I was indeed very excited to shoot in Kirkistan for a Bollywood Film called TorBaaz , after a long time I got to act as an Afghan Cricket commentator who supervises a Cricket Match between two Afghan children team who have been bought up in a Refugee camp .To steer them away from war and to stop them from going into militant training camp’s Sanjay Dutt who plays a retired army officer lures them towards cricket and trains the in the game , as if showing them a more productive path . He immediately come into conflict with the Afghan war lords who want to make their youth into fighters to fight the holy war as human bombs .The movie had a good story and the snow peaks of Kirkistan where great to shoot the cricket match sequence . But Sanju seems to have taken the movie lightly and was almost sleep walking in some of the scenes . The bomb blast sequence was good but their was less realism and very little raw energy in some of the cricket match scenes .The movie had a message and some good intentions but feel flat at the execution , some of the parts of the film looked hurried .
I for one was disappointed with my scenes , as I went unnoticed In my blink and miss scenes , I was their during the bomb blast scenes with my beard and spectacles crying out through the mike , but that was it just two shoots here and their , apart from that the commentators voice was done as a VO over footage of the cricket match being actually played on the ground . it was as if the Cricket commentator had gone missing from the film .I was even more appalled when my name was missing from the credits of the film . Lucky for me I had shoot my own videos on the film shoot and that’s evidence enough of my work and my role in the film .
But over all I was disappointed , no money , no credit and finally no footage in the film .The commentator goes missing like in thin air .The film I presume will suffer from the same fate I would imagine , now playing on Netflix it will have a very short run I presume . Nargis Fakri looked good but she is looking very mature . All I got from the film was a week long un paid holiday to a land occupied by a mis breed of Mongols and Afghans .
Till then I leave you with my on the set videos of the film Torbaaz , just to re live some old memories of a couple of year’s back .So if you see a fat man , with specs and an Afghan beard , spare a thought for the poor guy it was me Anuj Tikku , and I swear I ran like hell during the bomb blast scenes and tried my best to get close to Sanju so that I could be in the frame with him but alas! I was only in two and that too very briefly . I would have to point at my face with a stick to make you see that the guy with the mike was actually me .
