Long For

BOLLYWOOD

“What a magnificent place this is!” the words came out of my mouth as I saw Bombay for the first time through my own eyes. It gave somewhat a retro vibes, I saw many people protesting as the protest for the separate state as Maharashtra was demanded by the people, it was 1959, the last year to witness the great Bombay state and then the next year it was going to become into two states, I didn’t knew much of a history of this both culture as I lived in Kolkata but I could see the genuine feeling of the people towards the move.  Till now the two economic capitals are Gujarat and Maharashtra. When I visited Raj talkies studio it was much bigger and much better than that of Roy studio, it had to be we weren’t that much rich but the people over here had somewhat money to sustain. The big windows, the huge doors welcomed me, a four story building, this time it wasn’t the senior who met me directly, it was a man who worked as a peon who let me to the office of Bahadur Raj Lal, his father was a pioneer in the filmmaking on freedom for the indians, he enograted the office of Raj talkies, now his son handled the studio.

“Good morning, sir,” I said as I saw Bahadur.

“Come in, dada,” he said and greeted me with a handshake, he was of my age and was handling this big studio. He hadn’t kept any beard or moustache, though it felt he put out a litre of oil on his hairs as he combed in down right and the white shirt on his he wore a brown colour sweater made him look a gentleman. 

“The office is really good,” I said.

“Thank you, before I forget I should inform you that we got some archives from Mr. Roy’s house, he was writing some short stories before he died, we would like to make it into a small montage and add it at the end of the movie,” he said.

“That sounds good, I should thank you that you are giving a tribute to him,”

“He was an inspiration to many filmmakers like me, why wouldn’t I?” he said and smiled.

The next step of my life was here, this time I would direct the movie, the last two movies were though written by me and even  Roy asked after every shot if this is perfect or they would take another one. The main lead was Veer Kumar and the lead actress was Madhu Chopra, they created a really beautiful chemistry. The romance we had at that time was pure, it wasn’t artificial, though with so many restrictions to love, still people stuck with each other fighting with the society. As it was a bollywood movie there had to be songs at the places to entertain people, the film was again named as ‘Pyaas’  and was released in theatres across India. As the film was released the two seperate states were made and the film could have tanked like last time,  but people loved it, I saw the fan following of the actors over here, girls fell head over heels for Veer and the boys had found a new crush and that was Madhu Chopra. I would again start staying outside the theatre and see people going to buy tickets and even some selling it in black. The film did so well in its first month that people started to paint the walls with some scenes of the movie. I saw some of the walls on which were written ‘Pyaar diwana hota hai’ and so on.

As the film did well, I wanted to tell this activement to someone, I first told my parents and then phoned Amrita and her line which touched my heart was “Look, now even the sitare of bollywood are calling some random girl in Calcutta, proud of you Mr. Chakraborty,” and then she gave phone to Mr. Sundar and he said “You have achieved something great, congrats, so when are you becoming my son-in-law?”

We both laughed out and then what was next? Not looking back again, writing all day and thinking of some good story mostly about romance and then I got a thought of a father whose name will be Anath Babu, a angry man who meets and Raju Babu who is a silent and patient man, Anath babu gets into fight with Raju babu over a ladyfinger which he gave less to him by mistake and then the daughter of Anath Babu and son of Raju Babu fall in love and the problems begin as the two opposite meet, I got one by one comedy scenes in my head which even made me laugh and I showed it to Bahadur and even he laughed while I read the script to him and the only thing was even the audience laughed like us and they did, even they enjoyed it. Madhu Chopra was getting the lead role in almost all my movies and we were becoming good friends, something I didn’t expect but was happening. I started to go to her house and tell about the next story I think and she would give me some ideas. But then, one day when I reached home late after directing my fourth film over here I got a call, as I said “Hello, who is it,”

“It is Raj Bapat, I want to meet the new writer in the town, Bandra is the place,” the person on the other line said. Raj Bapat was a businessman who also did some illegal business which he never told out, according to him he was doing a business in estate and he did many more things which I got to know later. I asked some friends from the industry that is it right to meet this man and they had one word “You can’t reject it, you have to,”

The very next day I went to meet him. He was rich, damn rich, when I see someone living in a bungalow in that era it means they have a handsome amount of money. He even had the padmini car. He was playing chess with one of his friends when I went inside his room.

“Wine or tea?” he asked. People asked if coffee or tea and he asked for wine or tea.

“I am good, why did you call me,” I asked.

“You are a really good writer, I have seen the movies, I will have some business with you for sure, I wanted to notify you, be ready if I ask for some script,” he said and moved the pawn ahead.

“Okay,” I said and cleared my throat.

“You can go now, I want to concentrate on this game, I will call you again sometime, Dada,” he said, looked at me and gave a smile. I was mad at him as to who calls just to inform this much? Still I couldn’t say anything. The best I could do now was to talk to one of my best friends in the industry and that was Madhu. The next day I visited her house yet again.

"You shouldn't decline his proposals, he is a big moron who wants control over the film industry, the problem is we can't do anything, he is a Don, if you reject this proposal then some serious bad things can happen," she said with a concerned face.

"I don't want to work for him if he asks to, he will make me write the way he wants," I said.

"I know, Palash, but you can't do anything about it," she said. I nodded and there was a silence for a minute, we looked at each other and had a eye contact for few seconds and then she went on to say "I wanted to tell you something,"

"Go on,"

"The thing is…I think I am in love with…veer, he seems such a sweetheart, I am not forcing you to do it but if you write some script please cast us together," she said, her eyes had love in them. I don't know for a moment I thought she was going to say that she loves me, as if I wouldn't accept it, I had my Amrita, but there was some kind of tension between us that made me feel that way I guess. When I was back home, I had got a letter which was stuck in the lock of my door. I took it out and read it. It was from Raj Bapat.

'Dear, Palash, would like to meet you at the stadium,' the letter stated.