This is an eight minute short-film, written & directed by me. Its premier was held on Sunday, May 6, 2012 at Rajkot. It’s a non-commercial short-film made as an experiment with available resource without going for any professional instruments. All those who worked and with this film, devote their time, energy and talent, without any charge.
Watch – The Journey Within (2012) – a short-film by Devang Vibhakar
Direct Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EqRdhh99c
Information
Writer & Director: Devang Vibhakar
Cast: Vishal Rajgor, Paras Doshi
Music arrangement: Shailesh-Utpal
Editor: Gaurav Badyakiya
Narration: Raj Desai
Special thanks: Sunny Rathod, Alkaben Vora, Vikas Rajpopat
Storyline: The Journey Within is a story of a young man who has achieved & enjoyed all material pleasures. He is rich. He has nothing more to achieve in sense of material desires. But he is not happy in totality.
He finds questions from within such as who am I?, what is the purpose of my existence?…. and then he makes a decision. Watch this eight minute short film to find out what decision he makes.
It was premiered at Rajkot on May 6, 2012.
Photographs of premier show
ye bhautik wad me me…..tum …hum kya kar rahe he?????????????????? are wah……..
16 ana such baat ke aap ne …….par……………..jindgi me aaye he to jeena hi padega………..ye jahar he to bhi pina padega…mere dost………………………………….
A penetrative message is delivered. It jolts us out of our reverie and tempts us to pull of the rat race – dearie and drudgery of our daily life . It tells us to indulge in an intense exercise in itorspection and turn inward and see ‘thyself’.
Seek solace in solitude.
I wish to falicitate Devang for a bold attempt to beel the cat.
Hello Ravi,
Thank you for your such kind words. I am not sure if I deserve them, but they surely do inspire me. I am glad to know that the angle with which I have made this experiemental short-film does have some acceptance from your point of view as well. Introspection is the base of entire short-film.
Dear devang..my heartiest Congratulations to you for such a Sansible short-filmed by u and u r TEAM in a very limited…SOURCES…..Thru FB and a Friend I have been able to see it next day at 6.30 AM USA time where I am now…
Wish such more in Future from you on SELF-IMPROVEMENTS…..
God bless You …my SON..
Jay shree Krishna..Jay Mahadev..
Sanatbhai Dave…(it’s 7.5.12 Monday..)
Thank you Sanatkumar Dave for your inspirational words. Glad you liked my effort.
क्लाइमेक्स में ये बताने का भी कष्ट करें कि वह व्यक्ति परमानेंट चला गया या लौटकर वापस आयेगा, यदि चला गया तो कहाँ गया। समझ नही आया कि वह ध्यान और आध्यात्मिक ज्ञान की ओर गया या किसी हिल स्टेशन में माइंड फे्रश करने। क्योकि इस उम्र में कोई मध्यमवर्गीय परिवार का मुखिया अपनी जिम्मेदारियों से मुँह मोड़कर कैसे जा सकता है। वीडियो शुरू में बहुत अच्छा लगा लेकिन हमारे समाज का एक बहुत बड़ा वर्ग ये नही चाहेगा कि उसका जवान बेटा अपने माता पिता को बुढापे में छोड़ कर चला जाये अपना कर्तव्य भूलकर।
मित्र, बिलकुल वो आध्यात्मिक खोज के लिए हि गया है… आप शायद फिर से ए फिल्म देखेंग तो उसको जाने से पहेले उसको जो प्रश्न होते है वही दिखाता है की वो आत्मज्ञान के लिए संसार का त्याग कर रहे है. और आपने जो दुसरी बात ’मध्यमवर्गीय’ वाली कही है.. तो मै फिर से यही कहुंगा की.. आप फिर से ए फिल्म को देखे… क्योकि फिल्म मे बताया गया है कि वो कोइ मध्यमवर्गीय नही हैा.. बलके संपतिवान है.
