Just a small intro on how the TV situation in India was in 1989 when this film was released on TV. We had one channel (two in Metros) that was supposed to educate/entertain/family planning/national integration/news/sports/movies/foreign movies/grammys/Oscars, you name it. To say the least it was boring most of the time with the prime slots used up by Krishi Darshan (program to educate the farmers on better crops, farming techniques, fertilizers, water harvesting, crop diseases and what not discussed by three people sitting stoic among TV cameras and around a coffee table). There used to be a late night movie once a week (foreign or Indian) and every other time it used to be cancelled and no reason given for the same.
Anyway, once while I was flipping channels (just kidding, only one channel, remember? :) ), I saw this movie. It was one of those great college movies, not the American Pie kind, rather the American Graffiti kind. It happens in the SPA (School of Planning and Architecture) formerly NID/A Delhi. This is one movie that will inspire you to become an architect and study in a cool college. It really inspired me and I applied for Architecture (till my dad put an end to my ambitions, but that is another story).
Everything about this movie is so cool, its cast, their attitude, their life, the college/sets and the generous helping of Beatles songs (the movie is set in the 70's) makes this movie all the more endearing. The story is about a bunch of final year architecture students in SPA and how they prepare for their final year presentation.
Considering that Arundhati Roy had gone on to become a Booker prize winner and Shah Rukh Khan (who has a 2 minute cameo in the movie, his first) has gone on to become India's current number one hero, it has proved to be a star cast :) And one more thing. The movie was not interesting because we had only Krishi Dharshan in comparison. Exactly 3 years later I (and much of India) got cable and MTV and Baywatch. A few years after that I got the VCR tape of the movie. I still loved the movie and watched it title to title a number of times again and introduced my friends to it too.
