manish gaekwad @manishgaekwad Twitter profile

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Here's the cover. Spot the 👍 button and share the ❤️. 🙏🙂

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

That's my mother on the right Rekhabai. Almost same na, white saree, red bindi, bangles, qamar mein kassa pallu, dancing in 80s Kamathipura kotha district, Bombay, separated from #GangubaiKathiawadi by a few decades, but twinning by fate that unites them.❤️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

One of the finest actors' contribution to queer cinema remains locked in a closet somewhere. #Pride Why was Irrfan Khan’s gay film Adhura banned? In 1995, the Censor board did not approve of the same-sex romance.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Mummy died today. She chose a day of love to leave. A great day to remind me that she is love I will never forget. I never said it enough, but now more than ever, she was, is, and will always remain the most loved.♥️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Some fun stories from the just concluded Indian Screenwriters Conference. When Mani Ratnam was researching for his film Nayakan, loosely based on underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar, Mudaliar invited Ratnam to his house and personally fed him dosa dipped in chutney.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Javed Akhtar once recalled a fascinating anecdote about Lata Mangeshkar's sur.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Exactly a year ago, on this day, i had shared a photo of my mother. She received overwhelming love. Today, a year later, i held a prayer for her departed soul. In her final year, she regaled us with her frankness, wit and indomitable spirit. She guides me with love.♥️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Today, i attended the IIM Lucknow panel discussions on sexual orientation & gender identity. Professor: Lately, we see that films are over normalising homosexuality. Me: Yes, about time. They've over normalised heterosexuality for far too long. Students: 😶

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Took mother and her girlgang to watch #GangubaiKathiawadi and to celebrate the sisterhood of #InternationalWomensDay They wanted to pose with Alia but her poster was nowhere to be seen. They had to make do with Ajay Devgn.😎 Review soon.👍🏽

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

The #GangubaiKathiawadiTrailer is all kinds of wow for Vijay Raaz. Though these images do remind me of Mary Ellen Mark's photo work in Falkland Road in 1978.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

4 years

Begum Akhtar: The Saddest Ghazal Singer In The World When her twin sister Zohra died, depression became her earliest solace. (thread)

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Those 2 men dancing to Dola Re in #RockyAurRaniKiiPremKahani does more for the Hindi film hero than decades of chest-thumping herogiri. Ranveer Singh has been trying to make camp cool on & off-screen. The risible becomes celebratory. Small subversive step but big cinematic leap.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

For those of you who are asking, please read this essay I wrote earlier if you'd like to invest you time in my book later. This is the story that got me the book deal. It might help you understand how the kotha is outside of films. 🙏🏼

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Classic homophobia coded in Hindi films. In Pix 1 you see the queer inmate in Sholay with number 6 on his shirt. 6 is slang for chakka, sixer, homo. Inmate eyes the most macho cis-het man Veeru (Dharmendra), the HE-Man of Hindi cinema. He-Man doesn't mind it. Jailor minds.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Today's rickshaw ride to work was bumpy but fascinating. The driver, in his 60s, only wanting to be identified as Singh saab from UP, told me how he killed 2 guys and a girl on a cold, gloomy night on November 27, 1981 in Malwani. He was scared. Courage emerged from its shadow.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

So here she is Rekhabai, from her hospital bed, saying hello to "tyooter", getting ready to go home today. I forgot to get her a change of clothes. "Kya hum nange ghar jayenge!" she chuckled. Her humour is indication she is well. Thank you all for your wishes.👍🏽🙏🏽

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

How did I become a writer? Am often asked to give tips and advice. Am still clueless where to start. It took me 22 years to get here. In 2000,when I was making & selling desi daaru for 5 rupees a glass with my relatives in a slum in Poona, I spotted an ad that changed my life.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Aaj office mein boss ka birthday hai, I say to mother. Kuch kehna hai? Acche raho, happy birthday to you. Aur kuch? Aur kya? She shrugs characteristically. The house-help Shama pipes in, Meri taraf se bhi Shah Rukh Khan ko happy birthday. 2 people keeping it real.🙂

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

On a treasure hunt in my mother's Calcutta home, least expected to find this. She had carefully stored it. In 1995, walking past a music store window with her, I had pleaded for it. Mangta hai kya woh bolo! 🙃 My first audio cassette. 30 rupees. Remains priceless. Hai Rama!

