We needed a reason to meet and make noise and Neeraja gave it to us on a platter. The maths ace studying why-did-God-ever-make-that-subject (my words not hers) in France, (something that Thani had a huge problem with, the math-France combo i.e.) is down in Bbay for about 10 days and we decided to show her how mad and boisterous Pfc Bbay (and a bit of Blore) is. So we met, chatted, laughed, joked, cried, (as in, No way! she cried wala cried) fought, mimicked, argued, drank, smoked while talking about cinema in all manners of speakings. Now for the gory details because The Oz the has the put the virtual gun the on our head the that he will the ban all of us the from the pfc the if we the dont put up an account the of the meet-up the. (His words, not mine. Yeah his grammar is like that only.) So the gory details.

So it began with the punctual Manjeet who stepped in at Masala Mantra five minutes before 8!!! Whatever people might say Manjeet, I salute your love for cinema. It is undoubtable. (Is that a word?) Karthik and myself were already parked there as I had bugged Karthik to come with me as some work I had, was mercilessly massacred. Since we felt that making alcohol wait for others wasnt very respectful we ordered right away. Manjeet ordered for some orange-coloured Rasna look-alike drink and said he’ll have only veggie starters that had us murmuring under our breath (he doesnt know about it) about the strangeness of his choices.

Soon enough Neeraja came. She gave some very intellectual-looking books by Indian authors to KK that KK had ordered for himself from Chennai (for the uninitiated: she was in Chennai before she came to Bbay) which Manjeet and I looked at, tried reading the synopsis/whatever at the back, couldnt understand a word and promptly handed them back with suitably grave and comprehending looks. That started a conversation about literature vs maths and as it turns out our KK boy is a maths lover too.

But it was only after Indraneel joined in, which was soon after, that THE pseudo statement of the century was passed by none other than our common-man-loving, intellectuals-hating Karthik Krishnan. Indraneel was telling us what he does for work (something he repeated some five times in the evening and something which I am yet to understand. But I do remember everytime he explained himself our Thani shouted Mafia, Mafia! and that left me all the more confused as Indraneel seems to be a very decent sort of a chap.). Errum, sorry, to return to the point, he was telling us about his work (Whatever you do Indraneel, I am sure it is good work btw!) and talk veered to maths (Oh! Again) and he spoke about statistical economics (I was all impressed by the highly-intellectual-sounding title) and thus burst out our Karthik Krishnan in all righteous rage STATISTICAL ECONOMICS IS A CORRUPTION OF MATHEMATICS. (All you statistics-lovers I beg your pardon on behalf of KK, he generally knows not what he says.)

Needless to say, we ragged him to death about it until some more public came in. I was feeling very happy by then, (I remember smiling a lot) so forgive me if I cannot reproduce exactly who came when. Let me make things easier for all of us (only myself actually, hehehe) and jump cut to the time when all of us (except one special appearance) were seated around two joined long wooden tables like in some canteen. (No, no, Phoenixnu it was a FAB place you suggested! Absolutely fab place!!! Ufff, egos)

So, now imagine this. Manjeet, Karthik, Neeraja, Indraneel, Phoenixnu, Subrat (I should say THE Subrat as not onlyactually let me pause here a bit. The rest please kindly wait to be announced)

The meet-up was also in the prime honour of Subrat. Subrat, prime was the first adjective that struck my mind as since your post this morning I have started associating you with whatever that prime crisis of your neighbour you spoke so well about. (Mighty intelligent I say.) Ya, so Subrat says he lives in Bangalore but he is forever travelling all over the world and meeting pfc-iites all over (Oz, never threatens anyone else for their meet-up write-ups*sulks*) and Friday happened to be a day he happened to grace Pune so he had told us. And we, led by a few absolute Subrat-fans, decided to keep the meet-up on Friday so that we could meet him too!!! Now, isnt that smart? My idea it was.

The man drove all the way from Pune, suited booted (as usual, they tell me) and was drowned in all the warm hugs he received on his arrival. After the dust settled, the group re-shuffled a bit and the bees hovered around the hive which was Subrat, the man of the hour. Oh, I was recounting those present. Sorry to keep you waiting guysso it was Vasan (I like to call him mini-Subrat after Friday, for the why, read on please.), Navdeep Singh, (We love it when he joins us! Feels like, at least one more of our favourite authors has his hand of aashirwaad on our heads err, Navdeep, do I make you feel like Ozs Nirupa Roy?) Ashish, Surya (Surendra Hirawale, looking all young with his shock of greying hair that had lot of comments from his friends. On a serious note, it was fab meeting you Surya, wish had done earlier!), Thani (already in the mood to party! I wont say how)and of course the special appearance, more on which later.

Now the party was in full-swing. I am not in complete authority to reproduce it faithfully from here on as there were five conversations going on at one time. (I told you, we were boisterous) BUT I do remember the outrageous 80s cinema quiz that Subrat kick-started and has had me giggling even in my sleep since the last two days. Now, obviously I won’t remember it all, might even mix up the questions and answers, mind you, but please forgive me and keep setting me right as you move on!

Ok savour this Subrat asked which film this song was from. He sang two lines which sounded quite sane and suddenly he broke into ‘Meow meow meow meow’. Confounding nah? Yes, to the point that the blood-loyalty of Karthik was shaken enough to say that Subrat was making it all up. But just then, Vasan saw something was not all well at Subrats end of table (we were a little extra-boisterous, to put it mildly) and shouted to ask what was the question? Subrat sang the first line of the song (which utterly escapes me, Subrat please do the honours) and Glory Be! Vasan broke in with the second line leaving us all the more astounded. (The fact that now it escapes Vasan as well points to a pre-party conspiracy) BUT someone did shout out the name of that obscure film, such is the knowledge of us Pfc-iites!

