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Today was Sunday, as usual I had a late night yesterday, partied till three am. It was Abhisheks Birthday, so after having a couple of rounds of drinks at POP TATES and some rounds of songs sung by Swanand Kirkire, we decided to shift location. And that being one of my favourite abodes of Kops, Ashima’s, Hemant’s and Ronnie. Abhishek had already left as Partho and gang were waiting to give him a surprise at his house. I was suppose to come back home as I had to give some money to Dad as he was leaving for our native place. Unfortunately the money cheque wasn’t clear, and by the time we were supposed to leave Ashima as usual knowing that it was not a good idea for me to go home in that state took me to their lovely abode. I had a dubbing in the morning, some corrections to be made by Jiah, and hence it was more than convenient for me to stay back rather than traveling to Vikhroli and back the next morning. After reaching their house I had a long chat with Kops cousin Pratima Naithani.

The dub got done; I came back home with the money. Had lunch, went to renew my swimming membership, but what I realize is that the pool was shut. It was around four thirty pm, and I was eagerly waiting to do something very important that I could not get to do on Friday. I had planned to see Black Friday, first day first show, and that too because its Anurags first release. People and media created a lot of hype surrounding the movie alike, and why not? After all it was on such a sensitive issue. The day I heard or maybe read that the film is going to release I went back to the time when I was assisting RGV on Naach. It was also during the same time I think Shimit Amin was working on ‘Lets catch Veerappan’, which later RGV decided not to make after Veerappan was killed.

I remember I was standing outside the Factory when Shimit asked me if we would be coming to see the screening of Black Friday at Dimple in Bandra. A lot had been even written when the film was made, and having heard about Anurag so much from friends and his contemporaries, I was more than curious. The theatre was reasonably empty as very few people were invited. The film started and I was taken into the entire conspiracuy of the bomb blasts. Aditya Srivastav aka Badshah Khan was known to me as we had worked with him in Ek Haseena Thi before. Before that my memories of him were of the straight forward honest cop that he played in RGV’s Satya. When I was watching it I was constantly pulled in by his performance. Never ever did I loose a single frame whenever he was on screen. What I had liked about the film was its innocent approach towards justifying what happened. And three cheers to Anurag he managed to achieve it.

Cut to the film is nearing its end, Tiger Memon is sitting with his co conspirators and they talk about burning Bombay, one of the actors ask Tiger something to the effect of “what do you plan to do” and we cut to the same shots of the blasts that we see in the beginning of the film. As we fade in the superb rendition by the Indian Ocean “arrey ruk ja re bande, arrey tham ja re bande…” the film ended there and while we were watching it, the visuals ended and the song kept on playing till the end. I remember the theatre was dark and there were no end credits put in that print and all of us, all of us present in the theatre just kept silent, till it got over. The film had made its impact on I think most of us. I remember getting goose pimples while this particular number was playing.

Cut to after the film is over, we come out of the dark theatre walking towards towards the lit area outside the auditorium feeling an experience called Black Friday, I meet Rajkumar Gupta, Anurag’s associate on this film, and my first question to him is, did you guys do it purposely that you end the film on the song without visuals and credit? Raj’s reply is “nahi re, abhi end credits dala nahi hain”. I tell him “boss, it works for me, it really got me goose pimples” just to feel the way the film ends, plus the darkness and the sound track of arrey ruk ja… I thought it was a superb way to sum up a film like Black Friday.

When in a film screening, everybody wants to know “what did you feel about the movie?” Though I don’t remember seeing Anurag around, there were my colleagues and friends who wanted to know what I felt. Good things always remain good; people want to hear the criticism. I tried hard enough, and I thought that it was too long than and KK did not work for me than.

