Ceaser Rd. , Amboli

Work Space Mumbai: Vanity Van
Extra shots from the Emraan Hashmi story in Tehelka by Sunaina Kumar

To know the real Emraan Hashmi is, you must read the article. However, there were so many things he told Sunaina about his life and the film industry, she would have needed the whole magazine to tell his story or a nice little book. The rate at which she's interviewing people in Bollywood, she will have enough material to write a book on Bollywood some day! And very different from the Bollywood in Bombay Times and Midday.

At Filmalaya, Emraan was acting in a movie called Raaz 3. It's a 3d film and each scene takes a lot more time to set up than a usual Emraan thriller. So he spends a lot of time in his van watching VH1.

He hates being called a Serial Kisser but when you find these in his vanity van (a common sight in all vanity vans) it has a completely different meaning. No, it was not a kissing scene he was shooting.



Emraan on the secret of his success: He is totally clueless. He also think that no one knows what actually works in India for a star. What works could change overnight. So he goes by scripts he likes to do. It could work or it won't.

Sounds simple, but is it as simple as that in Bollywood?

Among Indian films he only watches the movies he acts in. He watches them at Galaxy-Geity in Bandra to get the feel of what people like.

Emraan goes to work, delivers and goes back home. If you disn't know him, you could mistake him for any of us who goes to work to one of those glass cages waiting for the boss to say ACTION . That's what actually happens, all of Emraan's action seems to be on screen.

Ceaser Rd. , Amboli

Aaj ka gunda raaj.

Indian democracy and Indian political parties are best depicted in the violence that is celebrated in B-grade movies in all the major Indian languages.

The angry young men runs into the Indian system in the neighborhood. In the Panchayat and Municipal wards. The pillars of Indian democracy are the muscles of the local goons and it is their muscles the hero usually tries to break. They succeed only in movies. Reality is Keenan and Reuben.

There's an aptly named party. Trinamool or Grassroots. When the grassroot goons of the grassroot party was arrested for gooning about, Mamta barged into a police station to flex her muscles. She came to power because she was fighting the kings of the game is grassroot goondaism anyways - the Reds.

It's the same here too. We have a lot more options. The unity in the diversity is the muscle.

When Sharad Pawar is slapped in Delhi, he flexes his muscles through the goons of the local ward in Kopri gaon. They also fill the party fund with their extortion. It's the same with all other parties. After failing in everything he tried, Rahul Gandhi is probably trying to puppet some gundagiri in UP. It's a tried and tested formula.

What if we do not have these goons at the local level?

What if the Mumbai police is actually free of political control to police?

What if we care who we will elect to the local ward?

If we had, we wouldn't have had the muscles that killed Keenan and Reuben.

Image shot for Daijiworld.com

Ceaser Rd. , Amboli

Concrete Cemetery.

No empty roads
Or dark corners.
No dead silence
or screams.
Not a single, silent,

grieving tree.
Honk. Honk.
Screaming headlights
all night long.

Rest?

Peace?

We have no room.

Not even for ghosts.

Here the sleepless

are the living.

We terrorise

the dead.

This is a Mumbai cemetery.