The YJHD Anachronisms

Why I Love Twitter Reason #352
A tweeter who goes by the cryptic screen name of Inspector and handle of @angrykopite came up with this brilliant analysis of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. When I was watching the movie, I did get an inkling if the cricket match was correctly placed in history but then I thought what I think nowadays - "Theek hi hoga...". But Inspector, of course, had a keener grip on these tiny details.

I posted the picture on Facebook. And needless to say, people had points of view. Most importantly, Abhishek Mukherjee a.k.a. Oh Yes Abhi a.k.a. Ovshake.
2013 is an assumption here. Given the heavy costumes of the wedding in Udaipur, it can be safely assumed that the wedding took place in winter, which means it was the winter of 2012-13.
This means that the "8 years earlier" incidents happened at least before the 2004 Holi. The India-Pakistan series had started on March 13, 2004 - but unfortunately Holi was on March 6 that year.
What about 2003, then? The famous India-Pakistan World Cup match had taken place on March 1, 2003, while Holi fell on March 14. We can be happy with 2003, then.
BUT.
The India-Pakistan match started at 2 PM IST. Didn't Kalki say something about getting up at 6 AM and making ham sandwiches?


This led me to wonder if we can conclusively establish the date of the match and the date of Holi of that year. As most of you are aware, Bollywood research takes inordinate amount of checks and cross-checks. But then, I went after Sharmila Tagore's book without Google or YouTube.

These are my observations and findings:

Normally, Abhishek has a much sharper mind and observation but a few weeks in Haryana may have blunted some of that sharpness. It does not need to be assumed that the wedding took place in December 2012. It was very clearly mentioned that the 'destination wedding' took place in Udaipur between 20th and 25th December. New Year's Eve was a few days later, remember?

Also, "8 years earlier" should mean anything between "7.50 - 8.49 years earlier". That can mean either a 2004 or a 2005 Holi.
Why not a little bit earlier, say 2003?
To answer that, we have to get back to the match. What do we know about it?
1. India lost the match.
2. Mohammed Kaif was batting and was out caught.
3. India's score was partially heard as "143 for..."
4. It was an "India-Pakistan series" and not a Champion's Trophy or World Cup.
[That's what I know about it. I am sure youngsters with sharper eyes and ears would have picked up more.]

So, now we go to Cricinfo.
Then, we go to Statsguru.
We search for ODIs between India and Pakistan played between 2002 and 2005, in which India lost.
And what do we see?
The first match India lost during this period was on 16 March 2004.
(India had a fantastic victory in the 2003 Centurion match and the way Sachin batted in that match, I don't think Bunny could have convinced Avi to move away from the TV and go on a vacation. Also, it was not a series.)
In these ten matches, there was only one occasion when there was a batting collapse AND Kaif was out caught. And when he got out, the score was 143-7.
And that match was in Jamshedpur on 9 April 2005.

However, that brings forward a second anachronism.
India batted second in that match and the part of the match we saw would have been happened in the afternoon. And Kalki's culinary adventure, Farooque Shaikh's late-night sermon, Deepika's early morning flight all pointed to an early morning departure.

If you notice, this research did not change anything from the original assertion by @angrykopite but the amount of fun I had while doing this useless thing (while watching a useless awards show and a useless movie) is something quite irrational.
And that, my friends, is why I love Bollywood Reason #31,41,592.
(Yes, it is an irrational love.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very well analysed!! :)
To be honest I wasn't really concentrating very hard. But then, I should still have remembered the dates.

Anyway, I guess we agree that there has been an error. And I also think (without looking up) that WC2003 was Kaif's first match against Pakistan, so we cannot be wrong...
Anonymous said…
OMG - You are one serious Bollywood freak !
Pawan said…
You can guess the correct year if you remember the year when mangoes appeared in market before holi.