Friday, October 19, 2007

The Show did go on....


jo aankh hi sa na tapka to phir lahoo kiya hai?

The much anticipated Premiere is history now and its time to move on. However I do want to share a few moments that I found interesting.

I have had this feeling right from the very first take of Doosra Kinara, that while I am making it - someone is un-making it. I could not get a handle on who it was, but I saw things and programs messing up for no apparent reasons.

Well, whoever that was showed up with some conviction 10 days before the Premier threatening me with a law-suite and demanding that I remove a few scenes of a particular actor ...Else courts awaits me! If I were to take out those scenes that would be nothing substantial to show to the audiences. I did my home work and realized that I have not violated any one's rights and that court would agree with me. I chose not to inform anyone on the cast and crew about this development and went about my business as usual.

That person realizing that I am not taking the bait, approached actors and crew with more allegations asking them to join in a combine law-suite. The jebronis on my crew without informing me, hammered this fella left and right reminding him/her abut the stupidity of this outrageous idea.

I was deeply hurt and angry at the Premier thinking that this person is right here in this hall rubbing shoulders with my guests, smiling, congratulating me on a job well done, yet feeling sorry for not being able to stop the Premiere. I tried to look calm and happy but from time to time I would feel sad, the picture above is from one of those moments.

Absence of loyalty in people makes me nervous. My first reaction to such events is deep sorrow and lingering grief. Trust is the most important ingredient in any relationship - everything else is pure accident. You can teach some one things and affairs but you can never teach loyalty - either you have it in your blood or you don't....

Nita, who could sense my condition from a mile asked me to "act" as I have so many guests to take care. This is the only Premiere I am aware of where the Director was asked to "act"! After the Premier and dinner Rafiqi asked me to meet him at the "Package Store" at Scott Blvd. (Package Store = Daru ki dukaan). I thought "chalo director to ban gyaa hoon ab ye Rafiqi kiya daru chalu karwayega?". Thankfully he returned from the store with a pack of Marlboro lights 100s. Rafiqi knows that jab mera dil jalta hai to main cigarette jalata hoon......sometime we jalao it together!

Anyways, the best of the best moments was when someone whom I never met before, and who had excused citing prior commitment showed up. May God bless " ApnaManohar" that he took pictures of most of the guests, that I was able to spot someone who was hiding in the back rows.

As far as the show -stopper is concerned, I think he/she misjudged my love for story telling and the reasons behind telling a good story like Doosra Kinara. I am not in it for bread and butter or name - "us ke liye purkhon ki ...." as Thakur said in Sholay. The first story that I wrote was against dowry system in India. The motivation for it came from a dead woman at a Morgue in JJ Hospital in Bombay.

I was in class X. A relative was studying medicine at JJ Hospital. He was showing me the morgue and how the post- mortem were done and I saw this pretty woman waiting to be opened up to find the cause of death. Silly doctors did not know that the causes of her suicide were not inside her body but outside in society. I have vivid memories of her face and her beautiful eyes that were left open (appearntly after the suicide fearing a police case no one in her family dared to close her eyes!) - staring at the opened door as if waiting for someone to show up........she was my first character, she was my first story!

The last story that I would like to write or the last film that I make will be against some social issue of the day. At least this is what I hope....

This is how it is the film lane....

2 comments:

Anirudh 'Lallan' Choudhry said...

U ARE A SHOWMAN SYED SAAB.. N I BELIEVE DAT...DONT THINK OF NOT-TO-THINK-THINGS...AND KEEP COMING UP WID MORE BEUTIFUL STORIES...MAIN TO CHHOTA HUN BAHUT..ISLIYE YE KEHTE HUE BHI AJEEB HI LEG RAHA HAI....DUNNO..!

Ye manzilen !! said...

Anirudh: Nahi bhai...I will be happy if I am MAN enough! Its ok. It is a Dussera ( Good v/s Evil time)- Good had no choice bad to stand up for what is right...

And to be honest what is life without some opposition.....it get boring if life feels like a walk in the park...
:)
Thanks for ur words...u da man...