Shlok Sharma's 'ZOO' is a Lesson for Every Student Filmmaker

During my 4 years at the film school, one thing that I observed bothers most of the student filmmakers is a thing called 'BUDGET'. A sense of pocket friendly filmmaking doesn't exist anymore in our film institutions. The so called Film Industry of Pakistan is nothing but a bunch of privileged brats, who have influenced the young minds with their formula of 'glamour over content'. 

Each student filmmaker has to make a short film as a part of his/her thesis in order to complete a degree program. This is the time when an individual takes control of all the creative and logistics all by him/herself. 99 out of 100 times, the creative side loses the game. Students end up making expensive beautiful looking films with little or no soul at all.

Here comes Shlok Sharma's ZOO to make such students realize that the amount of money you are wasting on those expensive lenses and lights' rental can be spent in a much fruitful manner somewhere else. 

Shot entirely on iPhone 6 Plus, ZOO is India's first smartphone feature length film. The brave filmmaker previously wrote and directed HARAAMKHOR, which due to its off-beat writing, couldn't get hold of a larger audience. Produced by the mentors of mentors, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, ZOO got premiered at Busan Festival and later got released on Netflix (Yes! It's available on Netflix Pakistan as well). 

This film is another bold attempt by Sharma as it tells three stories of Mumbai revolving around drugs and young rappers in an absolutely abstract manner. Once you learn the pattern of Sharma's filmmaking, you start decoding each scene in real time. 

We often see people praising long takes in films. Let me tell you guys, this film is by far one of the greatest examples in Asian cinema that is based on multiple long takes without even letting you realize since the performances are extremely organic. 

Both video and sound editing of this film will often leave you surprised with the richness hidden in the subtext of each cut. The pop cultural references in the film are not there just to make things look cool. I remember a scene where Shweta Tripathi enters the mysterious bedroom for the first time in film and some poster on wall can be seen. Each little detail in that frame is trying to speak to us. What a brilliant use of semiotics here! 

I understand that the film is not for masses but at least Sharma made what he felt was right. And he did it without spending tons of cash. Inspired by TANGERINE by Sean Baker, this micro-budget film is winning hearts of cinema lovers all around the globe.

While digging deep during research, I came to know that Sharma had only a team comprised of 10 members who remained till the very end only because the director kept their love and passion for film alive. It's something every filmmaker must learn from Sharma; taking care of your team's motivational appetite. 

I will now conclude my post with the following pointers: 

• Work on stories that admire you and forget the audience for a while
• Start believing in resource filmmaking 
• Team up with people who live for film
• Revive yourself first in order to revive Pakistani cinema 
• Watch films like Primer, Tangerine, Zoo and El Mariachi to get inspiration
• If Shlok Sharma can do it, so can you

Happy filming! 

Need to discuss film or TV shows? Reach me at fahadkhanm@gmail.com