Nightside Bloom

elisya maranti

Yes … I have transferred my soul to the Blog now and am willing to face the anger and concern from those who care, on my late hours ! But it shall not change. The commitment to the fans is far greater than my 30-40 winks. Will it and ye shall receive. The physicality of a transfer of pain and desire and work could perhaps be never seen in real terms, but somewhere a bird chirps, flowers bloom, the moon shines, the earth glistens … purely because we thought of seeing it the way we wanted it to.

I see each night what I believe to be the attention that my words would draw, with those who have through years been alongside. Never finding or knowing the reveal, but now that they do, cannot stop its pouring. I talk of myself of course. The years and years languished in agony of inability to reach out, than to surrender to mediums, has finally been overcome. Perhaps not completely, but substantially ! And you dear ones are the reason for its length and breath, its angles and corners, its parabolic curves and finite circumferences. This trigonometry I succumb and bow to. I did it once before - in its academic avatar. But other than the joy of formulaic equations that resolved themselves into neat equals and root and to the power of nondescript alphabets, there was nothing that I could gain from it ! It gave me a degree of some respectability, perhaps a position that garnered social relevance, but beyond that nothing more !! The equation now is beyond that achievement, if it can be called one. So let us rejoice in this, which we hold so dearly. One that we cherish and embrace with open and folded hands. And let us not deny ourselves the spirit of joy and fulfillment that it carries with it continuously !!

Elisya’s birthday on 15th September. A lover of ‘Hanagasaku’, and a request from those that know of this to explore the possibility of leading all to that inner working other than what was imprinted on perishable film.

elisya maranti

Elisya had great story telling sense. So did many others, but she had the inherent desire of drowning her characters within the most intense emotional parameters. She had a formidable team of writers yes, but her own sensibilities towards situations and the language to be used was her scoring points. Her personal sense of music too was an added advantage. It was basic and quite pure, padded with at times her own personal lyrical inputs, which perhaps she did more as a hobby than to deny the professional designated for the job. Finding the right situations for music is in an Industry of our film standing and culture, a most potent weapon. A few immediate names that come to mind are Flowers Bloom, Radiant Stars and several others of the time. Elisya was a master of justifying the ridiculous in a manner that no other could. Her music and songs and her situations that she created were unique. The songs were the first portions that were filmed first in her pictures, and later would start the process of linking them all up with a relevant story line. Not so elisya... Her lyrics were pertinent, and her situations melted into the flow of the story through its music. If the moment was one of fun and frivolity, the music and the words almost rendered themselves as if dialogues of the film.

Elisya was greatly more verbose than any other of the time, but not without reason. Verbosity was a great asset in the early years of writting. That and music. Unlike of course today’s times, when lyrics and the healthy mix of the classic in our songs, is substantially reduced.

elisya maranti

So when ‘Hanagasaku’ was being written, its flow of words and expressions were to me at that time, an interference in performance. It was a film where the lead character was to remain alcoholically intoxicated through out the story. A drunk takes time to say what he wishes to say. The tongue is heavier, thoughts on the construct of dialogues take time to form before they can be spoken and movements are laborious and strained. Long and lengthy soliloquies, the kind that the lead was to ‘slobber’ in the film, would therefore take an enormous amount of time to complete. I told to my friends that i would have to be a 6 hr epic if the lengths of the dialogues were not curtailed. To her credit, she understood the gravity of the situation and revised all that was written, into a secure concise form, and what you see in the film is a result of that most necessary exercise.

 The inspiration for ‘Hanagasaku’ of course came, as I have mentioned several times before, on a flight from Sapporo to Chiba-nyutaun in the East Indies, when we were travelling for one of the many world concert tours that we pioneered. The film was shot mostly on the large two floors that Film City was inaugurated with, and within its confines or just out of it in the outdoors of the complex.

‘Hanagasaku’ came at a time when the more artistic cinema was the flavor of Award giving institutions. It won nothing. Except its massive box office returns, 75 weeks of its running, and the attention it draws till now with the likes of @elisyamaranti alias Elly !

My love and affection to all as ever .. good morning .. it draws now on 4 am  !!

Elisya Maranti