A beautiful short film..

This was the winner at the Cannes Short films contest. Simple and very effective.

(akshar naach rahe hain :) )

One of the advantages of reading TOI is that you will get to read and participate in these utterly useless opinion polls which try collate hard numbers on burning issues and get the feel of pulse of the nation. Recently one such "burning" issue got my attention;

Which Khan is the super duper badshaa of Bollywood? Sha..sha..sharukh Khan or Amir Khan?

Along with this opinion poll they had a half page review of their latest movies OSO(for the reel illiterate, its Kewl way of saying Om Shanti Om) and Taare Zameen par.

As such I am a great sucker for movies but had resisted watching SK movies as I have had real big time trouble coping with the neurological problems after watching couple of his previous movies, but when "enna rascala mind it" became part of lore and when people started to quote me as a example to explain the meaning of "anachronism" after I expressed my ignorance about the happening lingo..I knew..updating myself with the new lingo was necessary, not just necessary but it became a matter of survival...so I caved in and watched the movie. Not all was bad..I loved one song and that one scene when Deepika turns and gives that one look..ah!! my paisa wasool. About the rest of the movie, I will exercise my right of "reserve from making comments"(hail democracy) and not speak about it.

Anyways this post is not about OSO, but the other movie Taare Zameen Par , which I happen to see yesterday and am glad I did.

The emotional agony of not meeting parental expectations, which a nine year old suffering from Dyslexia goes through has been picturized really well. Darsheel Safary as Ishaan is simply brilliant and Aamir Khan as Nikumbh Sir, Director and Producer is equally brilliant. A very different story line than usual with sparks of Amole Gupte's brilliant creativity (idea of Ishaan's flip book was truly awesome and adds that extra punch) aptly intersperse with songs having some really neat lyrics by Prasoon Joshi coupled with good music by Shankar Ehsaan makes it a worthwhile movie to watch.

But what I liked the most about the movie was not only does it scores really high on entertainment quotient but also sends out a message about a problem thats so prevalent yet so inconspicuous and neglected, it throws at you a few very relevant questions;

- There is a scene that involves Ishaan family and Aamir Khan. Aamir Khan says Ishaan is good at painting for which Ishaan dad says "Kya Faidaa" (whats the use). The notion that there is no career prospects beyond a doctor/engineer is not that rare even today.

- Ishaan gets punished for not doing well in Maths but all of them fail to notice the confident brush strokes and the vivid colors which he can pack into a white drawing sheet. So the question arises if our education system is geared up to identify these differently gifted students?

- For at least 2-3 years Ishaan's parents/teachers saw the same patterns like reversals of letters/words/numbers, finding it difficult to read or construct long words/sentences, inability to follow multiple instruction(go to chapter 13, page 12, line 12) and tendency to mis judge important characteristics like speed, direction etc of spatial objects(finding it difficult to hold a moving ball), a special sort of failure to recognition words resulting in a poor reading ability and also extreme difficulty in spelling but could not or were not ready to attribute it to a neurological syndrome(dyslexia). So the question of how to recognize and categorize such traits?

- When Aamir Kahn speaks of Ishaan's symptoms, his dad asks "are you saying my child is a retard"... So the question of how can we eliminate the taboo associated with neurological disorders so that people can admit about the problem and seek help?

- Ishaan could not do few things with the same ease as most of his contemporaries did in spite of the fact that their IQ might have been at par or Ishaan better off than most of them and Ishaan had no control what-so-ever on this, even he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. A practical fallout of this was discrimination both at home(dad says his elder brother is so good and Ishaan a "duffer" and Idiot) and outside for no fault of Ishaan.

- If noticed all the "tests" that decide if Ishaan can progress to next class was a "written" exam. Now the core of Ishaan's disability was extreme difficulty dealing with spoken and written language. So the results of the "exams" were actually under-estimating Inshaan's capability. So the question is how to deal with such contradictions? Aamir suggests oral test for Ishaan until he develops his writing skills. So do our schools have provisions for such alternate testing?

- In the movie, its shocking to see Ishaan dad's indifference towards the problems of his son even after he is made aware of it...This basically hints at another problem..when ever we talk of Brain related disorders, we most of the times assume that its not curable. Probably Ishaan's dad had the same notion and that resulted in the "hopelessness" we get to see. So the question is what kind of education is required to spread awareness that not all brain related disorders are incurable.

and probably many more such question, the answers to which can probably lead us to more Einsteins, Da-Vincis ,Abhishek Bachchans or just more Ishaans. Just the possibility of finding one of these makes the effort worth it....what say??

