manish gaekwad Profile picture
Mar 8, 2022 19 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Took mother and her girlgang to watch #GangubaiKathiawadi and to celebrate the sisterhood of #InternationalWomensDay
They wanted to pose with Alia but her poster was nowhere to be seen. They had to make do with Ajay Devgn.😎 Review soon.👍🏽 Image
Half time. The girls take a Kit-Kat break.

Shipra maasi says: Sheela maasi marr gayi!

Simmi laughed throughout the bathing scene.

Lakshmi says daaru peeke ladki aayi, accha laga.

Mother wept when the girls elected Gangu girlboss.

Girls just wanna have fun.❤️ Image
Film khatm.

"Ab taxi milegi ki nahi?"

"Bhookh bhi lagi hai."

"Bathroom bhi jaana hai."

"Khichdi banani padegi."

Back to life, to chatter, to the usual. Image
Mother's review of the reel vs real.

Film begins with Begum Akhtar's Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat.

"Yeh Shobha Gurtu hai?" She asked

The review was going to be at the mercy of her diminishing hearing and seeing abilities.

I quickly asked, "Should we sit ahead?"

We were sitting close to the end of the theatre.

That's how far one has to sit from a Bhansali spectacle. Watching a Bhansali film is like going to a planetarium.

"Nahi," she said, "Sab dikh raha hai. Sab real jaisa set hai."
The candle-in-hand scene, she said, was unreal.

Artistic flourish.

I found it beautiful. Reminded me of painter Haldankar's works, though am not saying it was inspired. ImageImage
Mother chucked at the 'bhaag ke jaa, daud ke aa' dialogue.

Aise hi toh bolte hain, she said.

Devgn beating the badmaash reminded her of a dada whose help she had sought to thrash a scoundrel.

Dada called her didi.

No one harassed her after that. Image
@aliaa08 reading Ghalib's Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi made her recall a funny incident when she wanted to invite Ghalib for a mujra, not knowing he was the president of the dead poets society. Image
Dev Anand was a favourite.

"I saw him at Hare Ram Hare Krishna mandir," she said.

"Why didn't you go say hello?" I asked.

I knew the answer before she could respond.

"Izzatdaar logon mein beizzati lagti hai." Image
About the kothe se doli uthegi scene i said it was in reference to Pakeezah.

"Par usme bhi toh last mein doli uthti hai."

She remembers.😎

The train shot like Pakeezah.

The across-the-street window conversation. Pakeezah.

The reclining on bed scenes. Pakeezah. Image
In the gorgeously shot qawwali Shikayat, nothing to complain.

"Huma ne theek kulha (hips) chalaya hai, jaise hum log karte thay."

Check the mujra twerk movement in the end of the song.

Also, the tearing of the gajra was reserved for a khaas raees.

Since everyone was raving about Dholida, we counted the golchakkar.

Alia did 14-15, but with intervals.

"Mai toh dus-barah non-stop kar leti thi," says mother.

I can vouch. I've seen it.

Still, impressive for Alia to attempt. 👏🏼

Now you count.🙏🏽

"Haan, kabhi-kabaar juloos nikalta tha, hamey be-ghar karne. Phir koi meeting hoti thi."

"Did you attend these meetings?" I ask mother.

"Nahi, time nahi milta tha. Hum bas paise bhar dete thay." Image
One of my favourite scenes is when the self-confessed prostitute meets the generalist (journalist).

This is why i wanted to watch the film with mother.

She has been a courtesan. I am a journalist.

I am trying to tell her story. She's trying to understand what i write. Image
@jimSarbh photographs @aliaa08 puts Gangu on the Aaina magazine cover. I couldn't manage a cover, but picture of mother in this week's Outlook magazine wasn't too bad. Mother feels seen, not invisible anymore. 🙂 And like Jim says in the film, the world is reading and accepting. ImageImage
By the way, Shashi Kapoor's son Kunal Kapoor took photographs of mother and the other tawaifs in the 80s. So Twitter folks, if we can trace them to him, great! Although, isn't Karan Kapoor, Kunal's brother, a professional photographer? Mother is certain it was one of the sons. 🤔 ImageImage
Make the connection if you feel like. I did. In a good way. 🙏🏽 ImageImageImageImage
Ok last one now, so that we can all go to sleep.

Mother loved the film. So did Sheela maasi, Simmi, Laxmi.

