Baaton Baaton Mein
Sitting with a cup of coffee, my secretary informs me my writer had vanished, not sure how would I proceed with my newspaper section now, I cant write all of them again, I didnt know what to do, that’s when my son asked me to join you guys and leave the newspaper behind, to share my passion, to come and blog, it took me some time to think whether I was actually a blogger, and whether I’d be a misfit here. But I finally came to a conclusion that we can all share passion here,my taste could be different, my son’s taste could be different, but then we all are here to share it together, out passion, our differences and our tastes.
Watching movies at every possible festival, watching plays at every possible theatre everyday, watching the young ones making such phenomenal stuff, and the old ones slowly making it to the Razzies, and yet not making films, not anchoring, not doing what I love, not writing, it slightly pinches me and asks me to be somewhere, where everybody is following the same passion, in their own ways, not all of us are filmmakers, not all of us know each other, not all of us have similar traits, but we all commonly share passion for what we all love: Cinema.
When I watch these movies being churned out,it somewhere leaves an impact, a desire to make these films, and they’re undoubtedly brilliant.
Dev D as an example, I saw No Smoking and Paanch, and it took me quite sometime to comprehend No Smoking, and wasn’t the biggest fan of Paanch, but with Dev D, Kashyap tries not only to shun his detractors, but more importantly has got his message across, he connected with Dev D, something he failed to do with No Smoking, and kudos to Kashyap for getting his cinema across, something many filmmakers have failed to do over the years, something I’m still struggling with.
But what exists in all of us is our passion, and the day an Anurag Kashyap eagerly waits to watch a Bhansali film, and a Sanjay Bhansali waits to watch a Kashyap film, would be the day where both sides of the celluloid form a bridge and connect, and PFC, according to me, has full rights to promote, publicise, discuss and do whatever they want with the films their favourites, their filmmakers release. You don’t go around stopping a million fan sites that promote so and so film, only talk about that film, and lobby that film as much as they can. So if all these millions of people can discuss their likes and dislikes, why is PFC stopped from doing so? Why cant PFC talk/write/discuss Kashyap or Dibakar’s films? It is the only bloody place where you can peacefully discuss your cinema, share it with your friends. If I go today to a dingy single screen, and start talking about Tarantino, I’d be the first one to be kicked out, so where do all these out of kicked out people go? They write on PFC, and nobody can stop them. Yes all types of cinema are welcome, it could be a Dostana or a Ghajini, or it could be Pulp Fiction or a La Dolce Vita, but nobody should deny promoting the latter.
Uff Yeh Mohabbat, 13 years ago, was certainly a lovely experience, and my first stint with filmmaking, with no training, no nothing, I went on to make a film, irrespective of how it fared at the box office, irrespective if people liked it or not, making a film, and even if a few people appreciate it, it’s worth the effort. One such time was when Gulzar Sahab called me, and wanted to know if I wrote the lyrics for my movie, and on saying yes, he congratulated me, and we expressed our desire to meet each other, that rendezvous will be one of the most precious things related to my movie.
Many people ask me why I vanished, why I didn’t continue making films, doing whatever I got on television, fair enough but where my problem lies is that I don’t wish to change myself or my ways, to be in sync with a so and so producer, or an actor.
When Randhir Kapoor heard Kalash, he was afraid it might face a similar consequence to what Prem Granth did back in 1996, Prem Granth wasn’t your usual run of a mill, it sank. He didn’t want so much to be at stake, he didn’t want another blunder. But Rishi Kapoor soon contradicted him
“You rather make no films, than make 50 crap films”
I made no film.
On television scenario, when you had all these regular soaps on, I wanted a change, a reality show with actual reality, no cheap voting system, nothing like what a reality show now has. It was Dastak. The people were real, the problems were real, the pain was real, the tears were real, and Zee proudly accepted it as the ‘social face of television’. People thought it made for an unpleasant viewing.On a Sunday afternoon, when you want to sit with you friends, sip coffee, and switch on your television, nobody wishes to watch something sour and grim, they all live in an escapade. Nobody wants to watch the hard face, we all want to escape, hide ourselves with fake glam, do anything else, but not accept the miserable reality.
Dastak was something I was passionate about, it didn’t get its sponsors, it found a tiny niche audience somewhere, and somewhere it was all slowly sinking, a feeling which you get when your passion isnt accepted.And when the whole world isnt really accepting what you love, no better way than come and blog it out, certainly better than washing a Blue Label down your stomach.
When my son told me that “Dad, PFC isnt a blog, it’s home now, whatever time of the day, I don’t sleep without logging onto PFC,the day I leave PFC, will be the day I would have lost my passion”
“I hope you never leave it then” I told him with a smirk.
And now I also hope I never leave it.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Dad, Welcome to PFC!
Keep it up! Keep writing
Vipinji yeh woh aag hai jo bujhaye nahi bujhti :-)…
Lets say cheers to say if not Blue Label then a Vino Tinto…
So true Shivajee =)
I’m always on for Vino Tinto! =)
Haha!
What an entry!!
welcome to PFC – for some it is the stolen moments of passion and for some it is the first love that hasn’t let go…
Welcome to PFC and expecting more and more from you – someone whom I remember as the MGR moustache hidiwallah from my early DD watching days.
