Me & MAMI (Part 3)

October 14, 2019

Me & MAMI (Part 3)

MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images), One of India’s biggest film festivals is around the corner (17th October 2019 to 24th October 2019). Here are my thoughts and experiences I shared with it over time (especially last year).

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In the end, we had to submit reviews for 8 films and we had very less time. Imagine when we are watching 4 films in a day, travel and write reviews simultaneously, what time we barely have for other things like sleep and eat most importantly. And that’s not enough that our deadline for submitting the reviews pushed forward. It was all hectic. I was keeping everything in-line but still, it was difficult. Most of us managed to submit all of them. That exercise taught me a lot. I’m proud of the reviews I have written. I could see the difference. I was writing the reviews until late at night. And at the dawn, we all had to rush to JW Marriott, Juhu for the deliberation for the award we were gonna give to the film.

And then comes the deliberation day. The day when we YCL members had to choose a film which in our eyes succeded to impress the fresh 30 critics of the country. I’m glad to tell you that we all didn’t agree just for the film. And even for the majority, there was a tie and that makes none of them a clear winner. Well, we learned in the workshop that you better stand by your voice and provide reasoning for it and it’s absolutely okay to present an unpopular opinion. So, we fought over it (not, literally), tried to convince each other like school-kids and came up with one name. We all were feeling so proud that amidst all the glory of the movie feast, there’s one reward to a fine filmmaker team tagged by our name.

The closing ceremony of the Jio MAMI 20th Film Festival was also at JW Marriott where we were delighted to get invited. It was designed as the award night just like I grew up watching on the TV. I felt thunderous when we all walked in on the red carpet dressed up for the special night.

YCL Gang on the red carpet

It was, however, the last day of the artistic chaos we all were in for a few months, especially for a week. It was the last day of that year’s festival. It was the last day of meeting all these nice faces from my YCL gang. It was the last day of such privilege that we have earned. I was in the audience and Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar were hosting the event. It was all mesmerising. Again there were all the who’s who of the Bollywood and around the world. The awards got announced. Some eyes got wet. Some with sheer happiness and some with deep sorrow. But most importantly, all of them got recognition. MAMI helped them getting a platform. Some of the films might not officially be released for the public in theatres but they seemed happy that the cine buffs applauded for them.

After the award ceremony, the dinner and drinks were waiting for us. It was surreal to be around all the faces that inspire me. To eat with them, discuss films with them, have a drink and dance with them was on par. It lasted till midnight. I enjoyed my friends getting drunk and losing their consciousness. We were dancing madly as if wanted to live the moments at full. I was meeting and talking to my favourites as I was holding my senses awake.

But it ended. I said good-bye to MAMI only to be missed till next year. I lived the whole year with these memories and it landed again to make a lot more and cherish later.

See you cinephiles on 17th October!

Some of the memories in the photographs: