Leaving Home - The Life and Music of Indian Ocean Review

I finally caught the documentary at R-Mall Mulund. It wasn't easy because the original schedule put up on Indian Ocean's Facebook page was wrong. The coolest part was that the tickets were for 50/- and 70/-
Other shows at the same time were priced 175/-

The uncool part was that there were around 15 people in the theater but they all stayed on right till the end of the 2 hour show, clearly shows that they love the band. Same goes for me, I love the band and respect them even more after knowing their story. Indian Ocean is right there in the top of my list and their story has all the highs and lows that most great bands have. The story is told well, but it seemed like a really amateur documentary right from the word go.

The camera work is terrible, shaky and out of focus many times. I mean, a documentary doesn't have to have bad camera work, right? Were they trying to impress with their authenticity? The flow is OK but could have been much much better. The subtitling could have been more crisp, for example, the Kandisa (?) song is played in the bungalow and there is no subtitling to explain what the lyrics mean and then the same song is played in the Garden of 5 Senses and the explanation comes along. That's amateurish. Also, possibly all their songs could have had subtitles.
The lyrics for Indian Ocean's songs are no where online. If anyone knows, please leave the link in the comment box.

Overall, the documentary is not tight and doesn't evoke the same reaction that Indian Ocean's music does. With such a great subject, Jaideep Verma could have easily woven the stories so that the audience stand up and applause for every song -- but that just didn't happen.
And haven't they heard of Cinemascope or whatever the wide-angled format is called. Anyway, enough of the bad now for the good.

Rahul Ram is the star of the band. He cracks the best jokes and without him the band would just be a bunch of old guys making great music. His recounts how 20 VHP activists tried to disrupt their concert in Baroda and were stunned to hear a Sanskrit Shloka. They ended up dancing away till the end of the show. Other highlights are the classic "Money and happiness are unrelated concepts" and his funny ramblings of the drunk neighbour who thinks the band makes porn movies in their bungalows.

The interactions between the band members are genuine and their impromptu jugalbandis world class. Each band member's background is touched on (wish Asheem was more open though) wonderfully and you get to know the men behind the music.

A wonderful story poorly told.
P.S. I am going to have Indian Ocean on my playlist every day next week!