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KARMA CARTEL

India/2013/Fiction, Thriller/110 mins/ Malayalam/English

Synopsis:

Set in modern India, three life-changing days in the lives of an

actor and his friend, affected by the needs and greed of the urban

city they live in.

In a southern city of India, a reporters search for a missing actor,

leads to revelation of multiple lives connected to it through

greed and bad choices. The three last days before the incident

follows the struggling actor, an ambitious filmmaker, a

wannabe hustler, an opportunist, a lover and two cinephile

thugs, through an inter-twining vignette of their lives.

3 life-changing days of a couple of young

people in a fastmoving urban city of India

CAST:

• VINAY FORRT as Sidth

• Dr. RONE DAVID as Dr. Roy

• TONY LUKE as Tony

• JINU JOSEPH as Q the filmmaker

• ARJUN CHEMPARATHY as Arjun

• SHANI SHAKI as “Plan B”

• ROHINI MIRIAM IDICULA as the reporter

• BECKY THOMAS as Tina Roy

• ABHILASH P.G. as A.C. of Police

• AHAMED SHAHEEN as Richie

• TROJU JACOB as head surgeon

• MADAN BABU as the Producer

• SABUMON ABDUSAMAD as “Luttu”

• FRANKO DAVIS as Franko

• LUKMANCE as the Casting agent

• SURAJ RAMAKRISHNAN as Deejay

• VARNA VELLOTH

• RISHI KARTHIK as book salesman

• AVINASH as Home Stay owner

• SHAJI T.U. as Shaji

• ROOPESH K.V. as Dr. Rupesh

CREW:

SARATH BALAN :

Assistant Director / Boom operator

VINOD BHARATHAN :

Story / Screenplay / Production / Direction /

Cinematography / Editing

The Director

Vinod Bharathan was born in India, but

shifted base to Copenhagen in 2000. He

took up filmmaking career in 2008. He studied

film-making at prep-schools (Copenhagen

Media School, Rampen) to make his

way into the National Film School of Denmark.

Since the National film school of Denmark

denies stipend for non-European citizens,

he then formed an independent production

company by the name Fookdat

Productions. He made over 8 short films

which were screened at various film festivals

around the world.

Awards and Nominations

Best film : Limbo (Indiefone film festival

U.S.A. 2012 / Sony Mobile - Circuito Off,

Venice 2012)  

Official selections: The Punishment

(Film Noir Foundation, U.S.A

2013 / Scandina- vian Film festival L.A. 2013)  

Moose and sunset (Denver Film Society 2012)  

Karma Code (International film

festival Ahmedabad, INDIA, Show Me Justice,

Texas, U.S.A. 2011) 

 Go figure (CPHPIX 2011)

Production Notes

The idea for KARMA CARTEL was formed

was as the director Vinod Bharathan was

getting offers from the film industry. He

learnt that the industry would strip him of

his artistic vision, and he decided that his

first film must not be financed by the industry.

He had been closely observing the lives of

his friends back in India every time he was

there for a short visit. He then formed a

plot based on these observation to create

the idea for KARMA CARTEL.

He armed himself with a professional HDVCAM

(A tool he loved using while at film

school) and an excel-chart of the shooting

plan and set on a journey to India.

No one in India believed him initially. But

as he was loosing days trying to convince

a team, his assistant director Sarath Balan

admitted that it would technically take 10

days to complete filming; but not practically.

This made Vinod Bharathan even more

adamant and wanted to complete the filming

in 10 days. After the first two days of

shooting, the team found out that it was a

plan worth fighting for.

Vinod Bharathan learned that he will have

to shoot the entire scenes on one-take, so

as to keep the audio in continuity. As they

were shooting guerrilla, they couldn’t afford

to stay at any single place for long periods of time.

The film ended having the most number of

single-takes, and one of the scenes has a

record length of 7minutes (The story telling scene by Q).

The filming was very hectic and exhausting

for the two member crew who, shot an average

of 6 scenes a day.

But Vinod Bharathan had broken down the

cast into several groups and made sure

they never worked more that 2 hours a day

by shooting their scenes randomly.

The initial filming ended on the 8th days

where Vinod had to return to Copenhagen.

The last two days of filming happened

when he returned to India again. He shot

then last two days single handedly, without

assistance from Sarath.

Directors Statement:

“Four years ago, when I came out of the

film school, I decided that I will make a full

feature when i know I’m ready for it. While

editing KARMA CURRENCY (my previous

short film), I could see that I was ready for

a full feature.

So, all I did was pack my bags with

clothes and supplies for three weeks, a

camera and a microphone, and flew down

to India to make a film - Karma Cartel.

The script to Karma Cartel was in my heart

and the direction of the film was in my

head, and had decided to film with whatever

means were available. I imposed as

much restrain as possible in the making of

KARMA CARTEL. At one point, I even considered

making the film following the

Dogme-95 manifesto, but gave it up, as it

too had its set of rules I didn't want to

obey.

What came out as final-cut was a film

multi-layered with subtext that seeped out

of my bottled up frustration that i had experienced

during my up-bringing as a progressive

thinking urban youth in a suppressive

third-world. The locations where the

filming took place has a significant attachment

to me. In a way, this film is a homage

to my hometown, Kochi.”