Three years ago on an innocuous day, one of my friends Nagesh told me about the movie Taxi Driver. I was not a huge fan of English Movies at that time, but when I saw the film for the first time I was totally won over by Robert De Niro’s performance and the way his anguish was portrayed in the film was something I can never forget. I did not think much of that film initially, but as I delved deep into the world of cinema, Taxi Driver has been the film that I always used to fall back on to make sense of my life. Watching the film alone with a drink in my hand has calmed me more than anything ever has.

I cannot put a finger on to a particular aspect of the film that I found absolutely relatable, but I come to think of the film as the most definitive film of my life. I could understand so much about Travis Bickle but always wanted to know more about him. Each viewing revealed something interesting about the man and what made him tick. It sometimes felt very similar to my personality, or the way I would behave if I were a bit gutsier in my life. I got obsessed with him and read more about him. I read close to 200 reviews from IMDB, all the critic reviews, the various interpretations given by film enthusiasts about certain scenes and also got to read the original screenplay written by Paul Schrader. Schrader’s screenplay was raw, unadulterated and pure writing which threw more light on to Bickle the person and Scorsese did complete justice to turn the character into one of the most memorable films of our times. After reading the screenplay, each scene made more sense and Travis Bickle felt true on more than one level.

I do not consider myself adequate enough to comment on the technical aspects of the film so I refrain from doing so, but the thing which struck me the most about Taxi Driver is a quote written on the poster which says “On every street, in every city in this country, there is a nobody who wants to be somebody”.  Written first around 1976, this quote is relevant even today and it has stayed with me long enough to want me do something about it. I wanted to re-imagine the character in today’s context set in our times and see how he would react to the situations that he finds himself in. My protagonist is no way near intriguing or fascinating as Travis, since he has to suffer my limited imagination and an acute lack of finesse. However, I chose not to let them hinder my plans to make my own version of what I understood about that film and that was how my second short film “The Important Man” was conceived.

There are two people whom I wish to thank for making the film as it is now. First on my list will be Bhaskar Parimala, my cinematographer. Without him, I would not have dared to start this film and I could always count on him to give his best. I was not the surest person to be around and most of the times I was unsure about how to shoot a particular scene, but he was very supportive and understood my drawbacks and never complained about anything. I could not thank him enough for his support and his work speaks for itself. My film is not the most apt testimony for his honesty and commitment and no ornate prose can vindicate them either. Sharing equal credit would be my hero Avinash Matta. He has been one of the most versatile performers I have come across and he made me see the film as I saw it in my mind. Each one of his expressions has been perfect, even though my contribution in directing him was minimal. He would also ask me a lot of questions about the story and I want to apologize for not being articulate about many things. Still, his belief and passion in acting made him do my film and I will be forever thankful to him.

As a final note, I want to extend my apologies to all the fans of the film, the director, and the writer and to anyone who may consider my tribute atrocious and even blasphemous. My film is not even a patch on the original but I have no regrets in making it either. Any credit for the film should rightfully belong to the two persons mentioned earlier and my other team mates and all the blame for it should be directed towards me. My vision may be crippled by my own indiscipline and incompetence but when I look back on it now, I still feel it to be an important film, at least for me.