22nd Birthday Memories

Once again, thanks to everybody who wished me on my birthday...* whoopee 22...no big deal, of course...just older, not wiser, still very much the same me*

Now...the big secret...not exactly, but the question on everyone's mind, since I didn't run riot with it...what did I exactly do on the night of my birthday.

Exterior: Prithvi House, Opp. Prithvi Theatre, Juhu.
A boy in his early 20's enters the frame, he's seen leaving the house. He looks towards the camera to his left, when...
cut to:
A rickshaw stops at Prithvi. Two young men get out, and pay the fare, they turn towards the theatre, when...

D: " Abbey P, J, what're you doing here? "
J: " Oh no, Yeh Dekh kaun ( Look who's here...as usual)..!"

The three of them enter Prithvi Theatre's cafe.
P: " Met T ? He'sinside! "

And they sit at a table with a fourth young man, T .Fade out on Prithvi's Cafe.
The Beginning.

And then it Rained, and rained, and some more...then it stopped, then it Poured even more.

And so, since it was raining so much, I spent most of the evening, then most of the same night, at that same table, at that same corner of the same cafe of the same Prithvi Theatre.

Sounds like the most boring story on the planet, but of course a young boy turning 22, a young, aspiring actor/writer, who thinks Theatre is more than just life and blood...well it wasn't really that boring for him....what do you think?

Excel-lent films

Guess what... I'm diverting...finally...away from my favourite topic- (Me, and my Theatre exploits ):P

I'd like to take a moment and talk about a certain film company, that's been making a certain brand of films, that stand out, not just because of their original ideas, but in the style that they seem to exude, as soon as you see them on screen. I am of course, talking about my favourite Indian filmmaker, Farhan Akhtar, and his company: Excel Entertainment which he began in 2001 , with his producer/friend Ritesh Sidhwani.

Dil Chahta Hai..just these three words bring images, bring shankar-ehsaan-loy's most melodious album, to your head, and every one who's seen this movie even once on seeing the three words I've written... feels like calling up their friends (perhaps considers a trip to Goa :P) among other things. Male bonding, at its finest, urban dosti in its best.

Lakshya...Javed saab, back to what he did best: Screenplays... a journey of a man from what I believe im going through myself just now (Main Aisa Kyun Hun)...to being a proud and patriotic soldier, able to get his Goal in life. Apart from being techincally Farhan's best film, I think the story could have easily been one of the most emotionally poignant ones, ever written... of course high expectations from the audience, for a DCH part 2, made the film flop badly, didn't it? I still have high regard for Farhan's most difficult-to-make movie, and Hrithik's best performance, ever...NO he wasn't that great in KRISSSHH *

DON...The Chase began...my chase ended soon...it was one of the movies I personally wished Farhan hadn't made... it had Excel's style, Excel's class, Farhan's touch, but...i don't know what it was about it, that made me feel, he's gone on a different tangent. Maybe i felt it was a bit too commercial, even in his commercial entertainers, for the people, genre, that I feel Farhan excelled in.

Honeymoon Travels: Not a Farhan film, per se...very light-hearted, very fun to watch, an amazing ensemble of actors, playing an array of interesting characters. Of Course Farhan can't let go of Goa, can he....* i don't tink I can either since i Came back a month earlier*

And now...Rock On...the story seems to be Anurag Kashyap's Paanch, made simpler, and nicer,...the story seems to be Dil Chahta Hain with a Rock Band instead of a college trio....thats what the media keeps tellign us. Farhan's not directing....he's Acting...he's SINGING (and not bad at that )...Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, at their best in home turf, in Excel, .... can't get the songs outa my head... and somehow... with all the build-up, all the negativity, all these ideas that a rock film won't work out here... that its not Farhan directing...still.. I know im expecting a lot from this movie....debut director, still.. its got Farhan's touch to it. I mean, fine, it might not be a major Rock Fan's story, it might not be the film that rockers really flock to...but who cares... its' Excel... its the place where ideas like Dil Chahta Hai was born...it's still a cult favourite...it changed the way movies were made in India... something's gotta give, ain't it?

Next Week: No clue man...im home for the entire week... GIMME A JOB, people! :)

Nope...it's not..nothing like it used to be...not the least bit.
It's just painful, how excruciatingly difficult it has become for me to string words together in a sentence, that not only makes sense to me, but looks like something staring out of a paper to my eyes, and thus manages to create an image of what the sentence talks about, in my mind's inner eye, thus projecting a sentence, that MAKES SENSE. I used to be quite alright with stringing these multiple sentences together, use a few connecting words here and there, a few punctuations, a few spaces, and manage to convey a story, filled with characters, plot, lies, deceit, and any other masala (spice) that might be useful to get that concept into my readers' *Myself*, mind...with ease.

Whatever happened to the Divyesh of the old...*yes that's me*..:P

Where am I, where have I gone...when will I ever return?

Laziness is just the tip of the iceberg..I believe a part of my fingers has rubbed on some sort of magical powder, that's not allowing me to be as free-flowing as before.

Or maybe I'm just imagining things, I need to probably sleep on the right side of my bed for a change.

No one knows.

Script ideas to be converted to screenplay outlines...a huge concept for a full-length play to be written, and made into a do-able script...I have my hands full... and yet, every day seems like the same old mun-day-ne.
Hmmm...I did manage to string the above words together...hmm..*thinks hard*....perhaps I'm not quite out of it yet.

Next post, then. :)