Mungaru Male

One thing that struck me and left me awestruck as I watched "Mungaru Male" recently was the quality of the lyrics, the absolutely stunning locations and some really good music. I had to pinch myself to make sure I am watching a Kannada movie. Its been really a long periods of drought for the Kannada film industry after which its seen the "Mungaru Male" and man I am so excited about it...

So What made Mungaru male so popular?? A mindless story line and plots(strictly my opinion) has been rescued by brilliant lyrics by Yograj Bhat and Jayanth Kaykani, amazing music by Mano Murthy and stunning beauty of Malenad region/ Jog falls. One has to appreciate the direction of Yograj Bhat, who made the decision to shoot the movie in our own state instead of hunting for locations abroad and man!! what a job he has done. In Shri Kuvempu's "Malenadina Chitragalu", which is a compilation of stories, he writes the following about Malenad in a poem called "Malenadige Ba"

ಮಲೆನಾಡಮ್ಮನ ಮಡಿಲಿನಲಿ
ಕರಿ ಮುಗಿಲೊಡಲಿನಲಿ
ಮನೆಮಾಡಿರುವೆನು ಸಿಡಿಲಿನಲಿ
ಮಿ೦ಚಿನ ಕಡಲಿನಲಿ
ಬನಗಳ ಬೀಡು
ಚೆಲ್ವಿನ ನಾಡು
ಮೋಹನ ಭೀಷಣ ಮಲೆನಾಡು

ನೇಸರು ಮೂಡುವ ಪ೦ಪಿಹುದು
ಮುಳುಗುವ ಸೊ೦ಪಿಹುದು
ತಿ೦ಗಳ ಬೆಳಕಿನ ಕಾ೦ತಿಯಿದೆ
ಇರುಳಿನ ಶಾ೦ತಿಯಿದೆ
ಕೋಗಿಲೆಯಿಲ್ಲಿ
ಲಾವುಗೆಯಿಲ್ಲಿ
ಗಿಳಿಗಳ ನುಣ್ಣರವಿಹುದಿಲ್ಲಿ!

ಮರೆಯುತ ಹರಿಯುವ ತೂರಯಿಹುದು
ತು೦ಬಿದ ಕೆರೆಯಿಹುದು
ಹಾಡುತಲೇರಲು ಬೆಟ್ಟವಿದೆ,
ಬಣ್ಣಿಸ ಘಟ್ಟವಿದೆ
ಬಿಸಿಲಿದೆ, ತ೦ಪಿದೆ
ಹೂಗಳ ಕ೦ಪಿದೆ
ಹಸುರಿನ, ಹಣ್ಣುಗಳಿ೦ಪಿನೆದೆ.....

reading this simple yet absolutely beautiful poem, you wonder what is not there in our own Malenad and this is what the movie has done the best, portray the natural beauty of our state and the scene shot at Jog falls, Holy cow!! that's probably the best promotion for Jog falls I have ever seen. If our tourism department had spent even a tenth of the effort to promoted our state as they have done in the movie, we would have had lot more influx of tourist than what we currently have.

Another feature that was a highlight in the movie was the lyrics...after really long time have we seen some genuinely beautiful lyrics written. Love those lyrics in Anisuthide, Araluthiru and the title song Mungara Maleye rocks.. add to these brilliant lyrics the voices of Sonu Nigam, Shreya Goshal and sweet sounding music by Mano Murthy, what you get to see is sheer magic.

All in all a great movie after really long time...I hope this brings out the awareness that its not fancy locations, bikini clad heroines or heroes with six pack abs beating up the rest of the world which people expect in a movie, but any thing with a decent storyline, songs that make sense and some decent music should fill up theaters.

Rajnikant and art of brand management

Caparisoned elephants carrying the movie print to the theater, paal abhishekham to the hero, tickets sold at a wopping cost of Rs.1500 , houseful screening of movie at 4am, that basically sums up the frenzy in our country around the Super star Rajnikant's new movie Sivaji, which was released yesterday.

No, I have not see the movie yet nor is this post a movie review. I had seen Rajnikant's Chandramuki at a theater in Madurai and one thing that has remained the same then and now is the huge fan following that Rajnikant and his movies have. I can never forget that electric atmosphere inside the theater when I had gone to watch Chandramuki, the aarthi's, the whistles, the confettis all added to the on screen magic woven by the superstar, making it a un-forgettable experience. So looking at all this one tends to wonder;

1) How is that Rajnikant is able to churn suck blockbusters with such amazing consistency

2) The audience for his movies range from auto drivers, government employees to Software engineers, executives and top movie stars, so what is it that makes it possible for Rajnikant to not only satisfy the tastes of such a wide range of audience but also thrall them enough so that they come back for more again and again.

