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I had just quit whatever I was doing till then and had taken a solemn oath of eternal poverty and struggle. Cinema…..Was writing for someone those days…..donno what happened to that script. We were having a narration…..half way thru we had a sutta brake. The person whom we were narrating was a reputed editor…..he mentioned “Gulaal ruk gayee…..this was Anurag’s last hope…”…Did not know him then…and never imagined I would ever be writing this…..

There are many films you wished you were a part of. Like I always wished I was a part of Dil Se.. donno why…the feeling for Gulaal was the same….when it was launched…..when it was stalled….always wished…I wanted to be a part of it. June 28, 2008 am in Jaipur, already into the 4th day of shoot.

Gulaal for me was the beginning of the most exciting Director-DOP combo in the industry…maybe after Guru Dutt – …

Had been to Cinemax Versova yesterday, Anupama Bose from Baiscope Entertainment had sent a very interesting invite. Let me share it with you all. The press conference was held at The Red Lounge -Cinemax Versova. The brochure which they have made is comprehensive enough for a person to know the whys? and hows? Of Sankalan.

At the press conference there was some questions thrown in spite of some very concrete briefing by the panel. A few of them were hair splitting…anyways the crux of the matter is

Send in your script (registered with the Film Writers Association)…it’s safe with your IPR intact.

Get selected and then get paid to work on your script and have an opportunity to being mentored by Anurag Kashyap, Sriram Raghavan and Anjum Rajaballi.

Sriram Raghavan was candid enough to confess that there is a very selfish motive to be a part of this…..”I am in search of …

The plot just seems to thicken as the shoot of Aamir progresses. From the vastness of the western express highway the film has moved to the dingy morbid lanes of Null Bazaar to narrow rickety staircases leading to shady hotels to watching dead-slashed-skinned goats hanging like dyed jeans on clothesline…at dhobighat….Aamir seems to have strayed into the dark morbid alleys he never ever dreamt he would step in.

It’s 7:00 am now as I write and the crew is still at the MUTTON MANDI…..I was there at 5:00 am this morning but chickened out…ran away…more on that a little later.

Bang opposite Metro Cinema there is a huge structure which has “abandon immediately might fall off anytime” written all over it. As I worked my way up the narrow staircase was crammed for space. The DOP, Director, Assistants, Lightmen….all have found their corner and are ready to shoot. Rajeev walks …

A perfectly sunny day in the morning and by 12 it’s all cloudy and dark….the monsoons have left Bombay but this seemed so damn unlikely….this means that you are losing light even as you are just 2 hours into the shoot. A whole day to go….60 shots planned to be canned…..looks like a task ahead…Murphy’s ghost lurks only around movie shoots. It just seems to be the best playground to prove his maxim. Today too was no different but then the indomitable sprits that come together to make cinema happen just seem to overcome Murphy’s maxim.

As the day started Rajeev walked in looking as fresh as ever. No…no…no..no…Rajkumar does not want his HERO to look like this….this films needs him to be worried, exhausted, angry, frustrated, anxious but not fresh. Rajeev got in the zone quite quickly and throughout the day must have sprinted a half marathon atleast. It …

I get into this car…it’s an engineering marvel…a state of the art dream machine…it’s got every thing put into it… what an automobile should have…you get in and the engineer stands right besides me and says…. “go figure how to ride it…I gave you the best of what’s available but it’s up to the driver to figure out how you drive it…let me test you”…but then there are those cars which give a great experience and while you are riding it you just enjoy the ride and don’t even think of the genius engineer who has designed….the man who has stayed in the background and let you enjoy his creation…give you the ride of a lifetime…

Am I even making sense here? Donno…When I see a Cinema Paradiso or the Munna Bhai series or Khosla Ka Ghosla…I enjoy my ride…just into the characters and don’t even know who the director or …

Written and Directed
by
Rajkumar Gupta

He must have been dreaming about this moment since long and it’s D-Day finally….ok agreed a long way to go before these credits appear on screen but the process has started the magical feeling of calling the shorts in ones own film….Rajkumar Gupta was living his dream on the 22nd of this month and it’s an awesome feeling…

Could not go for the first day of shoot…it was at the international airport. Second day - had to go…had a small role to play. Cheap thrills. Nothing beats those fleeting frames on the silver screen…I think it’s a bigger high than being a hero. People might disagree…I am a sucker for the cheap thrills of life…live it as cheap as it gets….my mantra….

As I arrived I call Anubhuti who is looking after the costumes…”2A parking…wahn aaja…breakfast hai….thoos le”..she says….I arrive there sharp …

Dear Couch Critic and Smart A[ss]ce Producer,

It’s quite thrilling and you should be so happy to know that the recent past has been a field day for your esteemed clan. One with 100000 plus hours of cinema viewing experience and the other 1000000 plus hours of cinema marketing experience both have in a way put in your heart and soul to prevent or discourage or dismiss anything that is an effort towards changing the face or least to say paving a new path towards the betterment of Indian cinema. I envy your precision in nitpicking and dismissiveness and marketing expertise to destroy all and sundry who even dare to take a tiny step in revolt.

Congratulations!!!!

