Fervor is in the air!
Part 1 of a 3-part series
I believe spaces are porous. They carry the essence of the excitement they house. The weight of genuine fervor of a shared interest. They carry it until the pores are filled to the brim and it starts to drip.
5th January Friday, 6.30 PM— I’m queued up in Bandra’s Rang Sharda Auditorium to watch the live taping of an FC interview. A few places in front of me is a man well into his late 30s. His matching khaki brown belt and shoes give away the fact that he ate lunch alone in a cubicle today. It’s a free walk-in event so I assume, like the 300-odd people who have turned up, he is also looking to squeeze some life out of his hollow Friday evening.
In front of him is an aspiring actor describing his 10th audition of the day to his friend in these literal words.
“Blah Blah call sheet Blah monologue blah blah blah sub-plot blah”
Next to them are two college students, hitting each other on their shoulders and giggling their hearts out at the thought of getting a selfie with Katrina Kaif.
Interesting line of people. Made me question if they were intentionally made to queue up that way for someone (me) to notice.
The interview has already begun so I stealthily find a place between a wall and a guy who is being moved to tears of joy listening to Vijay Setupathi. Clutching his backpack fiercely close to his neck as if to keep his jaw from touching the ground, he was laughing, hooting, and absolutely devouring every single anecdote that was being served. I, on the other hand, was picking on it with my spoon and fork trying to figure out if it looked familiar. It didn’t.
The Q&A round began with well-researched questions drawing parallels between Sriram Raghavan’s school of filmmaking to Alfred Hitchcock’s. The corner of my eye caught the hand next to me almost touching the ceiling, begging to be picked. Sadly it was buried under hands higher and voices louder.
As the interview ended, the guy next to me flung his backpack over his shoulder and shot up to get a selfie with the actors and I caught a glimpse of the same shade of khaki I’d spotted an hour ago.
I had spontaneously followed an email invite to this interview just to escape my room (read: thoughts) and he just had a life-altering memory etched as he watched his favorite actor live.
Truth be told, I am not a huge cinephile but breathing the same air as him (and everyone else) had me believing that I was. The collective fervor that the space carried drenched me gently. I felt like a winter leaf receiving droplets of mist for some time but it wasn’t mine to keep.
I left feeling slightly better than when I’d entered.
