Lockdown effect: Friends unite after 23 yrs, come up with film

Aparna Banerji

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 20

Merely a week ago, a set of Bollywood celebrities were searching for Senior Bachchan’s spectacles in a film titled ‘Family’ — Bollywood’s response to the Covid-19 lockdown. While the lockdown has got the creative juices of many flowing, a bunch of women, all 1997-batch passouts from a Jalandhar college, have come up with their own version of a lockdown film. Ten friends who were hostel mates at HMV College Jalandhar, caught up with each other during the Covid-19 lockdown virtually.

Virtually together

We were hostel mates and had all been together during the hostel days at HMV College. We had glorious happy memories from those days but after leaving college, we got busy with our lives, jobs and families and lost touch. I was talking to only a couple of friends. Rachna Puri, a friend of mine who was also a hostel mate, called me during the lockdown. We talked about a lot of things and she came up with the idea and we decided to give it a go. Beenu Rajpoot, creative filmmaker

The fruit of their nostalgic meeting amid the lockdown is a 5 minute 26 second film titled Reunion – When Hearts Meet! The film is a result of their ‘virtual’ collaboration (without personally meeting each other) 23 years after they left college, and is entirely a product of circumstances arising out of the lockdown.

A talk between two friends resulted in an idea of a short film to commemorate their friendship. Directed by a creative filmmaker Beenu Rajpoot, the film was released on Youtube on Sunday. The film has been conceptualised by her hostel mate and friend Rachna Puri, who came up with the idea in the first place. Beenu has previously made films, including ‘Suran Di Malika – Surinder Kaur’, ‘Banaras – Kaba-e-Hindostan’, ‘Born to Dance’, a biopic on kathak virtuoso Shivana Narayan, among others.

Pieced together by Beenu, the film comprises independent videos that all friends sent from their respective homes. These were pieced together into a 5 minute 26 second film by Beenu Rajpoot – to whom all friends sent the short videos. The film involves the team work of 10 people and features nine of them – Rachna Puri, Sonika Sharma, Sukhnandan Sandhu, Aarti Gupta, Radhika Sekhri, Karuna Jain, Preeti Handa Vohra, Manju Gandotra and Anjali Gupta.

The film was premiered on Zoom on April 18, 2020, to celebrate ‘Punar Milan 2020’ of HMV College Jalandhar. The film was launched online by college principal Dr Ajay Sareen on the official online channel of HMV the same day.

Beenu Rajpoot said: “We were hostel mates and had all been together during the hostel days at HMV College. We had glorious happy memories from those days but after leaving college, we got busy with our lives, jobs and families and lost touch. I was talking to only a couple of friends. Rachna Puri, a friend of mine who was also a hostel mate, called me during the lockdown. We talked about a lot of things and she came up with the idea and we decided to give it a go.”

All characters featured in the film are Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya’s (HMV’s) 1997 batch pass outs, who caught with each other again during the lockdown.

Rachna Puri, who herself features in the film, is founder and director of Vectormob Company in Mumbai.

Beenu said: “I studied five years in HMV and all of us were together during that time. The lockdown only made us realise how schedules take a toll over friendships due to busy lives. When we were free, we couldn’t even catch up. And now, we are eager to meet. While it was impossible to see each other personally during the lockdown, we have thus titled the film Reunion. Without the lockdown, we wouldn’t have even thought of the idea. One of the first things we will do after the lockdown is see each other.”