Day 9 - Mirza family residence
Last day of the shoot was on the other side of the bridge in North Nazimabad. We were planning on shooting three scenes but completed only two as we ran out of time and film stock. In the middle of the shoot we switched from day to tungsten film stock and used the appropriate gels to match the light. The HMI’s worked overtime to keep the day light consistent. We ended up using 2 each of 4k, 2k, 1.2, .6k's as well as kenoflows. Munawar Sahab was good with his delivery, but Salim acted way too cordially towards Munawar Sahab respecting him as a senior artist. I told him that his respect should be off camera, on camera his character is a selfish and arrogant man. The younger brother played by Miraj, was on the spot with the intense look. The scene has some powerful banter and I was happy with it, but there were minor upheavals when the spot boys were lazing around and the PM had to threaten to throw them off set.
On the ride back, I chatted with our driver, Mr. Yousuf. He told me that he was at one time crowned Mr. Sindh and had trained with Syed Hussein Shah, Pakistan’s only Olympic medal winner in boxing. Both of these gentleman were Sidis or Makranis (Pakistanis off African ancestry). I had always noticed Yousuf smoking his special cigarettes abd asked him why he had given up on boxing and taken up smoking. “I have six children, now my only relief is smoke” He replied with a smile. I told him that he should have been the real hero for Kala Pul.
That night I stopped at my grand father’s house to see him. Nana Abu, is a shell of this former self, suffering from late stage Alzheimer. He was alone in his room, being looked after an attendants who was taking him to toilet and Nana Abu moaned like a wounded animal. In the next room his grandchildren played XBox. I will always remember Ozair Mirza as a handsome stylish man who told wonderful stories of Jinns and fairies while cutting melons for his many grand children. As he failed to recognize me and I watched helplessly, he reminded me of Jan Decleir, the lead in Memory of a Killer, a Belgian movie about a assassin who is suffering from Alzheimer. It was altogether a bit disturbing and unnerving.
