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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]

Kartik, Me, Chitanya and Smriti were seated. I guess Manjeet was with Shivam Nair. Kartik tells me he wants to hide as he came to know that Sanjay Gupta was somewhere in the venue. There was an inexplicable surge in anticipation of the clash of the titans. Man what a moment it could be. Appna Kartik Ba kuch kam hai kya?? Even at that moment it just felt like something which we could just dream off. We laughed it off and went back to the drinks and it had still not sunk in …I was with the entire team of Black Friday in their moment of joy. The actors Kay Kay, Gajraj Rao, Pawan Malhotra, Vijay Maurya, Piyush Mishra, Raja Choudhry, Imtiyaz Ali, Wasiq Bhai the art director and last but not the least the man who kept us in splits and the man who is called Mr. Hot …

Plaza Cinema one of the oldest in Mumbai was one of the blast sites in Mumbai. I was out there jostling in the crowd for a ticket. In such single theatres no one buys an advance ticket……good old days and memories brought back. There are some films which should be watched in such halls….no multiplex caramel popcorn for me ……A1- Samosa for Rs.10 any day.

As I stood in the line I messaged Rajkumar that I was here. He called back. He and Anurag were there near Fun
Republic I guess to gauge the response. NDTV and Channel7 vans where there…..probably even they wanted to cash in on the Plaza-BF connection. The crowd was predominantly college going. What was heartening was to see the young groups which on other days I would assume are either on their way to Dhoom-2 or going for their 100th show of DDLJ at Maratha Mandir …

My First Film

Disability it said and one needed to say something about it in 60seconds. The people who will be watching them. Mani Ratnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Rajeev Menon….wow…wow..wowoww. What wow….what am I going to show….say….ok..you are dreaming of making films but do you even have a clue? Somewhere I read Robert Rodriquez said if you think you are a film maker you then you are one…. pick a camera and shoot ……that’s it….your first film and you are a film maker…donno why but actually took that advice quite seriously. I knew how to switch on a Sony-PD 150. So I could shoot, I thought. Then I download a Sony Vegas on my PC. Feverishly went thru the help guide……what the hell…but I knew and I totally believed in what RR said. I am a film maker and I am going to shoot one.

60 sec. what am I …

No I did not loose weight like Tom Hanks [I wish I had] nor did I grow a beard neither am I an expert at striking a fish from 100 meters with a handmade spear. Then why castway? I’ll come to that in a moment.

It was the last but one day of the No-Smoking shoot. Yup I know we had already declared it was wraps and we had the PFC member pics clicked with Anurag and John….yes..yes…there was some important patch shorts and an accident sequence to be canned. I reached Lokhanwala as I was told. Where? I did not know. Roamed around the place….[this I did a lot in the latter part of the day]. No trace of the crew nor was I sure whether it was an indoor or an outdoor. Was I sure of anything that frickin day?

As I roamed I spotted a few …

Salam-e-eeks

Just dread to write about this film. Kal Ho Na Ho seems like Milestone cinema in comparison. Instead would like to list the films I would like to watch instead of Saalam…instead of the six stories these are the six films I recommend you watch….3.5 hours of Salam-e-eeeks=18 hours of these

1] Awal Number – For the inimitable Dev Saab..urf Vicky Saab. Apart from the wonderful anthem like “khel hoga shuru poune gyarah……yeh hai cricket….”

Plus the Vicky interrogation of Kundi [Kulbushan Karbandha's name……and in Tamil it mean the behind.] and Macmohan…… “wohwohwohwohwohwohwohwohwohwohwohwowhowohwohwohwohwohwoh……..baarud kahan…..hai…..” created ham history. Awesome cinema…..You may not have “Guide” in your DVD collection but you need to have this.

2] Aag Hi Aag – There was just one reason. Chunky Pandey. It was his debut and how can any cinema fanatic miss this one. And yes it also had Darma Paaji….the budget of the film was…….1 crore…..10 lakhs …

This is a film made by me using the the clips taken at the Kamalistan location of No-Smoking to enter the elit list of banned film makers in india…..Please do support my dreams. It has nothing to do with promoting No-Smoking but showcase the skills of my fellow PFCiets…….Kartik as the on-looker and Smriti as the shy girl and me as the smoker.

It has all the elements…….a great actor/director/writer/editor/cinematographer trying to showcase his skills…and he is being shunned away….as people want to see stars…. it has cuss words and promotes smoking….

Watch it and ban it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5j1MFLDmw

Regards,

Vasan

Butterfly Effect – Part -1

An Iyer boy born and brought up in Mumbai ……does odd jobs….decides to quit everything….eliminates all options and tries to join the film industry….

An Iyer boy born in Delhi….goes on to do more conventional things and becomes an engineer…..destiny brings him to Mumbai…he too nurses dreams of making it as a filmmaker someday.

A boy born in India …goes to the US….into…..software…but his passion is for cinema…takes on to blogging…with a vengeance….

Boy from Banaras comes to Bombay. It’s film reels instead of veins in his nervous system. …..there is Satya in him….and he is a hope for all the Yuva film makers

Cut To

The Iyer boy from Bombay was with the Iyer boy from Delhi, both in awe of the Boy from Banaras……courtesy this boy from the US.