Cut to the next immediate day, it’s around six thirty, seven pm in the evening, RGV walks out of the factory, as we see him, we give him space enough to cross over to his car, and as he is about to get into it, he stops and asks us “do you guys want to come and see Black Friday?” I have already had an experience just less than twenty-four hours back, and I am games for it yet again. “Hmmm… just come and sit in the front “ is his reply. The car begins and I tell him “ Sir, I just saw it yesterday”. RGV “ don’t tell me that you liked it so much?” “hmmm… yes sir, I mean no sir… but… hmmm I feel its very long” RGV “hmmm” as he went back to Smsing till the time we reached Dimple, absolutely no conversation after that. The film begins yet again, RGV is sitting alone in one of the rows all us ads, in the last row. It’s my second time I am watching the film. This time I try to see and see if whatever I felt yesterday I feel again? Its interval, Aditya Srivastav is no doubt my hero, KK still I do not like. We have chai, cigrettes, samosa’s, and go back again. The film begins, Pawan too has had an impact on me and he is consistent even today. Aditya I like much more than yesterday. He rocks; I start to feel after Amitabh Bachchan he is the one who has the caliber when it comes to performing.

Cut to the film is over we all come out. I don’t see Anurag present even today. RGV Rohit Jugraj of James fame, one or two more guys whose names I don’t remember, I think Praveen Sawant of D and I are standing near his car. And RGV’s first reaction is “such superb blast sequences he has managed to shoot, isn’t it?” yes sir, “ you thought the filim is too long, is it?” “Yes sir”. “Hmmm” he gets back to his cell phone and sends a message, probably to Anurag. I obviously don’t know what he wrote. I get a feeling that he too liked the film.

Cut to almost after two years, today 11th Feb 2007, instead of coming back home disappointed from the swimming pool, I decide to go and see the movie with the audience. I reach Huma Adlabs at Kanjurmarg. It’s my adda, my constituency and its here where I catch up with films when I am home. I reach get down from an auto rickshaw praying “ke mere ko ticket mil jaye” I also hope that there is a show at around five thirty six… I reach the ticket counter and guess what? The counter boy tells me there is no show now. I say “ fuck (to myself), when is the next show?” Seven Thirty Pm. I ask him to show the screen to me on the monitor, I want a center seat so that I have a good view of the screen. He shows it to me, I ask him to punch in a ticket for K – 14. He obliges. “So how is Black Friday doing? Is it doing good business?” “Yes sir, last two days it’s been very good, and it’s catching up”. I come back home, have tea, and watch some television, and wait till its 6:45 PM.

Cut to I am at Huma Adlabs, I am there almost twenty minutes before time. The show is at seven thirty. I keep looking at my watch. Finally they let us audience in. I see there are not many people around, I find it strange. I feel, what fuck all audience we have, bhenchod, salam – e – Ishq jaisi filmein hiuse full jaati hain, and films like Black Friday and Parzania don’t get the kind of audience it deserves? The lights in the auditorium goes off, pre screenings they open the show with an ad for the Subhas Ghaiji’s ‘Whistlings woods International’ film School. It reminds me of my own Mass Comm. College, Jamia Millia Islamia. With in no time I am happy to see many head moving in and around trying to get into their seats. Its National Anthem time, we all rise and pay respect to our beloved India. Immediately the censor board certificate reads ‘Black Friday’ and there is some strange kind of silence in the movie hall. The film has begun and I don’t want to get disturbed, I want to see, if the film has the similar kind of impact on e as it had done twice before. I also somewhere think in my mind about the length of the film. I turn my head around casually; the entire movie hall is full. I start loving the audience, they are so sweet. Now here things are different today, there is me and there is the Junta, no filmi co professional around to ‘discuss and intellectually masturbate’ sometimes its good to see the film alone. I tell myself, “aaj toh doodh ka doodh, dahi ka dahi ho jayega”. I am one of the crowds, who has paid fucking 130 rupees to watch the movie. I can never be wrong in my judgement. As the film unfolds, I am reminded of the scenes that I know. Aditya Srivastav makes me further respect him as the most convincing Badshah Khan. I love you boss as an actor. Whether, it’s his gradual progression when he realizes that he has been cheated by Tiger Memon. Jusy check him out in the scene where Theba (I think) tells him that their passports have been burnt. The fight that ensues there, immediately the next cut is of Aditya standing in the bathroom and guys the way he has performed actually made me feel that, this is how real Badsha Khan must have felt. It’s so touching… the scenes where he is constantly trying to speak with Tiger Memon, where in he keeps asking him to move him from Bombay, and his conctant trips to Rampur to jaipur to tonk to again jaipur to Calcutta are amazingly performed, I just loved the way Anurag has designed his emotional graph, which ultimately leads to his coming back to Rampur Badshah Khans native place. It was so well done. Badshah Khan surrenders, his first meeting with Maria, and him finally trying to turn the state approver just makes you feel bad for not only him but for all the boys who were a part of conspiracy. Aditya’s track gets over and so does chapter three.

