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

ENTER'TRAIN'MENT

Date: 29 Jan 2006
Place: Garhmukteshwar, U P
Camera: Canon A75

UNITED COLOURS OF AMBY

Date: 06 August 2006
Place: Hyderabad
Camera: Olympus C765US

Trikaal (1985) - A Review

One of the best things about the so-called parallel cinema movement in the 80's was the amazing variety of subjects that it chose to portray it’s cinematic idiom with. Moving away from the urban-mainstream clutter of boy-meets-girl themes and angry young man against entire corrupt system (although not in entirety), the film-makers chose to scourge the hinterland and look for something different, even unique.

Shyam Benegal's “Trikaal – Past, Present and Future” is one the most delightful of those films. I had seen this film several times earlier, on Doordarshan where they would show such wonderful movies from directors like Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Gautam Ghosh, Budhadev Dasgupta, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and others. Today with so many dedicated movie channels, does even one of them show those movies. I cannot recall seeing a benegal film (barring Bose, which was interspersed with so many ad breaks that it made the long movie seem longer and much more tiresome) or a Nihalani film (not even Thakshak or Dev which he made with big stars) for a long time.

Such were the treats of the pre-satellite television era.

The movie is a colorful atmospheric insight into the Souza-Sourez family pushed into a crisis by the death of the head of the family, Ernesto. The family is now under the head of the matriarch Dona Maria (Leela Naidu) who refuses to accept the death of her husband and attempts to bring back his spirit through a séance , which she conducts at least three times during the course of the movie.

Despite being led by Naseeruddin Shah, this film is essentially about cameos. And there are numerous. K K Raina as the false teethed, hen-pecked house husband, Anita Kanwar as the ever crying ever-sulking wife (delightful to watch), Keith Stevenson as the Doctor Pereira, Salim Ghouse as the priest. In fact the film features a veritable whos-who of actors, most of whom made a name for themselves in television. Neena Gupta, Jayant Kripalani, Soni Razdan, Akash Khurana and so on.

Most of the film revolves around............... well, nothing in particular. Come to think of it, it is no more a story than it is a slice of a life that has ceased to exist, as the elder Ruiz Pereira (Naseer) ruefully contemplates.(Even the roads that were used earlier aren't used anymore , as the cab driver informs us). The theme of a forgotten past recurs throughout the film. The old housekeeper refuses to divulge anything. The Souza-Sourez family house is itself in ruins.

Two or three other "themes" run in the movie. The fate of Portugese in post-independence Goa is brilliantly captures in the fears of the lead characters, who are faced in a dilemma whether to join the Indian Nation which they feel alien to or to go back to Portugal where they know they will face persecution because they are 'aliens' there. The character of Leon (Dalip Tahil playing a revolutionary) with whom the sympathies of Dona Maria (and the audience) lies, solves the dilemma for us.

Then there is the love story of Anna (Sushma Prakash). She is engaged to Erasmo (Lucky Ali, credited as Maqsoom Ali). However Anna has a childhood crush on Leon. To complicate matters, young Ruiz (Kunal Kapoor in an inspired performance) is head over heels in love with her and sings songs professing his love to her all through out.

Which brings us to the music. How many times in cinema do you see a scene in a film with four real-life singers playing parts. And if those singers be Remo Fernandez, Alisha Chinoy, Lucky Ali and Ila Arun. In these times even geting them on the same stage would be difficult !!!

Remo infuses the typical Goan charm through his love-ballads and his duet with Alisha in the engagement dance is a treat. Arun too gets to flex her vocal chords.

A movie which should be watched for the sheer joy of seeing all these characters come to life in the deft hands of Benegal!

Intensely Profound Statements from movies - 1

'There are two types of kids in this world. One which wants to be astromoners and the other who want to be astronauts.'

Jurassic Park III

What's in a poster !!!

Taking nothing away from the fact that Eklavya could be wonderful movie, (rave review here), there's just one small thing that I just couldn't help noticing.
How similar is the poster to that for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl !!!

Eklavya (2007)


Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Go Figure !!

Is Delhi Burning?

The 3-day strike called by the traders in Delhi is finally over.

But there is no solution yet in sight.

The government has done what only it can do.....postpone the issue.

As The Times of India reports, the traders have tried everything from "gandhigiri' to "dadagiri".

Nothing worked. Nothing can. You just can't create a mess and walk away from it as if nothing happened.

Now political parties are getting into the the fray (as usual) and wanting to extract maximum mileage. Some have called this an open invitation to disrupt law and order in the national capital.
And indeed it is so.

