Side effects of being a filmy fanboy

I had written this on the eve of Ghajini release. Seeing the Nostalgia section here reminded me of this.

I’m in a minor depression today, actually from yesterday night when my sis called up during Ghajini interval and said “Could have been tighter”. I felt that sick empty feeling in the stomach. And when she said “When aamir goes in full masala mode, he fucks up”, all the excitement which had built up for the past one month died at that very moment. It reinforced my belief that, whenever I get super duper excited abt a movie, its bound to turn up a turkey. Sarkar Raj was my this year’s super excited release. RGV screwed up big time and I was left derailed and disillusioned by Bollywood. It never delivers on hype.

Right from morning I’m searching for some good reviews, just to pep me up and go, as planned, for a ghajini haircut before I check tonight’s show.

I’m a fanboy. Excitement around some films rise up so high, that my days upto the release just cease to pass by. I just can’t wait for the release. The whole release week is like an edge of seat thriller. I make sure all of my friends too end up seeing the movie.

First movie I remember to be super excited (remember its ‘super’ excited, and not excited. I’m excited about any damn Friday release) about was K3G. Yea. Before you start judging me, let me tell you I was in just 11th std. And I agree my taste then, was a bit too filmy. I watched Mohabbatein 4 times in cinemas. I was a fan. Yea I know your reaction. Yikes!!!
To watch K3G I struggled for 2 days to get tickets. But even the black marketers would have sold the tickets away till I reached them. Finally I got tickets from a ‘Neembo paani wali mausi” on Friday morning for the Saturday night show.

Next was way later. Zameen. Yikes again??? Yea maybe. I was a Abhishek fan then and the fulltoo action trailer just did me. I used to stand up and jump, everytime the trailer came on TV. But the best part of this Zameen excitement was that, it frigging delivered. It lived upto it and the excitement continued days after watching it first day last show. I ended up watching Zameen thrice in cinemas.

Next I remember was Run. Yea it was Yikes, but I came to know that after I saw the movie. This was another one in the phase of Abhishek struggle years and my fanboy adulation for him. Along with the excitement I was all the time praying hard for the movie to work for Abhishek’s sake. You wont believe me but I had gone to a temple to pray for its success. That was pure madness. I’ve never gone to a temple for my exams in my whole life, and there I was climbing the 700 odd steps of chaturshingi temple to pray for a film!! That was insane!!! I had somehow managed to gather 8 of my friends to watch this movie. And what a POPAT!!! All the previous days flashed in front of me and I felt that sick empty feeling in my stomach.

Next in the list is Shiva. Yes the new RGV one starring Mohit Alhawat. The excitement phase for this one comes 2nd to that of Run. 1 month I was in pure madland. I downloaded all possible trailers of the movie and watched it in a repeat mode. It became such a big event that my routine life stopped a week before the release and I decided to resume it after the release. I started fantasizing about it becoming a huge cult hit like the old Shiva, and my days grew longer and longer. I didn’t book in advance, just like Run, coz I knew no one in their sanity would turn up for this movie. On the day of the release I got a call from a friend saying that Shiva is being specially screened for invitees and RGV is gonna turn up for the screening. My excitement went out of the roof, I was at once in madmadland. The show was @ 6. I was running late. And the next thing I see in front of me is a traffic jam. 5 mins were left and I was in panicland. I cussed and sweared and cussed again. I parked my car at the road side and started to run along with my friend who was so not interested in the idea of running through the traffic jam and catching Shiva. But I was in some other land and I just could not have missed the start. So we ran about 1.5 kms and caught a rick till the cinema. But the time was 6.10. I had already missed the start. But thankfully my (then) idol RGV turned up during the interval, and I had to run after him to get an autograph. While I was doing that I had missed the start of 2nd half too, so I just chucked it and left the movie. I decided to watch the movies with my other friend @ night. But when I turned up for the night show, it was houseful. So the whole build up eventually resulted in my not seeing the whole movie on the first day. Whoa!!

Next to that has to be Ghajini. The moment I saw Aamir Khan kicking ass (bashing up villains) I was in madland once again. A complete Déjà vu!!! The whole of my last week has been spent in surfing the net to get some, infact any friggin scoop on ghajini. The D-Day was actually today, but apna Taran Adarsh was not waiting for anyone. I refreshed Indiafm.com page, and wat I see took me straight to madmad land “Ghajini movie review – It has blockbuster written all over it” Oh my God!!! I was shivering in excitement. I just couldn’t hold onto my oath “I will not check any ghajini review before seeing the film”. I read the review and my excitement knew no bound. But shortly I read NDTV’s not so good review and I fell straight into real land. And yea, that was the end of the whole excitement/anxiety. The bubble had burst.

And then, as I mentioned in my first para, My sister called up during interval…….

gaurangj

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