The End

The final 2 days of the No-Smoking shoot in Bombay before the …

Infidelity at Velocity [No-Smoking]

Don’t bother about the title. Just a few months more before we see and hear one of the corniest tributes to contemporary cinematic greats and they would not be complaining.

Juxtaposed against the hustle of the sets where even the Ads were working with the ART department…..last moment instructions being given…lights…..Jr. Artists getting into their grabs. Rajkumar looking a bit tense…he had to leave for Russia and there was a big shoot tomorrow as well.

Rajkumar: I don’t want to leave Anurag alone…….ok others are there…..but I wanted to be with him for tomo…..but even Russia needs to be taken care of….

You have to be there to witness this man’s commitment to the cause and as I discovered yesterday so were the others. Gautam….. and the others. [Sorry, I would have ideally named each and everyone of you]….Awesome team

Ok back to the Juxtaposition. …

[oz note: Vasan was on the sets of No Smoking with a digital still camera, from where he had this opportunity to capture the unveiling of the Black Friday poster by Anurag Kashyap himself... using the same digital camera to capture the video... so the quality may not be that great... but Vasan... thanks a ton for this!!!

UPDATE 2: Message from Manjeet:

Tommorow (January 12/2007) theres a shoot of 'No Smoking' at Gateway of India at 7pm. Everyone is welcome to be part of screen and can bring their friends along with them. The scene is of New Year Eve's celebration and need lots of people. Hope to see you folks!

Holy Smokes!!! WOW!!! Now I wish I could be there!!!

CORRECTION : THE shoot is at MUKESH MILLS in Colaba, close to Colaba Fire Station at 7 pm and not Gateway of India.

UPDATE : Manjeet's pictures uploaded!

I think PFC is the ...

A man enters hurriedly into a dimly lit but huge room. Mohanlal enters with a coffee �tumbler� in hand. He smiles and greets the guy warmly with his infectious smile. The man does not respond. He already seems restless and unnerved has come with a definite purpose. Mohanlal senses it and eases him. The man manages to utter �they have removed you from the party�..��Mohanlal is a little surprised than shaken�he asks�..fumbles a bit� �what? who��.why�ok..ok�.�. The man who conveyed the message looks at Mohanlal who gives him an assuring look and asks him to leave. The man unsure of what the reaction was leaves. Gauthami his wife looks in disbelief. Mohanlal�s face starts showing grief�.as we and his wife notice that strain on his face he turn his back to us and his wife and slowly starts walking to the door. That�s when it happened�..with his back to the …

We all know it’s from the maker of Amores perros (2000). It was set in 4 different languages and we were expecting great cinema.

Many must have seen it. A friend of mine saw it before me. He said…”there was no respite.” I did not bother to ask for an explanation as to what he meant. I took a couple of friends along. They have never seen Amores Perros and the friend who has heard of it though Yuva was a remake of Amores Perros. They are not cinema fanatics but definitely enjoy one on the weekends.

They were warning me as last time I had strongly recommended Casino Royale and they were mighty disappointed. No gizmos, no mad man with more gizmos to take over the world…..this was no Bond movie. I was not highly rated as a person who recommends entertaining cinema.

We all went for Babel none-the less. …

“bhabhi chahe kitni bhi sexy ho usse dhekhna nahi chahiye……”

“imandar officer ka jaandar beta….istamal karta hai colgate”

The blade plate…..the cool glares….the irreverence and to top it all, the name. Pinky from Daud is and will be one of the most adorable [adorable?] characters Paresh Rawal played. I am in all humility and ignorance not sure how one is to write such a character and ask one to act.

This guy is supposed to be a master/maniac mind of terror. This guy had a love life but unfortunately killed her over a fight. Should they go for a 12 to 3 film or 6 to 9….because in Pinky’s words.

“pyaar me jaan deneki himaat honi chahiye….”

How cool is that. Does Yash Chopra know this tenet of Love. Shit if he did then all the Kirans and Soniyas and all the Punjabi kudies [how come all Punjabi boys and girls are fallin love….how come …

sorry guys could not click the “prayogshala” nor “john”..nor “paresh rawal”[sala vasan to pir kiya kya????]……anyways a few which i managed. this does have the Narnia guy too. there is a poster i designed too. hopetodo better job if there is a next time.

“This film has three colors….black …white and shit”……this is what Anurag replied to an actor who was playing a nurse who said the film has black and white…2 colors. I was just eavesdropping shamelessly and have no idea in what context it was but that was just what it was at the No-Smoking shoot at Mukesh Mills, Colaba. Intriguing, wacky, puzzling….and everything else we would like to associate with the magic of cinema and Anurag Kashyap.

As soon as I entered I read the by now famous sign. “No-Smoking in set, Rs.500 fine”. I did not have that kind of money with me and had not got my stock as well. But I will never regret the decision, I borrowed one for he king himself. That was one holy drag I had from Anurag. Thanks…..it never felt so good before.

Back to business. Today was the all important shoot …