In fact your clan though diametrically opposite in gene and DNA are a team. I really can’t help but admire this unity in diversity. Two potent forces working seemingly towards different goals but achieving the …

Have always had a biased opinion about the vedesi desi who makes a film on videsi desis and tells US [that is we Indians in India] this is how movies are to be made and how crappy Bollywood is…..how lousy we are etc…etc…geeks….but look at me I am the smart American Desi….but seriously I wish I was Just American…and not at all Desi…..

They think they have made a smart film…with smart line…..but all they can come up with is….multiple stories….with the same characters in almost all their films….has a start….a few funny[???]/goofy/bumbling/gawky Indians …a stingy/Uncouth Naidu or a Charerjee based on their Masters/Graduation experience….one main…LOVE STORY…..the sensible and most AMERICAN of the desi ensemble……then a resolution in the most crappy Hollywood romcom pattern….just hate them……from American Desi….to Flavors….to ABCD….. whatever….they were

MAA KI AANKH………

I went to see the Lions Of Punjab Presents with similar bias….. as it started with the announcement …

This nostalgia maybe triggered when I saw the trailer of Jhonny Gaddar which starts with

“naam kya hai tumhara… JOHNNYYYYYY”

————-

“gaadi nahi chalenga!!!!!!engine kharab hai”
“to dickey hai na…..hum dickey se chalayenge”

“aapki birthday party ruk sakti hai dad…..marte hue aadmi ka bayan nahi…..happy birthday dad”

“phle laat…phir baat….phir mulakat…..”

“yeh uttar hai……yeh dakshin hai….yeh purab hai…..yeh paschim hai…..yeh taxi hai yeh jaggu hai……”

No one born post 1985 might even know what the gibberish written above is. Just the other day I was talking to a friend about how I have stopped watching tennis after Becker, Edberg, Ivanisevic, Graf, Sanchez and most importantly after Sabatini left the game…..Similarly the more I interact with the present generation one thing I find seriously amiss is the cheap thrills we lived on…..the cinema buffs we were…..the 80s-90s cinema buff’s we were……it was not just Amitabh Bachchan but also the Manek Iranis [am a fan and mourned his death …

“Gandhi se bada iss desh mein koi nahi hai…….”
“main Gandhiji ka nalayak beta hun…”

The promos did strike a chord and knowing the director was the director of the banned play in Mumbai…Watching this made it the top priority on the “to do list” this Friday. Came back rather unquenched. Feeling….what a potentially great story to say from the chapters of the Mahatma’s life. The human side of the superhero which all seem busy exploring this year. When it came to explore those very dark passages of our very own superhero the Mahatma….they still remain unexplored.

Hariral can be related to anyone. I too sometimes feel the burden of carrying my father’s “anushasan” and “ekagrata”…..the pride and the burden of being his son..but that’s just restricted to the realms of my family bloodline……Harilal had an extended one….the whole nation. It’s no disgrace that he succumbed to it…..but Harilal did make some …

Never been a fan of the city….Delhi. They say big roads and big house…what’s the use if you cannot get out on it and of it unless you have a vehicle of your own. Hate the rick guys….got into fights this time too. The past ten days were split between abusing them in chaste Tamil, watching some path breaking cinema….meeting my HERO “Paruthiveeran” and meeting up with some of the brightest minds who are going to hit Indian cinema like a tornado in a few months to come. Just came back a few hours ago.

It all started when Ayesha Mohan [I call her Ayesha Kauffman these days], the lead of Gulal wanting Anurag Kashyap to discuss her script. She was to leave for Delhi and so was Anurag in a couple of days and it was decided it will be done there. We …i.e Tani [AK’s AD] and Me …

“I have not seen a single Guru Dutt film!!!!“. As Somen, Kartik and me heard these words we almost had a Zombi moment….I could hear Guru Dutt screaming loud and clear in my ears….. “jaladoo…issee…..phoonk dalo..yeh duniyaa….”. But then that’s how he is frank, chilled out …he is passionate about his film…he does admit Oliver Stone is like his “Khuda” but in the same breath admits he is not too much into cinema viewing…he has a simple philosophy try and make a film to know how to make a film….no amount of viewing will help you unless you make one”…Words of wisdom poured over on this rather rain drenched night at Vile Parle. We are at the shoot of Nishikant’s “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.

Have been hearing about him since long and after he met the US PFC junta at IFFLA earlier this year we too were eager to meet him. As …

One 14 and the other is 12. Sunny and Ali. Ali does not even know his birthday. He introduces himself as Ali and that he is a Shiya. He wants to know who else in the crew is a Muslim and more importantly a Shiya. I did not know how to react. Ali and Sunny [Sanjay Kadam] are first cousins and they have a sister called Conan. No idea how that became a combination. Sunny is crazy about cars and wants to own a Honda Civic and Ali wants to beat Shah Rukh Khan in stardom. They live in places we call slums….dingy small places cramped with a density statistic a census reporter will tremble on. They have dreams. They have potential but maybe they never thought this would happen in fact they almost never made it but for a pricy child actor who charged us a bomb 3 days …

Satya Quotes

I am just a sucker for dialogues. There are ones which become immoral like “rishtein mein to hum tumhare baap….”…. “kitne aadmi the…” …. “pushpa I hate tears”….[anything to do with Thakur and Gabbar ….my ears bleed now though] Some of the real gems I feel never get their due. Like for Instance RADIO and TV has abused DEEWAR, SHOLAY and MUNNA BHAI dialogues like anything. Any fucking station or channel you switch to and the same mere pass maa hai Deewar…Aey Circuit…… or Gabbar…..can’t they think of anything else. Ok that’s exactly not I was thinking when I started to write this.

