Part 40

So our year carried on in Delhi. We rehearsed and shot scenes in English and Hindi. Aganee had flown directly here and was now working with all of us to make sure the Hindi version was right for the era as so many new words had crept in.

We did the nightclub songs as a single take so that Ajay could cut into them as he needed. We also did audio studio masters of the songs. I had the guitars and keyboard from the tour and Husnia exhibited her skills on a standard drum set. The Dhawanees did get various roles as nightclub patrons and Balnoor played a good bartender. The shooting went as expected and we finished up our shooting at the end of July. It would now go to post-production.

We also shot the indoor scenes for the other film. I must say that Gaurav was really good in both. For the first he was a shambling sort of man who came on strong in the end. In the other he was an upright war hero who became obsessed and manic towards the end but very loving for the final scenes. Anu had a ball in both. They had him as an enigmatic person at the bar and when the Blue Shorts were being murdered in most violent and graphic ways, he would be seen standing with a drink in his hand and the writer had given him beautifully wistful and meaningless epithets to their memory. The original boys in the story had become girls, something the writer didn’t have the nerve to include in the original script.

The case was broken when a secret compartment was found at one of the victims’ homes and a number of photos had been seen, showing young girls being abused. Another detective recognised one picture from a case he had been part of some years ago and the girl was the young sister of our murderer. The photos also showed a hand with the cuff that bore the cufflinks. In the final scene the murderer pulls out a handkerchief and some of these cufflinks are pulled out of his pocket to land at the feet of Gaurav and the final shoot-out starts from there. Anu was magnificent and his death scene was something to behold.

We then switched to the second movie. Anu was now a ramrod stiff commander and the scenes with Gaurav had plenty of bite. Most of the interior work had been done and we took a chartered plane up towards the border. The story was now set in a ‘no-go zone’ between the two countries and we were put up in a hotel. There was a small village near an orchard and it was a good location to have been found. We spent some weeks filming the body of the films’ outside scenes and then we got to the final take.

This was slightly changed from my original thoughts as Ajay had excelled himself. It opened with Gaurav and me walking down a country lane hand in hand. I spot a gate to the orchard and pull him in, not seeing a ‘Land Mines’ sign that had fallen down. We go over to near a tree which had a suitable grassy slope before it and we kiss. Then we sink to the ground and kiss. Ajay would now show the brass button of a mine and he had a small camera set in the ground showing the button and, as we kiss, we fall back so that my head covers the screen.

He had shot a scene later one day as the birds were starting to roost and they had let off an explosion which caused all of the birds to leap in the air with a huge fluttering of wings. The very last shot was to be from a drone that backed away from two headless bodies on the ground by a tree with a hole in the ground where their heads should have been. As it tracked back, in the final scene that made it to the screen, he had some CGI birds flying around and we did, indeed, have the “Lark Ascending’. It was quite a lingering scene as the credits came up and then the music became a beautiful duet as the drone camera moved to show the sky. These days it can take several minutes to show the credits and the patrons needed to stay in their seats to get the whole experience.

By the time we finished the two films we had another pile of scripts that Jill and Joyce had a small team working through. They were now looking for stories that the two of us could get our teeth into, always assuming that the first ones got some acceptance. Anu had now finished, or so he thought, with public appearances but was still being pestered to be on various chat shows. We stayed in Delhi while the post-production was being worked through. Sometimes we had to re-record some dialogue and we recorded a soundtrack album for the second film, in a studio with the whole band. We had recorded the songs that Gaurav had fallen in love with as pure Pakistani pop for the film but the new album was much fuller in sound. The song-writer had done us proud and we put him on a contract to work on a new album for us to be recorded the following year.

In November I was informed that both films were ready for release and everyone agreed that the second one would be first out the door. We didn’t want to kill Anu off until later. Mr Singh decided that he wanted to have a party to launch the first one and that the whole film crew was invited. It was to be a private showing and he invited various reviewers, dignitaries and other influential people. Our family was flown in from London along with some UK cinema executives. The party was to be held at the Bollywood studio and the big sound stage was fitted out as a cinema.

