Either you are Ready or still Dreaming

It was 6:30 am; me & Prajakt were on our way to Futala lake for 1^st Dance practice session. Sanket, Dipak Harne & Prashant Khalokar we informed along with dance choreographer Lucky sir & his Assistant ashish sir. We hadn’t sleep whole night just to make sure we don’t miss 1^st session. We were discussing about song & dance sequences being placed unnecessarily in Hindi movies.

“Even before I had completed script of LASTBENCHER movie I knew it will have 6 songs where 3 songs will have dance choreography and 3 will go with movie scenes. Again I wanted my songs to represent characters, so keeping that in mind we had written songs & asked our choreographer to set dance steps likewise” Prajakt said before I could ask him. Nowadays he guesses my question before I put them in words.

“Yeah but why dance choreography is so important? Hollywood movies never bother about dancing around tress” I asked.

“No, they do but that all depends on their genre of movie & script. For ex Step Up series or Street dance series or even Black Swan, dance I was integral part of story” Pj replied.

“So how you incorporated dance in your story?” I couldn’t stop intriguing.

“LASTBENCHERS is a story of guys who fails in college life but proves their worth in real life. Everyone who went to college has to have fun memories of various occasions where they dance crazily. I have kept that thing in mind & provided such typical situations with song so that dance become obvious thing to do” he has straight simple answer.

Soon we reached Futala Lake where Lucky sir was practicing with Ashish sir. Sanket & Prashant came after 15 mins. Dipak was missing. We did morning greetings. Sanket and I were chatting about quality of girls available for ogling when Pj asked me take out camera from car & shoot our practice in such a cool & trendy way that it shouldn’t look like typical behind the scenes footage. Now I was stumped. Here comes do it now or leave phase. I certainly wanted to do it & prove myself.

“Don’t ask about settings of camera to anyone. You have spent long enough time to know all that” Pj instructed, stretching his body for warm up.

“FUCK You & your tasks. I am here for those 4 girls looking at me.” I told myself I CAN DO it, though not sure of how.

Something was making me nervous, wasn’t sure about what, expectation from my own self or disappointment of others. But pressure was getting heavy every minute. I checked all necessary settings, took 5 min break to give myself time to think about what & how I must shoot.

I thought I was ready to rock & roll. I positioned myself behind lucky sir so that I could cover all 3 dancers.

“That will be the worst shot one can think of” Pj shouted in middle of his step. I was shocked to hear that comment. I was more confused than ever, didn’t know what to do.

“If you are not ready then you must be dreaming. Go sleep for some time then do your breakfast, lunch & dinner. Then if you find yourself still interested come again” Pj said looking at me &stretching his operated leg.

That’s enough!!! I can’t take it anymore & I am not doing it anymore. I went to car placed camera back to its previous place. I was angry & furious over Pj’s comment. Then something hit me like an arrow in chest. I knew what Pj is doing; he is pressurizing me & freaking me out   to check how I performed under crisis.

“Caught you Mr. Pj. Now you just wait & watch” I talked to myself. Took cam & went where they were practicing. This time I knew what I must shoot & how. I shot only 5-6 videos keeping each character as subject along with people were jogging.

“Come on Aadesh, that’s enough for day” Pj called me for tea.

I was more than happy with my own performance.

“So how you felt performing on your own?” Pj asked.

“To be honest I wasn’t prepared for this task. I had many problems like what to shoot, how to shoot etc. but better late than never I got hold of myself” I replied. Pj checked all footages & liked few of them. He then passed cam to Sanket.

“That’s the thing I want to incorporate inside everyone. You have to mentally prepare yourself for future crisis. I know all of us rely on plans but I insist to think beyond plan. We have been doing this since day 1 and that’s why we knew how to tackle such situations & give our best shot in worst conditions” Pj boosts my confidence.

“Now I know how important it is to go without plan. Following plan is baby step but working without it is a big leap. And I am 100% sure next time I will be better performer” I said looking at all.

“I know you will be better but just make sure that will be best than rest or you will have to go through it again” Pj said indicating something which I understood instantly.

“Go sleep for some time then do your breakfast, lunch & dinner. Then if you find yourself still interested come again.”

We talked for some more time & then I asked Lucky sir about dance steps which I couldn’t notice while shooting. He showed me all moves lifting each one of us.