Indiblogger : A movie screening much better than a cricket match #SunsilkRealFM

ओये Indi check कर , किसी sunsilk मूवी की screening है .

.... हैं ?? मूवी ?? देखता हूँ ...

More than an information it was more of a command to me coming right to me from Pune. Dipali had gone there and she had accessed her mail to get information about the screening while I had no such mail. My mail account experiencing some trouble receiving announcement mails from indi. Logged into indiblogger to see a movie screening being held in delhi and mumbai the next day, Friday.. registered and then came the thought मारे गए .. Friday और छुट्टी ? बेटा चलो बहानों का पिटारा खोलो . People cook up excuses to meet their girlfriends, I make excuses to attend Indi. बड़ी नाइंसाफी है .. As usual pulled up the details from the website and posted them on facebook and tagged those friends whom I knew would curse me if I didnt let me know. वैसे भी कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता .. गाली तो वैसे भी खाता हूँ ,न बताऊँ तो गाली देते हैं , tag कर दूँ तो tag करने की सुननी पड़ती है ( भले ही information देख कर खुश हो जायें)...

जाऊँ कहाँ बता ऐ दिल , दुनिया बड़ी है संदिल...

In the night called up a few friends to see if they could make it. Shilpi was coming, Talreja was usual was busy, Simardeep had a 60-40 chance, Nimi was coming, Jatin was busy with India pakistan match the next day. He placed importance on the match , I did that for the movie screening. मैच हार गये तो हार्ट अटैक का खतरा कौन ले, मूवी स्क्रीनिंग भी miss हो जायेगी . Being a F1 follower, cricket matters little to me. The sponsor being Sunsilk raised some doubts in me about this being an all girls event but Renie`s answer told that it was for all. I was excited because this was the first time I was attending a movie screening, have done enough meets. The next day after the confirmation to Nandita from indiblogger made the excuse to go and left. Got down at Chattarpur metro station and thought to take a walk to the place considering I was well before time. This time Google navigation ditched me at the last minute, the GPS unable to lock on the destination. The feeling same as your bride not turning up for the wedding. Called up shilpi and get told me the directions advicing me to take an auto as the place was far.

Luck was somewhat on my side as I hailed an auto and told him where I wanted to go. When I told him Tivoli, he enquired, “ कहाँ जाना है आपको? यहाँ दो हैं ...garden और daffodils”. The second one was my destination. Even Justdial had sent me the info about the first. When I saw the place, I thought that the fare of 50/- was really justified and there was no way I could have walked the whole distance. Headed inside and there was Nihal and Karthik. A quick hi to Nihal and he seemed amused and happy to see people turning up for this despite it being a Friday evening. After registration, it was time to collect our tickets.

A proper ticket counter for tickets and Karthik acting as a ticket checker with a red carpet type of setting for the event.

Ticket checker- Karthik

Jockingly they proposed an idea for push ups for people coming but I knew they wont do it. Its all about having fun. So there was a popcorn booth, a photo bhooth made to look just like a dj station. There was a photographer there who would click our pics and give us the hard copies too there. Selfies are quite common now but the joy of hard print is something else.

Popcorn stall

Dj

Met Gautam, Rahul, Nimi, Shilpi, Prachi there and we got a bit chatty. Just then Nihal came up and then dont know who pulled out the topic of me holding a Indiblogger meet in Lucknow. That really got him interested. He put the attendee no. at 50 but I know that it would get atleast 100 people there if and when it happned. Good thing was that he didnt make the announcement J . Getting things started by the old format of pick the number and win something. From 1000 bucks to cookies, teabags, t shirt, shoppers stop voucher there were things up for grabs. Simardeep and me were literally shouting for our chance. At the last number left, criteria was decided- shoes with laces, no round t shirts, no black cloth, people with glasses and so on. We both were eliminated and what did the winner got.. a hug from Nihal. “ All this drama for a hug” as karthik said. First timers too got some prizes. It was time to get the movie screening started and we loaded ourselves with popcorns and got down to watch the movie. 

                           

Indi without twitter is nothing so it came down to tweeting again related to the movie. Tweet what you like, opinion and the best tweet wins something. The real fun started now. Manjulika had no clue what she was upto sitting besides Simardeep. Only I knew what would happen.

The lights go dim, the movie starts and the story unfolds. Benjamin Gilani owns a radio station by the name of RealFM and the staff threaten to quit just a day before an important meeting before 15th aug. unless they are paid hiked wages. He goes into depression, smoking ciggarettes and ultimately ending up in the hospital. His daughter takes the help of 2 of her pals and they run the radio station the whole day focussing on playing live music by people of various states to celebrate indipendence day instead of playing recorded music. Some scenes and dialogues were damn hilarious. अब दिल्ली वाले हों और मस्ती न हो? No way. So we had hooting, whistling all going on on the top of our voices. Manjulika had to bear the brunt of Simar`s shouts. I have been a witness very closely that how he does it and was glad that unlike the previous time I was sitting behind him for a change. Although it was a short movie but it really did have music and the best part came from the romantic track from Punjab and the peppy number from Chattisgarh. The last track from Uttaranchal was good as well. The usual setting of “What do you really want to do in the country”? was the filler. The movie ended with applause, whistles and the hooting again. Nice to see Veterans like Benjamin Gilani and Shubha khote on screen after so long. When the tweets were read after the movie, I had no chances but my tweet was picked up for a flipkart voucher. After sooo long I finally won something. With Shilpi sitting besides me and Gautam , I guess lady luck worked.

The winning tweet

Next what happened was nowhere what people had thought because it was not in the agenda in the mail. It was dinner. The moment this announcement was made, people took to the phone to call home and inform about not waiting for dinner. A group photo ( where I was visible after so long) , t shirts and Sunsilk gift hampers and then dinner. Nihal said to me, “ You must be having a closet full of Indi t shirts now”. The photographer now was fuming refusing to click any more pics saying that he was told 125 clicks but he had done 150+ already. He didnt knew that this was how Indi was. The videographer looked to me like the one specialising in wedding shoots, concentrating on our food plates rather than people. During dinner Nimi gave me a challenge and I had to strike a Kashmir ki kali pose with the hamper basket. Later on we headed out and off to our homes enjoying those few funfilled hours which surpassed even the India Pakistan cricket match.

The kashmir ki kali pose

Those who missed that day, missed out a lot and those who were there got a lot of awesome memories also because of the fact that it was not crowded by any means. The light crowd which I like. Really loved the different setting of Indi this time.. and furthermore Delhi rocked as my friends in Mumbai told me that the screening there was not that happening.