This saree, mother's last thought was: "Mere paas bhi aisi same thee, safed silk par laal piping. Rekha ki saree dekh ke banayi thi."

From one Rekha to another Rekha.❤️ Image
Apne time ki girlboss Rekhabai. Same to same, bindi, goggles, hairstyle, the pallu tuck in the blouse, plus the dhamakedaar sass. 😎 Image

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More from @manishgaekwad

Nov 12, 2022
Some fun stories from the just concluded Indian Screenwriters Conference.

When Mani Ratnam was researching for his film Nayakan, loosely based on underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar, Mudaliar invited Ratnam to his house and personally fed him dosa dipped in chutney.
Mudaliar said he was keeping a low profile because he knew the cops would never let him reach the court for justice.

Ratnam was struggling with the climax of Nayakan.

How to end it?

He could have conveniently inserted an encounter sequence and finished the character Velu.
Instead, Ratnam back-pedaled and put the gun in a minor character's hand.

Velu (Kamal Haasan) walks out a free man after the court exonerates him but karma is a bitch.

Ajit (Tinnu Anand), shoots Velu to avenge his father's death whom Velu had killed in the past.
Read 13 tweets
Jun 30, 2022
On the last day of #PrideMonth here's a short love story, from my own life. A railway station romance in Bombay.

A love story should be epic, he says.

One of us has to die for that, I thought.

Who better than him to kill me? Image for representation purpose only
Here he is, standing in front of me, asking me to take my shirt off and wear his shirt.

I want to shut him up with a kiss. I feel flushed like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill.

Why? I ask.

Because I am going to a party, and my shirt is soaked, he says.
He sweats a lot. Too much pheromone in the air to resist. A gust of wind blows it forcefully in my face.

I am convinced. But I want to believe what he just said.

He wants me. Up till now, only I wanted him. It would never have occurred to me that he would want me some day.
Read 12 tweets
Jun 19, 2022
The first time I saw my father, he was standing naked in the room.

I know, I know, how can I talk like that on #FathersDay

Sharam karo and all.

But that first line is the end of that story.

Let's get to the beginning if you have no sharam.
A man got out of bed and stood in front of me. The single yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling was miraculously switched on by a person behind me adjusting her petticoat. I could tell the woman from the silvery sounds of her bangles and anklets — the music was home to my ears.
Turning around would have made me catch the woman in the act. I was too groggy to be surprised.

Indian living spaces are so tiny and they often have to accommodate unwelcome guests in bed, even when there is no room for more.
Read 15 tweets
Jun 18, 2022
If you thought Dharamji was promoting homophobia, take a look at what Hemaji was suggesting. She was romancing her lady-in-waiting in Razia Sultan. With #Pride Image
In the beautiful lullaby Khwab Ban Kar Koi Aayega, when Parveen Babi is singing to her queen, the two young girls rowing the boat are conscious and aware of the dalliance that must be kept a secret. Image
Or their risk a beheading. Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 16, 2022
One of the finest actors' contribution to queer cinema remains locked in a closet somewhere. #Pride

Why was Irrfan Khan’s gay film Adhura banned?

In 1995, the Censor board did not approve of the same-sex romance.
In the film, ironically called Adhura (Incomplete), Irrfan Khan plays a journalist who has an affair with an ageing industrialist.

Art dealer and gallerist Ashish Balram Nagpal played the role of the industrialist. Kitu Gidwani was playing a key role as Irrfan’s wife.
I found snippets of a 2007 article. The actor spoke to @upalakbr999 about the film and his comfort with queer love.

"If Ashish had a crush on me, he expressed it in the most intimate way in the film! Adhura was made for TV audiences, but I don't know why it never got released."
Read 32 tweets
May 11, 2022
Yesterday, the demise of Shiv Kumar Sharma, the musical duo of Shiv-Hari took me to an all-time fave album Lamhe (1991). I return to for joy, or even solace. Each song I know by heart.

Sample the tune and lyrics of Yeh Lamhe Yeh Pal Hum for instance.
The tune is quite simply just a plaintive flute by Hari, faint guitar riffs, Shiv's santoor or keyboard, following the singer's wistful voice reciting 2 lines of Anand Bakshi's lyrics.
Yeh Lamhe is a slowburn like Neela Aasman So Gaya.
Another Shiv-Hari song with fabulous use of shehnai, santoor, and the vocals, all of which are given 'solo' space within the melody - or as we say theraav.
Read 19 tweets

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