BJP: Skewed Ideologies!

"Never Judge a Book by it's Cover Picture and Name"

[I don't know who said it(if no one has,I'll add my name,IPR guys any?!)]

I wonder how many members of the current BJP Parliamentary Board have read Mr.Jaswant Singh's book 'Jinnah- India, Partition, Independence',I will not say that reading it would have altered their stance on this issue, given the fact that BJP,per se is made up of a confused bunch of individuals.Confused about the 'ideologies',confused about the so-called 'core beliefs' of the party,in general confused about anything that is scientific and non conservative.The truth is the BJP has been on the constant hunt for a nationalist ancestor for, they have none.Their attempt to project Savarkar as a national hero during the National democratic Alliance regime, during which it started a yatra from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Savarkar was imprisoned and unveiled a potrait in the Parliament, can be quoted as an example.Now it is the first Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, inspite of the later asking for a ban on RSS after the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi.Though the Kapur commission later aquitted the senior RSS leaders.It held RSS responsible for breeding people like Godse and creating a communal situation in India.It was then that RSS was asked to draft a constitution.It is this futile search for an ancestor that is frustrating the leadership and driving them to take some mindless decisions which would prove to be highly detrimental in the future.

The party 'ideology' that Arun Jaitley was talking about in the press conference during the Chintan Bhaithak in Shimla is skewed conspicuously towards a heavily communal and rigid Hindutva pole.It was pro Sardar Patel not because the RSS looked upto him,but because noone from the party high command could support the founder of Pakistan, RSS would not let that be so.RSS started abiding by what its name is, but then slowly moved towards right wing extremism trying to gain currency in the conservatist's approach to religion in politics.

The other day I was reading an article by Vidya Subrahmaniam comparing Shashi Tharoor's 'India : From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond' and the Jaswant Singh's latest.'India : From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond' :the book, which Mr. Tharoor updated in 2007, is sprinkled with critical references to the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. Yet the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress offered Mr. Tharoor a Lok Sabha ticket in the 2009 general election. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government went a further step and invited him to join the External Affairs Ministry as a Minister of State. Consider what Mr. Tharoor had to say about one of the Congress’ greatest icons — Indira Gandhi. “Had Indira’s Parsi husband been a toddywalla (liquor trader) rather than so conveniently a Gandhi, I sometime wonder, might India’s political history have been different?”.

Further, “Mrs. Gandhi was skilled at the acquisition and maintenance of power, but hopeless at the wielding of it for larger purposes. She had no real vision or program beyond the expedient campaign slogans; “remove poverty” was a mantra without a method ?. Declaring a state of Emergency, Indira arrested opponents, censored the press, and postponed elections. As a compliant Supreme Court overturned her conviction, she proclaimed a ‘20-point programme’ for the uplift of the common man (No one found it humorous enough to remark, as Clemenceau had done of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, that “even the good Lord only had ten.”) Its provisions ? remained largely unimplemented. Meanwhile her thuggish younger son, Sanjay (1946-1980) emphasizing two of the 20 points, ordered brutally insensitive campaigns of slum demolitions and forced sterilizations.” Mr. Tharoor had a reference to Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra too.

The BJP had the Tharoor example before it. It could have taken Mr. Jaswant Singh’s book in its stride, and appeared large-hearted, as the Congress did with Mr. Tharoor. Instead, it chose to show its illiberal side.

Kaminey-Dissection

Cast:

Shahid Kapoor as Charlie/Guddu
Priyaka Chopra as Sweety
Amol Gupte as Sunil Shekhar Bhope (Bhope Bhau)

Director:Vishal Bhardwaj

'Kaminey' quite a wierd name for a movie you might say, you scroll down and see 'Vishal Bhardwaj' and silently agree that he might have had something different in store again.Such is the trust he has earned among movie-lovers and hasn't he lived up to it again!This time around he brings to us the early ninetees Tarantino style of movie making,with a perfect mix of dark humour,violence with a pinch of romance to give us this beautiful drama in shades of red and gray.Kaminey as the name suggests is about how selfish people get when it comes to their dreams,love,career and all.

The movie opens to Shahid giving us, in lisp, his take on life."pai'f'e kamane ke bas do raaste hote hai:ek 'F'ortcut aur ek chota 'F'ortcut".This is the street smart Charlie,who makes money hedging bets at racecourse.He dreams of being rich and marring a beautiful rich girl.So,he takes the shortcut('F'ortcut as Charlie would say) and bets one lakh rupees on a horse,but eventually it turns out that the race was fixed and he loses all his money.Sore at this he and his coke-addicted friend Mikhail trace the jockey and finally trace down the henchman,Francis, primarily responsible for this.But as fate would have it there is a drug-deal going on in the adjoint apartment of the hotel and while running away from the hotel Charlie hijacks the jeep of the corrupt Anti Narcotics officers Lele and Lobo,who wanted to sell the prize off to the stylish smuggler Tashi.The jeep had coke worth 10Cr(in a guitar case!).

