A celluloid dream

Movie-maker Kamal G incorporates state-of-the-art technology with a star-studded cast to come up with his Malaysian debut, writes

OSCAR-award winning music composer A.R. Rahman’s huge portrait hangs on the wall of the staid office. An antique, golden gramaphone sits in the corner, right behind the polished, wooden table that occupies half the working space. Sean Connery’s is carefully placed on the table alongside the music maestro’s biography.

The calm air belies the energy moviemaker Kamal G, 33, thrives on for inspiration: Music.

“I’m a die-hard Rahman fan. I know each and every song that has been released. His music is my life reference,” he admits, unabashedly.

Ipoh-born Kamal who is the managing director of Dhananwoodd Films, was the official photographer of Rahman’s concerts in Malaysia in 2016.

This time, the ambitious Kamal G director managed to rope in Rahman to compose a musical score for his starstudded first movie, starring locals Syamsul Yusof, Nora Danish, Puteri Balqis, Adi Putra and Nurul Huda.

Kamal has a Bachelor of Science in Network Computing from Napier University, the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Sunway

Kamal G on the set with his crew. University College. He previously worked at Shell, EDS and Hewlett Packard as project manager.

Kamal’s impressive motion posters of

that were launched recently created a buzz; it is the first time motion posters have been done for a local movie.

It was also announced that an augmented reality trailer plus a conventional one would be released for the movie, ramping up expectations.

Kamal was exposed to the art of movie-making at a young age as it runs in the family.

“I got my first SLR camera when I was 9 years old. My father has actually done a number of dramas in India and here. He even shot a movie. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it did not see the light of day,” explains Kamal, who is a fan of Hollywood director James Cameron and South Indian director Mani Ratnam.

“He will procure cameras and other editing and movie-making equipment and keep them in the house. I got extremely fascinated with all that; it made me curious.

“Some film directors in the 1940s and 1950s have done a tremendous job. So I started doing some research. Back then, there was no Google or YouTube so I had to do the research manually. It was tedious,” he says with a laugh, adding that his room was the go-to place to watch movies in college.

He even made sure his mates were not supporting piracy, especially when his favourite directors released new movies.

Kamal counts as among the movies that evoke in him awe and admiration, fuelling his passion and interest in the field.

“That’s when I realised that my passion lies in movie-making.”

His academic background took him to another level as he started to explore digital technology in the movie-making industry.

WAITING TO BE UNVEILED

has many firsts. Apart from being the first in Malaysia to carry Rahman’s music, and motion posters, the movie, which is in its final post-production stage, was shot using cutting-edge technology.

According to Kamal, the entire movie was shot using German-made Cooke Optics, specially flown from Bollywood.

“The two sets of Cooke Optic lenses were being used by the crew of Shah Rukh Khan’s

and Rajnikanth’s Fortunately, we received a call at the last minute informing us that the shooting of Dilwale had wrapped up and the lenses were available,” says Kamal, adding that he insisted the company despatch the same team used by Dilwale to shoot

The range of Cooke Optic lenses. Makrifat C

as the lenses were sensitive and had to be handled carefully.

“If it even moves one inch, you will not be able to focus; it has to be perfect.”

The graphics and colour grading for the movie were done by three teams — India’s Prasad Corp Group, which did the graphics for the highest grossing movie in India, Digi9 (the team that is working on Rahman’s movie project, touted to be the first virtual reality movie in the world) and

When asked why he employs foreign expertise, he simply answers: why not?

“We are actually leveraging knowledge. Even in the IT sector, when we collaborate