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

This is the most positive feedback I have ever received from a producer for a story pitch I recently submitted. She is thoughtful, frank, willing to engage. She runs a damn good topline production. Even if this doesn't work out, she gives the cynic in me the confidence to dream.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Mother is still in the hospital in Calcutta, being treated for her multiple ailments. She will be discharged tomorrow. I didn't tell her I saw #GangubaiKathiawadi and loved it. It will be a whole new experience seeing it with her soon. In sha allah.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

7 months

There's a desi jewelry heist film in here. A plutocrat. An emerald neckpiece worth hundreds of crores. A Bollywood shaadi with cringy reels featuring a prima 'don'na. An international pop star. A luxe pet sanctuary let loose into the crowd. Orry, not sorry. Jamnagar Nu Soleil?

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

The first time I saw my father, he was standing naked in the room. I know, I know, how can I talk like that on #FathersDay Sharam karo and all. But that first line is the end of that story. Let's get to the beginning if you have no sharam.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Mummy, aap BBC pe ho!🙂 Thank you @cherylmollan for writing this wonderful piece. "I hope this book helps people identify the individuality of their mothers and accept who they are as people, independent from their relationship with us."

'My mum was a courtesan - and not ashamed of it'

A book chronicles the tumultuous life of Rekhabai, her fight for survival and a better future for her son.

www.bbc.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Finally! All set to go to press.🙂 Jald aa rahi hai aap ke nazdeeki bookstores (far and few), online stores, aur kindle par. This product may contain guts. Read carefully before ingesting.🙏

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

As a journalist, meeting celebs has always been quixotic. Having a drink at Sonam Kapoor's Juhu home, tea at Aamir Khan's Pali home, dinner at Juhi Chawla's Malabar home, or going to an Andheri nightclub with Manisha Koirala. I've engaged with many, but never forgot my job.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Held shanti pooja at home today. Seen here:mother and her darling companion in earth & heaven. Vividh Bharati has been playing since 7am, will continue till 11pm. Now opening home to friends who have a tolerance for old Hindi film songs and decent takeout. All are welcome.🙏

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Not trying to add to the RRR hype but last night, mother was watching it for the first time like the goras. I noticed a mauling shot similar to Tipu Sultan's musical toy, which was also the inspiration for M F Hussain's painting. Always fun to spot when one form informs another.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Best advice also came from the baap of pan India. When asked how to write pan-indian films, V. Vijayendra Prasad (Baahubali, RRR, Bajrangi Bhaijaan) said: "Just steal from Ramayan and Mahabharat."

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

"Do you want to pose like @aliaa08 or Meena Kumari?" i asked mother. "Alia se meri shakal nahi milti," she said. For all practical purpose, this photoshoot was done so that Rekhabai could pretend to read the article featuring her in @Outlookindia

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

New work. New place. New workplace in Bambai. Been a while now working at Red Chillies Entertainment. Scripts team. I've been writing independently for long, wondered how I'd fit. But the people here are cool, as I heard one say a little bit of who you work for rubs on you.🙂

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

This was the original photo for the cover. It was clicked on my birthday in a Congress House kotha in Bombay, circa 80s. Book cover designed by Amit Malhotra. He cropped, coloured & turned out a striking image. Growing up, I dreamt of someday sharing this photo with the world.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Ok, thank you for indulging me everyone. 🙏😎 Time for wordle now. K O T H A - a five-letter word that should be admissible, nai? Waise this is the gorgeous Begum Akhtar ghazal Seema Pahwa recites at the exact moment when she sees it coming. Enjoy & gn.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Thank you @chinkis for graciously putting my #FathersDay post in @Outlookindia . Squeamish readers please avoid this story. Those of you who care, do share it with your folks, slyly also chalega. 🙏🙂

Outlook India

@Outlookindia

2 years

My #mother was his mistress in the kotha. We were not his family. He came for sex. She gave him #love . She gave him me, a drowsy child to a #father who occasionally shared the only bed we had in the shabby tenement. Click on the link to read more:

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Front & Back cover.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Images: Heat And Dust. Frank Horvat's Hira Mandi in 1952. On a personal note, these images are giving me the raison d'etre to return back to normalcy. Plus, thank you everyone who wrote to me last week. I am unable to write to each one individually. Tah-e-dil se shukriya. 🙏

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In the film, ironically called Adhura (Incomplete), Irrfan Khan plays a journalist who has an affair with an ageing industrialist. Art dealer and gallerist Ashish Balram Nagpal played the role of the industrialist. Kitu Gidwani was playing a key role as Irrfan’s wife.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Any filmmaker here whose Sight & Sound poll has Salaam Bombay, Sparsh, 36 Chowringhee Lane, Luck By Chance in their top ten list, please get in touch. We can be friends. 🙂🙏

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

And this is my aunt, Hasina, who featured in the 1983 Merchant-Ivory documentary film, & on the Criterion dvd cover. She died, never saw the film. I discovered it in my youth. When i showed it to mother, she was shocked how the filmmakers had cooked up spicy stories about them.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

I find myself contemplating how much to share here. Friends call and tell me how much #GangubaiKathiawadi reminds them of mother and me. It is a fairly similar narrative, in fact identical and repetitive. How else to tell it differently? Kahani wohi purani hai, nazariya naya.❤️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Khan did not get cold feet when the fate of Adhura was undecided. He played a queer character in Mira Nair’s 17-minute short film Migration (2008).

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Who wore it better? 😎

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

My mother was his mistress in the kotha.We were not his family. He came for sex.She gave him love. She gave him me,a drowsy child to a father who occasionally shared the only bed we had in the shabby tenement, and who never kissed us goodnight before he walked out of the door.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

The pre-order link is here. Please book your copy. You won't be disappointed. Maa kasam. With amazing cameos by Lata Mangeshkar, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Saroj Khan, Mubarak Begum, mafia dons Mastan, Dawood & more. Mum's birthday today. She'll bless you.🙏❤️

The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother's Memoir

www.amazon.in

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Yesterday, the relatives insisted on shanti pooja. I had promised mother I'd let them do stuff. The pandit made a cocktail of gaumutra and gobhar. Ye aapko peena hoga, he said. Aapka dharm hai. I refused. Asked the relatives to drink it. They were happy to sip. Sab shudh.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Saw #AnActionHero in a packed theatre at a late night show last night. Clearly, Bollywood was delivering it with spunk and sass. Easily one of the year's best made films with terrific bgm. Iyer, Yadav, Rai, Khurrana, Ahlawat and the punchy beats of that end credit song, uff. 👏

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Request you folks, don't diss Alia please, respect. If @SrBachchan is the GOAT for you, say like in Agneepath, Alia carries the same whites, the kohl, the beedi, the foot on table, the swag, which @Namrata_Joshi writes in her review, makes her tower.🙏🏽

'Gangubai Kathiawadi': Alia Bhatt nails it with elan in this grand melodramatic spectacle by...

'Gangubai Kathiawadi' may not be a 'Mandi'. It doesn’t aspire to be. But it’s interesting to see how it keeps men at the margins, even if they are useful for Gangu. It’s her story that matters

www.nationalheraldindia.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

A few years ago, a photographer took me to a writer's Xmas party in Calcutta.Another world-famous-but-not-in-his-country writer was there.I introduced myself.The famed writer said,'I read your essay about your mother working as a prostitute.'Awkwardly, I smiled and said,'Tawaif.'

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Half time. The girls take a Kit-Kat break. Shipra maasi says: Sheela maasi marr gayi! Simmi laughed throughout the bathing scene. Lakshmi says daaru peeke ladki aayi, accha laga. Mother wept when the girls elected Gangu girlboss. Girls just wanna have fun.❤️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

6 months

Chamkila sings to the Well The Well does not sing back to Chamkila Why don't you, asks Chamkila You are both voice and echo, says the Well

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Singh saab immediately recognised the building and said he knew all about it. I had not mentioned my destination to him earlier. Kahaani acchi hai, I said, film banaye? Arre nahi, he said. Naam badal ke, mangarhant keh ke? He smiled and nodded.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In 1995, Adhura was touted as the first Hindi film to openly deal with homosexual love. Although, there was a precedent in the clandestine romance in Badnam Basti made in 1971.

Lost & Found- How India’s First Gay Film Badnam Basti Was Traced After 49 Years Of Mysterious…

Dumped in an archive in Berlin, resurrected in the name of filmmaker Raj Kapoor

medium.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

I found snippets of a 2007 article. The actor spoke to @upalakbr999 about the film and his comfort with queer love. "If Ashish had a crush on me, he expressed it in the most intimate way in the film! Adhura was made for TV audiences, but I don't know why it never got released."

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

If you thought Dharamji was promoting homophobia, take a look at what Hemaji was suggesting. She was romancing her lady-in-waiting in Razia Sultan. With #Pride

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

One is real. One is surreal. One is adaa. One says baaju hata. One is evergreen. One apni queen. This is not a comparison. Both incomparable.❤️ This week both grace a cover. *One a magazine. One a book. Both share one name. Rekha. *Out in stores, stalls, online today.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

I no longer work at Red Chillies Entertainment. I was hired on a 1-year contract in 2022. The contract ended in July, 2023. I chose not to renew it. Here's the good news: I am returning to writing.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

I got my copy. You will get yours on July 6. Please be patient. Aisi bhi kya betaabi, ya allah! 🙂 Shama and Jyoti get early copy. They took care of mother in her final days. They can't read but have promised me their daughters who are in 11th & 12th grade will read it to them.💛

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Tum nahi samjhoge #Pathaan kuch kuch hota hai 😍 Photo credit: @theStyleWallah

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Now that it's official, matlab Twitter is dying and all, see you in person at Film Bazaar, Goa, tomorrow.🐦

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

How I got credited as the Script Consultant for #BadhaaiDo , which is streaming on @NetflixIndia from today. I recalled seeing screenwriter Anjum Rajabali’s name as Script Consultant in Apaharan (2005). A rare credit. What fun it would be to not write a word and get credit.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Am hustling to get my mother's memoir The Last Courtesan a new publisher after #Westland in the midst of designing the cover, shut down. The #GangubaiKathiawadi momentum helps. New publishers are inquiring. @ScoopWhoop has made it viral pop culture news.🙏🏽

TW User Finds Uncanny Resemblance Between Alia As Gangubai & His Mother, A Kamathipura Courtesan -...

Social media is one of the most dynamic tools our generation has been offered. It is something which allows us to exchange stories and express ourselves. For instance, when someone posts a heartwar...

www.scoopwhoop.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Jailor is modelled on you guessed it right: Hitler. The man who persecuted gay men by coding them with a pink triangle badge in the Nazi concentration camps. Coming back to the inmate. How is he identified as queer? The number 6, the comma curl, the obsequious demeanour.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Shared a drink with Sushant Singh Rajput and talked about actual stars in the sky. Shahid Kapoor once sent a box of chocolates and a lou-letter for calling him a sexy kamina (for Kaminey review). I think I should write all this (and much more) down as a book. Anyone interested?

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

According to SpotboyE, the story line suggests that the relationship turns sour, leading to a tragic climax. In his study Queer Asian Cinema: Shadows in the Shade (2000), writer Andrew Grossman says the film was made as a pilot for a television series.

Whatever happened to India’s first full-fledged gay movie Adhura? | SpotboyE

It was made way back in 1995 and has evidently fallen through the cracks. Produced and directed by art gallerist and occasional actor, Ashish Balram Nagpal, Ahdura featured Irrfan Khan and Nagpal...

www.spotboye.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In 2005, Neena Gupta and Soni Razdan were jogging on Juhu beach. Nothing unusual about it. A routine run. Then something happened. A dream rose and sank like the waves. Did they even notice?

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

4 years

Poet Sahir Ludhianvi loved several times but never married. Once, smitten by playback singer Sudha Malhotra, he wrote some beautiful lyrics, Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se Ajnabi Bann Jaayein Hum Dono

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

4 years

Aap ki yaad aati rahi raat bhar, she sang. Chhaya Ganguli's debut ghazal in the film Gaman won her a National Film Award for Best Female Playback. She owed her success to someone whose name she didn't know. She had forgotten to ask. Koī dīvāna galiyoñ meñ phirtā rahā...

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Had Adhura been released in 95, would it have ushered in a queer wave in cinema? Doubtful, but this is what was passing off as representation. In the 1991 film Mast Kalandar, Anupam Kher was Pinkoo, a gay man in pastel suits and a flaming sanghi, i mean cool orange mohawk.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Instead, Ratnam back-pedaled and put the gun in a minor character's hand. Velu (Kamal Haasan) walks out a free man after the court exonerates him but karma is a bitch. Ajit (Tinnu Anand), shoots Velu to avenge his father's death whom Velu had killed in the past.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Chalo, good hai, sites are picking the story. Now if only someone in Bambai could do the ground work and get the film out. Film critics, reporters, jaago. 🙏 Also, filmwaalon, goodnight. 🙂

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Film khatm. "Ab taxi milegi ki nahi?" "Bhookh bhi lagi hai." "Bathroom bhi jaana hai." "Khichdi banani padegi." Back to life, to chatter, to the usual.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

The funniest was writer Syam Pushkaran (Joji, Kumbalangi Nights, Maheshinte Prathikaaram) whose idea of a pan-indian film is looking for a misplaced chappal (an in-joke about one of his own film scripts) which is a universal loss that appeals to everyone.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

The coding becomes the standard. The comma curl reappears in Veeru Dada, but now with chalky eyeshadow, frills and jhumkas. He-Man reappears too. Code expert. He flirts back with the gay man played by Shakti Kapoor, and later beats him up.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Mudaliar said he was keeping a low profile because he knew the cops would never let him reach the court for justice. Ratnam was struggling with the climax of Nayakan. How to end it? He could have conveniently inserted an encounter sequence and finished the character Velu.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

The officer was promoted to sub-inspector. He visited Singh saab at home and gave him 5 thousand rupees. Singh saab used the money to make a permanent place for himself in the city. I was only beginning to grasp the story when we reached my destination.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Here's how i got a chance to work with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali on a @NetflixIndia series She, by sheer luck, or accident, or nepotism. You decide now. In summer 2018, my friend @AnujazzZ who was in Ali's writing team said he's looking for an additional writer, why don't i apply?

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

1 year

Faiz wrote Hum Jeetenge for Palestine, similar to Hum Dekhenge. Yasser Arafat celebrated Faiz's birthday, calling the poet a great freedom fighter. What does Palestine mean to you? Faiz was asked. “After all these years I spent with the Palestinians, I became one of them.”

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In 95, Irrfan Khan was popular on television. It wasn’t until as Lafcadia in Asif Kapadia’s The Warrior (2001), and later in his breakout role as Ranvijay Singh in Haasil (2003), that he managed to get a foothold in films.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Sriram Raghavan is often asked about the end of Andhadhun. Is Ayushmann Khurrana blind or not? Raghavan had initially written a scene where Akash (Khurrana) meets Sophie (Radhika Apte) at a cafe in Kraków where he explains he didn't kill Simi (Tabu).

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

My friend hosting me said Vaani Kapoor lives in the building when I said I'd like to watch Shamshera. I stepped out for a walk. Randeep Hooda was celebrating his birthday on the lawn. Yeh sab kya ho raha hai! I called the broker named Bhagwan and said Bhagwan ji ghar dila do. 🤦

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

It's mother's birthday today. She's been grumpy all day, but finally smiled after @rekha_bhardwaj called and sang for her. Obviously am flexing that Rekha ji sang for Rekha ji. होए होए होए, होए होए होए. ❤️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

4 years

Meena Kumari: A Poetess Without An Audience How she wanted to quit films and establish herself as a poet. (thread)

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

I sent mother to our neighbour Pasha aunty with Xmas cake. Mother: Pasha aunty ki bahu bahut sundar hai. Me: Oh. She: Russian hai. Me: Accha. She: Russian hai Australia se. Me: Hain! She: Gudiya doll hai ekdum. Tu bhi kar leta shaadi kisi Englondian se. 🤦

