Maybe the act of drinking itself features prominently in conversations with someone you only have a 'quasi drinking relationship' with. It's not a surprise that the last memory I have of filmmaker Nishikant Kamat is from bumping into him outside Bombay's Juhu Wala (long for JW) Marriott, waiting for the car, when he told me he'd been urgently summoned by actor Sanjay Dutt to get to his home for a drink.

"And, man, if he calls, you have to go," he mock-cribbed and flashed that characteristic grin—squaring his fingers to the size of booze Dutt pours into the glass: "There's no way you can say no." Dutt (aka Sanju/Baba) was working with Nishikant (Nishi, in short) on a script at the time. And why should scripts, that are essentially stories, not go well with alcohol?