Sunday, August 02, 2009
Love Aaj Kal - For the Mango People
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Funda"Mental"ly Similar
1. Both are huge hits (Bah !! ...That's obvious. And after Satyam, who believes figures anyway?)
2. Both were hyper-hyped (Both Aamir & SRK have excellent publicity machines. End of question)
3. Both had new actresses (or is female actors the more politically correct term?) (Again, You can't depict a super-hero without a fresh face opposite him. It's about the im-balance, you see)
All of the above are true. But there is something even more fundamentally similar between the two.
In both the movies the protagonist suffers from some kind of mental disorder.
Yeah, I mean everyone in the world and their uncle knows that in Ghajini, Aamir Khan's character suffers from Anterograde Amnesia (Short Term Memory Loss).
But isn't it obvious that Shah Rukh Khan's character in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi also suffers from some form of dissociative identity disorder with some symptoms of schizophrenia also manifesting. Consider the symptoms -
- Characteristic symptoms: Two or more of the following, each present for much of the time during a one-month period (or less, if symptoms remitted with treatment).
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganized speech, which is a manifestation of formal thought disorder
- Grossly disorganized behavior (e.g. dressing inappropriately, crying frequently) or catatonic behavior
- Negative symptoms—affective flattening (lack or decline in emotional response), alogia (lack or decline in speech), or avolition (lack or decline in motivation)
- If the delusions are judged to be bizarre, or hallucinations consist of hearing one voice participating in a running commentary of the patient's actions or of hearing two or more voices conversing with each other, only that symptom is required above. The speech disorganization criterion is only met if it is severe enough to substantially impair communication.
- Social/occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care, are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset.
- Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least six months (link)
Well if you ask me it is a pretty solid case.
So where does that lead us to?
Is Hindi Cinema finally growing up and embracing mental illness into the mainstream?
Or is it that they just don't give a damn as long as there are enough fools (like myself) who are willing to shell out money to watch the crap they dish out?
I think we all know what the answer is ......
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
The"Raja-Praja" Ethos of India
Raju has certainly inflicted a huge blow to the India story on the global business arena and the companies across the world would be much more vigilant before engaging any Indian company for their business purposes," said an analyst.
Way back in 2004, American media had reported that it was not only dreaded terrorist Osama whom the Americans were afraid of, but Raju was a feared man too as millions of jobs were being outsourced to Indian companies like Satyam" [link]
The irony here is like Osama, Raju too may be able to escape the law.
The issue here is Corporate Governance.
As pointed out here "the problem in the Indian corporate sector, is that of disciplining the dominant shareholder and protecting the minority shareholders, as it is vindicated in the recent Satyam case."
And in this case Mr. Raju is the end all and be all. Because he as majority shareholder misled the minority shareholders. Although he might brush off all allegations to his person, his attitude is endemic to people in power in India.
Be it politicians, industrialists, businessmen or for that matter anyone in any postion of power considers everything under them to be their kingdom.
They "rule".
They are the "Raja". The rest are the "Praja".
And their decree is the law. And if not then there is enough incentive provided to mould the law according to their needs.
And the saddest part is that the Indian public wants it to stay that way.
And they say India is "free".