और रही बात माता-पिता के त्याग की तो मै ए कहना चाहुंगा की… जब किसीको अंत:स्फुरणा होती है और आध्यात्मिक बनता है तो वो समझ जाता है की ए संसार टेम्पररी है… और उसमे जितने भी संबंध है वो एक ना एक दिन छोडकर सबको जाना है. मृत्यु निश्चित है. सिध्धार्थ संसार त्याग करके जंगल मे ही चले गये थे…. तब जाकर वो बुध्ध बने. मे ए नही कहेना चाहता की सबको जंगल मे जाकर ही आत्मखोज करनी चाहीए… वो तो व्यक्तिगत मुदा है.. और किसको पता इस फिल्म की कहानी का युवान जंगल मे चला गया है.. उसका क्या हुआ? वो शायद थोडे समय के जंगल वसवाट के बाद ए समज भी जाये की शांति तो अंदर से मिलती है… उसके लिए बहार जाने की जरुरत नही है… लेकीन ए समज के लिए उसका बहार जाना जरुरी बन जाता है. आप हररोज की रुटीन परिस्थिती को बदलेंगे तभी तो कुछ नयी सोच पा्येंगे.. और वो जंगल मे गया उसके बाद क्या हुआ? इस प्रश्न के काफी एंगल हो सकते है… एक से ज्यादा… गीता मे भी भगवान कृष्ण भी अर्जुन को यही कहेते है की तुम जिसको अपने भ्राता, पिता, पितामह मान रहे हो वो असल मै है ही नही…. सभी आ्त्मारूप है…
ए विषय बहोत डिबेटेबल है… आप चाहे तो.. हम और भी चर्चा कर सकते है… लेकीन उससे पहेले आप एक और बार फिल्म देख ले और मेरे रीप्लाय को शांति से पढेंगे तो शायद आप मेरा एंगल समझ पायेंगे…
आपने फिडबेक दीया उसके लिए आभारी हुं…. और वो एक व्युअर का हक भी है.. आभार.
It is an excellent presentation, as a short film.
1. The theme. 10
2. Narration. 10
3. Filming. 10
4. Acting. 9 – Very minor slip ups twice.
5. Script. 9 – Good use of words like आध्यात्मिक उद्देश. I personally dislike use of Urdu words such as महेसुस
6. Costume. 8 – Whatever an actor is wearing affects (particularly young) minds of people watching. The use of a shirt with English words (on the short in the first scene is therefore undesirable in an Indian context, although I do know the whole of young India is crazy about English, a trend I would certainly not like to encourage.
If there was a connect with the old traditions of India, I would have given a 10+.
This one is quite close to the Hippi type of discontented person in the West, although most Hippis in the West start out with nothing and remain in search of personal pleasures.
Your young man does not have a full गृहस्त life to start with, so theoretically he might be going out in search of a partner! However, I admit that the tone of the script does not actually suggest that.
Devang, I congratulate you for this exceptionally brilliant presentation of YOUR abilities.
Dr. Navin Mehta, Canada.
Hello Dr. Navin Mehta,
I surely understand that my experiment was not ‘perfect’, and I’m happy to read your detailed feedback where you have shared the analysis from different parts. I would like to response to your observation, step-by-step:
Acting: The guy who has acted in this short-film, has never acted before. I am not trying to hide weaknesses he has as an actor, but just for everyone’s knowledge, I’m sharing the fact. He is a friend of mine, and is an English tutor. I wanted a serious character, and I found most of things in him. He indeed, did good job as per his understanding of my subject. But yes, as you said, things slipped at couple of places.
Costume: Agree. I am now aware about the importance of costumes in depicting the situation in visual form. Will keep that in mind, if at all I make another creation.
About looking for a partner: I should say that, I tried to deliver a message that he has enjoyed all possible material desires, which includes ‘partner’ too. But yes, visually, I have not depicted that so I can understand minute doubt you have! 🙂
In all sense, I indeed appreciate time you have taken to watch and then review my effort & experiment of making a short-film. Thank you so much for your feedback which gave me some new understanding about the subject.
Hello Devang! Congratulations…
Effort of yours and your team’s are clearly visible and it surely is a very good start to wherever that you are aiming to get from here. It is quite courageous of you to pick such a complex and tough-to-articulate subject which demands a lot of focus from viewers. Kudos to you & your team for putting this piece together! I’m sure each minute in the film required many hours of work and thinking.
Having said that, let me provide you my honest feedback as a viewer.
On a very high level, if we divide the viewers of this film in two groups:
1) Relating audience: Those who are in a same position as your main character and ask the same questions as he does in the film–despite having every desired material they are unhappy
2) Non-relating audience: Those who haven’t achieved everything that your character has and thus will not be asking this questions–they probably still think that they are unhappy because of lack of desired materials.
NON-RELATING AUDIENCE may capture that it is worthless to expect that they will be 100% happy once they achieve all their desired things in life. They will get a message that you can be both richest and unhappiest person on the planet at the same time. They should not expect that having everything in terms of money/material will automatically make them happy and so they should start looking into other aspects of life which may have nothing to do with money/material.
