Screen-savers debut on
silver screen
Saritha
Rai
BANGALORE
2 AUGUST
YOU?VE
read their toil-and-sweat stories. You?ve heard about their fame and fortune.
Now, you can see their lives immortalised on film.
A
bunch of techies from the Silicon Valley has made a film in English on
the lives and excesses of `people like us?. The film called Bugaboo is
premiering in Palo Alto, in the heart of the Valley, on August 12. The
film is a trend-setter of sorts: it has been conceived, funded and made
by Indian engineers from the Silicon Valley, and shot in the San Francisco
area.
Bugaboo
(something that causes worry, also a take-off on the word `bug?) explores
the double lives of Indian computer professionals in the Bay Area in the
PC and Internet boom of the Nineties. These well-paid professionals lead
a curious existence. On the one hand, they constitute the epicentre of
America?s materialistic binge, on another, lead cocooned lives far removed
from all things American.
Among
those who worked on the film are engineers from Netscape, Cisco, Intel,
HP and NASA. Says Sujit Saraf, 30, who was a NASA researcher when he directed
and part-produced the film: ?At some point in our successful lives, it
occurred to us that we are now getting rewarded for being good boys. The
kind who drank milk at night and woke up early to study. But now that we?ve
got where we want to be, isn?t life a little dull??? Saraf?s life has run
somewhat parallel to the film?s plot, though not intentionally. After eight
years in the US, Saraf returned last week to a job as an Assistant Professor
at IIT-Delhi.
In
the film, Bapu, a software engineer, finds his life boring and uneventful.
He goes to a life randomiser to inject excitement into his life. He has
two friends with problems stereotypical of Indian bachelors in the US.
One has a white girlfriend and his mother is visiting from India.
The
other can?t consummate his marriage. The film tracks their departure from
their sober, law-abiding routines, and finally leads to a `grand deviance?
quite unthinkable for engineers from India.
There?s
a strong humorous line running through the entire plot. In the opening
scene, an Indian engineer performs a puja on the lawns of his apartment
block when the cell phone rings. He lifts his dhoti to reveal a mobile
and a pager strapped to his body. In another scene, expectant parents face
the typical Indian dilemma of choosing names for a boy and a girl. They
register one set of domain names for the boy and another set for the girl.
Says
Tony Sehgal, 29, director of photography, ?This is a unique story that
will resonate with the Indian community. Everybody will either see themselves
in this movie, or know someone strongly resembling one of its characters??.
The film does not ridicule Indians, but just questions the worth of their
achievements.
The
film was shot over eight weekends on a $ 22,000 budget pooled together
from the personal savings of six Valley engineers. It is still early to
say whether the film will be a hit or a flop but it has certainly created
quite a buzz in the Bay Area prior to its pre-Independence Day release.
It is a first for its entire crew and cast, some of whom have only had
amateur theatre experience in the Bay Area.
The
filmmakers are scouting for distributors in India, and hope it will be
a commercial success. Says Saraf: ?It is not a typical commercial Hindi
film which is usually about two or more good-looking people who have sex
or will have sex.?? Saraf himself plays one of the lead roles. ?I am (was)
just an engineer at NASA. This is a film that has real people with real
problems. We hope it is thought-provoking.?
India´s
latest conquest: Silicon Valley - ET Online, July 08, 1999
Silicon
Valley´s Lady Luck is an Indian - ET Online, August 01,
1999
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