Ab toh hum aamne saamne hain!!!
yayy!!
Welcome to PFC sirjee, and wonderful to see ur thoughts. Thanks for understanding what PFC is really about, and its philosophy and ideology. I mean where else would you expect people discussing on some not too well know movie, or an underrated actor or actress, or the metaphysical meaning in a song or movie. Thats what real Passion is all about.
A very welcome to you Vipinji, its very refreshing to hear from you on what PFC stands for.You have summarised it very very well.I have been following your work very seriously & its an honour to be with you on the same platform as you.I’ve already told Jehan that I fell in love with Sikkim after I saw Uff!Yeh Mohabbat.Utra na dil me koi & diwani diwani are unforgettable songs.Keep writing more sirji!!!
Thanks Jaiganesh, Ratnakarji and Sethu
The appreciation feels great
And yes Ratnakar and Sethu-
its for all those people who think PFC promotes too much of underrated cinema, what the hell, it bloody well should! We dont go around to fan websites as to why they promote so and so,so why target PFC…
Sethu-i feel touched with your words,its nice to know you liked something in UYM, logon toh kuch bhi nahin pasand aaya,haha
Deewani would be my personal favourite :-)
a good post with passion
@ VIPIN SAAB,
JAI HO!! :D
Vipin Saab,
Welcome to PFC! Hope you are not in “Fursat Me” mode any more as we surely need to see more from you.. The DD Days (Aamne Saamne, Baaton Baaton and ofc Fursat Me) are wonderful memories and did waited for your entry in filmdom with UYM, but disappointed to find you missing after the film.. Good to see you back in action… Abhishek has made a good come back (in a different avtaar though) and wishing the same for you!
Baato.n Baato.n Me ka silsila jaari rakhiyega!
welcome sir! great post. keem ‘em comin!
The problem with PFC is not that it promotes “other” cinema, in doing so it makes fun of those millions who you have not been able to connect with!
I am all for promoting this new wave, watch it grow etc. but please restrict posts from a lot of newbies who degrade others’ work in their bid to capture eye balls. (it has become a common syndrome in politics and PFC, i guess!)
Talking about TV, there was an amazng serial called- Sparsh on Sony, I think it was directed by RAVI RAI. it sank without a trace. But it was a true mirror to modern relationships.
“Jinhe Naaz hain …… wo kahan hain”
@32, Vishwa and Magik,
Thanks a ton guys
@Pavan Jha- I’m touched that you liked my shows, and yes i will venture into why i dissappeared after UYM, thanks alot for your support!
@S-Whoever posts on PFC, either does it through authorship or I-View, if they are authors, they are certainly certified and qualified enough, and certainly not ‘newbies’, I’m sure people do have biases, we all do, and I-views are approved by the editors, thus they also must be of acceptable quality. Suggest you write an I-View and create a balance without making fun of any of the sides, will read it.
Vipin Sir, by your words, you appear to very calm and composed. nice post. keep them coming
Welcome Vipin Jee if i am not wrong u r the same perosn who used to do a show called aamne saamne,,with stars it was one of the pioneer those which was done very well and the way u took it with all the starts was amazing it was really very different and entertaining… all the best keep writing
Thanks Sunny
,
And thank you HS
Yes I’m the one who was on Aamne Saamne.
Welcome Vipin,
I can’t recollect your name, but been an avid fan of DD and it’s programmes;I do know that there wasn’t many shows of movie reviewing. And there was a guy who used to come in “All white” outfits every friday with a moustache and nicely combed hair.I guess, he never gave any movie more than 3 stars.And one fine day I heard -”Abe vo banda jo review deta tha na movies ka, uski khud ki movie flop ho gayi”.Chapter closed.
Are you the same guy?
Are you the same guy, welcome back sirjee.Nice post, I love to read some more.
Yes Negi. Unfortunately
OH Gr8 Thx Vipinji keep writing, UFF yeh mohabbats photography aur song picturisation bhi accha tha,!!promo was very good i remember everything was RED RED it reminded me of da LAST EMEPEROR,,,by da way the HERO is the director of ROCKON right!!!jeeetujis nephew or something!!!
Yes Vipin – “Unfortunately”.That was what I thought about you when I was kid.And I remember that you used to use Urdu words a lot especially “mufliso” or “mukhlis”, I don’t remeber the exact word.
I never thought you are a kind of person who has this kind of perception of cinema.
I enjoyed your post, keep em’ comin’. The day you would lose your passion would be a sad day for cinema and I don’t want to see that day in this lifetime.
BTW, pardon me but have you ever given any movie more than 3 and half stars?
Haha, Thanks HS!
Yes Gattu directed Rock On!!
Forgot to mention him in my post…
and Negi- Thank You
I’ve been a fan of the Urdu dialect for quite a long time, I still wear white and still love cinema with the same passion. I would be writing more on PFC, and my next movie review could well be more than 3.5 stars, so watch out
Hehe……… Vipinji, I hope you haven’t taken any word offensively.I’ll be waiting for your 3 stars rating and I love to read you reviews and ratings on PFC.
I have a fading remeberance of your movie reviews, so I’ll like to read them again, may be about some new released movies.
Sirjee, post daalte raho and we’ll surely talk about your “white” fixation in some other post.
Tab tak ke liye — “Jaagte Raho”