http://www.punemirror.in/article/63/201210242012102408010545c19088d4/The-short-punch.html

The short punch

Midnight Interlude at just 20 minutes creates an impact with its intricate characterisation

Mrunmayi Ainapure

     

Posted On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 08:01:00 AM

A filmmaker doesn’t always need a strong script and hard-hitting dialogues to convey a point. Cinema, as a medium, has its own innate language. We’ve all heard of the cliche ‘A picture speaks a 1,000 words’.  Yet, our cinema banks on verbosity. So I decided to break away from the tested routine and make a film sans a script or dialogues!” shares Omkar Kulkarni. While acting in a number of Marathi films and serials, Omkar noticed a stark populist style in his works.  “There were no experimentations, no desire for innovation. So I felt that instead of sitting and grumbling about it, I should go ahead and make the kind of art that would excite me, challenge me. That is how I ended up writing and directing the short film Midnight Interlude,” Omkar expresses.  The story of a man in his 20s living alone in a city, and working in a corporate setup, Midnight Interlude touches the pathos of incomplete, unquenched desires in a materialisticallyfulfilling life.   “The protagonist, played by Sarang Sathaye, may be a techie by profession but he’s a musician and poet at heart, simply caught in the struggle for bread and butter. The film is shot in realistic angles but has some shades of absurdity as well. I’ve used a lot of imagery to convey emotions, for I believe art is a universal language For example, the turmoil and confusion in his mind is portrayed by abstract, distorted symbols.   Poetry is also an important motif used throughout the film,” Omkar informs. Although Midnight Interlude is just 20 minutes long, it’s shot in a very languorous, leisurely style, with enough scope for characterisation and the audience finding time to savour every element.  “We made it a point not to let the time constraint compel us to compromise on the content. In fact, I request the audience to pay conscious attention to the little, subtle details that we’ve worked on painstakingly,” Omkar concludes. Catch the screening on Thursday, at the National Film Archive of India, 6:30 PM.