the idea is recorded. I’m exposed to the Hindu faith and I love it! And I call the Creative Energy, Vishnu.
You can find him in the trinity of my faith and as a thoughtful filmmaker in this read. Vishnu Bharadhwaj has done a few short films and has worked in a few feature films. He has experienced the sets of Director Shankar’s 2.0 and has shot it’s ‘behind the scenes’ in entirety.
Vishnu was daydreaming on the last bench in his 11th grade until his cousin spoke all of ghosts walking around his college corridors. The ghosts drove an idea within Vishnu Bharadhwaj to sign up for a short filmmaking competition for his inter- school cultural event. He feels forever grateful to his English teacher ‘Saumya Ma’am’, the only one who encouraged a rear bencher among the faculty for the shooting activity.
Vishnu had put together a short film idea from the horror incidents narrated by his cousin. He had shared it with his friend Selva who held the same film making interests. The film was titled ‘Yes or No’ and made it’s elements of horror meet the divine at the Church Park school.
“We shot it with a handy cam, a focus light and I got my classmates to act in it. I edited it overnight with a basic software and submitted it at the Church Park Cultural event. We bagged the first place and then we won consecutively in every cultural event we took part in thereafter!” -Vishnu
The aspirant had so many stories to share with us and was eager to equip himself with whatever he could get to do this. “When I first told my parents that I wanted to be a filmmaker, they didn’t know how to process it and honestly they were worried as Cinema does not cater to all, the magic happens to only a few people. And magic did unfold in the course with my sister’s blessings!”, says Vishnu.
Vishnu pursued a course in Visual communication and had interned with an ad film maker for 2 advertisements. Director Rajiv Menon’s film institute ‘Mindscreen’ took in Vishnu Bharadhwaj as a student for their Screen Writing and Film Making Course. He worked at the Script stage of a feature film called ‘Ritichie’ and the chance to learn from Director Shankar followed.
“2.0 gave me a holistic learning experience! Director Shankar is an ocean of knowledge and I learnt in immense, just by observing him on the sets. I feel so blessed for having worked with a Great Legend like him. He is my biggest inspiration!”
— Vishnu
The learning experience acquired from working with Director Shankar deepened Vishnu’s courage to direct his first Short film, ‘Aimboothakadu’. Vishnu successfully completed this short film which required to shoot literally in the rawest of spots. He has evolved from handling a ‘basic handy cam’ to taking a crew of 20+ members into a forest and they were no classmates to each other.
Vishnu’s ‘Aimboothakadu’ and ‘Patha Vechitiye Parattai’ are kind films. The first to show kindness to what nourishes your breath even at this moment. The second to be kind to your own body and mind. Vishnu says, ‘Naming a film is as important as naming a child as the title connects to one and first impressions one’. My character in PVP is a smoker and I just went with the title “Patha Vechitiye Parattai”, the phrase is a famous dialogue from the movie “Padhinaaru Vayadhiniley” and needless to say that I am an avid fan of Super Star Rajinikanth!”
Vishnu’s creative energy fizzes dedication and commitment imbibed from ‘Thalaivar’ Rajinikanth, who also spreads pampers of spiritual wisdom. Movies from notable directors like Shankar, Mani Ratnam and Gautam Vasudev Menon have aroused the aspirant to taste the ‘magic they make’ too. Today, Vishnu Bharadhwaj still continues to knock on many doors to chance giving more life to the scripts he wants to narrate to us.
The creative energy Vishnu is keen, the most stirring among the trinity in Art and of my faith.
பத்த வெச்சிட்டியே பரட்ட :)
“In art, The Trinity is expressed in the Creative Idea, the Creative Energy, and the Creative Power- the first imagining of the work, then the making incarnate of the work, and third the meaning of the work”, wrote Dorothy L. Sayers, The mind of the maker: The Expression of faith through Creativity and Art
