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Possibly India’s “Crash”.. or i don’t know how else to describe it..Saw the rough cut , on Nishikant’s avid.. he wanted to bounce it off me and i was cleanbowled.. again the familiar feeling went through me.. why did i not think of it and why did i not make it..

The film begins in a police station with cops discussing sunil more(the marine drive rape case), one(Vijay maurya) of who is going on a holiday and the other(Paresh Rawal) counting his last few days in the service..then it introduces us to the computer salesman(kaykay) with his unemployed friends in a irani cafe talking about cricket and you also see that he has a phobia of muslims or probably distrust and hatred, then you see the bicycle coffeeseller (Irrfan) who is fond of perfumes and then the film introduces us to the bite hungry TV journo(soha ali khan) and her boyfriend …

Mumbai Meri Jaan’s (MMJ) latest schedule just started. Ashish Shukla and I were keen on visiting the sets. The shoot was suppose to start at 9:00 am in a studio, but was delayed till 2:00 pm, as the unit had to complete the balance outdoor scenes from yesterday. Shooting outdoors is indeed a challenging task. With little control over the elements any amount of planning is found wanting. It makes the filming even more difficult. One has to take decisions fast and correct. We off course were not sincere to reach at 9:00 am. But were there few hours late. It was still too early for the shoot to start. We decided it was time for lunch. After the meal of Aloo Paranthas and still some time left we decided to look around in the local mall. Ashish just could not control the temptation of buying designer underwears. He bought …

Confessions of an (Irr) fan - “Yahaan kitney baje andhera hota hai Dada ? ”

It was a normal working day on thursday untill Oz called me up and informed me that Irrfan is on the sets of Nishida’s MMJ on friday shooting schedule. My eyes widened and i immideately went up to my TeamLead and informed him “I will be on an official planned sick leave on friday. Going to meet Irrfan Khan”

My Team Lead replied “Irrfan who ??”

In a Maqboolesque-killing-Abbaji-with-Silencered-revolver I shot dead my Team Lead !!!

My colleagus surrounded me dumbstruck… “Kya mila tujhey ?”

I replied back ” Kya mila mujhey ?? 3 saal ki naukri .. 3 saaley ki saali kuttey ki tarah vafadari … code kiya .. bugs kaatey … kya mila mujhey ???”

Noticing I had got into the Irrfan-Monologue deleruim … they politely left me. I smiled and went home …

I was in Delhi when Oz called. The Mumbai Meri Jaan shoot was on but I couldn’t make it. Got back to Mumbai and got in touch with the gang to catch up with PFC and get a chance to spend a few hours on a shoot and get back to Mumbai-mode. I am glad I did.

Another interesting film but we can’t talk much yet. Wait for it, you’ll know.

It seems like a film that wants to get into the Mumbai spirit passionately to capture part-reality part-fiction.

The day I landed on the sets of Mumbai Meri Jaan, Nishikant and his crew was shooting a conversational scene outdoor, mid-traffic somewhere in Dadar and then shifting to an Interior location in Mahim.

To my still-outsider- to- Mumbai eyes it was quite wonderful to be out on the streets in rainy Mumbai. Well..Delhi has rain too..but you’ll never find …

“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 …

About 2 months ago. It was around 2am in Orange County. We all were about to crash into our beds. While Nishikant was swinging between watching American TV, answering my questions on cinema and dozing off, while Anurag was busy on my computer checking his emails and loudly poking jokes at us from the other room. And as Nishikant was talking about how, what, where and why of his style of work on sets, I got to realize that here was guy who had such a completely different style of working than Anurag. Nishi likes to be left alone on sets. Nothing should come between his technicians and actors during a shoot. So if an actor is late or the grip is missing, it was upto the ADs to tackle the problem and leave Nishikant completely immersed in his shoot.

Which became a challenge for us… while on Anurag’s sets, …