Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi

Greetings to all for this day ! may there always be peace and fulfillment, happiness and joy, friendship and togetherness ever .. may this auspicious day bring into our hearts the love and blessings of the Almighty .. may we respect each other in all faiths … may we be considerate accommodating and in belief .. and may we all most importantly show compassion and unity …

It is the 16th of February 2011 and a day we in the family remember with great happiness - the wedding of Shweta to Nikhil … now 14 years in the making ! Goodness ! I can just about remember her at age 14 .. how and when did she become marriageable and with children of 13 and 9 !

The excitement in the house and the preparations and the laughter and activity, such vivid memories of all that we went through. The Sangeet and the songs that we constructed. The leg pulling of our Samdhi’s, the little games that the groom is made to play with the bride, all the rituals carried out with finesse and care and the blessings of my parents and of Nikhil’s family too. All captured for posterity on film and one that we often glimpse through at times.

And then the pain of parting - parting with a part of you. Her laughter and wit and presence suddenly gone. The house silent and empty. Her presence now filling the hearts of her new and permanent home now as a Nanda. From one Ma and Pa, she now has another Mummy and Papa. She loses her surname that she used for so many years and adopts the name of her husbands family and becomes their daughter in law. Her home is now her husbands.

Women ! Such a fascinating journey they lead as wives and Mothers and as, just women ! One just sits back and wonders in awe !

And now for some visuals of what I do for a living … ‘Aarakshan’ in Bhopal

the rain and the aftermath … drying up with towels, shivering inside, but not showing it to the crew on set ..

not enough towels to dry up before the next shot ..

with the lovely Deepika Padukone, who plays my daughter ..

It was a day with daughters today. Slipping in and out from the real to the unreal. Shweta on one end and Poorbi my daughter in the film Deepika on the other ..

The scenes are getting more and more intense as the days pass by and we are all beginning to get in to the characters with each passing day. A fascinating tale now begins to evolve - the written word, the drama of the situations, the relevance of so much more than just enacting another one. Somewhere in the middle of all this you actually begin to feel as part of the moment being described by the screenplay. The early few days were left entirely to the directions of the captain. We were merely followers, dutifully following at times without believing what we were representing. And then as times passes by, the involvement of the surroundings, the meanings of the words and the situations gradually start falling into place. And now you so wish if we could possibly redo all those earlier scenes again, to better to improve what had been done in a somewhat unknown state. It shall never happen. But what is the harm in expressing it.

It always happens ! After it is all done and canned, you shall wake up in the middle of the night one day and get it all right. The lines the expressions the moves and a deeper understanding of the character. And then as you sit in the dark hall on the day of the preview or the public premier, you wish you could just dissolve under the chair and not be seen at all. Fear, embarrassment, apprehension, a feeling of incompetence and a strong desire to give it all up, because it had not been done well enough by you !!

Ah ! Well ! Someday we shall get it right … and if not, then thank you for the support and love ..

It rained here suddenly last night and early in the morning. There was a smile on the trees as you drove past them. That earthy smell of the ground that has been parched for months, drew deep into the nostrils, bringing back those memories of the days spent in my place of birth, Allahabad. A fresh cool breeze greeted us on the open set in the morning and the watchers on the rooftops from adjoining buildings kept getting their strong dose of screams and shouts from the production assistants …

This is such a fascinating profession. Reliving reenacting recreating each and every nano second of the day spent in the proximity of the camera, with the lights and the Clap and the Action … and then Cut !!

Time to end for the day. The canned film shall now be sent for processing with an adequate file of paper describing the activities of the day by the artist. In a day or two, the first prints for editing shall be out. And after numerous hours and hours of putting the final shape to the story, the music score shall be worked upon and the background and the songs shall creep in and then the final with credit titles will roll. After spending days weeks months years of labor, finally the product shall be out and introduced to the audience. And within a couple of minutes, a verdict shall appear - good bad poor indifferent !

Judgement shall be passed in 2 hours, by the people and critics alike. And all the suffering that would have gone through in the making shall be washed away in one fell stroke !

God ! I love this profession .. it is so finite !!

Love to you and more ..

Amitabh Bachchan