In New Delhi, on March 15, some of the cast and crew of "In Which Annie Gives It Those Once," the 1989 film by Arundhati Roy and Pradip Krishen, came together to share their memories of making the campus comedy at a screening of its 4K restored version at PVR Plaza on Saturday.
The film, produced and directed by Krishen and written by Roy, was recovered and restored in 4K by the Film Heritage Foundation.
The restored version was screened at the Berlin Film Festival recently, although Roy did not attend the screening, protesting against comments by jury head Wim Wenders about filmmakers remaining apolitical in the context of the Gaza conflict.
Roy was present at the film's screening last night, reflecting on the making of the movie with fondness.
The Booker Prize-winning author described the film as "a celebration of utter ridiculousness."
"And perhaps at a time like this, that's all we have to celebrate. Looking back at the film now, all I see is a group of young people who were radically different from what the world is like today. They forgave each other, they celebrated each other's failures, they celebrated each other's eccentricities; it wasn't about who had how much of what, or how many likes on social media.
"So when you look back at that, it looks like a kind of radical thing, a sort of joyful sound. And it is what it is, because actually, all of us work together like a little band of musicians playing and jiving to the same beat. There were no stars, there was nobody particularly special, but everybody was special," she said.
Regarding the film's unusual title, Krishen recalled an incident when a passerby asked them what they were shooting.
"Instead of telling people the entire name, which was a mouthful, we would just say we were shooting 'those ones'. And a gentleman told another, 'Oh, it's a film called Do Jawaan'," Krishen recalled to an audience filled with laughter.
The film's screening in Delhi also featured Arjun Raina, who plays the lead role of Annie; Cecil Qadir, who plays the art professor; and other actors and crew members including Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Shantum Seth, Deepak Castelino, Bobby Bedi, Golak Khandual, Viveka Kumari, Ashim Ghosh, Jagan Shah, Siddharth Wig, and art director Ravi Kaimal.
The film follows a group of final-year students at the National Institute of Architecture, inspired by the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. The central character is Annie, or Anand Grover, a misguided visionary who spent nine years in the five-year course due to a perceived slight from the principal, YD Billimoria, played by Roshan Seth.
Raina said that seeing the restored version of the film, in which they openly shared their experiences, was "a deeply healing experience."
"What I found most healing is the fact that we all have a heritage now, through this film, at a time when our history is being taken away from us. There's a wonderful sense of owning heritage, and I poured my heart and soul into this film, and it's beautiful to share our souls with you," he said after the screening.
"When you put your heart and soul into something and reveal almost everything, eventually it's a bit tacky. But what's most powerful in this is that every character comes alive, everyone has a voice, every sound, every movement, and certainly, it's a work of art that I am proud of, and we are proud of, and it's beautiful to share our souls with you," he added.
In one scene of the film, Annie, who is infatuated with cabaret dancer Bijli (Himani Shivpuri) and longs to marry her, is arrested by the police and slapped. Raina credited Roy for choosing a real-life incident and incorporating it into the film.
During the anti-Sikh riots of the 1980s, which coincided with the film's making, there were barricades at every junction in Delhi. Raina claimed to have been detained by the police during one of his outings and was "beaten up."
"Because Arundhati was the most beautiful writer and woman that one had ever seen, I would immediately go and tell her about any sordid story I encountered. I told her that I was picked up and slapped, and that's how this scene happened," he said.
He recalled that when the actor playing a police officer slapped him, the real police officer on the set said, "Step aside, you can't even turn his face red. Let me hit him for you."
The restored version of the movie, which also features Shah Rukh Khan in one of his early roles, has been released in 14 cities and 19 cinemas.