After the Third Bell

Filming and Post production

The film was conceptualised by Ajay Govind, who was a lead actor in the play in Delhi, while rehearsing for a show in 2011. The film was co-scripted by Remya Sasindran and was finished over a period of months. The principal photography of the film was completed in a 14-day schedule starting October 23, 2011. Most of the shoot happened in various parts of South Delhi in locations like the Lodhi Road Police Station, Janaki Devi Memorial College, and Jangpura Extension. Largely a crowd sourced film, the small 18-member crew doubled up and handled various roles on set. Most people, excluding the DOP Tanweer Ahmed, were first-timers on a feature film set.A few montage shots and some additional scenes and voiceover work were completed in February 2012. The colour grading of the film was done by Cochin-based editor and colourist Sreekumar Nair (Cinema Salon), who has been a part of several large Malayalam productions. The sound design was done by Niharika Ghai at SoundBound Productions in Delhi.

Plot and Background

The film centers around the murder investigation of an actor who drops dead on stage in front of a live audience. However, the investigation is led by a police officer, Banerjee, who seems more distracted by his prejudices towards the suspects rather than the merits of the case.

The murder in the film takes place during the staging of a play called A Perfect Relationship. The play is an official Indian adaptation of Doric Wilson’s play. Sameer Thakur, who plays Surya in the film, has co-written the adaptation along with Arushi Singh, who plays Ivana Grewal in the film. Footage from the live staging of the play in Delhi is used in the film to establish the murder and the suspects. The film had a theatrical release on April 4, 2014.

Cast

Music

The background score and the theme song (“The investigation is a game�) was composed by Mumbai-based composer Avinash Narayan. The film has only one song “Temporary sach� which was composed by debutant music composer, Nitin Krishna Menon, and the lyrics were written by Ajay Govind.

Crowd-funding and release

The movie team began a crowd funding campaign in order to raise money towards the theatrical release of the film in 2014. The team managed to raise nearly 8 Lakh rupees and the funds was used for the publicity and distribution costs involved in the release of the film. The film had a 1-week run in Delhi (DT VasantKunj and Sathyam Nehru Place), MGF Gurgaon, PVR Lower Parel Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kochi. Seeing a decent run it had in the theatres that week, the film was released exactly a month later in PVR Ampa Skywalk in Chennai and was well-received there also, despite being watched largely by an Tamil and English speaking audience. In November 2014, the Chennai-based organisation Indi-earth did a special screening of the film.