#secretscreening

My latest fascination is drawing parallels to link the most disparate of topics to each other. And quite conveniently i think my latest Blogmint assignment on “Talvar” the movie is just like the focal point of the movie – I’m supposed to tell you what about happened without exactly err… telling you about what happened.

(nailed it! )

Okay now let me justify – so Blogmint organized an exclusive screening of Meghna Gulzar’s latest whodunit at Lightbox, Santa Cruz...                                 

i got my invite via a phone call less than 24 hours before the actual screening..

(cue Mission Impossible theme song -  “Agent Ramakrishnan, your assignment, should you choose to accept it…)

As much as I tried to sound like I was the type of guy who was “busy” on a Friday evening to the lady on the phone, I went from “I’ll have to think about it...” to “Yes, you can confirm my name for the screening!!!” in lesser time than it takes for Jose Mourinho to launch into a rant against the referees / medical staff / Arsene Wenger/ a Computer/ school going ball boys / the weather / Vaastu Shastra after a bad result.

(EDIT: for the non football lot – I’m dead serious. Really, click on these links to know more.)

As happens always – Central suburb inhabitant that I am, i had to travel to the “perennially cool” Western side of Mumbai to reach the venue of the screening.

BUT this time I have GOT to admit, an underground, 50 odd seater, luxuriously furnished theater is a wicked cool venue to travel to. And to be in the select audience for such a high profile movie being screened a WHOLE WEEK before its commercial release is nothing short of awesomesauce.

(also their canteen was stacked with excellent snacks from a very popular Bandra eatery so *yayy*)

I’ve always proclaimed my favorite part of these blogger meets is interacting with the fellow attendees. The main focus apart – it’s fun to chat up with everyone and know what they write about, how they go about managing their professional lives along with their prolific blogging “personas”. I always seek tips on how to manage time effectively & how to “position” oneself in this aggressively emerging lifestyle, and many a Blogminter is gracious enough to teach me something new.

The screening itself was very well managed with practically no fanfare. For more than one reason – there was neither any promotional material related to the movie nor any press junket in sight. A quick set of instructions & the movie started rolling!

The entire movie has a very visceral undercurrent to it – there is absolutely no warning before the entire pace of a scene changes from one extreme to the other. In a setting where no flashy gimmicks/items numbers/gratuitous romance or violence can be introduced – the film does a remarkable job of keeping the viewer hooked. Irrfan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sohum Shah, Neeraj Kabi deliver top, top quality performances that ought sweep the major acting honours in all the award functions. Gulzar saab’s lyrics coupled with Vishal Bharadwaj’s earthy tunes & Rekha Bharadwaj’s pitch perfect voice makes for an incredibly haunting background score.

What I will say is – no sane reviewer worth his/her salt will declare this movie with a rating of anything under 3.5 out of 5. As hard as is it for you to believe that i’m *not* shamelessly plugging the film – this movie is an absolute treat.

Just to give you an even better idea at how amazing our opportunity was – the screening after ours was attended by Hindi Cinema royalty – Asha Parekh and Helen, among others…

(I felt particularly proud that no one dared disturb them for autographs or ask for silly pictures/selfies)

Once outside Lightbox I got yet another chance to chat up with fellow Blogminters Aziz, Monish, Sanjay, Rohit, Monica, Steve & others!

Hope you enjoy Talvar - in theatres on Friday, October 2nd, 2015 - as i did! 

As always - i’m looking forward to hearing from you in the comments section! 

Cheers!

Sudhir ( https://twitter.com/SudhirRamaK)

P.S.: Kudos to production team for the movie title wordplay! Take a bow, son!