Journal titled \’Two Zero One Four\’

So, tomorrow is the day. By all means, its the judgement day for me and my crew. It was last January 17th, Fahim called me up and asked to meet at Saphalyam complex. He had a plan of a Valentines Day project and I always wanted to do one. I told him that we don\’t have any story and we don\’t even have one month left. But he was confident of getting me a good story. We waited. A week later a thread sparked in my mind and I didn\’t waste any time to call him and tell. He said he will script it and do one of the heroes. I was only happy to hear that. The scripting was going on at his side with the help of Azza. Thanks to #Whatsapp for making that possible! My duty was to get the location and artists ready. The first person who came to my mind was Anisha but I wasn\’t really sure whether she would do a project with me again. To my surprise, she accepted without a second thought. I roped in Anand and Divya after confirming the location is Ernakulam. I called up Vigil, my associate to join the crew and get me a location. But location hunt was really hard. It was then Anil came as a savior. He got us the location just like how he helped us with #Balcony. Before all these Fahim introduced me to NiMish and he joined as the DOP. (Nimish aliya, I will never forget that Skywalk day! 😛 ) All these while this project has been a big secret. We didn\’t want to let anyone know until everything is set. I called Krishna and asked her for a usual Chennai evening ride. During that ride, I told her about Two Zero One Four. Her reaction was \”Awesome story, I liked it.\” I could read that from her eyes. That boosted my confidence level 100% more! The important role of SI Rajendran was another headache. It was really hard to find someone who suited that role. Fahim suggested Dinesh chettan\’s name. I wasn\’t sure whether he would agree to do it. I skipped my classes and traveled all the way to Ernakulam to meet him. After listening to the story he said \”See you on Feb 2nd at the location\”. I was blown away. Then came the time to give the \’first look\’. Sree Ji, my brother was always there to design posters for me. His first looks always give my visualizations a better level. I called Cherin to join us for live recording. Still photographer was the post left. I have always been a fan of someone\’s photography ever since I saw her page in Fb. I messaged her on Facebook very formally whether she could join us. Athira was always ready to be with us! I still remember the way she replied us. With everything set the crew moved to Ernakulam. The day before the shoot was when Cherin and Nimish reached from Chennai. Oh boy! Feb 1st, morning 8am, I was waiting for both of them when Cherin called me and informed his bus met with an accident. Minutes later Nimish called to inform his bus is still at Erode! I was like ..\”What the fuck? God no, not again\”. Hours passed. Fahim reminded me of another important role and asked me who is gonna do. I said, I have no clue. He dialed Atly to do the role and Nidhin to be my asst. Both of them came from Trivandrum within no time risking their exams. By evening everyone reached. we planned a teaser shoot which flopped big time. The crew fell into big depression because of financial shortage and unavailability of light. Well, it was a very dramatic evening. I called Vipin chettan and asked his help. Without a second thought, he said he will co produce. The art direction was another headache. Due to the absence of physical presence the people I asked to do the art direction couldn\’t do it. It was then our driver Tony chettan came into play. He just arranged the set within hours for the shoot! Phew. In this context I wanna thank Coffee Cube management and staff especially Joseph chettan for adjusting with our madness. I remember that night. I was very depressed about what happened in the evening. I didn\’t wanna fail. I wanted to go ahead. In between Nihal Nazer joined us as the asst director.The next day. The shooting day. Well it went well as planned. But we did have a lot of limitations during the production stage. Time and light was our biggest enemies. We managed to finish off the shooting by missing a very important shot. The post production! Mr. Santhosh Sreedhar is one editor who reads my mind. He knows what I want. Santhosh chettan kept aside all his documentary and serial works and worked on our project. He arranged Mr. Deepu to do the color grading. Godwin took leave from his office to finish off the music. But the biggest head ache of this project was to do the sound effects, dubbing and mixing. The usual sound designer of my short films was busy with serial works and I was in a very big dilema on who to approach. I came across this website of a studio and I called them up. The guy who picked up told me his studio is free and we will do the works there. Dubbing voice was also a headache. I called Reshma twice to come and help us. She did without any hesitation. Thanks to her mom too. Darsana Sudarsanan is someone who has got no experience in this film field but when I asked her voice, she was always ready to help me. So I went to this studio and met this guy. That was the BIGGEST TWIST in Two Zero One Four. The sound designing was done by none other than Mr Babith George. Babith chetta, we owe you a lot. He changed the climax and gave a new dimension for our short film. He made no compromise on perfection. I spent 36 hours with him in the studio to do the sound designing. Every time we do the final mix, he will spot one or the other area whether we could improve. I dare to say that the soul of Two Zero One Four is the sound designing of Mr. Babith George. I wanted to do an animated title and I didn\’t know anyone who is an expert in it. I just casually asked Krishna whether she knows anyone and she suggested me Gkgowshi Kaveri. Oh man. She is immensely talented. She gave me the title animation, the very same I had in my mind. I made her do it a lot of times and she never complained. Thank you chechi! Subtitling headache was taken by Anamika in between her busy assignment schedules and financing was given to my own sister, Grace.

I also wanna thank my friends for being with me through out in this journey supporting me mentally whenever I broke down. Only they know how much mentally broke I still am after December 19th. Thank you Gayathri, Neslin, Aparna and Tessa.  

So that is the journey in month to reach Feb 13th. We present before you \’Two Zero One Four\’ tomorrow. I have given my 101% for the project with my deteriorating health condition. Like I said, we had a lot of limitations but we have managed to extract a real good product standing within the limitations.