After a long long long long time there came a phase when me and my friends actually adapted a filmy lingo for a long time. Phone calls and MSN messenger chats where filled with this. This actually consumed a part of my Filmy life. There was …

“Chadke Bothan Chirpichikad… Chadke Bothan Chirpichikad….. dhanepe poti tana puskai… dhanepe poti tana puskai…. chirkitanakankarmuskai….. chirkitanakankarmuskai…. sabchalegay….. sabchalegay… chitngod…. chitingod…. cheriboskai…. chetiboskai….. kai….. kai… kai….”

These specific words rang very vividly when I was in school and the hottest teacher in school asked me a question in the middle of a class when I was busy doing things in the last bench what one adolescent/teenager on a journey to self exploration does and I did not know what the whatever it meant but if she had asked what “chirkitanakankarmuskai” meant I might just have come up with something. What makes the moment and the song very special cause…even as in the song and at school I had a few friends who would try and help me out and whisper the answer…I had no clue as to what they were saying but I had to lip sync it …

Chapter 1

It’s been some time since Dhoom [1 as we may now call it] and Hum Tum….and we are very well aware of a force called YRF. Whatever you want to call their cinema, many would give a hand or any other limb to be a part of it.[cannot question success…envy you can call it….guilty as charged] Have been to the premise once. I traveled back in time. I had just finished graduation and my first job…..ICICI Bank. My parents were really happy for me….Tam Bram [ok he took commerce…we forgive him] banking job and ICICI bank….like every 4th guy there is a tam bram. Come back to the flash back. I was to sit it that Glass tower at BKC. It was like the structure to be inside those days. As I entered and made my way to the 6th floor….every step I took a voice rang thru the …

There is something about these first time effort. Sparks of brilliance??? A glimpse of things to come??? A statement…I have arrived???? Or maybe just mere doing what one always wanted to do……make movies????? . Looking back 20 + years of this man who has inspired a generation of movie goers and wannabes …..What was his first outing with the megaphone like? An unusual choice of language and a few trivias it leaves behind…and yes it did win the State Award [Karnataka].

For starters it was The Mani Ratnam’s first film. He made his debut in Kannada Cinema. His leading man….Anil Kapoor. It was his first as the male lead as well. This was before Who Saath Din and this also sealed Anil Kapoors fate at the box office with South Remakes for a few years to come.

First things first. First film and already stamps all over. Great music, great camerawork and …

After a breezy “Mounam Pesiyade” and the critically acclaimed “Raam” Ameer spooked me with the last half hour of Paruthi Veeran, Trust me people not a soul moved for the last half hour of the film. I atleast have never seen something like this in Tamil cinema. The images lingered long after the show got over.

Paruthi Veeran is what maybe Kamal Hasan set out to do in Virumandi previously named Shandiyar[the rouge,goon,ruffin] Maybe Kamal Hasan went about attempting to make a classic with a Rashomon hangover and Ameer went about it in the most earthy, guttural way it was supposed to be made.

Pruthi Veeran has nothing to offer as far as a story line but the way it is done….I bow to thee. The starting credit rolls take you deep in the rural heartland of Tamil Nadu. I felt it was a bit extended and was like almost watching a …

Mani Ratnam finds him the most exciting of the new lot. He must be around 5 feet 3 inches. Frail figure almost like he might die of malnutrition. In his first interview to a television channel after his acclaimed Pithamagan he recounts his first encounter with Death. The death of his cow. The family on the verge of poverty had to sell the cow. This man claims the cow was found dead the very next say the deal was finalized. He claims the cow committed suicide by licking the “chuna” on the wall. He was sure it was not a natural death. The man in question…..Bala. The maker of “Sethu”, “Nanda” and “Pithamagan”.

Much like the interview….his films are full of such shocking, morbid….heart wrenching moments. Bala broke into the Tamil film Industry and shocked everyone and gave the Tamil Industry a new star…the almost forgotten and out of work Vikram. …

Had been to a place called Mohamed Ali road in Mumbai which you encounter en route to VT. We all know it’s the place to be for the firni and aflatoon. Happened to be there on a Friday and my friend took to a ritual there every Friday. The Jumma Bazar. I never trusted him when he told me there were Bose speakers and Sony 29 inch TV and Laptops and Rolex for sale on the footpath.

I had my Digicam with me which affords me to take around 6-7 minutes of video. Tried to put them together.

This is especially for those who have been away from India for long and for those new to Mumbai who have never been to these places. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVAXGmtSiAs

[youtube]FVAXGmtSiAs[/youtube]