ERIC Khoo and Tamil movies - strange bedfellows?

But the celebrated Singapore film-maker - better known for his Mandarin/dialect arthouse flicks like Mee Pok Man, 12 Storeys and Be With Me - feels it's time to move away from his comfort zone.

Eric's latest feature film, My Magic, is 80 per cent in Tamil, with a smattering of Hokkien and English.

It was shot in eight days in December on a 'shoestring five-figure budget', and Eric is aiming for a commercial release in April.

The 42-year-old director co-wrote the script with The Straits Times journalist Wong Kim Hoh, but purposely challenged himself to shoot it in a foreign language.

He told The New Paper over the phone from Kyoto, Japan, where he's holidaying with his family: 'It's time for a change and I wanted to achieve something new, so this is the perfect vehicle.

'Even though Francis performs his shows in English, I thought it'd be exciting to have him speak in his mother tongue.'

Luckily, there wasn't a communication breakdown.

The Cultural Medallion 2007 winner quickly added that it would've been 'impossible' to do the film without his 'saving grace' - supporting actress Grace Kalaiselvi, who also served as the resident translator.

Eric added: 'She's really fluent and she translated all our English dialogue to proper Tamil - not our rojak colloquial Tamil, but the Tamil that would work with foreign Indians.

'And there is a lot of dialogue. It's a talky film. Obviously I can't follow the singsong rhythms of Tamil and I don't know what's happening, so I'm sitting there like gong-gong (slang for dumb).

Francis Bosco in his role as a magician with his son, played by Jathishweran Naidu.

'She's like my assistant director. I'd be watching for the delivery and facial expressions, she'd be monitoring the dialogue and making corrections if it sounds wrong.'

Eric also stressed that the pacing and camerawork of My Magic differs greatly from his previous works.

He said: 'I know my films move rather slowly, but this one goes at a quicker velocity - think of it as Be With Me on drugs.

'I also always used storyboards, but for this, it was like, forget it, let's go cold and workshop it on the spot.

'The way I use the camera to frame the shot is also not so static, so I'm throwing away my normal devices.'

But will a Tamil movie with an unknown cast be able to find a mass audience - or end up alienating them?

Eric said: 'I hope people can feel for the film because its characters are very universal.

'A lot depends on foreign sales to the international market, and whether they can see it not just as a Tamil film but a foreign language film.'

JAW-DROPPING

He said the idea for My Magic had been gestating since last year, after a chance meeting with Francis 10 years ago at a free booze party at Mohd Sultan.

Eric said: 'Since then, I'd always wanted to collaborate with him because he could do incredible jaw-dropping things like lying on glass or eating glass, which was all captured on film.

'I was very scared because the magic sequences were really bizarre and dangerous. If things had gone wrong, it would've been very frightening because of the casualties.'

But that didn't stop the movie magic from happening.

Eric said: 'It was supposed to be my hardest film, but it turned out to be the easiest when we started doing it.

'It's also my favourite shoot to date - fast, smooth and one of my tightest in terms of budget. I'm really happy with it.

'Even the weather was on our side. When we really wanted rain, we got downpours!'

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