‘Bazodee’ brings TT films into world view

The re-engineered film, Bazodee, was opened at Digicel IMAX, One Woodbrook place, Port-of-Spain last Tuesday. Montano told those specially invited to its opening that the movie was not his but rather TT ’s.

He said at the opening that the world “wanted” the country’s soca, its mas, the country’s beautiful women. He called upon the Government to invest in the country’s talent, calling the local cast members the country’s stars of tomorrow.

Montano’s Bazodee has upped the “head-turn” value of TT , giving current to the idea that the country is ably capable of producing content that sits right with the best of them. Montano’s plays the role of Lee in the film.

Many of Montano’s local co-stars in Bazodee said the movie held its own when released alongside the major film Suicide Squad and, in some cases, performed even better.

The movie garnered generally mixed reviews, for example the Film Journal in its August 3 review said, “Machel Montano’s spirited sounds happily inform this sunny rom-com featuring a lot of blessedly brown people, for a change. Hardly world-shaking, but a nice, very smoothly executed summer refreshment.” The Variety’s August 5 review said, “Comedic diversions involving Lee’s perpetually eye-rolling friends, as well as Anita playing matchmaker for her cousin and soon-tobe- brother-in-law, do little to energise Bazodee, which fails to capture either the freewheeling, joyous spirit of the Caribbean or the heady euphoria of blossoming romance. Instead, it succeeds only at proving Ram’s belief that sometimes, “disasters just happen” –the movie illustrates that TT is replete with stories to be told.

This is something that the movie’s local casting director, Penelope Spencer, wants the country’s Government to understand.

She said, “As the casting director I got a synopsis of the characters.

I got what the writer wanted.

Older man, vendor...I got that list and then being in this business for years I know a lot of the actors that are around and we had two or three casting calls.

After that we had a second call back and a third call back. Sometimes you recommend an actor for a role and the actor cannot do it, for whatever reason.

“That was kind of the process in this film. The extras in this movie were the best. They carried the movie. At one point the director said to me the extras in the movie make the movie.

Sometimes the extras had to stay on set for 12 hours.” Spencer who spent many years in the theatre industry said Bazodee has given both the local film and theatre industry hope.

“This film has given our creative industry hope. I am hoping that the Government could see the work that we put in and the results of the work. I am hoping that actors feel hope. Actors feel hopeful. When Trinidad looks at this film everyone would feel so hopeful,” she said.

Many of the local actors in the movie transitioned from theatre to film. Although, for some, there were challenges, they were never insurmountable. “There was a lot of wondering if we could do it. The actors in this movie, who were stage actors pulled it off,” Spencer added.

Similarly, for actor Ryan Martinez who plays Sanjay said Bazodee has opened his eyes and career to the possibility of film.

“I am established in the stage aspect of TT ’s theatre industry.

I am versed and known in local Indian theatre. I got involved in some minor films.

I met Penelope at an offchance at the movies and she mentioned they were going to have an audition and invited me to come. I got called back and that is how I got involved in the filming of Bazodee originally called Scandalous.” Martinez described the experience as “eye-opening”.

He added that the transition from the stage to film was not easy as stage required greater expression but his few “minor roles in film” gave him some experience yet it was still “jarring” for him.

For Martinez, the country’s unique culture makes it very fertile ground for story-telling.

“Once the right techniques are used there is no stopping us.

We could become the cultural capital of the Caribbean,” he said. It was a matter of building on the country’s historical inheritance.

Chris Smith, who plays Bud, Montano’s manager in Bazodee, said it was one of the best starts he could have be it local or international. Smith described Bazodee as being “uber positive”.

It might even border on cheesy but it works, never compromising on quality. Montano he said wanted to make the movie, “about Caribbean, about us.” Smith said since the release in the US on August 5 his Instagram account has grown considerably.

Teneille Newallo who plays Poorvi became involved with Bazodee after having an audition with Penelope Spencer. She originally auditioned for two roles and found out she was pregnant shortly after getting the part. Her pregnancy, however, was no impediment to her.

“They called me and said they really, really, wanted me to do it,” she said. In fact, Newallo whose only dream was being an actress from as early as six or seven years was pampered on set by other cast members and the Bazodee team. The graduate of Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance said while that was her genesis, she always saw herself as getting into the film industry. “When I came back to Trinidad that is when I started to focus again on film,” she said. The actress has a number of projects under her belt among them bmobile Dance off and some short films.

For Newallo, it was one of the most professional sets she has ever worked on, locally. With her own film, Cutlass, premiering at the Trinidad and Tobago Film festival this month, she said, “Bazodee has opened a lot of doors for films to come afterwards.

I am grateful for that. It is also the first time a local film has been released internationally on that scale. Machel, being the big star that he is, drew audiences to it and I think we needed that to get people interested in local films.”