The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is adaptation of Nitin Vengurlekar’s stage show of the same name. He stars as Chakraborty/Neville Umbrellaman, alongside Sabrina Chan D’Angelo as Sabrina, who crushes on awkward Neville. The film is the highly anticipated follow up feature from Platon Theodoris (Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites).
Sabrina: Nitin if you had to describe the film in limerick form, what would it be?
Nitin:
Alone, in a shed, at the start of the feature
Sits a man, with a mic, try’na reach’yer
He’s a man with style, a man of the world
His sleeping bag uncurled, his rhetoric unfurled
He’s got a polyester tie but a silk-blend tongue
He waxes lyrical about the moon, and the stars, and the sun…gue
He speaks so eloquently of Schopenhauer and Hegel and Nietzsche,
But his tongue turns to muck, the moment he finally meetzche.
Sabrina: What was your favourite part of making Lonely Spirits?
Nitin: Being part of the miracle of independent cinema. And by that, I mean filming in a 2-metres-by-2-metres, asbestos-ridden, poorly ventilated, below-freezing garage in the height of winter with malodorous tech crew and hostile neighbours. Sabrina, this film is ostensibly a film about climate change and Keynesian economics, among many other things. What do you think are the key messages and metaphors in the film?
Sabrina: For me, the key message of the film is about seizing the day. Life is too short to sit alone in your parent’s shed in the dead of night, performing monologues to an audience that may or may not exist. Unless this is something you want to do. In which case, life is too short to not do exactly that. Also, tell your friends you love them.
Nitin: What was your least favourite part of making Lonely Spirits?
Sabrina: Aw, all of the film is my favourite part! Though I have not yet seen the finished film. Actually I was sad they cut the combat sequences, I spent a lot of time cage fighting in preparation.
Nitin: Sabrina do you think we could be friends in real life, now that the film is over?
Sabrina: Yes, Nitin! Unfortunately my cage fighting training regime doesn’t leave a lot of time for extracurricular activities, but if you want to join me in the octagon some time, I’d love to fight you.
Nitin, I heard the soon to be optioned sequel to LSVH will be titled Umbrellaman: The Origin Story.
Nitin: The sequel is actually a prequel about Rabindranath’s/Umbrellaman’s life as a vacuum cleaner salesman, and it’s called ‘Life Sucks’ and you should watch it because you’ll probably be in it and it would be rude not to watch it– you know, a lot of people go to a lot of effort to make a film happen and what are you going to tell them when they invite you to the screening with hope in their eyes, desperately seeking a shred of your approval?