3) Movie Baba was considered a flop in spite of cashing in more than 30 crores at the box office, but the next two movies were super hit. What is it that Rajnikant and team do to stage such a come back after a flop movie.

Recently the bad boys from Boston, Aerosmith, visited Bangalore. If you read their history on wiki you will see that..

1) In spite of starting in late 1960, even today they consistently produce Gold/Platinum records and even today all their shows boast of sell out crowds.

2) They have this amazing ability to connect to "new generation" with their music(I don't want to miss a thing and Jaded won the Teen choice award).

3) Aerosmith made a awesome comeback after they broke up in late 1970's

If you look closely these characteristics, ability to consistently produce quality content in their respective fields, adapt to changing tastes/culture or bounce back from failures are strikingly similar in both cases. But then it should not come as a surprise after all both are super stars in their own way and both have mastered the art of Brand management.

Sivaji is a ideal case study for Kannada film industry, which had a successful movie against its name after a really long time in Mungaru Male. This movie in spite of having a decent story, brilliant cinematography, amazing songs and decent performance by Ganesh and Sanjana was not able to create even 1/10th the "noise", Sivaji has created. We for sure have lots to learn from our neighbors.

Riding solo to the top of the world - A Tale of incredible journey

A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places.
- Isabelle Eberhardt

Name : Riding solo to the top of the world
Director : Gaurav Jani
Producer : Dirt Track Productions
Music : Ved Nair

This isnt a review, as I would be doing a gross injustice if I were to call this one..no words can completely describe Gaurav Jani,loner(His 350cc Enfield) and their 5000KM odyssey, a incredible journey of a lone biker who had set out to conquer the flats of Changthang plateau in Ladakh, but how, after two months with resplendent nature and the champa community, its not the Changthang plateau which he conquered but himself..

This chronicle starts with Delhi and leads you through a virtual tour of wilderness of one of the most remote places in India. What follows is a splendid tale of Champa community in the back drop of some stunning scenery, a confluence that will leave you spell bound. What makes it even more special is the fact that the whole thing is a one man show..Gaurav not only rode alone through the 5000KM journey but also directed, scripted, narrated and filmed the entire adventure all by himself.

Starting from Delhi, Gaurav takes the scenic route of Delhi- Manali to reach Manali then to Leh. Changthang is a plateau between the Karakoram and the Himalayan range. From Leh he travels to northen most tip of Changthang called Datta and from there along the Pangong Tso lake to Chusul. From Chusul to Rongo and then to Hanle to Chumur which is the southern most tip of Changthang and from Chumur back to Delhi to complete the journey.

Apart from the incredible beauty of above mentioned places that you get to see, Gaurav has also filmed the Hemis Festival which happens once is 12 years, Hanle prayer festival and the Chumur monastry(which has a mummified Lama and severed hands of a women who using her charm was responsible for death of 7 Lamas) all of which form a amazing footage which you dont get to see very often.

In short, its an really wonderful documentary. Its not just about Gaurav or his bike or about his incredible journey, its about the splendid beauty of Nature, its people and their lifestyle, their culture and spirituality. Its about the heaven on earth called Changthang. A must watch for all who love travel.

PS :
If god were to grant me a wish all I would ask is Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner.

Ash-Abhi hysteria continues...

IBNLive reports that Aishwarya rai on her spiritual sojourn at Benaras, Bangalore and Ayodhya with her in-laws, married a peepal tree at Benaras, a banana tree at a Bangalore temple and a god's idol in Ayodhya inorder to appease the gods and to rectify the "Dosha" thats because of presence of Mars in the 2, 4, 7, 8, and 12 houses of Ash's Kundali..

Since "will they? wont they?" questions regarding Aishwarya and Abhishek has been answered, the whole nation and understandably is now deeply concerned about the impending Ash-Abhi marriage...The question on top of everyones mind is not about disgusting human rights violation track record of Army in North east or why we are not a wee bit concerned when this "untouchability" concept takes such ugly turn almost every day, but we are riveted to know if Mangalik traits of Aishwarya jeopardize the "made-in-heaven" marital bond between Ash-Abhi.

Such is the hysteria in this country about what Ash-Abhi do that we have a site to suggest what color undergarments should Abhi were on the day of his last bachelors party(which also happens to be his 31 birthday) and we also have people like Shruti Singh who apparently has filed a PIL(public interest litigation) saying the above act of Rai is a direct violation of Article 17(what ever in the world it is) and promotes "untouchability" and violation of fundamental human rights...

