Internet for me was just for checking Emails and sometimes checking out film based websites {for new movies only}. One day a cousin of mine introduced me to Social networking site called Orkut where I can connect to my school/College friends. Yes I did manage to get few school friends but at same time entered a group called “Bollywood” where I met likeminded people with whom I can share the madness of films which was buried somewhere inside me. From childhood days I was in search of these types of friends whose filmi wavelength matched me, but never got one thus settled down for new movies and basic chat with regular friends with average I.Q on Hindi films. But out here things were different, the more we share-more we gained. I met my first Soul mate named Fizza out here, she was from Pakistan and besides that I dint knew anything about her {or was he..Doesn’t matter} except that she too was a great filmi freak by heart and had excellent knowledge about Indian cinema despite of being from a neighboring country. The respect grew along with the friendship and formed a new community named “Filmi Freak” which was exclusively for movie buffs with passion for Hindi films only. The caravan was joined by more Filmi Freaks like Divya, Harsh, Abhishek, Sharib, Suresh, Punnu, Kiran, Manish, Arnab, Subur and many many more. Whenever I use to be there I felt I am with my people, the web world was more fun and appealing for me than the boring routine real world.
We started to meet each other and then use to call for hours and hours discussing Hindi Film in full details {from Old movies to New everything}. The community started growing and so did the members, the love which I got out there was something which I never got in my whole life. The passion which I had was considered as topic of fun for my family and friends never gave me such respect and self satisfaction. With remembering the old Hindi movies, I again started watching old Hindi films which I had watched years back and still enjoyed the same. These were among the best days of my Social networking and filmi times.
The popularity and passion in Filmi Freak got me an opportunity to do a Research work for a Website owned by Pritam and Arnab. Out there I met another Filmi Freak who was not connected to the Industry and yet took time to pursue his passion for Hindi Cinema, Dr.Ashok. Together we got all our Filmi Freak gang in the project and an opportunity was created for all of them to earn from their passion. I thought since all these youngsters have so much passion for cinema, even they must be having some sort of restrictions at their places. Thus selected them in this project and they all earned some good amount of money which made most of them feel proud at their home as they earned it from their passion which was again useless for most of people. Few got their first payment of their life, few decided to take movies as their career, few decided to enhance their knowledge and passion more, but for me a new passion started and that was of collection of movies.
I use to buy movies but like any common movie lover most of them use to be popular ones, but after the website incident and meeting so many new friends the collection now started to divert on rare and offbeat’s films along with those not seen. I thought this might be a good opportunity for me to watch all those unseen movies which I had missed during my growing up day and also to watch those rare movies which I cherished watching in those days.
Then came a opportunity to take part in a Film quiz show named “Bollywood Ka Boss {BKB}” and again out there met loads of another Filmi freaks whose level of Hindi Cinema was at par or much ahead than me. BKB got me more fame and some good amount of money too, but more than all of those I met loads of new friend s that besides watching movies had an addiction of collecting movies. Bobby, Pratik, Devendra, Pravir were among the top collectors who helped me to expand my collection of movies which was more of common films.
Slowly the collection started to grew and from common movies my focus diverted to rare and off beat films. This got me close to some more new friends from the Industry like G.K With G.K i started understanding the depth of Hindi Film Industry and also went on to nostalgic trips in 80’s and 90’s of Indian cinema. He got me various opportunities to meet many celebrities from Hindi Film Industry and like an average film butt I was star struck. He got me in world of Radio where I had a platform of meeting celebrities and to showcase my collection and talent. G9 was my on air name where I shared rare trivia’s and scripted the entire show called Picture Pandey which was a retro show on F.M 104.
Now the life was not the same for me as things had turned tipsy topsy, most of time went in Orkuting, Chatting, Radio and Collecting movies. To add on it there was weekly reviewing of new movies for the website, and on other side my work, personal life, normal friends and most important watching of old Hindi movies started to decline. The passion of collecting films had turned into a obsession, money use to knock in my wallet when I use to see a DVD store, first VCD then DVD then Abrode prints, etc the collection started to go on the endless route.
At that time I saw some changes in Dr.Ashok and Bobby’s life, the passion had slowed down drastically and they had diverted themselves back to real world as they were fed up of this movies stuff. I tried to get them back to what they loved, but now the fear inside me grew more and started to think if this happened with me I will be again lost in the normal world like I had years back.
The fear and Obsession {of collecting movies} grew simultaneously. I decided to give proper time to work and family and then to my passion and started succeeding in slow pace but all this was at the cost of something. My Old movies watching had zeroed down and patience of watching old films {keeping in mind the time it was made with restriction, crowd demand and available sources} had gone.
I had loads of likeminded friends, a community which gives me pride, a radio show, loads and loads of rare movies and normal movies,etc but my movie watching was not there with me anymore. I was back at square one, where I was a decade back.
And that’s when I saw an English movie “Julia and Julia” where the heroine decides to make minimum one cooking recipe a day and write it down on a blog. This gave me a hope, a hope to be back in my own world and most important enjoy it.
Thus with a New Year I to decide to blog down my movie watching experience and share them with more such likeminded people. I know many of these movies might not appeal majority of people and also I don’t know how much will be my ratio in doing this new venture along with loads of other old stuffs. But one thing I know and that is I love Indian cinema and will do anything to keep it alive in me and then in as many as I can by passing it to them.
That’s the reason I am here for most important work of my life – To watch movies.
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