Sameness, Blandness and New English writing

A few days back I finished reading all of Ashwin Sanghi. The Rozabal Line - in which he tries to do a Dan Brown on Dan Brown. Chanakya's Chant which is good read but nothing which you can recall after one week. And finally, The Krishna Key in which he regurgitates some of his ideas from The Rozabal Line and presents them in a new format.The books were fast paced and made use of cinematic techniques in presenting scenarios. No wonder that the books themselves have found favour commercially.

But, in a way the books were all same. They were all bland. The same underwhelming feeling I got when I finished reading all the parts the hugely successful Siva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi. There is no wow moment. No recall value and most importantly no repeat value.

Downloaded the app of Juggernaut Books. Again, it is bland and boring. Focus on Erotica with Sunny Leone being the anchor author. Free books section is laughable. Self publishing mode is interesting. Doesn't work offline.

People say Chetan Bhagat changed the direction of New English writing in India. I disagree. What he did change what the price point. 

Deja Vu !!

Via Beware of the Blog, but was thinking along the same lines while watching the movie. Hence I quote liberally, with due respect to George.

Quiz Question : Which movie comes to mind when i say the following?

• Three friends/roommates in Delhi
• a two-wheeler that goes kaput at inopportune moments
• spoofs of popular culture especially hindi movies
  
• getting accidentally involved in criminal goings-on

Actually this "could" have been a real quiz question if the great Parnab had been the quiz master

The answer: Chashm-e-Buddoor, Sai Paranjape's cult classic comedy from 1981.

I don't want to shock anyone who thought that the answer is Delhi Belly. Nor do I mean to suggest that the Abhinay Deo-helmed film is a rip-off or that Akshat Verma was taking a hint from Sanjay Gupta and running a DVD of Chashm-e-Buddoor endlessly while doodling out ideas for his script. I just found it interesting that two films I enjoyed had such common elements.

And IMHO Chashm-e-Buddoor is an infinitely more satisfying film in that it is a more "Delhi" film than Delhi Belly and also that the comedy works beautifully without using any shock value.

Thanks George

404 Not Found !!

Inspiration?

Exhibit I

The ninth card of the Rorschach Inkblot Test, used by psychologists to analyse the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of patients

Exhibit II

The print poster for the movie Shaitaan

Clearly inspired and a brilliant idea if it was really done with the connection in mind.

And if not, an amazing poster nonetheless

Woh Beete Din Yaad Hain

The Year is 1984, music director Ajit Singh creates a beautiful song for the film 'Purana Mandir'.

He sings one version himself -

Gets another version, with different lyrics, sung by Asha Bhosle

The film is a resounding success and the Ramsay brothers get a winner again.

Years later, Ajit Singh's daughter Tanya makes her musical debut and what song does she chose to sing? No prizes for guessing, it's her Dad's 1984 hit.

So which is the best version? Judge for yourself.

Misirlou, Cash and Kaminey

This is the title music from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction called Misirlou. A very very and should i say it again very commonly used and mis-used piece of music popping out everywhere even in the Kung Fu Panda 2 trailer

and even more famously in this

And there is this

although i admit this song sounds much better than it looks !

and finally

there is

this

And being the trivia hunter that I am here are some interesting points -

1. Both the Cash and Kaminey songs are sung by Vishal Dadlani.

2. None of these two use the actual guitar riffs of Dick Dale only the overall mood of the song.

3. Dhan te Nan uses some words from the Black Eyed Peas version like "pump the radio'.

Love Aaj Kal - For the Mango People

Liked the movie overall, but was mostly satisfied to see the small bits and pieces of trivia that were thrown around without much fuss. And in the end it all came together that's all.

Some observations -

What's with Imitiaz Ali and three-word movie titles Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met and now Love Aaj Kal

- Deepika looks and acts so much like early Aishwarya Rai (so there's hope for her yet!)

- Saif's looking too old in most of the Aaj scenes. He does rather well in his Sardar role, but Saif playing himself (or rather his Lays munching, Taj Mahal Tea drinking, Royale painting self) is too much of a bore. Bottomline, he'll do well in a period piece (e.g. Parineeta)

- Why take Rahul Khanna in for a thankless 2-line role?

- And why take stand-up comic Vir Das if all the funny lines are delivered by the protagonist himself?