However, this very same audience may be so much in denial of the fact that money/materials will actually has very little to do with inner happiness they may reject the idea of going in the direction of asking those questions that your character asks [even before they achieve all that your character did].
RELATING AUDIENCE: Because this audience is in the same boat as your character and are asking the same questions despite having all the success in the world, it puts them in a good position to get a lot more out of your film. Since this people already experience the same confusion about being unhappy…they will now be able to sense that these is in fact the reality of life and they are not alone. It is not abnormal to feel this way and solution to their problem lies outside of the material world.
In the 1st couple of minutes these audience will become very very interested to know what your character will do thinking that they may very well do the same thing and break out of the shell of silent sadness! As a part of this audience….i got very excited and expected that if not direct answers to the questions your character raised (and so does the audience)…but will at least get a practical next step to find answers. Although, i did not necessarily find the exact next step to find answers to these question…it did tell me that getting away from material world (not necessarily forever) may be an option!
I can go on and on with my suggestions and feedback but it is very easy to point out things but tough to actually create a masterpiece! You truly have done the creating part so i do not want to over-criticize the good work you and your team has done.
Good luck and great work!
Jigar
Heartiest congratulations !! u have done a brilliant job.
Thank you so much Nilesh. Thank you for taking time in watching my experiment & sharing your feedback. 🙂
This is an age old question that seeks answer to this that who am i and what is the puspose of my existance.The writer, Director or actor do not give answer to this question.Leaving this world where will you go? What will you do?Hope someone can explain.!!!!
Hello Mahendra Karia,
First of all, thank you for your feedback.
I surely agree with your observation that the questions raised by the character in the short-film are indeed age old.
You have raised two questions, 1. leaving this world where will you go? 2. what will you do?: well, the character in this short-film decides to go back to nature. Generally, when you are stuck in some routine environment and can not find answers for particular questions, you may feel like changing the environment for a better thinking realm. It helps you think in depth. So the character in the film decides to go back to nature for the reason, nature has tremendous energy, that if filled inside us, can indeed make us feel light, and that may help us do introspection with more depth.
So for your second question when you say “what will you do?”… there is no specific answer to this, coz it is not exactly planned. Only planning is to leave the current environment which has made you so much idle, that your life has become robotic. Now, what will be done, is all a part of mystery, and that is the beauty of it. He might find some inner-peace, or he might not, but he will only come to know to some conclusion only if he makes a change. I believe that, it is not so easy to discuss the second question, coz it’s all about ‘action’ and ‘anubhuti’ that can not be understood without the actual experience… words won’t be able to justify it in its real sense. It’s a matter to ‘find’….
And yes, these are my perspectives to the given situation, and I’m very well aware that, introspection being an individual object, can have multiple perspectives.
I am not sure if my observation answers your queries, but I shared my truth.
Thank you indeed for taking time in watching this short-film and sharing your valuable review.
Good work … Although it could have been far more better, as far as I’ve known your abilities so far, through your channel! All the very best!
True. It was an experiment which taught me many things about short-film making.
diwakar bhai, khub j saras jagruti mate ni tahel.vashi navimubai nivasi hal hu mara putra karatik pase/portland (oregon) chhu.cell thi me vaat kari hati ,rubaru mulakat levi chhe.india pahochi ne cell karish ,apano pyas nathi pan sarsvati ni aaradhana ganu chhu.javab malashe to vadhu anand thashe .Videsh ma gujaratibhash ani mahek felavvana tmara sapna safal thya chhe.gujarati jati mate/vatan. matrubhash mate tame karelo yagna sadev chalto rahe tevi
dwarkadhish pase nat mastak e prat hana. jitendra padh(70 varas no juvan)
દાદા, આપ જેવા જુવાનનો ખુબ ખુબ આભાર. ઇન્ડિયા આવો એટલે ચોક્કસ મળીએ.
Very professional direction, recording and editing. The subject is wonderful. I, though, believe that the end could have been more intriguing as much as, if not more than, the start was; but, overall it was a real good subject narrated with genuine efforts. Thoroughly enjoyed.
Thanks dear for your valuable comment, as I’m aware about your command of analytical skills over visual media.
I must tell you that, it’s a beautiful experience of creating visual for your story. I remember, we had tried once doing it for a song at race-course ground, couple or some three years back.
Let’s see, if I come up with any other short-film idea…. in that case, will definitely consult you before shooting it.
wonderful filming and concept…
i like it!!!
Thanks Richa.