Oye Filmi! Will miss you oye!
iView Author: Magik (Bangalore, India)
Email: magikworx [at] gmail [dot] com
This is not a OLLO review. Not exactly. Just like in OLLO, how Lucky’s utter tragedy was presented in a way that made it look comic, this is a good-bye to a close filmi friend interspersed with views, rants, laughs, gags and then some sadness which I hope will be overlooked in the ensuing melee. It started when he joined our agency & told me about him being a TV serial director for DD and other documentary films. I thought bastard is lying. Just like Aamir & Salmaan lying about their b/grounds in andaz apna apna. I played on. “Jab mera choudhry and sons hi nahi, to is ka mehta….. kahan se ho gaya.”
Days went by & the filmi chemistry shot through the roof when we watched a film together for the first time. Chak De India. 2 filmis, 1 SRK worshipper (he was converted later ) & one potent film. It was Urvashi theater in B’lore, in the process of being converted into a modern plex. Did we bring the hall down or what… we were lucky to be in a row where there were SRK fans aplenty. Wolf whistles, cat calls and everything else that filmis do, we did and some more.
There was moment in the movie, where we realized that we are a notch more filmi than any other guy sitting there. When SRK breaks down on winning the finale, we just looked at each other. Not a word spoken. That moment was special. Hell, we were on the same page. We were actually thinking like filmmakers-to-be. Well, he had ‘been there, done that’ but me, I was a complete fresher. I hadnt seen an actual movie camera in real while he had already gotten his hands dirty on the sets.
Then began the ‘filmi sittings’ usually at waterholes around the office. 1 beer, 1 screwdriver is all it took to set the ball rolling. Everyone & everything that was even remotely filmi was discussed with gusto. The logic being that it was happening to our ‘future colleagues’ yaaar! Who’s seeing whom, why when, how and other such stuff. A few more rounds later, the conversation would drift from frivolous to weighty matters. What will work, what won’t.
During one such session, he said (by mistake) “No Smoking nahi chalegi yaar”. He knows that I dont take crap about films & film makers that I adore (irrespective of whatever). All hell almost broke loose. Thanks to a freeloader colleague, a major fight was averted. But the message was delivered. We wouldnt indulge in any loose-talk about our personal favs. The rules of the game were laid, only to be broken later as my viewopint towards films broadened along the way.
I learnt a lot from him about films, the finer nuances and many other miscellany while watching all kinds of films (including Welcome & Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic) with him or sometimes by just discussing POVs. All the while having fun, like it’s the only thing to do. A visionary (spots navels / cleavage even bfore they are in view), he is the only filmi I have known who is very specific about winning the Oscar. No Filmfare, Stardust & IFFA stuff, just the OSCAR. What audacity I say! KRK has serious competition. Haha.
An association that began with passion for cinema could only be concluded (briefly) by watching a film that reeks of passion. It was a tough choice. Sorry Bhai was a serious contender. But then he said “Saale teri fiancee ko main uda loon aur boloon Sorry Bhai, to kaisa lagega?” I was shot in the arm. May be it wasn’t really a farewell-watch kinda film. Guilt crept in, but hell, OLLO it was. A wonderful Sunday noon, 2 filmis set out to watch OLLO. From the very outset my filmi buddy was biased towards the film cuz of its Delhi moorings and he was smiling gleefully as if like visiting his home-town.
We have this small ritual before entering the ‘cineMANDIR’ that is to switch off the phones, fearing that we would be severely punished by Lord CinemaINDRA. That ritual done, we quickly glanced at the seats to find if any ‘distraction’ (read hotties) are present. The movie began & the din was raised.Wolf-whistles, cheering, calpping et al. We laugh through the first half and he keeps exclaiming, that’s so typically Dilli. The second half is where Lucky’s trauma strikes me. Then fellow filmi is struck too.
Yaar Lucky ki to lag gayi. We let the movie sweep us off our feet. Thoroughly impressed, we walk out of the plex. Roughly an hour after i say “yaar beer pete hain bhaincho”. And he says fine. He had a date with a hottie just an hour after and he risks it by agreeing. But filmi to filmi hota hai. Logic khidki se pehle bhaagti hai. Then over beer, we start understanding the gravity of Lucky’s trauma. A troubled childhood, non-happening / wannabe adolescence / practically everyone taking advantage of him and there he is smiling at his fate, walking into darkness.