If I remember correctly, this isn't the first time we have read about weired "marriages" ...we had cases of women marrying a snake, a girl marring a dog or a women being married at gun point, but I don't remember our top notch human right activist and Saviour of suppressed and repressed classes Shruti Singh doing anything, so you wonder why now?

anyways, I seriously hope Aishwarya chants "Om gan ganpate namah" regularly...With great difficulty has India come to terms with Tulsi and Mihir seperation in KKSBKBT and it cannot take another.

Why do they hate me? woooaaaaa ..sob.. sob..

Last couple of days have been different. When I enter the office these days, I no longer hear questions like which brand of liquor will Salman endorse in his new Devdas avatar after Ash marriage or was the visit to Varanasi temple by the big B familily a cleansing ritual for Ash after the liplock scene with Hritik in Doom 2, but these days its..what are the odds of Danielle Lloyd(of Big brother fame) calling our bollywood tinsel town "babe" Shilpa Shetty(now of big brother fame) a pig?

Its amazing how there is such a emotional upsurge in our country when a bollywood actress is involved..firstly with 24*7(almost) live coverage of Aishwarya's engagement saga. Such was the coverage that it took a personal request from big B himself to convince the camera crew to at least blur parts of footage which was shot while Abhishek was taking a leak in between the engagement and I was personally unhappy and felt let-down by the government because a national holiday was not declared on account of such a important occasion and now the whole Indian media Juggernaut is all guns against Big Brother. How dare some moron calls our babe a dog? Our babe and dog!! Maa Kasam! Woh milgaya tho, Main uska koon peejaunga uska koon test karake peejaunga(there goes another enlightened citizen, thanks to "Know AIDS, No AIDS campaign on Doordarshan)...

So what is this Big Brother show?

Its pretty simple contest, you hand pick a bunch of half wits, generally less than 15, lock them up in a house that has nothing that belongs to the era after Adam&Eve(no pen, pencil, mobile, music players etc..), for say couple of fortnights and film every move they make so that the rest of half-wits who were not fortunate enough to qualify can derive voyeuristic pleasure watching the film. If any participant is unable to deliver that punch(something similar to e-orgasm or i-orgasm depending on who is reading) to the viewers then he is voted out of the competition and the one left out at last wins loads of cash.

Is it sleazy? I mean is there racism and content that needs to be watched only after all at home are asleep?

you are kidding right? Who knows such things, only Sharmila Tagor(i.e. if its beamed in India). But from what I heard, the show packs in a healthy dose of sex, nudity and "borderline" pornography. Today we can add racism to this enviable list.

So why did our bollywood babe take part in spite of the reputation of the show?

With our babe's career almost over in Bollywood, she was looking for alternate way to earn her livelihood and 3 crores plus 25000 pounds, hey common you understand right, its hard to resist such things and for our babe it was good enough to shove the previous reputation aside. But I wont say that..nope its not in our culture to say such things. So here is the "Andar ki baath" as to why she accepted to participate.
there exist a organization called "Vishnu Sena" which has the whole and sole responsibility of saving and propagating Indian culture. After a high level meeting the saviors of Indian culture realized that there is very less representation from India in Briton. So they decided to send our babe to participate in this high visibility show as a representative of the Indian/Asian community. But our babe refused on the grounds of self-respect and dignity. So left with no choice Vishnu sena kidnapped babe's great great grand father and demanded that she need to take the 3 crore and participate in the contest. Rest as we all know is history.

When sick things were told against our country Why didn't our babe say anything?

Shilpa feels that she represents the Indian/Asian community and doesn't want to let them or herself down by retaliating...wow let me read that again. Look at it and we crib that our value system is breaking down. Again as we are Indians and the whole values thing that's inculcated in me is holding me back from saying; "represents the Indian/Asian community", bull shit. She does not represent me or my country, she went there to better her cash flow position.

What are the positives to come out from whole of this episode?

- As they say there is no better publicity than bad publicity..so Probably the biggest outcome of all this is our babe is going to win...Yepeeeeeeee.

- J*** T**** is a dolt with brains no bigger than the size of a pea. You hold and shake him, the sound thats produced when his brain strikes the inner wall of the skull can put even the Big Ben to shame. I personally feel Indian government need to gift him a atlas free of cost and teach him that babe is from India and India is not the same as "Paki"

- Really love the easiness with which you can vote some one out..I guess it would be a fine addition to our constitution..send a sms and give a laath to our non performing ministers


Look at this case, you have people burning effigies of housemates, PMO office and Ministry of External affairs voicing their concerns, Online petition being signed, Ofcom receiving highest number of complaints(not even Saddam's last video could achieve this fete), this issue being discussed in British parliament. But I wonder why the same billion voices which are crying for justice and equality for our babe get stubbed the moment we talk about the in numerable cases of discrimination based on cast, creed, language, sex, colour and what not that happen in our own backyard?