A love story set in the lush coffee plantations of Coorg, where love blooms when the coffee flowers bloom! And you have a Kodava protagonist in a Hindi movie! Co-written by Mumbaikar from Kerala, Manu Warrier, and Bengaluru man Sharath Parvathavani, Coffee Bloom is an indie that got inspired by the scenic plantation-swamped countryside in Coorg.
Speaking from Mumbai, Manu, who makes his directorial debut with the film said Coffee Bloom he wanted the location to be an important part of the narrative. “My co-writer Sharath, with whom I have worked on a short film earlier in the U.S., is from Bengaluru and it dawned on us when we were working on the script that Coorg is just a night away from Bengaluru. Our story required a contained setting. We visited Elephant Corridor (a homestay in Siddapura where the film was eventually shot) owned by Viju and Nimmi Chengappa and they gave us a very detailed account of life on coffee plantations and about the phenomenon of the coffee blooms. We realised this could be a key factor in our story and we reworked the script around it, and adapted the story to Coorg, so that it doesn’t feel gimmicky — it’s not like the hero suddenly landed in Switzerland!”
Manu admits that till he visited the Chengappas, his knowledge of Coorg was limited to the photographs he had seen. “The first thing that occurred to me was that it’s splendid; it’s a visual delight for a photographer or cinematographer — it takes you in.”
Manu, a scriptwriter, says he’s averse to showing violence and frustration on screen. “I’m driven to work on plot-oriented subjects.” And so the story traces the life of Dev Anand, a self proclaimed wise man who finds comfort in being a loser, having given up on life as a result of a love gone wrong. A life-changing event takes him on a journey to a coffee plantation in Coorg, where he meets Anika, his long-lost love, and currently his boss. Love blooms in an idyllic setting; and much is at stake as the yearly bloom is round the corner.
Manu admits that he was lucky, when he started out wanting to make this indie, he was introduce to Bollywood producer Harish Amin by filmmaker Leena Yadav, who loved the story and decided to scale it up. He also brought on board Bollywood actor Arjun Mathur who has earlier starred in Luck by Chance, My Name is Khan, and Fireflies and Sugandha Ram who was a part of Jaane Tu Ya Jaana Na and My Name is Khan . The film also stars Mohan Kapoor and Ishavari Bose-Bhattacharya. Manu started writing the film in 2011 and shot it in February 2013. “The climax of the film was dependent on nature. We had to chase the seasons to maintain continuity of the look.” The film cost Rs. 1.5 crore, he admits. In 2014, the film premiered at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. At the NFDC Film Bazaar, it was marked for ‘Market Recommendation’.
It was while he was studying for his MBA in the U.S.A. that Manu seriously started getting engrossed in the world of cinema. “All the while I wanted to make films, but your middle-class upbringing doesn’t allow that career. But once I was in the U.S. I had this huge access to film libraries. I started reading, and started DIY filmmaking.” Even when he worked at motels or sold sandwiches, a TV showing films was a constant presence, he laughs. He worked in HR recruitment for a while and then decided to come home. When he moved back to Mumbai, he says he was naïve enough to believe that he would write scripts and films would be made off them. “But reality doesn’t work like that. So I started pitching myself as a scriptwriter, and as someone who would develop people’s content for them.” Things started opening up, but projects were also frustratingly shelved midway.
Manu says he had been going back and forth with Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to collaborate on a script when another great opening came his way — “Anurag Kashyap suddenly called me late one night and said there is a writing project. He didn’t tell me any more details or who it involved. I think it was about being in the right place at the right time.” Manu landed a writing job, having being given the task to write the screenplay for four episodes of Yudh , the TV series starring Amitabh Bachchan, that Kashyap had created. “There was no pressure on me as such because I came into the scene where the storyline has already been mapped out, and Amitabh Bachchan’s character graph was also mapped out. But I was excited, and on a high.”
Talking of the kind of opportunities available now, and the possibilities of the indie film in Hindi cinema, Manu says there are people who make films on controversial subjects to get attention, there are others putting up their film online, unbothered by the industry. “But whatever you do, struggle is a part of the picture. I was a rank outsider. And it’s never easy. But after a point, you just want to be part of the picture, whether it’s rosy or not. But the indie scene is surely changing for the better — there are now benchmarks for a good indie and a bad indie,” says the 36-year-old filmmaker.
Coffee Bloom releases in India, U.S. and Toronto simultaneously on March 6. Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Kochi will be the India releases.