Yaar pehli baar comedy dekhne gaye the, theater se baahar nikal kar rona aa gaya bhaincho. Thats the power of cinema, thats how a film makes an impact. Thats where the filmmaker nails it. That’s why its a curse being a filmi. We could have conveniently left Lucky & his tragedy behind in the plex & carried on. But no, that was not meant that way. While we felt sorry for Lucky, we said a very subtle & sombre good bye, promising to cacth up when I am in Mumbai for the ISC 08. A quick jhappi & that was that.
Oye Filmi! Will miss you oye!
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
Nice one! Hope u find another filmi buddy soon!
Why does not UTV release OLLO in non-multiplexes and cities/towns without multiplexes!?
I even contacted a friend’s relative who had distributed TZP and other UTV movies… he said they were not inclined to release it in ordinary cinema halls.
Whereas Sorry Bhai was released and is supposedly getting good response.
UTV sucks, for me, as of now. :|
So much for my resolve for not “borrowing” the movie from anywhere.
Nice article….chalo kuch log tho cinema main mobile bandh rakthe hain
OYE LUCKY ( U CAN UNDERSTAND WHT I MEAN TO SAY….;))!!!!!!!!!!
thnx fr everything u wrote here. CU SOON at red carpet at OSCARS.
Thnx buddy ” Tune mere dil ko choo liya” itni acchi goodbye kisi ko nahi mili hogi….sayaad I’m Lucky….not tht OLO wala
awesome article bhai.. yaar ye filmi hona is exciting and heartbreaking at the same time !! aj samajh mein aya !! waiting for more such gems..
p.s. yaar ye beer or screwdriver ka kya combo hai??
@ D&C:i m hopin toooooo!
@ Prashant: bhakti mein rukawat… kabhi nahi by gawd ki kasam, not at any kost!
@ Filmi: Bhai, bas angrezi seekh liyo red carpet chadhe ne se pehle. LOL. kidding!
@ Kirtan: thanks bro. details later. wink.
Oye unlucky .. lol
Chill yaar, you’ll get another ‘filmi’ buddy .. may be a filmi-hottie-buddy !! :D
@ Varun: tere mooh mein ghee-shakar, vodka-shodka daal ke.
Very nice
Oye Hoye!!! Kya baat hai.
Urvashi se toh hamara purana yaarana hai.. Do u know ppl threw sikke whenever Bobby came on screen in Bichhoo. I was zapped.
@abhishek: thanks bro!
@Oxy Oye: Urvashi is losing its old charm… i hate to see it in its present day ‘na idhar-na udhar’ look…. I wasn’t here when bichchoo released. damn… missed the fun!!!
Good one!
Yes I agree… The last I saw there was RDB and man I cannot forget that day. There were few youths who got so sexed up by the end of it that they started shouting dialogues similar to people were chanting last evening at Gateway Protest. Urvashi always had some tamasha or the other going on…
@ Nikhil: Thanks yaar!
@ Oxy: So fuckin true. i guess it has more to do with the people and shops surrounding the theatre. All looking for cheap thrills and an attempt to escape from the harshness of life… The family crowd that used to come there has graduated to the inoxes & pvrs. hey, u r doin a good job wid ur blog. appreciated.
Eggjactly… the location matters.. and the same goes for the ones situated in Majestic area. Oh boy, those were the days..
Thanks for the blog comment. acknowledged.
When someone who is so close to heart is away from u, people often end up saying, I miss u,
But there are very few & rare pen’s, which can articulate the pain of missing someone, & undoubtedly
MAGIK’ is one of those rare pens.
Miss u too sujal, & all the best for your filmy career, god bless u bro.
No matter what Magik always Rocks…..god bless u mera bhai…rock on..
Hey Dude…i am really happy that now u r frequent and consistent on PFC. I always love to read ur blogs..and for that matter wutever u write..be it a story, a short film, a print serial…and sometimes my resignation letter, farewell letter, intro letter (wudever). Always look forward to read something new from u, as i always said u r my second favourite (Sad but True – after Oz bhai)…
Still remember ur Ad – “Main tumhare bachhe ki maa ban ne wali hu”..its only u can think that wild of such an ad and that too for a reputed news paper publication..
Keep the great post going..and i am sure it will pay some day.
Amen.
Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale
@ Deepak: Thanks bro. ur comments mean a lot.
@ Ashu MAPRM: U made me feel glad yet sad. will get better or die trying! Alakh NIranjan.
Ek genuine comment ka itna filmy reply..SAD and not True…i am sure u can do better..and even more sure that u will.
Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale