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| Parno Mittra, Raima Sen and Swastika Mukherjee in Aami Aar Amaar Girlfriends |
Over the last two decades, every night has been a movie night for me — as in at least a healthy diet of one, if not two or more movies to watch before I pass out. But as much as I may have pretended on many a night to have been pupil-deep in one of Woody Allen’s staples or some obscure unpronounceable East African documentary on military warfare, I was most probably gorging on my 50th viewing of a Sleepless in Seattle or a Legally Blonde or a Devil Wears Prada — dying to join those girls on screen and be a part of their ‘girl world’ and have all that girl trouble and enjoy the girl fun.
I’m admitting it. Yes, I am a closet chick-flick, chick-rock, chick-lit fan.
I am that weird guy who would rather pick a Bridget Jones’s Diary over a John Grisham, sneak in an Avril Lavigne CD pretending how I actually meant to buy the last Dylan compilation, and rent the latest Kate Hudson romantic comedy pretending to be upset over how I wanted that new black-and-white movie that swept the Oscars which has no sound.... I’m that guy.
And thanks to the growing acceptability of the audience for new kinds of films in Bengal and, last but not the least, thanks to the very young and talented Anirban Aditya who is producing the film under their first foray into films (Aditya Production & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd) and who believes in wanting to touch new ground in Bengali cinema, I am finally getting my shot at making my personal chick flick.
Why?! I’m fascinated by it all: the fashion, the makeovers, the pain and the angst over the will-he-won’t-he-call scenario, the hang-outs, the gossip sessions, the dumping and the getting dumped, the complaining about husbands, boyfriends, lack of boyfriends, jobs, the pyjama parties and the girls-just-wanna-have-fun-nights-on-the-town.
A couple of years ago, I had a gang of chick friends who I used to hang out with in coffee shops all day, dissecting their love lives from every possible angle, overloading on mutual advice and psycho-analysis, bitching about random people and poking fun at passers-by… you get the drift. These girls gave me the ultimate honour of making me feel like a part of their gang and so, in return, Aami Aar Amaar Girlfriends is my tribute to them.
Is this chick flick a female-buddy film? Sure.
Is it a girl-power flick? Absolutely!
But despite being an honorary Chick Gang member, the harsh reality is that I never have, and quite understandably never will, get invited to a girlie pyjama party or a night on the town. So this movie is my one and only chance to vicariously do it all. And I’m going all out.
Pyjama parties, the cornerstone of girl fun, have one big rule — there are no rules. But the must-haves, as I see them in my head (girls, please feel free to correct me if I’m off), are tons of munchies and junk food; an open kitchen in case someone gets the brilliant idea to bake a cake at 4am; movies to watch while you hog on the cake; if it’s adults, then booze, definitely booze; pillow fights; crank calls; midnight feasts; juicy gossip; deadly bitching; makeovers; truth-or-dare for the young lot, which is thinly disguised with the older lot as: ‘shut up and tell us what you did, bitch’; Ouija board sessions; ghost stories; an open terrace for star gazing; and toothpaste moustaches drawn on those who passed out way before the sun rises on yet another day in ‘girl world’.
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| Wardrobe courtesy: Suman Nathwani |
So what makes ‘girl world’ so fascinatingly different from ‘boy world’? Where should I begin — it’s a closely guarded universe where foodie confidantes are just a BBM away to a happy chomp when the hunger pangs kick in, and the latest ‘Bollywood diet’ fades into oblivion. It’s a place where ‘slut’ and ‘cow’ are genuine terms of endearment and affection for each other, and where synchronised sentences are a sign of closeness and synchronised periods are biological proof of it. It’s a vault where secrets are the currency — the darker the secret, the tighter the vault. It’s a place where boys are discussed, boys are dissected, but No Boys Are Allowed!
While writing the movie, I decided to throw in the new entrants to my Chick Club — Raima (who always calls at odd intervals and needs advice and then does the exact opposite), Parno (who often takes my advice and usually whines about how it was the worst advice ever but still takes it again) and Swastika (who generally turns me into the chick and gives me advice and takes on half of my responsibilities on behalf of our club).
It’s the best way I could think of starting my chick flick. Take the lives of three off-screen friends, mix it with the lives of three on-screen friends, add a little fiction and what you have is Aami Aar Amaar Girlfriends.
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