And then this In which film did the villians car have swans leaping out as headlights? While I was trying to envision such a peculiarity someone enthusiastically said Farishtey! And our Subrat, turned all-emotional and said, very AB-like, Aap jeette hain 1 crore ka inaam! Well, not exactly, he isnt that filmy, but he did say that it was wonderful sitting at a table where people recognised swan headlights and remembered Farishtey. (Oz, I can hear your torture-series-side-of-the-brain ticking furiously) Btw, for those who dont know (Now I really doubt if there are any such here) the villain was Sadashiv Amrapurkar.

And this was only the beginning. Apna Phoenixnu was no less. Guess the connection between Gairkanooni and Junglees Yahooooooooooooo, he asks? Whatte question!!! And no one knew, except Subrat of course (there is nothing, absolutely nothing he doesnt know about 80s cinema. At one point we thought there is something he doesn’t know and we even suspected his trip to the netherlands as cheating but we were proved wrong!) and the answer is Prayag Raj sang the Yahoooooo and directed Gairkanooni. Kya kya karte hain log

And it went on

Subrat Sheebas debut film?

Answer Yeh Aag Kab bujhegi!

Ashish (another mini-Subrat) ‘Ice-cream khaoge? Ahhhaaan haan!’ Which film is it from?

Answer Justice Chaudhury

Vasan What was the name of Mehmoods production house in Pyar Kiye Ja?

Answer- Waah Waah Productions

Vasan What was the name of the film whose poster was hanging in Mehmoods office in the film? Answer Jungle mein Oye Oye!

Subrat What were the names of Naseeruddin Shah and Tinnu Anand in Shahrukh Khans magnum opus Chamatkar? (I added the magnum opus. Feels bad to say SRK without that these days.)

Answer Marco and Kunta. (This got us another thumpingly emotional speech from Subrat.)

Ashish What was Pankaj Kapoors name in Ram Jaane? (He gave us loads of hints and we finally cracked it)

Answer Technicolor (No wonders we had forgotten and needed hints. I am sure Pankaj Kapoor would like to forget as well.)

Subrat Which super-famous director made her debut as an extra dancer in some film? (Subrat, please help my memory.)

Answer- Farah Khan

Ashish With which film did Saroj Khan debut as an extra dancer?

Answer Ashish, please fill in this one!!!

(Chill with your gaalis guys. If I had the capacity to remember it all Id be Subrat and Subrat would be writing this!)

This went on for a while until Thani, our resident European-cinema-gyaan guru retorted, ‘80s cinema? Talk to me about European cinema and I will answer you on anything!’ (Oh! Thani, we know, we know but Tarkovsky is JUST NOT AS AMUSING as Mehul Kumar. He does not give us such quizzes or the Torture Series) But the gentleman that Subrat is, he instantly asked Thani, Which was the first Dev Anand film to be shot in Europe? And Ashish, piped in with, Where was An Evening in Paris shot? Thani shook his shock of hair and sat down to some more animated debates with KK.

Because, just before this, KK and Thani had one such animated debate about engaging cinema and obtuse (Navdeep used this word and it sounded damn impressive hence using it here) cinema. Wednesday cropped up again (yeah, Karthik decided to give Jaane Tu a rest) and this time it was pitted against Om Dar-ba- Dar. Karthik was all for Wednesday working for him and ODBD not and Thani was logically arguing his case saying that does not necessarily make it a better film. Some shouts and abuses later, there was no conclusion. More films were brought into the fray and fought over with gusto until the clock rang 12 and in a reverse Cinderella story, the fairy godmother bestowed us with the special appearance!!! Ladies and gentlemen, the special appearance of the evening was upon us and it was none other than Anurag!!! Boy, were we pleasantly surprised! (Trivia: It surprised Thani and KK into complete silence!)

But not for long. Needless to say, Subrat-Vasan-Ashish trio was still in the god-forsaken 80s (I say god-forsaken as all of us know, even the Gods had forsaken it) and Anurag happily jumped in! The fourth Subrat of the evening. Out came trivia on Mehul Kumar, Ismail Shroff etc.

A howler was a chat Anurag had with a numerologist who said that someone elses success depended on the meaning of his name and we started decoding Anurags name to predict his success! Another was, the pose Anurag struck of this particular person that had us in absolute splits. This on a show on prime channel!!! What a howlarious reconstruction! You had to be there to fully appreciate it maaaannn! In between, an animated chat took place between Thani, Anurag and Navdeep but since it was the other end of the table I do not know what it was all about! I sure wish I did though!!!

Finally, it was time to leave. Oh, no! Not because we wanted to. But because we had to. The place was shutting, you see. And we ambled and ambled and compelled them to almost throw us out which they did very subtly by shutting the lights out finally. But Anurag was still in the quiz mode and educated the watchman with Indias first silent film. The guy obviously smiled sheepishly when Anurag declared Pushpak, Kamal Hassans film. The management then shut out the lights in the parking lot too fearing we might just continue on their doorstep all night!

So thats that! Thanks all for turning up and making it such a rocking evening and Anurag, thanks a ton for picking up the fat bill, may God bless you with a lot many hits!!!