First Screening of 83 ft. Class of '83

Prologue

Red Sea International Film Festival, 15th December, 2021

"What d'you think, Jim pa?" asked Kapil.

"I agree with you that we should watch later with the others," said Jimmy, unhesitant.

"Of course, sir, no pressure," said Kabir Khan, who'd come to show them in. "The Delhi screening is just next week, Mr. Patil said he's spoken to the whole team, they'd all be available..."

"Thank you," said Jimmy and Kapil together, as the director hurried off to someplace else he was needed to be in.

Kapil pondered upon how, initially, he'd not been born with so much politeness, and how much, in the past 45 years, Jim pa's niceness had rubbed off on him.

"What's up, now?" asked Jimmy, intuitive as always.

"Wondering why we said thank you just now."

"Basic courtesy?" suggested Jimmy.

"Yes, but why?"

"I have no idea why you're hung up on this, Kaps."

A catchy music made them look up at the screen which flashed 'Broadcast Partners: Star Gold, Star Gold 2.'

It struck them that they were still standing inside the theatre and in spite of what they'd told Kabir, neither had attempted to move out.

'Streaming Partners:

Disney Hotstar...'

"Just watching the beginning five minutes won't hurt," said Kapil.

"'Course not," said Jimmy quickly.

'...Netflix...'

Jimmy glanced at Kapil and saw that he was grinning, too.

'Zee Music...' Another nice music played.

Then—

'We miss you Yash Pa.'

Jimmy's throat choked up so fast that suddenly he was sure he couldn't do this, ever: he couldn't watch a movie where his little brother was still there, causing trouble, abusing people, being the hot-headed impulsive temperamental Yashpal Sharma, he couldn't sit in the theatre for 3 hours and hear Yash calling him 'big brother'—

Kapil caught his hand with a vague, "No, Jim pa, let's go."

Jimmy didn't resist as the two of them almost sprinted out of the hall, grasping each other's hand hard.

The sudden sunlight outside was blinding, which was what Jimmy and Kapil would attribute the fact that they were both blinking too rapidly for it to be normal.

"Er, Kaps, maybe we should go back after all...it's just a movie..." began Jimmy. "How badly can a movie affect us anyway?"

"You have no idea," said Kapil, who, unlike Jimmy, cried at the slightest provocations at movies and knew how devastating they could be even if they weren't made on you. "We'll watch with the others, Jim pa, that'll be a lot better. Kirti and Cheeka and Patla will be there to keep things light."

"Sunny and Maddi will be there to keep things from getting too light," agreed Jimmy, grinning.

"Ravi will be there to remind us we're wasting three precious hours of our life when we should've been working," said Kapil snidely.

"He's leaving for South Africa, soon, isn't he?" said Jimmy as they'd started walking down the kerb.

"Yeah. The heat here is terrible for December," said Kapil distastefully. "Delhi is better than Dubai anyday, of course we should watch our movie in the Delhi screening—"

"The hall was air conditioned, Kapsie."

Kapil ignored the comment (because what could he say?) and took out his phone.

"Hello, Patla, have you guys managed to converge upon a date?" he said without preamble.

"You mean have I managed to bug every one of our whiny VIPs into being free on one single day?" asked Patla.

"Yes," said Kapil.

"I did," said Patla. "Next Wednesday...the 22nd. Now if you or Jimmy pa dare to say you're occupied that day since you're already watching it once, I'll—"

"We've not watched it," said Kapil hastily. "We want us to watch together," he added with what Jimmy considered unnecessary sickly sweetness.

"All right," said Patla, sounding pleased. "I've booked the hotel for all of us—you and Jim pa aren't getting single rooms this time, I've put the two of you together."

"No problem," said Kapil, grinning at Jimmy.

"See you on Sunday, then."

A/N: I know the idea is a bit crazy but I'm super thrilled for it. This way I get to write down the whole script of 83 (well, almost) and just imagining the real team watching 83 makes me smile.

PS: At times my penchant for details in fanfics stuns even me—I couldn't publish this chapter till I'd got the accurate dates and venues. Wish I had this motivation in exams (: