The class of ’89

Advani had a love-hate relationship with Hindi commercial cinema of the 70s,says Gourisaria. “I believe that’s what he tried portraying through Sankat City,” he adds. The last time the two met was at the premiere of the film Sankat City. After that,their regular phone conversations kept them in touch with each other. However,the last call that Gourisaria received from Advani was in the month of June when Advani called to apologise for not being able to attend the premiere of Gourisaria’s Bengali film Sthaniya Shambaad. “He kept calling me for the next two days of the premiere,saying,‘Yaar main genuinely bhool gaya ’,” says Gourisaria with a choked voice as he is at a loss for words again.

Debashish Guha,another batch-mate of Advani,regards their FTII years as the golden time of his life. He remembers his friend Advani as the most energetic student in the entire batch. He,along with other students,would often jokingly ask Advani to lend some of his energy to them. “He was particularly fond of Bengali food and I often cooked fish for him. Later on,when he settled in Mumbai,he would cook for me whenever I visited Mumbai,” adds Guha,who is currently working as the assistant professor at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute,Kolkata.

Guha did the editing work for Advani’s children’s film Sunday that he made for Children’s Film Society of India. “That is the time we both visited Pune for some post-production work. It was heart-warming visiting the city in which we studied together,” adds Guha.

The two were constantly in touch till the time Guha left Mumbai in 1997. Though the regular telephonic conversations kept the bond alive,their last meeting was around a year back when Advani visited Kolkata. Talking about Advani’s editing skills,Guha says,“He was very passionate about cinema. Whether it was script-writing or editing,he had his own style of working.”

Professor Mehboob Khan,who taught Advani at FTII,says that his student was quite innovative and enterprising. “He was very friendly with the fellow students as well as the professors. What I particularly liked about him was that he was so focused in life,” says Khan who retired in 2001. Despite passing out from the institute in 1989,Advani kept in touch with Professor Khan.