- When was the last time we saw the iconic bharis (water carriers) of Kolkata in a movie....Cant remember. And them again at night (with lamps hanging) - nice touch. Infact the whole Kolkata episode was well handled, except the fact that it was totally redundant to the script. Harleen Kaur could have shifted anywhere, why not Gurdaspur or Ludhiana or even Chennai?

- Which area in Delhi is near to both the Red Fort and Qutb Minar?

- When Saif get mugged in San Francisco, the first person who comes to his rescue asks him 'Bangla Naki? Indian?' a nod to the huge number of Bangladeshi and Indian can drivers in Frisco. Another nice touch.

- Too much Yash Raj influence on the entire script. All the foreign locations were redundant and superflous. Saif and Deepika might as well have met in Pune or Guwahati and nothing would have changed. (Similar problem in Shaad Ali's Jhoom Barabar Jhoom)

- Harleen Kaur's character (played by Brazilian Giselle Monteiro) reminded me of Neha in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Kareeb. But was the Neetu Singh pay-off at the climax indispensible?

- And finally, loved the way the final meeting ws handled. They walk off together away from the crowds and then finally hug - very very unfilmy - But that's the "coolness" they are trying to show off right

Sign Of The Times !!

Funda"Mental"ly Similar

How are the two biggest movies of 2008 Ghajini and Rab Ne Ban Di Jodi fundamentally similar to each other?

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 -

1. 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.

2. 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.
3. Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least six months (link)
   

Didn't Suri/Raj exhibit some or all of the above characteristics.

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 ......

The"Raja-Praja" Ethos of India

Satyam Infosystems Owner, CEO and majority shareholder B Ramalinga Raju resigns as expected. Also as expected much controversy and comments follow - 

Rediff reports -

"Years after the foreign media wondered if Americans should be afraid of Ramalinga Raju more than Osama Bin Laden beacuse of jobs they lost to India, experts said on Wednesday the fear seems to have come true, although for a different reason.

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".

Ghajini - Bollywood Flashback

Ghajini is vintage 70-80's Bollywood, albeit 10-15 years too late. 

It's copybook revenge-masala fick with bits of "Memento" shoehorned in for the sake of modernizing it.

After watching the movie, I set out thinking - Would the movie have been any different if you just played around the cast with vintage 70-80's  actors a bit.

So here goes my take -

Ghajini - 1976

Sanjay Singhania - Vinod Khanna

Kalpana - Hema Malini

Ghajini - Shetty

Sunita - Neetu Singh

Ghajini - 1983

Sanjay Singhania - Mithun Chakraborty

Kalpana - Rati Agnihotri

Ghajini - Ranjeet

Sunita - Sarika

Ghajini - 1988

Sanjay Singhania - Anil Kapoor

Kalpana - Sridevi

Ghajini - Amrish Puri

Sunita - Sonam

Ghajini - 1993

Sanjay Singhania - Sunny Deol

Kalpana - Juhi Chawla

Ghajini - Puneet Issar

Sunita - Sonali Bendre

Well you could make the movie with exactly the same story and exactly the same everything else with any of the casts mentioned above ........ and the result would still have been the same.....GHAJINI...

Soort terrm maimoree looss

Bachna Ae Haseeno - Music Review

So after failing Aditya Chopra badly in Tashan I mean, No wedding song, No Punjabi numbers, no disco beats, what kind of a Yash Raj soundtrack was that. Who wants to hear rock-bhojpuri anymore. Nothing doing. YRF demands and gets a typical YRF album and that’s all what “Bachna Ae Haseeno” is . So here goes -

Khuda Jaane – A typical Vishal-Shekhar number with Pritam style vocal flourishes from KK. Shilpa Rao has an interesting voice and compliments KK on this one, but but the tune is nothing to write home about and somehow keeps reminding you of “My Heart Goes Hmm” from Salaam Namaste.

Lucky Boy – The lyrics are tacky, corny even and V&S seriously move into Pritam territory and take a leaf out of Himesh’s book and create an entire song based on just one hook. But boy! is that one catchy hook. It keeps reverberating in your head long after you have left the song and after my first hearing of the album it was this one song I could seriously recall. It is ultimately the required Disco /Item number. . The song also features the voice of Hard Kaur and Raja Hassan, whom I seriously couldn’t make out to be his.

