“Pain is inevitable - suffering is optional !!”

I do not know why I put that up, but I put it up all the same. We all go through pain at some time or the other in our lives, but whether we allow ourselves to suffer as a result of that is of our wanting. It is as strong a thought as ~

‘hai andheri raat par diwa jalana kab mana hai’ - yes it is a dark night, but when has anyone stopped you from lighting a lamp.

’swagat sab ke liye yahan par, nahin kisi ke liye prateeksha’ - there is a welcome for everyone here, but we are not waiting for anyone.

‘kya karoon samvedana le kar tumhari kya karoon’ - what will I do with the sympathy that you offer me.

Important lines from some of my Father’s title poems. There is an acceptance of fact, yet an arrogance of not wanting to succumb to it. The inevitable is indeed inevitable, it will happen. But to suffer because of an eventuality is what the quote states. Allowing yourself to submit, or fall prey to it is optional. You may or you may not. Continuing to suffer is more a personal decision than the eventuality that has happened without your asking. So pain shall come, but allowing yourself to suffer along is not required. Bear it, live with it, but never allow it to overtake you with it.

Look at me ! Just look at me for you to understand the true meaning of it. Have I ever complained or shown any suffering from my decision to reply to 838485. Never !! I may be regretting the moment of decision taken, but despite a constructive move by EF to get me off that promise, I continue. I continue every day but I do not suffer.

Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! I hope that all you just read above, has been taken in the spirit of a joke that it was meant to be. I was just kidding and the example is poor and terrible. I was just pulling your already extended legs. So pardon !

There is more work tomorrow. Work that shall start early. I mean 6 am early !! That has been the time I have been normally going to sleep these days in Singapore. So up at that hour to work seems a little incongruous, but it shall happen.

6 am has been a permanent fixture in many of our professional lives. We are either getting ready to start or preparing to shut for the day at that time. Our system has been somewhat different, to say the least. Shooting shifts have since the time I have been in this Industry, been divided into three timings - 7am to 2pm, 2pm to 10pm and finally 10pm to 6am the following morning. And there have been several occasions when I have for days worked on all three, for three different films simultaneously for almost a week to ten days without a break. Of course we all ended up being laid up in bed with huge syringes of glucose being injected in us to keep our senses in tact, but truly they were horrifying experiences and one that I will never suggest or recommend to any professional, no matter how urgent and inevitable the pain of involving one in this madness is.

In the early years it was the bravado of youth that carried one through. It was also a statement that one made to others. ‘Damn I am so busy I am doing three shifts a day !’

It was like an achievement of sorts, a qualification to show off, not realizing its long term consequences. The night shift was in fact the more preferred shift for many at work. There were technical reasons behind it. In the early days of the 40’s and the 50’s, traffic sounds on the streets were a hindrance to the sound recording on set. The late night to early morning schedule kept that away. Later when Studios became sound proofed the problem became non existent and all was well and within decent hours of work. The coming of the Arriflex Camera, which was easier to handle because of its smaller size and the facility it carried of a zoom lens, gave rise to sound dubbing. The camera itself made so much noise that it was never possible to get pristine sound, or sound as acted by the actors at the moment. All films made during those days when the Arri predominated were actually enacted, for me at least, in a dubbing theatre. It was the most difficult task. Six months to a year at times of shooting a sequence, to find yourself within a confined space without any props or the atmosphere in which the scene was enacted, trying to re enact that moment in front of a microphone, to bring back that emotion that feel, was an onerous task. And then to realize that your performance was going to be judged not by what you did in front of the camera, but by what you did in a sanitized recording studio in front of a mic, was a shattering thought.

Now we are back again to more sophisticated recording facilities and synchronized sound, as it is technically addressed. The microphone, a tiny device of extremely sensitive quality, attached to a part of your attire, hidden from the prying eyes of the camera, does the job of picking up every breath you take. We get wired up before the shot. A small battery like device is attached and clipped on to your pants or the pocket of the jacket you wear and the wire with the mic after passing through several columns of sensitive clothing - undergarments included - lands up inches from your mouth stuck behind a collar or lapel or shirt button. It facilitates the sound recordist to desist from holding the standard pole rod mic and following artists as they move. He sits away in some corner, head phones attached governing every bit of effect that microscopic mic picks up. Its great quality and artists that are involved in a scene which involves emotion and spontaneity love it, because they do not have to reproduce it months later in a recording studio. It is also a most dangerous device, because invariably after the shot is over the mic remains operational and has the ability to pick up every little sound that you emanate thereafter. A growl in the stomach or the casual chat that you may be having with your director, that phone call that you make or receive on set, your visit to the wash room …. everything !!

This is an exciting business is it not !! Ha !

Sound recording is an art now and the most important ingredient in any film set up. You mess with sound you mess with film. In a small town theatre in the interiors of the country when ‘Agnipath’ was first released, the cinema going public stopped the projection and tore up the seats, accusing the owner of not getting my voice right. They never realized that that was how I was speaking in the film. They accused the projectionist of having distorted my voice and refused to allow the film to run until it was restored. That is when the producer decided to re record my voice in its normal speaking tone, destroying the performance completely. But what does one say to a motley crowd inside a theatre that has decided that its either the voice or the furniture. Voice was chosen, furniture saved !!

Ah !! Millions of such wonderful stories to talk about. But its creeping up to 1:00AM and so to bed ..

My love and affection and a request for prayer for the venture that I start tomorrow.

Amitabh Bachchan