Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige has made some of the shrewdest financial decisions in Hollywood history, but he sure dropped the bag when he didn’t make a new “Blade.” (Just ask would-be star Mahershala Ali.) Luckily, Indian auteur Samjad has directed a film that will bring joy to fans of the battle-ready half-vampire Wesley Snipes popularized on the big screen. Samjad’s new movie “Half,” which he co-wrote with Praveen Viswanath, has a simple concept: Twin siblings (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj) are robbed and left for dead on a highway, but as they are half-vampires, they recover and vow to take gruesome revenge on the gang that attacked them. From there, the film is a fantasia of blood and gore, as “The Raid 2” and “The Night Comes for Us” fight coordinator Very Tri Yulisman orchestrates creative, funny and bone-crunching action.
Samjad enjoys “Blade,” but had a different vision in mind for his film. It’s a brawler where the action is clear, crisp and often shot in the daytime. And while the fights feel modern, the film evokes more classic fare.
Now we can achieve it through robotic cams and specialized equipment. But in the olden days, it had to be done through manual hands and panning and zooming. We used lots of zoom lenses because I like the technique with the camera.
We tried to achieve the ’80s- and ’90s-type of movie.” Despite the zippy feature it created, when Samjad describes the “Half” shoot, it’s clear it was a miracle it got made. We can barely stand in the sun. But suddenly everything will change, and clouds will come in, and in 10 to 15 minutes, rain will start and flood everywhere.
We put a small shop set near a highway, and when we were shooting, we checked the weather on the internet, and everything was perfect. But suddenly a hailstorm took away all the set, including our tripods, including everything. We faced this every time we shot.” Weather wasn’t the only challenge, as a literal war broke out during production.
We had to go back to our home in Keralam [a state in southwestern India]. We were stuck in the middle of the desert, and we suddenly went to our rooms and were evacuated from there, but there was no vehicle, and we could see the missiles and everything going in the sky. We were in a dangerous situation, and somehow with our production’s help, we came back to our home.
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