Funny Film on Bengaluru

S..t Bangaloreans Say, a quirky cinematic take on the city has gone viral on social media and laughs at the distinctive lingo of the locals

QUEEN’S ROAD: A hilarious video about Bengaluru is going viral on social media and you have actors mixing up vernacular humour and modern inflections in a short film that makes you laugh out aloud. The film titled S..t Bangaloreans Say was conceptualized, directed and shot entirely on location in the city and was modelled on an international YouTube meme,  S..t People Say, with contributions from people and communities all over the world.

The cast of the film is an eclectic mix of Bangaloreans with a common love for the city.  Featured in the video are characters that you would encounter across the city in everyday life:  A lady doctor and a guitar-toting uncle from the cantonment, a spinach seller from the old city selling her wares at the top of her voice, an art lover with the gift of the gab, a taciturn auto driver eager for some extra bucks, and a pair of government officials eager to dispense with applications and get on with the main agenda of the day: lunch.  There’s also a hassled waiter in a small local ‘hotelu’ rattling out the daily menu, and a customer and waiter talking in a posh restaurant trying to cover up their sketchy knowledge of the cuisine. 

The video has unique ‘Bangaloreisms’ in English, Kannada, Hindi and Dakhani Urdu, that most Bangaloreans are sure to identify with.

Kalpana Rao, a former bureaucrat and  Bangalorean hilariously brings alive the quirks of language, slanguage and colloquialisms in her sharp portrayal of many  local characters. She attributes her acting to a “mile-wide streak of madness and  the love for observing and studying humanity. “ Friends, neighbours and relatives, she says are her fodder. Some of the lines, she spouts in the film are lifted out oh real life.

Sriram Aravamudan, an engineer by qualification, a writer, landscaper and baker by profession, and a musician at heart, has always been fascinated by the melting pot of cultures that is Bengaluru. 

“Being able to speak many languages is a great advantage in a city like ours,” he says. “We’re probably the only city in India where you never know what language you’re going to speak in, to the person standing next to you,” he quips.

The gentle and accommodating nature of the Bangalorean too, is something that he has always found endearing. The film hence is a coming together of all the things he loves about this city, its quirks and mannerisms.

Another performer, Vibha, or Velvet Vibha as she’s known to all her friends, is a schoolteacher, event coordinator and in the film, she plays the role of a loud mouthed spinach seller, hollering at the top of her lungs. “What I loved about this movie,” she says, “is that we just did whatever we wanted to. This is often how we speak and joke when we’re among friends. Doing a movie like this almost felt like we were at a party, fooling around and talking in quirky voices.”

Sukanth Rallapati is a business analyst at a leading IT company, agrees and adds that working on the film was a fun experience for him. He’s been dabbling in photography for many years now and he’s also done the camera work for a few local shorts and productions.   “What I loved about the script,” he says, “was that it was totally unscripted and spontaneous. We did chalk out the characters, but what they said was completely left to them, said on the spot, which actually made me fall down on the floor and laugh while filming!”

Saina Jayapal who was also part of the project also loved the spontaneity and craziness that was uncorked  during the shoot. “Being in the photography line,” she says, “I was interested in taking part in this project, plus I always wanted to do something fun like this for my city!”

You can catch the film here... http://youtu.be/ezC9b_3JXwI

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The New Indian Express
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