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Journalism of Courage
For most people, watching a film is no more than an evening8217;s entertainment, with stray memories that last a little longer than the popcorn does. Not Narayan Phadke. This movie buff takes back more than memories of the films he has seen 8211; he takes home the movie in the form of film booklets.
Just what is a film booklet? 8220;Producers manufacture these booklets which contain information about the film 8211; the storyline, the cast, a list of credits, film lyrics. These are meant as publicity material and are given to cine publicists. In turn, they provide it to the theatres where the film will be shown.8221;
It was not an easy task tracing booklets, specially of early films like Ayodhyecha Raja and Ramrajya dating back to 1930s. Phadke began by doing the rounds of cinema publicity concerns in the city like Cinecom Publicity, Trimurti Advertising and Abhinav Publicity with whatever time he could spare from his job at a paper merchandising company. 8220;An interesting fact about booklets belonging to an earlier era are that the songs would be printed in Hindi and Urdu. And an entertainment tax used to be levied on them!8221; he says.
8220;When I started my collection, I followed a simple motto 8211; never be disappointed and keep trying.8221; A motto that has served him well. He has had to face slammed doors, irate producers, frayed tempers and hours of waiting before he could get his hands on a booklet but he persisted. 8220;I remember a trip to Mumbai when I visited Mehboob Studios hoping to meet Mehboob Khan for a few booklets. The man I met was in an angry mood and told me that I would need to pay him to meet Mehboobsaheb.8221; When an undeterred Phadke went to the studios again three months later, he was told to leave his address. Phadke was pleasantly surprised to receive a registered packet soon after containing 20 film booklets.
Phadke, who was in contact with film producers, soon started to broaden his interests into seeking autographs of personalities 8211; but this time, from all fields. Among the signatures in his collection are those of Daisy Irani, Raj Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Veer Savarkar and Balgandharva. He relates an interesting nugget about an autograph from Morarji Desai. 8220;When he had come for a function to Pune in 1981, he said he would give me an autograph only if I pledged to wear khadi all my life.8221; Another time, activist Sharad Joshi, when given a plain paper to autograph on, said he would not sign unless given an autograph book. 8220;He told me that he was fighting cases in the court because miscreants had written their own appeals above his signature when he had signed on a plain piece of paper!8221;
Phadke goes armed with a camera to the various venues that a famous personality may be visiting. He reasons that this is the only way he can convince people he actually met the person whose autograph he has taken.
He has already come out with a kind of bibliography of Marathi films from 1932 to 1989 and is also planning a reference book on similar lines on Bollywood films, a more daunting task.
Phadke has lost none of his zest for watching his favourite films. There was a time when he8217;d watch a good film first day first show. Now he catches them on television. Mad about the movies is Mr. Phadke.