As everyone would be there, both films would be shown. The love story was going on in the afternoon, followed by a dinner and dancing. Then there would be a surprise showing of the other one in the evening. It was a huge crowd that gathered in Mumbai that day, we greeted our family off the helicopter and Grette said that she was totally overwhelmed with the attention, this being her first time here. Birgitta took me aside and asked what we were feeding Aganee as she looked as if she had shed five years. I told her that it was because Aganee had a purpose in life and had been a real help over the year with the language.

We got everyone seated in the ‘cinema’ at last and Mr Singh came out in front of the screen and gave a nice speech which thanked all the people in the crew and also the dignitaries and reviewers for attending. He then said “The picture you are about to see is not one that would have come out of this studio. If you expect lots of glam and glitter be prepared for something totally different. I have had a private viewing and I must warn all you ladies to have your tissues ready.”

The film was shown and, I must say, I got carried away with it. You do all the scenes but you do not know what the finished article will be until you watch it. The audience gasped at the final scene and stayed silent as the final credits scrolled up the screen to the sound of our duet. When the screen went blank there was applause and some cheering, especially from the members of the crew who had been the backbone of the supply, catering and admin side. Guptar hugged Gaurav with tears in his eyes and Birgitta wrapped me in her arms; she had panda eyes from the tears that ran down her face. I was then besieged by the Dhawanees who had not had much to do with this one. Anu was pounced on by the reviewers.

Eventually we got everyone into the fleet of coaches to take us all back to the hotel building where we all retired to our rooms to get ready for the dinner. Gaurav held me close as if he never wanted to let me go, saying “I didn’t realise the point we were making until I watched that today. It will either bomb or win awards. With that final scene there can be no middle ground.”

We had some very elegant evening wear laid out on the bed for us so we stripped off and made love on the carpet before going to shower. Our dressers came in to help us get ready and our make-up girls did their magic. We were held back and made our entrance accompanied by Anu, Ajay and Girindra to a standing ovation from the assembled guests. It was a good time with excellent food and a little dancing to a small orchestra. We were all having discussions with various film people when Mr Singh got up on stage and announced that there was to be a second showing tonight and ushered everyone into the waiting coaches and back to the ‘cinema’ where we looked at the “Blue Shorts”. Again I was carried along by the plots, the convolutions and the dramatic final scene in the nightclub. Again, as the screen blanked there was applause and cheering.

The following morning, after breakfast, Anu, Gaurav and I were sat in the lounge while a queue of reviewers and film executives spoke to us about how the films were made and our plans for the future. I could hear Anu being forceful in his denial of any more films and I did hear him once reply to a question about why he had not done a serious film before by saying “Because no-one asked me!” Gaurav and I just said that we had scripts we were looking at but first wanted to take a holiday.

At lunch we were ushered into a private dining room where Mr Singh and his wife held court. Jill and Joyce were thanked for their hard work and expertise, we three stars were thanked for our artistry and Ajay and Girindra were thanked for their skills. Mr Singh told us that the guests yesterday had been very positive about the new direction and that it will take time to see the public reaction before we all congratulate ourselves but he had been told they would be shown country-wide. The love story would be released before Christmas in both the English and Hindi versions here and would be going world-wide with the English version. As we were new to the movie scene, it will be a new experience for those outside India. The same would occur with the detective story in March next year.

Well, that was last year and today we are in the USA getting ready to walk the red carpet for the Oscars. Both films had been shown at the All Lights India Film Festival, all three of us had won IFFA awards, Anu had been given the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and the soundtrack album had been given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Indian music, as well as both soundtrack albums getting into the Indian top ten.

Tonight we are nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best supporting Actor and Best Foreign film. We have two more movies in production at our Delhi studios, now known as Hidjeet HQ. We now cannot go anywhere without being recognised and, in India, mobbed. So that is the story of how I went from a bongo playing bloke in a street band to a married acclaimed actress. It has sometimes been a hard road but I have loved every moment of it.

The end

Marianne G 2021