Another person that today catches my attention with regards to his performance is Tiger Memon himself, played by Pawan Malhotra. When I started my career when iwas doing my first job as and AD in a television production house on a serial called ‘Kagaar’ directed by Umesh Padalkar. There was this episode called beach house, the first ever job of mine as an AD had Pawan Malhotra play the lead, this time too he was playing a Pakistani spy. I can never forget that day. Pawan too rocks… as tiger memon, he has done great justice to the character, and one can actually feel what the real man himself must be? I got terrified. Cut to a scene, where Maria is interrogating either Badshah Khan. Just before the interval, where in KK stands or leans against the prison wall, where we see some graffiti on the wall. It’s an extremely intense scene, we are in synch with KK’s state of mind that one chutiya from the audience tries to be funny, he read aloud what has written in marathi on the wall which reads “me bhadva aahe” meaning I am a pimp. I feel so angry and frustrated that I want to tell him, that “ aye bhadwe chup baith na” but before I could actually say it to him, the super on KK reads INTERVAL. The best thing is nobody from the audience entertains that chutiya. I realize and feel the pulse of the audience; they are completely into the film.

Cut to, I would love to go and take a leak, but I tell myself, naaah… it’s too crowded, the hall is full. I try to hear what people are saying. But the movie is so impactful that I feel they are either feelimg hungry was just need this make needed break for them to again come to their senses. There is no action happening around. I try to listen to these young guys sitting behind me. Guy One, narrating the dialogues which KK has just narrated in the interval scene where in he tells Aditya aka my favourite Badshah “tum sale ho chutiya, iss baar allah humare saath tha (fuck what a terrific line)”, he tells his friend, “sahi toh bol raha hain KK” “hum hain chutiye”, isis liye riots take place. They feel bad for the blasts victims and the riots that followed after the Babri Masjid demolition. I also have a feeling that maybe there’s some political awakening too in them as they talk about ideology, religion and politics, which I couldn’t hear clearly.

Cut to Part two of the film… thankfully there are no trailors shown, people are still in the Black Friday zone, which I feel is a good sign. I don’t feel the time. The movie goes on, Gajraj’s character is introduced, so is Dawood Ibrahims which Vijay Maurya has played to the tee (not that I know DI to know his mannerisms and body language), but with whatever images we have seen of him in Illustrated Weekly, Outlook and other magazines was just perrrrrfectttt. Chandan Arora’s voice too added to the Don attitude, look and style of speaking. The movie takes us through the entire conspiracy of what happened, including the elaborate chase sequence (I think Basheer’s arrest) which the audience enjoyed to the hilt, was hilariously done and the one which I forgot to mention in the beginning.

Finally the film reaches its climax, I am on the same scene where all the arrangements have been made, they (ISI and Dawood guys) want to know what Tigers plans are? He tells them about how burning the city will affect the entire economy, and we cut to again the same shot, but this time, the director adds one more element, which was present then also when I saw it twice before, and that is, he adds a loud continous sound of a hum which actually somewhere shakes you physically, this is what makes you go numb for a few minutes…. It just works well and I think it’s used beautifully.

Cut to… This time the films last visuals are played along with “arrey rukk ja re bande” song and I wish to go through the same experience that I had in the first screening, but what I see are the credits… all the names of all the until members who worked so hard to put such a beautiful film together.
And this time I realize KK doesn’t bother me, I kind of surrender to the fact that no matter what, this guy too has done justice to the character. And guys, it was only after watching KK in Black Friday RGV cast him as Amitabh Bachchans elder son in ‘Sarkar’.