Jaipur diaries: A "Special" movie which brings smiles till date

“Abey mummy ka phone aa gaya to??Main kya kahoonga? Mujhse mummy se jhooth nahin bola jaa sakta.main nahin aa raha”. This is not a line from any movie between 2 people regarding anything….you surely thought about that one. Didn`t you?? Ha ha ha …so wrong. That’s a real life situation which happened. The one speaking this line is Anshul and it was spoken some 3 years back during the first day night screening of Rab ne bana di jodi. This movie has so many memories that we both laugh over it so many times, everytime, eachtime.

The situation was most deadly dangerous equally. 3rd sem exams just one week away , prep leave going on, preparation overall 0 % , forget about the first paper preparation. The starter was a dangerous Consumer Behaviour. Jab apna behavior hi samajh nahin aata to consumer ka behavior kya pata chalega? Bhagwaan bharose.Even a studious ( labeled by others) student like me had no preparation. I just dint know what to do and all. So the story started with 3 people initially(more to join later)- Anshul(Sharma), Sushant (Mandal), Me(Shwetabh Mathur) and indirectly Prashant (Lal). It had been just a week or so since he had downloaded the songs of Rab ne bana di Jodi.One song was played day and night in the hostel – “Tujh mein rab dikhta hai”…agreed, the song was melodious but repeat mode mein bhi dimaag to kharaab to ho hi jaata hai. I was seriously tired of listening to the song over the last few days but was curious to know how was the movie once it released . Me and mandal had made plans to watch the movie in the night show over numerous cups of evening tea. Both wanted a stress buster. The movie hall was just 5 mins walking distance from our hostel gates. We chose the night 10 o clock show, neither late, neither early. Then came anshul ki call and he too came on board. At night we all 3 met at the hall entrance. Anshul was a bit late at that time and we had purchased the tickets already. When we told him the time , he said “Abey mummy ka phone aa gaya to, kya kahoonga?? Daant padegi….nahin nahin mujhe nahin dekhni picture”. I and mandal both looked at each other and burst out laughing…An mba student saying such things… it was a hearty laugh.

The movie started and we all started watching it. Then came a call which anshul had been dreading- Aunty had called. His face had turned so white , it looked like he had seen a ghost. On the screen he was seeing a girl he had fallen in love with at first sight ( Anushka Sharma) and on the other hand he had a call. God knows what he told his mother but he came back within 2 mins and we enjoyed the story as it progressed. In between came the comments between him and me..”Kya lag rahi hai bhai, dekhte hi pyar ho gaya apun ko to”. I knew I was deviating from my Katrina but I was totally spellbound by her. She looked a total stunner. We thoroughly enjoyed it…around 12.30 we all came out analyzing the songs and anushka. Me and mandal reached the road from where we would turn left towards our hostels and anshul had still a long way to go (some 750 mts) via some shortcuts through residential colony. We said good night to him and he just stood there….the next line which we both heard, “arrey yaar mujhe mere room tak chodd kar aa jaa yaar. Darr lag raha hai”. Now this was 2 in 2 in a singe night from him. I could have escorted him had it been daytime but at night in the coming January chill I was not in the mood to walk 1.5 kms. Plus I wanted to get back to sleep and dream about Anushka. I said goodbye to anshul and started to walk. He just kept on calling me. I could sense the fear in his voice. 

The next day we both met at a coffee joint along with some other friends.4 days were left and we had some progress with preparations. But still we had Anushka somewhere on our minds. The songs were melodious, the performances good and the romance sweet. Me and anshul and were discussing the movie and that caught the attention of Ajay (Khanna). We heaped such genuine praise of the movie that he became interested in watching it.

We got another opportunity to watch it and we both got ready once gain. Haath aaye mauke kaun chodta hai? I came back and informed my hostel mates that I might be late in returning. They were bit surprised that what I was upto in this time of the exams when all hell would loose in 4 days. So the situation became – The same movie back to back in 2 days, with me and anshul remaining the same companions while the other people kept on changing. Anshul`s room mate dheeraj also came along to watch it.This time anshul had the bike with him so he was not afraid this time around. I stayed at Khanna`s room that night, Too tired to walk to my hostel. In the morning when I reached my hostel , I faced the same ques. from the hostelmates which normally a girl faces from her parents when she arrives late. I promised myself no more movie anymore otherwise I will flunk. Sems went underway and we had cleared 4 papers (back to back exams are tough). The paper was on a Saturday and so I was relaxed and instead of rushing to the hostel went to the computer lab to check the mails. Some mischievious thought crept into my mind and I messaged anshul knowingly very well that he was smitten by Anushka, “ RAB NE BANA DI JODI once again?”. It was fun but damn….20 mins later he called me up and said that he is ready….Apun ne to mazaak kiya tha, yeh to saala sach mein serious ho gaya. Tried talking to him and khanna but both were not ready to listen and I thought ki ab to baji band..now the excuse of paper wont be handy as the next day was a Sunday. So we got ready to go- Once again. Our team comprised of Me, Anshul, Khanna, Kg(Kumar Gaurav). As we had all visited the same movie hall 2 times for the same movie a change in venue was needed. The winner was EP which was within a 5-6km radius which meant bikes had to go. We had no helmets for any of the 4 people, the bikes were on reserve fuel, just enough cash to buy a bit tad expensive tickets as compared before, no cash for petrol and fine if got caught by traffic police.(the jaipur police is really hard on the helmet rule). Khanna and anshul were on one bike and me and kg on the other. So at night you have 2 bike going to a movie hall with nothing working in our favour. We used all possible bylanes to bypass the main roads, traffic signals, intersections where we could land in trouble with the cops.

Navigating and we reached our destination and waited for the other bike to come. Both of them arrived 10 minutes later finding shortcuts through roads. When it came to tickets, I gave my share and my wallet went empty with just 20 bucks left. Anshul had to go into the mode where he had to really dig into the last note and coin to make up for the whole amount of the 4 tickets. Khanna, Kg had also had just about 10 bucks left in their wallets and we had just enough to pay for the bike parking. Once inside the hall we 3 laughed (KG not included) and shared a joke that a time will come when the whole of IRM will see this movie and we ( Me and anshul) would be the common people at all those movie screenings. After the movie got over, we all prayed that the fuel lasts until we get back and if the tanks go dry in between we would have just enough amount to buy a total of just 1 lt fuel and that too at such a odd time. Thank god we reached with no fines, no dry tanks.

The final tally read for that movie at 3-0 within a week of its release with me and anshul both being constant at screenings and the other people changing. Such was the craze or the effect that whenever we had to say “Phir milenge”, the other person used to say “full version” and we had to complete the sentence from the movie. “ Hum hain raahi pyaar ke, phir milenge chalte chalte”. This sentence is used still between anshul and me….the memories of this craziness linger on..Me, the guy who used to sense flunking in sems got my highest marks in those exams across all 4 exams I gave in those 2 years..Still don’t know how this magic happened, but it happened. This movie is treasured for these specific crazy incidents specially.

Years down the line anshul told me that the night he had to walk back alone to his room he was damn scared and prayed that no dog should go after him thinking him to be a thief…he ran like hell. What he told aunty when her call came, “Dost ke room par hoon, padne aaya hoon”(Yeah…anushka`s beauty!)….

This whole incident comes out from the fab treasure of some fond irm memories….anshul scared, coming up really funny lines, me going crazy over a movie, recruiting people to watch a movie, drooling over beauties, finding ways to get past possible obstructions, everything to make it a cool stress buster to laugh out, and relive those moments......