"Talking about movies, television, Cricket, writing, old friends and Bong guys wanting to lay Punju girls." 120min

I met an old friend, Saurav, for breakfast today. We were supposed to meet at the Film Fest yesterday, but the last two days deserve a separate post.

9am is an unearthly hour in CP. It's much like 7am in the rest of the city - empty parking lots, closed shutters and barely a soul in sight. I exited the metro station in CP (Aha! Topic for yet another post) and walked down to Wimpy's. From a distance, I spotted a shortish chappie in a longish black tee, and long wavy hair. The Saurav I remember meeting at the Oberoi's lounge a year and a half ago was an executive with short, well combed hair, and in what one would term as corporate attire. I suppose a year at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune changes things.

Wimpy's was closed till 10:45am, so we walked down to McDonalds, which Deepan's friend Rajneesh had told me opens at 7:30am.

Saurav is a delegate at Osian's Cinefan Asian Film Festival, among the fifty selected for a series of workshops, and has been in Delhi since it began. It's been hectic for him, and he leaves today at 4:30pm. His selection as a delegate was based on a one minute clip of a 12 minute short film that he had made at FTII. The film is about a boy who sees a bridge in his dreams. He meets an old man near a gap in the bridge, who tells counsels him not to cross over (I think!). The boy's desperation to cross over increases, and he skips across the gap. The voiceover indicates a feeling of deja vu, and the surroundings seem familiar. He sees his uncle, and later his mother. He sees himself as a baby inside his own house, and hears a commotion. When he enters the room, he sees his father fling a glass at his mother. He wakes up from his dream, and on asking his mother about the scar on her forehead, he receives a unsatisfactory response. He goes over the bridge again over the next few nights, and eventually asks the old man to show him the way to his future, in case he wants to change something. Saurav wouldn't tell me more, and has promised to mail a CD of the film to me. He doesn't want to tell a story that ought to be watched.

My point was that if learn your future, you can attempt to change it. If that itself is predermined, then that means your attempt to change the future would result in the same future. I don't agree with the concept of predermination, but it's an interesting concept to toy with.

Saurav also mentioned that he plans to do things the hard way - make some documentary films and then look at doing feature films. He believes that television tends to destroy the craft: that because everything is compressed in around 22 minutes or less of running time, and the viewer has the opportunity to flick channels it has to be made pacy. Hence, there will be silly tricks employed where mostly closeups will be shown and the camera will zoom in and out focussing on a single character, and then suddenly swish to another. Also there's very little play with lighting, and everything is brightly lit. He mentioned several film directors who changed completely after making television serials. I think he spoke about Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal, Kundan Shah, among others.

I told him about Astleviz, who has been writing television scripts for a while now. I had spent quite some time with Astle when I was in Bombay in Jan. Qoonal too wants to shoot a short film, but Sourav believes that things will be extremely tough without formal training. It's all about the little things. We also spoke of some of our friends from the FLS days, who've since vanished - Lusus, Keya and Trigguh Hippee among them. He was quite pleased to hear that you're pursuing your dream with such passion, Shwe. :)

Saurav thinks that this is the right time for me to start writing a novel. I don't think I'm that good, and nor do I have the patience. He said that for a novel, I'll have to create around 40 subplots and one major plot. It's supposed to be as simple as that. He's planning to write a book on 'How to lay Punju girls', he says. He's joking, and the serious look on his face as he says this is amusing. He recently met a Punju friend of this Punju girl he knows, who hates Bong guys (Sourav is a Bong), because they seem bent on laying Punju girls. "Why just Bong guys?" I quip. "Everybody's trying to lay Punju Girls". (To the public broadcasting system - this gives you more material for spreading gossip about me, I'm sure). "And Bong girls as well." We conclude that everybody's trying to lay somebody, so what's the fuss all about. From that, he talks about the Bong girl whose blog he believes was much like a soap opera, what with open relationships and her lesbian best-friend sleeping with her boyfriend. He thinks it was all fiction. As you can see, we had an interesting discussion. We move on to Cricket.

He's thrilled, as am I, about the changes in rules for international Cricket. I believe that the more uncertainty you involve with the game, the more exciting it becomes. He has a solution for the selection problems related to the 12th man. He suggests that the selection of the 12th man should be done after the toss. Otherwise, the rules favour the team batting first. Alternatively, allow teams to select from three players, during the game. He is a Ganguly fan (and I've often teased him with a "possible" pun on 'Sourav is a moron'), and believes that if Ganguly's ban is revoked, and Dravid remains captain on the field, the decisions will still be made by Ganguly. The difference he sees between the two is while Ganguly is naturally aggressive, Dravid's agression is a put-on at times. He gets his timing mixed up. I sense a bias, even though I agree :D

We discussed a lot more, including a story idea that I have been developing, and his plans for making films in the future, primarly fantasy. We talked about Motif, and the flights out that have made operations extremely difficult. But he agrees, that there's a need for keeping it alive. And so, I'll update tomorrow.

We parted ways, knowing that we won't probably be meeting again for another year, lest I go to Pune or he comes to Delhi. As I walk to the inner circle in CP, down the steps to the Metro Station, I think about the friends that I've made over the internet over the last five years. There are so many of them, and even if we meet infrequently, or even don't chat so often - but when we do meet, there's always loads to talk about.

Note: I try not to personal discussions and issues on my blog, but Saurav suggested this be put up. Enjoyed?

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