Movie Magic

Khushwant Singh has penned a lovely portrait of his grandmother. The piece is often used as a lesson in school and/or college textbooks. You might have hence read it. Quite possible that as a Khushwant Singh fan, you have read the delectable piece as a part of his ouevre. That is not the moot matter right now. Let us straight come to the point. In his memoir, Khushwant Singh records his childhood embarassment when his Granny would talk of her childhood games or how he was actually bamboozled when she would mention as a youth his grandfather, the family portrait old man with a flowing long white beard.

I suppose, all of us are guilty of this guileless crime. We tend to forget that the elders whom we hold in awe and reverence had their own heydays. They, too, must have had their youthful fancies is something that does not easily occur to us. As for Aai and Papa, they both loved mainstream Hindi films. Of course, the films of the sixties and early seventies were quite innocent and idealistic, too, as our country was en amour of the newly acquired independence, and the cynicism and disappointment rather rampant now were yet to set in.

As avid film watchers, both of them had their favourites as well. Aai liked Mala Sinha, while Papa found Vaijayanti Mala a better actress. When Raju was about six months old, they decided to watch the then blockbuster, the superhit "Mughal-e-Azam". The film began in royal earnest. Soon Madhubala started the "Mohe panghat pe/Nandalal ched gayo re" ditty. Even as a child, Raju did not like the injustice against a beauty. Most chivalrously, he loudly raised his voice against Emperor Akbar. The fellow movie-goers did not exactly appreciate his protest. Poor parents had to leave the movie hall nursing their son's rebellion!

Such adventures apart, we have together watched films like "Ghar Ghar ki Kahani"  and "Aashirwad". I remember, we used to watch the films in Apollo Theater in Rasta Peth. Aai used to take the three of us there. We used to board Bus Number 6 at the Mukund Nagar bus stop, get off  at Nana Peth bus stop where Papa would be waiting for us as his office was in East Street. In attendance used to be water bottles, biscuits, the works.  Sheer fun and excitement it used to be. 

In my late teens, I made Aai watch parallel Art cinema a lot. Of all these films, she liked "Swami" a lot.  But the film she loved the most was "Pather Panchali". I made her and Raju-Sanju come with me to the S.P College Ramabai auditorium to watch it. She absolutely adored the scene when Apu's mother, Sarbojaya and his elder Sister, Durga make him ready for the school. I suppose it reminded her of Raju-Sanju's childhood. The real reason, I suspect, was that the child actor who had played the young Apu looked exactly like Sanju as a child.

They both encouraged us to watch films, and not only of the "Bhakt Prahlad" variety. I remember, once just the three of us went to watch "Bees Saal Baad ", a horror film cum murder mystery/who-duun-it. Sanju was a primary school kid then. The moment the marauding hand would appear on the screen, he was a little jittery. The third time some naughty fellow screamed from the last row in the balcony, "eehh, aala re, aala", and the whole cinema hall burst in to laughter. I saw "Aakrosh" with Sanju, while when our family saw "Sholay" with Balu Mama, he provided a supplementary sound track as he had repeatedly watched the film, and heard the sound track as an LP record umpteen times. One Diwali, our family and all the Mama families watched "Shakti" together. Wonderful experience it was as the entire last row was ours.

I have watched countless films since then as I like films tremendously. I have completed a film appreciation course, passed with Distinction the HCU film making/TV Production course, assisted as the co-director for eleven EMRC films which have been broadcast on the Doordarshan channel. I can thus undestand a bit of  film making, and all its stages, from scripting, pre production to post production. Even during the pandemic period, I am in to a few film courses  Well, my reviews of film festivals and my tributes have been published in highly respected newspapers/magazines/portals. These have been appreciated as well. Why, my review titles used to be  quoted as one liners in newspaper advertisements. I suppose,  I could try all such fundas because Aai and Papa initiated my phillumbazi. I would like to sign off with a take on the "jeena yahan, marna yahan" song.

"Dekhna inhe, sunna inhe,

inke siwa ehsas kahan,

Ji chahe jitna saraho inhe

films thi yahan, unki magic rahegi sada".

Pratima @phillumbazi