Deja Vu

Proud to present - Deja Vu. A film by IITB alum, Anshul Singhal, dealing with the issue of suicides at the campuses. The film has been received very warmly, it seems.

So impressed was Bollywood screenplay writer and actor Ranjit Kapoor (of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Na fame) with the film that he said after the premiere, "With a little bit of trimming, the film can actually be sent to Cannes. I thought I would view Deja Vu a bit patronisingly, but this film has taught me a thing or two."

While I'm not totally convinced that the suicides were totally due to the academic pressures, any step towards addressing them is appreciable. And what better way than a film by friendly neighbourhood directors & actors.

I tried searching for the movie on youtube and all, but obviously it isn't uploaded over there. They are planning to send it to various national and international film fests with the active support of IIT. Great!

In a way, they are living my dream. Me and couple of friends are also very enthu about film-making and likes. Our music video - Early Days @ Joka - was our first foray in this field. It was frantic! We didn't start with a proper script or anything; most of our ideas evolved while shooting and we learnt a lot about it, while filming. But it was fun too. We had a great time as a team! We did shoot lots of redundent footage, which now won't see the light, most likely.

Anyway, don't mind the ramblings. Looking forward, we are getting together again in June and planning to work on some short fillers, advertisments and kinds. One constraint we face is the camera. We shoot with Sreeni's panasonic and tho' we still have to try a lot with its controls, I doubt it has all that professional jazz to offer. Another constraint is the lack of actors; at the campus we can find people within certain age groups. If the story demands some child or old people, we don't have any way to get 'em. Anyway, these certainly won't dampen our spirits and we shall keep trying. You keep watching this space.

P.S. : Jagmohan Mundra (of recent Provoked fame) is the bigger name in film-making from IIT Bombay. I hope Anshul will go on to be the bigger name eventually!

Lasting impressions

My wing at IITB - The Outlaws. The name painted on the wall and the Name-room no.s on left are no longer there.
L-to-R: Me, Dasa, Jha saab, Mamu, Rizvi & Saras

This year it'll be four years since I graduated from IIT Bombay. Time flies. I realized this when I visited the campus back, couple of days back when I was visiting Mumbai to board the flight to London. It was great to have old friends, Nandu & DRS, with me. Torrents of memories rushed back, overwhelming me. Things have changed there, but not much, thankfully.

Bikes are obviously banned inside the campus now and I'm sure people aren't missing them much. I spent my entire 4 years without a bike (I once bought an old bicycle from an auction, but I used that very sparsly during her brief stay of about 2 months in my company) and if anything, it makes you enjoy the long walks. My department's (Comp. Sc & Engg.) old building is now abandoned, due to bad design. It was definitely "different", it boasted of design such that no two walls in the entire building were parallel. I'm sure not what exactly was the problem, but even during our times it had developed couple of cracks. Anyway, the department has now moved to the soulless KReSIT building. They have improved the tennis court; new ones look very sleek and posh, quite an improvement over the old ones. I saw some new shops in the Gulmohar building too.

What made me most happy was the visit to my old room. Hostel 9, room 224. I spent about two and a half years in that room. And it hadn't changed much.

H9-224. Home.
The murals are still preserved by the current resident

The hostel was almost the same too, barring the mess which was Hafeez-Contractor-ized after renovation; but I'm sure even Hafeez can't do much about the "mess" they serve in there! There was a swanky billboard outside the hostel, welcoming people to "Hostel Nine - Pluto." Neat.

Coming back to room, I gathered my guts and knocked the door. The room now belongs to a PhD candidate; I was shocked when he commented - "Oh! So you came to check out the old room. May be the old graffiti." And there it was! My wall. THE wall. Amazing sight! During my days in the room, I had made couple of figures on the wall. I was totally touched watching them still there. The same Popeye & Flintstone smiling back. The present resident told me that he loved them there and made sure that when they paint the walls they don't paint over them. Thank you my friend! Though they painted over the wing's name (Outlaws), but atleast the room still has my impressions.