The thought of watching INTERSTELLAR could be traced back to the idyllic days of my life, where my friends and I were Christopher Nolan fanatics. Me, having studied in a residential school, felt it was like a prison in many terms (just kidding, had my best days of life here). In this place, for getting to watch a film in unauthorized places, whichever it may be, was considered illegal. Getting hold of a film in a digital format was a thing considered harder than smuggling. But Interstellar was a Nolan film, and the fanatics needed to watch it ASAP. So, we commenced MISSION NOLAN to achieve the impossible. (Just hyping, but it was hard, damn hard.)


PHASE 1 - GET HOLD OF THE FILM

First things first, we needed a plan. My friend (Alias: A) and I made a fail-proof plan to enter the prison warden's office (Alias: Staff room), where we would meet our 'guy.'

THE PLAN:

Just enter the office at midnight and get the film. (Yeah, the perfect plan to get caught red-handed.)

Silly it seemed to others, but I still wonder, how did we do it? (CHEST PUFFING WITH PRIDE) Yay! We got into the office without suspicion that day. Then, the task at hand—to get the stuff from our GUY (Alias: the holy internet).

We demanded our GUY for INCEPTION and INTERSTELLAR, both mind-blowing films of Christopher Nolan. Obedient to us, our GUY worked hard to supply them to us. Meanwhile, the almighty, who might have been having his popcorn and watching our struggle, would have gotten bored with it. To make it more entertaining for him to watch, he sent two prison guards (Alias: security guards of our school) onto us.

As they blew whistles hard and flashed searchlights inside the office, we hid and were scared to hell. After some time, the coast was clear, and as we contacted our GUY, we were in a state of distress and bleakness. With the snail-paced supplies our GUY got, we couldn't get both. So, we were in a dilemma—INCEPTION or INTERSTELLAR? (And which one would you have taken back? Comment down below.)

No rocket science, but you guys guessed which we took back with us.

MISSION NOLAN (PHASE 1) - ACCOMPLISHED


PHASE 2 - WATCH THE FILM

The smuggling was one thing, but watching it (without getting caught) was the real challenge. A and I used to watch films every Sunday in one of our classroom projectors. As stated before, WATCHING FILMS IN UNAUTHORIZED PLACES WAS ILLEGAL—if our little activity was found by the authority, we were done.

But we took calculated risks and, with extra caution, ran the Sunday theatre in our school (and the ticket was free for everyone, but they had to pay in terms of stress of getting caught).

The day we were supposed to watch this masterpiece, something felt odd. With great risk, we started watching it. We weren’t understanding everything, but we were sure sucked into the world of INTERSTELLAR. Little did we watch before we were alerted about an impending danger. In a flash, we packed up and had to abort the mission with our disappointment intact.


PHASE 2.1 - COMPLETING THE MISSION

I don't remember when, whether before having watched a part of the film or after it, but I felt amazed at knowing this interesting trivia about INTERSTELLAR. The corn farm shown to us in the film was actually grown by the team of INTERSTELLAR for originality instead of CGI, and the much more interesting part is, they also made profits from selling the corn.

Mine and A's hunger to watch INTERSTELLAR (Alias: one of the best space films ever made) wasn't satisfied. By then, phones had infiltrated secretly and were operated by some of the brave souls in our school. This was our chance. Slowly but steadily, we spread the INTERSTELLAR virus to our non-Nolan fan friends through phones, and they liked it without second thoughts.

To appease our craving, A and I had to complete this epic, filled with grandeur, by watching it on small screens (Alias: phones)—superficially.


PHASE 2.3 - ACTUALLY, COMPLETING THE MISSION

We watched the whole film, but we weren’t satisfied with the way we had watched it. So, there was this tiny regret in our hearts about watching the wonder in parts and on a small screen for the first time.

Later, I became aware of the struggles of making INTERSTELLAR. Especially, the footage of the black hole in CGI, spanning some minutes in the film, took months to create. Then, the team approaching a Nobel laureate scientist for the visualization of a black hole and equations for the same, to ensure authenticity when presented in the film, was next level. And voila! After a few years, the black hole viewed by the James Webb Telescope, the largest telescope to date, was similar to that in the film. (Guys, Nolan showed us the future!)

Even after many years of having watched it, knowing all these interesting things about it was more than enough to keep the excitement for INTERSTELLAR alive in me.

BREAKING DOWN THE SCIENCE OF 'INTERSTELLAR'

Cut to the present—after a gap of six years, I, along with a friend, who was a first-timer (I envy him), watched INTERSTELLAR on a 70mm screen with Dolby surround audio. It felt like magic to me. I couldn't believe what I was watching on the screen.

The magician (Alias: Christopher Nolan) performed his trick way better than he was expected to.

Now, I was able to grasp the whole film, with every detail and dialogue. It gave birth to a newfound admiration for INTERSTELLAR.

FINAL STATUS: MISSION NOLAN - ACCOMPLISHED.

Before leaving you guys, who have much more important tasks at hand, my dear tomodachis, we got the rules of the Vitaphile Club to follow this week:

RULE NO 1. WATCH INTERSTELLAR ASAP.

RULE NO 2. WATCH INTERSTELLAR ASAP.

RULE NO 3. DO STOP AND LOOK AROUND YOUR LIFE ONCE IN A WHILE; OTHERWISE, WHO KNOWS, YOU COULD MISS IT.

Keep the fire burning. Sayonara.