Jamna paar ke dost-yaar

Yamuna Paar, or Jamna Paar, as most Delhiites call it, made its Bollywood debut this year with Mrighdeep Lamba’s Fukrey. Other than the four fresh faces, also starring in the movie was the ancient Yamuna Loha Pul and 100 gaj ki Geeta Colony kothis in all their unmistakable East Delhi-ness. The stuck-in-time images of the small houses, government schools and balconies with sookhte kapde made every East Delhiite say, ‘Bhai, yeh toh apni story hai’
The way Bollywood taught Delhi walas ‘tapori’ and ‘dabang’, we taught them the term ‘fukrey'
The story was that of the typical good-for-nothing Dilli fukras, who’re usually found playing cricket in the society gali or flying kites on the building chhatt.The director, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, a Delhi boy himself, structured the movie according to the Delhi he remembered from the 80s and the 90s. In the movie, set to the tunes of the beautiful Ambarsariya, is the terrace sequence where Hunny, played by Pulkit Samrat, proposes ‘frandship’ with a kite to the girl-next-door, played by Priya Anand. In chhaje-chhaje ka pyaar style, when she agrees by giving kanni to the same kite, Hunny jumpes across four-five terraces to reach her. This location was one of the most difficult to find, says Mrighdeep. He told us, “The east Delhi that I was trying to show had small kothis, all built together in continuation. Wahaan pe the houses are smaller in width, 100 gaj ki kothiyan, and are built height-wise. They go up to three-four floors – not the DDA flats kind of area. So we searched through Geeta Colony and Laxmi Nagar houses, where we found two-three buildings together. But I needed at least six to seven buildings of the same height to get the scene right. Finally, our Delhi line producers showed me this lane is Subhash Nagar in West Delhi, where we finally shot the scene. And even though I wanted the East Delhi look, this Subhash Nagar lane was beautiful and perfect for what I had in mind. Finally, woh film mein East Delhi hi lag raha hai.” About the scene, he adds, “Ab kaun patang pe propose karta hai? But while growing up, the kite flying season was a major part of our lives – my brother and mine. Aap Delhi ki kisi bhi middle class colony mein chale jao and you’ll hear some mummy papa uncle aunty shouting at the fukra of their locality. The way Bollywood taught Delhi walas ‘tapori’ and ‘dabang’, we taught them the term ‘fukrey’. It is Delhi’s addition to the Bollywood dictionary and now everyone is using it.”
Woh har baat pe ‘bhai, bhai’ bolne ka tareeka, the laugh and the ‘oyi oyi’, not ‘oye oye’
Other than the voice training given by the team of the film, newbie Varun Sharma (aka Choocha) took a special trip to Delhi from his home in Punjab to get the ‘government school fukra’ accent right. He told us, “I came to Delhi once before the beginning of the shooting schedule. Even though I have that natural Punjabi accent, I was in a boarding school and my Hindi was more urban. On my trip here, I went to government schools in different areas and stood outside during their chutti time, just to observe how they spoke. Woh har baat pe ‘bhai, bhai’ bolne ka tareeka, the laugh and the ‘oyi oyi’ (instead of oye oye) – all of that came from interacting with these east Delhi government school boys.”
Everyone takes the Loha Pul to get to East Delhi
Mrighdeep was clear about not shooting at the by-now-cliched Connaught Place-India Gate kind of locations because he wanted to show the story of the Delhi resident, not the Delhi tourist. And his demand for virgin locations and East Delhi relatability took them to the old Loha Pul built over the Yamuna, connecting Central Delhi to East. He told us, “We shot different sequences on and around the old Loha Pul that connects the whole of Delhi to the Jamna Paar region. My line producers were shocked when I told them I wanted to shoot a chase sequence on the Loha Pul. Highway wagerah pe you still get permission to shoot – they let you use one lane and the remaining traffic is not affected. For the first scene, when Lalli (Manjot Singh) is chasing the ‘doped’ beggar, we had to shoot it in the middle of real traffic as we could not block the road at all. For the climax scene, Manjot meets the smack head below the bridge again. His dialogue, ‘Meri Gandhi Nagar mein 12 dukaanein hain’ – that just proves he is an East Delhi ka banda too.That scene could have been shot anywhere, in a park, parking lot – anywhere. But we did it there, because the Yamuna and the bridge in the background would immediately connect with any Delhiwala.”