Ahista Ahista – OK now this is one hell of an interesting song. If I had heard this song in isolation I would have thought it to be a Rahman composition. Or maybe it’s just Lucky Ali. Coz the way V&S have used Lucky instantly reminds you of “Anjaana” form Yuva. The same wo-oo-oo’s all over the place and again the Pritam influence is present in form of the flamenco guitars at the beginning of the song. But in my opinion the most well constructed song in the entire album.

Jogi Mahi – The compulsory wedding number. It is so generic that I bet V&S composed it in their sleep and then got Sukhwinder to sing over the difficult parts in the morning and then got Himani Kapoor to provide the female foil. The lyrics are predictable with the same Mahi, Heer, Ranjhna, Sajna and all that crap. The song does have a heart-tugging chorus line and rises to a rousing crescendo at the and but only just.

Small Town Girl – OK Wedding Song. Check. Disco Number. Check. So what’s left. Oh yeah the Punjabi number. Can’t find a tune . No problem recycle some of Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s. Take a bit of “Pretty Woman” from Kal Ho Na Ho and “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” title track and give it a nice mix with your own "Nachle Ve" from Ta Ra Rum Pum. OMG. Who’s gotta sing it?. Sukhwinder’s refused. He say’s the song reeks of Shankar Mahadevan. Vishal Says to Shekhar. No problem Shankar’s a friend. So Shankar comes and sings a re-hash of his own songs. What’s he gotta lose. He’s getting paid !

Khuda Jaane (Revisited) – If there was any doubt that this song is Pritam inspired, the remix clears all that.

Bachna Ae Haseeno – Vishal and Shekhar have made no bones about their RD Burman fascination and they finally legally get to do what they must have been wanting to all along. Remix a Kishore-RD song. And then get Kishoreda’s son to sing it. Sumit Kumar that is. Whose voice actually gets drowned in the beats and whn his Dad’s voice come in to the picture the drum vanish. Oh Yes and the trumpets are intact. But is the song a patch on the crazy saxophone trumpet jamboree of the original song. No chance.

So Vishal Shekhar play safe. Or are rather made to play safe and create a generic Yash Raj movie ka music album, which I must add they fully succeed in doing and throw up interestinginsights into how their think about their music. And one genuinely interesting song. And a definite screen scorcher in Lucky Boy.

"Partner" Movie Review

OK...I know it's a little late.
In fact little is an understatement, it's more than a year delayed, but hey ...what the hell.
It was drafted then....and as they say...Better Late Than Never..

Partner's - In Crime


As luck would have it (or is it HBO's way of getting back!) I saw the Will Smith starrer Hitch immediately after I saw Partner. And Yes...it is a really shameless frame-by-frame copy. But really, are we actually watch Partner because of it's story! which by the way is as follows - A loser in Bhaskar (Govinda)seeks out the advise of a 'love-guru' Prem (Salman Khan in his most famous screen name) to win his rich and famous lady love (Katrina Kaif). For the rest of the 'story' I suggest watching Hitch.

But do go and watch Partner solely and solely for Salman Khan. Here is an actor, much maligned for his off-screen antics, on top of his acting abilities. In fact his act is so refined and fine-tuned that the other 'hero' is reduced to being a supporting actor. And long after the 'story' has ended, the film continues only to show more of what Salman can deliver. There has never been any question about Salman's comedy skills. Films like Judwaa and Biwi No. 1 are testimony (Both not - so - incidentally directed by David Dhawan, who wields the baton for this movie also) to that.

But here, Salman is just sitting back and enjoying himself. He makes jokes on himself, his own songs, his penchant for opening his shirt at the slightest provocation, his tendency to pick up a brawl and so on. He even pokes fun at his contemporaries like Shah Rukh ( as Chhota Don, played by Rajpla Yadav) and Aamir Khan too.

Even Govinda pitches in. After a series of indifferent roles, downright bad films and mis-starts (Salaam-e-Ishq) he is back in form, laughing at himself all the way. He has fun at the expense of his weight, his dancing style his brand of comedy and all.

Katrina and Lara Dutta look like a million bucks. Lara wowed us in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and she continues to do so here. In fact the entire Lara- single mom with kid routine (which wasn't there in Hitch) works beautifully, precocious kid and all. Katrina is magnificent and David realizes soon that as long as Kaif smiles her dazzling smile and shows off her amazing booty and doesn't mouth many lines, she's a hit..... all the way.