Schools are scared. Parents are scared.

Delhi, it seems, is burning.

DON – Music Review

There is something about remixes that irritates me.

I mean, you take a perfectly acceptable song ( in some cases, classics) and then squeeze it, grind it, cut and paste bits from other songs and overall make a mickey out of it and finally the output is – for want of a better word – a “raped” song – titillating , yet obscene. Very very few “remixers” (or DJ’s, if you will) can actually take a song and take it to a higher level and make you listen to it on a repeat mode instead of searching for the original to restore some sanity.

The “Dance Masti” albums by Instant Karma managed to do that. “Samne Yeh Kaun Aaya” and “Dil Kya Kare” from the first album, then followed up with “Hum Bewafa” , “Bahon Mein Chale Aayo” and “Hawa Hawa” in “The Return of Dance Masti” and then and “Aaja Piya” are arguably the best remixes by far (and with proper credits in the dust jackets, unlike others). And Instant Karma was none other than Loy, Ehsaan, Farhaad and Shankar, who also gave film music as Shankar – Ehsaan - Loy.

So why do they make a hash of the one genuine project where they have to do nothing new? I mean when they have already done the best remixes, why do they screw it up in the in the manner that they have. In addition they (and this includes Farhan Akhtar also) have left some of the other gems from the original movie that are so critical that I seriously doubt whether they will be able to cover those up.

The album begins with “Main Hoon Don” by Shaan, which starts so much like the Baadshah title song that I had to listen to the opening strains again to confirm that I was indeed listening to Don. No, the song per se is okay, but it does not have the character the “Main Hoon Don” song in AB’s Don had. The lyrics are “boring” and tedious. Shaan sings well, well. And the techno trance hooks that S-E-L tries to juxtapose, simply don’t work. There was a remix of the original song called “DJ Don” some time back, the video of which had Jackie Shroff as the Don that had more impact than this one. I mean for a title song of a movie that you want to be “THE MOVIE” of the year, “Main Hoon Don” disappoints.

Next up is Sunidhi Chauhan in “Yeh Mera Dil”. Now I have two serious issues with this one. Firstly they truncate the classic opening strands, which were techno beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and copied shamelessly by Black Eyed Peas in “Don't Phunk with My Heart”. Secondly, Instant Karma had a near perfect remix of “Yeh Mera Dil” in “The Return of Dance Masti” and this song is no patch on that one. Wouldn’t it have simpler to just keep that song instead of remixing the remix? And mind you this song is still the best song in album, coz Sunidhi sings like a dream and S-E-L don’t deviate much from the original soundtrack.

Next is “Moreya Re” a Ganpati festival song, which I suppose will do the same job that “Yeh Hai Mumbai Nagariya” did in the original. This song is well, OK. But how well it will work as a set piece to introduce the “other one” remains to be seen till the movie releases. You see the film “Don” by Chandra Barot (of which you can a read an excellent review here) was a film that was symbolic of the seventies. It was iconic in all sense. It was a movie built around set pieces. Each character had a set piece scene for which he shall be forever remembered. Each song was a set piece. “Main Hoon Don” was a set piece for the Don; “Yeh Mera Dil” was for Helen”. “Yeh Hai Mumbai Nagariya” was for the lookalike. “Jiska Mujhe Thha Intezaar” was for Zeenat Aman (which by the way is not present in this version). And “Khaike Paan Banaraswala” was another story all together. All the characters were etched put even if small. Pran, Helen, the two kids, McMohan, On Shivpuri, each one had their roles cut out. It was set piece after set piece after set piece. And that is why the film worked. It gave you no time to think, no ‘whys’ only ‘whats’.

OK. OK. Enough deviation from the track already. The next song is the classic “Khaike Pan Banaraswala”. Enough has been written on how “bad” the song is. Let me not punish them further by saying anything worse. But really, it is difficult to separate which part of the song is the worst part. Is it the starting ditty by Udit or is it the middle of the song blabbering by SRK.

Finally there is the 80s “Aaj Ki Rat”, which is so much like “Raat Baaki Baat Baaki” that I could almost hear Bappida crooning behind the mike.

I am not commenting on the remixes of the remixes, because I did not hear them, very simply because I was too tired already, with the uninspiring music.

I had to go back to S-E-L’s “Bunty Aur Babli” to soothe my nerves, and my ears. S-E-L’s latest albums have not been up to the mark at all. Complacency, anyone? After sweeping all awards last year for B&B, this year has been such a dull year (read as Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna) from Shankar Ehsaan and Loy that all you hear nowadays are nasal banalities from you know who.