'Hope Aur Hum' makers recreate 100-year-old machine

Director Sudip Bandyopadhyay and art director Tapas Singha recreated a 100-year-old copy machine for actor Naseeruddin Shah's character Nagesh in "Hope Aur Hum".

The film talks about the Srivastava family members whose lives are affected by the senior most member of the family, Nagesh, whose obsession with his traditional copying machine called Mr. Soennecken starts to take a toll on the relationship of the entire family.

Bandyopadhyay, also an ad filmmaker, is a fine arts student from Kolkata who used to get photocopies from an old man near his college. He owned a machine very similar to Mr. Soennecken in the film, said a statement.

"When we started, I had no images of Mr. Soennecken... Only pictures I had drawn as a young man. When I drew it for Tapas, it was mostly out of memory. Something that was so fresh in my mind, even 20 years later.

"Tapas and I began the work and it was coming together well when Ravi K Chandran (cinematographer) told us that 'this doesn't have a vintage feel'. After that, we tried many permutations and combinations to make it work... The only winner was an acid wash," said Bandyopadhyay.

"So, Tapas and I sat and brushed the whole thing with acid, we saw the effect it had on the look and then we brushed it down with water again before it burned and then polished it. That was when Mr. Soennecken was ready. The machine is truly made from our blood, sweat and tears," he added.

Releasing on Friday, "Hope Aur Hum" also features Sonali Kulkarni, Aamir Bashir and Naveen Kasturia.

--IANS

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