The music if functional and enjoyable, with the title song and "You're my love' being the pick of the lot. The film does stretch a bit, but hey the entire auditorium was in splits all through. And in the end that's all that really matters sometimes. Copy or no Copy.

Cats !

Camera: Olympus SP510US
Date: 09-Nov-2007

And then there was light !!!!

Date: 09-Nov-2007
Camera: Sony DSC-T9 (Multi Shot Mode)

Humayun's Tomb

Camera: Sony DSC-T9
Date: 3-Nov-2007

42

Go to www.google.com and type in 42.

Then press "Search" (Alternatively, you can also press 'I'm feeling lucky', if you are really in the mood!)

What you get is this.

Yeah !...It is the ultimate answer.

The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

The answer that took the most powerful computer 'Deep Thought' 7½ million years to compute and check the answer !

The answer for which an even more powerful computer was built to compute the 'ultimate question' - the Earth.

But why the hell am I going on and on about 42? Why is it so relevant today?

Well you see my friends, it is the number which seems to continuously elude the greatest living batsman of our times - Sachin Tendulkar.


He is stuck on 41 and I now know the reason why.....

Coz once he reaches that magic number he will finally have the answer.......

The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

For more reasons on why Sachin is not getting century number 42 , read this, this and this.

For more on Douglas Adams's analysis on the wonderful 'gentleman's game'....Read this.

Nandigram: In response

An interesting analysis of the Nandigram issue is given here.
There are although numerous mis-conceptions/mis-communications which are rampant and which need to be cleared out
1. No SEZ as such was planned in Nandigram in the first place. It was part of over 10000 acres of land 'given' to the Salim group for their massive 'infrastructural development' projects. Similar land was earmarked in Uluberia and Purulia and even near Digha.
The Salim group had originally come in only and only for 'housing' projects. It was the West Bengal government which sugar-coated the deal with a "Chemical Hub' proposal.

2. The land was given on behalf of the landowners, who as we know were not the people who tilled the land. Those who 'tilled' the land were the 'bargadars' (vide Operation Barga in the early 70's). These bargadars have no legal right of the land but could take some or all share of the produce of the land. The land still belonged to the landowners although it was the bargadar who lived and toiled there.
Now the very same government which gave the bargadar this 'fair-deal' was taking it back from him. This was like a stab-in-the-back for the small farmer.

3. The Opposition (and the coalition partners) which is now making a huge hue and cry did not oppose the deal when it was ratified by the state assembly (Mamata staged a walkout). They did the same for the Tata project at Singur and the Jindal project.

4. That the land-acquisition game has long since been over yet the place is under seige is an abject failure of the state machinery. What the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government didn't count on was a full fledged peasant's revolt like a 'Telengana' or 'Jharkhand' situation. Very soon Nandigram too could snowball into these pockets within so called well-governed states which are now completely detached from the Union of India and any 'Indian' is treated as an outsider.

5. Cleansing of the hinterland to make way for industrial growth has been a well used tool by communist governments around the world. Russia and China have been doing it for decades and next year's Beijing Olympics will be testimony to that.

6. Many of the agitators are disgruntled CPI(M) workers. This explains why there has been such flagrant display of firepower on both sides. The CPI(M) has a routine stockpile of small and large ammunition for any 'contingency' situation and does not hesitate to use them on a regular basis.

6. People (Mainly left-leaners) also point out to no alternative sites for such chemical hubs or SEZ's. I suggest them to just take a walk up or down the Hooghly from Kolkata. You will find acres and acres of sick jute mills and rotting industrial wasteland . And it has been so for at least a couple of decades. If that is not alternative location.....then I don't know what is.

7. The moot question now is - Human Rights have been violated. Guardians of civil society have acted as goons and people have been killed. What is the solution?


Certainly not colourful processions or sit-ins or demonstrations.

A complicated situation will require a complicated solution.

For another detailed insight into the issue go here

Jai Ma Durga

Date: 19 Oct 2007
Location: Chittaranjan Park Kali Bari, New Delhi
Camera: Sony DSC-T9

TAJ

Date: 29 May 2007
Location: Agra
Camera: Sony DSC-T9