Saket Chaudhary

I had ventured on to Blogger.com awhile back, eager to join the blogging communities of the world. This was long before my house began its unrelenting renovation and long before the inquisitive neighbors asking if I was getting married finally. *sigh*

Today, I managed to log on to the internet from atop a pile of POP (Plaster of Paris for the uninitiated) thanks to a Wireless router that I invested in during my student years in America.I'd like to think I get online with my laptop and do serious writing but all I really do is chat up hot chicks that I loose interest in, the moment they seem to like me. This night was no different; so here I was trying to "write" and I met a "friend" online, 'Saket Chaudhary.'

Now, when I say friend, I don't mean the backslapping, grown up sneaking-and-watching-adult-films-with kind, but the kind you know and call friend like you call every grown- up, Uncle or Aunty in our country. To cut a long story short, we've met through the Internet and have a mutual passion for film and life. He is the director of the film "Pyaar Ke Side Effects" and I'm still pondering about the "Struggling Ke side Effects."

He also writes a blog. I've glanced through his blog before (http://saket74.blogspot.com/) and I quickly read through his homo erotic post of 300. Today, I went through his whole blog and I must say that I was VERY impressed; enough to inspire me to write my own. I meet a lot of people in my line of work; some that quote Scorsese and others who can't even pronounce it - the truth is, it’s a world filled with bullshitters.

This guy is not one of them. I've pitched some of my film ideas to him a year back; he discarded all of them saying that I had spunk and a quirky weirdness but no commercial sense. I don’t take criticism too well, I guess. I watched his film and honestly thought it was an ordinary American sitcom stretched into 2 hours. My friends loved the film; I thought it was strictly OK.

I distinctly remember thinking to myself on the steps down from Surburbia, Bandra, that he had rejected some excellent ideas of mine, ideas that I thought would make great films, far better than what he had made. His film didn't speak volumes of creativity to me; I've grown up watching American television and it was no Big Deal. I scoffed arrogantly to myself.

I think its been a year or more now. A lot has changed.

Today, I read his blog. I was "blown-away."

Today, I think that he’s a far better writer than he is a director.

Today, I realize that it takes a lot to get a film made and he did the best given the resources.

Today, one massive break-up and lots of introspection later , I understand pain, in literature, in film and in life.

Today, I think some of my ideas back then were weird, really really weird...

Me Me Me

Last year I wrote a script for a film and the producers didn't change one word. The word they didn't change was on page 87. Yes, life can be side-splitting and more often than not I am bang in the middle, on the wrong side of it. It all began when I went to a career fair in school and decided then that I would like to make Ad-films (commercials for the uninitiated) to earn a living. I soon realised that it’s more fun (also more stuff to show off about) to tell a story that would take 3 hours rather than 30 seconds. Also, films would involve film stars and I would soon be nestled in the arms of a pretty starlet with spot boys pandering to my whimsical whims. Indeed, my commonsensical skills were very dubious during my tender school going years.

...And thus many years and LOTS of crazy incidences later I'm still struggling to find that elusive pretty lass (Damn you AB Jr.) and I don't see boys on any spot. But the journey has been a lot of fun and perhaps my search will end soon. I have done plenty of things on an impulse, deciding to be a film-maker, buying a car, cutting random lanes on the Interstate Highway, fooling around unprotected with my life, blah blah blah.....

Today, after procrastinating for what seems like ever, I impulsively decided to start this blog and also pursue another dream - film journalism. It is said that if a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: The 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies. And although there isn't much of a market for Urn's in India, hey, it’s a damn good quote to quote. It has taken me ten years to discover that I have no talent for writing, but I can't give it up now since I realise that there is not much else that I know how to.

So, tough luck!

Welcome to my world :)