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

An India Today report claimed the film was directed by Sunil R Prasad and was to be released in July, 1995. The 90-minute feature was not approved by the CBFC. Adhura was never released after the censor board banned it.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

They mutually decided to not shoot the talkie and replaced it with Khurrana walking away, knocking a can with his cane as if he can see when he has been pretending to be blind all along because he doesn't have the courage to tell Sophie the truth.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

He-Man has a lot of beef with gay men. In Mast Kalandar, he returns to shave off Pinkoo's (Kher's) curly mohawk. What's that code for? Castrate? He-Man warns Kher's father Amrish Puri. 'Koi baal waali aulad paida kar, chakke nahi.' Chakke manjhey? 6. Number 6 Copy that #Pride

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

As Abhay, a closeted man married to Divya (Sameera Reddy), Khan romances a college-student Imran (Arjun Mathur) and even enacts the role with affectation to snare Imran’s attention in the presence of his demure wife.

Mira Nair - Migration - video Dailymotion

Under the auspices of Mirabai Films and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the AIDS JaaGO Project, presents four short dramatic films by cutting-edge Indian directors, Mira Nair, Vishal Bhardwaj,...

www.dailymotion.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

A patrol van arrived. Singh saab's body trembled. The police officer thanked him and said not to mention the incident. The criminals had looted and killed 44 auto rickshaw drivers. There was a 1 lakh reward on their heads.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Read it all at one go, or listen in the audio, all under 5 minutes. With photos ab. 🙏🙂

How did I become a writer?

It took me 22 years to get here

medium.com

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Anyone writing Alia's biography should consider the title Alia In Wonderland, not for originality but for her emerging unscathed from the burrow she naively keeps digging to fall from grace and landing comfortably into our safety net of irreproachable love for her likeness to us.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

@jimSarbh photographs @aliaa08 puts Gangu on the Aaina magazine cover. I couldn't manage a cover, but picture of mother in this week's Outlook magazine wasn't too bad. Mother feels seen, not invisible anymore. 🙂 And like Jim says in the film, the world is reading and accepting.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Raghavan discussed the scene with Khurrana. The end shot was the actor lowering his glares and countering Sophie's accusation that he was a murderer. Do you think I am a monster? he says. The shot pans to his eyes in a way that would suggest he has Simi's eyes.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

5 months

On mother's day, here's some attention away from my mother to her sister Hasina (on this film poster), who looked after me when mother was working. Merchant-Ivory spotted Hasina, made her 'act', imagining a scene where she & mother fell out over a lafanga. Hasina's story in TLC.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

I read. I traveled the country. I wrote prolifically, especially when no one was reading and what I now also consider unreadable. 18 years ago I attempted my first couplet: If we make death sound easier Is it not so with the alibi of life That must have freed me to write.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In '91, Sadak featured Sadashiv Amrapurkar in a not so cool mullet as a bloodthirsty transgender pimp Maharani. Pinkoo was an effeminate caricature. Maharani was a menacing villain. Queer representation was extremely problematic.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

3 years

Ok last one now, so that we can all go to sleep. Mother loved the film. So did Sheela maasi, Simmi, Laxmi. This saree, mother's last thought was: "Mere paas bhi aisi same thee, safed silk par laal piping. Rekha ki saree dekh ke banayi thi." From one Rekha to another Rekha.❤️

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

These are 2 different professions. A world-famous writer can't get it right. How will anyone else? I wasn't upset. Just amused. I am used to this mix up between sex work and nautch work. Anyone else would have probably smashed cake in that writer's smug (and loud) face.🤭

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

On the last day of #PrideMonth here's a short love story, from my own life. A railway station romance in Bombay. A love story should be epic, he says. One of us has to die for that, I thought. Who better than him to kill me?

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

Singh saab had picked up the passengers at Bandra Reclamation at 1am. The meter started at 80 paise then. The passengers rode till the meter went up to 21 rupees. The passengers asked Singh saab to take them towards a deserted khaadi in Malwani. They got down and flashed a knife.

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manish gaekwad

@manishgaekwad

2 years

In the end, relatives asked me to touch pandit's feet. Hug chalega? I asked. Pandit smiled, got up and embraced my style. Sab happy happy.

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