The other track of the story is of Charlie's twin brother Guddu,who ironically also has a speech impediment too.Guddu works for an NGO that educates people against AIDS and he stammers while talking.His girlfriend is Sweety,played by Priyanka Chopra who delivers some top of the line acting.She is the sister of a wannabe gangster-politician Bhope Bhau(Amol Gupte).Bhope is a politician who wants to draw some political milege on the Maharastra-is-meant-for-only-marathis concept and obviuosly is furiated when he realises that his own sister is marrying a 'North-Indian'.

The story is about how the twins who chose separate paths cross each others ways and eventually realise their dreams.

Kaminey is beautifully crafted with an unpredictable screenplay that will keep you glued to the seats.The climax is the winner where you can hear loud cheers from the audience,for every new twist that comes around.Everything about Kaminey is right,be it the casting,acting,writing even technical aspects like sound and editing were fabulously done.

The songs were already a hit and they never for once disturb the story telling.Fatak,the first song of the movie metaphorically explains about AIDS and its prevention techniques,which will remain one of my personal favorites.Even the title track Kaminey.It talks about how kamini(if I can use that word) are the aspirations inside a man and how they take control of your life if not checked.

All in all Vishal Bhardwaj delivers a fantastic package and lived up to the high standards he has set for himself.

Verdict: 4.5/5

P.S.This might the the first time when I did not have a 'Rip Masand' section,that is because for the first time ever I agree to whatever he said.

Can you quarantine an entire nation?

"Now what is it that you are blaming the Indian government for this time? The swine flu did not originate in India, so we are not to blame for this. Furthermore, it is a pandemic; there are more than 168 countries which have been affected by this. Why blame the government for this?"
When people across nations were reeling under this influenza, we were sitting in our living rooms enjoying the bulletin on our television sets. We did nothing till the 17th of May when the first patient was screened at the Hyderabad International airport. Even then, but for a few eye-washing steps we did nothing. Now when it has reached epic proportions and hundreds of cases have been registered, we 'react' and how? We 'react' by shutting downs institutes and complete cities. What we still did not acknowledge is that we cannot go quarantining entire cities. Shutdowns will not stop the virus, what it will do is create panic. Ironically the government itself issues as Don't-Panic notice. Blames people and media for creating this panic and rush. Will we ever grow up? Will this delinquent behaviour ever end?

"Okay, there were cases like these before as well, sample bird flu. These are all viral. How can you prepare for something you do not know?"
No we cannot prepare for the unknown. But we can learn from our past experiences. What this exposed is that we do not have a good crisis management machinery in place. Our stance needs to change from a react-ive one to a proactive one. We still lack a clear direction. The notices that were issued were too less and far-spaced. We are still importing testing kits in a few hundreds everyday. There is only one institute that can perform these tests, i.e., the NIV, Pune and it is so overburdened by the number of requests (around 650 a day!) that it is turning down further requests for tests. We need to have a strong conformity of infrastructure in place. It is if-I-contracted-this-where-will-I-go syndrome that is haunting people more than the fear of the virus. Where do we go, if we are apprehensive? To the government hospitals (if we ignore that fact how ill-equipped they are!) and here the medical attendants turn you off saying that there are already enough cases. Now where does one go? To a private hospital? And what are the odds that the government has not yet issued a list of private hospitals that are authorised to test.
When a situation such as this strikes, one of the first things that strikes some people is ‘business’. Sick! How else would you define people trying to hoard and even black-market the N-95 masks or even TamiFlu in certain cases. Inspite of the heavy culture talk (that has now become a trademark of India) we do often, we lag way behind in terms of some primary things like ‘social responsibility’. We still throw our garbage on the road, have a heavy not-my-problem attitude, don’t bother to carry handkerchiefs around, lack the basic etiquette that is taught to the kindergarten kids and feel that things like swine flu are pretty exotic and out of this land to infect us!
What we are also overlooking is the fact that WHO has issued a notice saying that even if the flu plateaus now, it will resurface again in winter, it has put the number of people estimated to contract this at around 2.2bn,almost 30% of the world population! The national labs say that cheaper testing kits are coming not before a month. We still don't have a vaccine; even Tamiflu at best is questionable. Are we prepared for all this? Or are we doing what we are best at: play the waiting game; wait till it strikes that big!
What we cannot ignore is the financial hit that we will take. Mexico lost close to $55mn a day during shutdown. The headlines on BBC World yesterday morning were, “The commercial capital of India shuts down”. You cannot shut down financial hubs like Mumbai where thousands of people are dependent on daily wages. And as a senior journalist put it, If you are an 'aam-aadmi's' government you definitely cannot ignore the 'aam-dani of that aam-aadmi!

Disppointing Typo!

"Deligate" never knew such a word ever existed!!
All this at THE WORLD BADMINTION 'CHAMPION SHIP'(a new kinda ship may be)!
Just on the way to the campus! For all the people who did not know,this street is called the Finance Street and houses IIIT Hyd,Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy,Hill Ridge Springs,Infosys,ISB,Microsoft,Wipro and other firms.
when you are hosting such a world class event typos such as these om the hoardings around is highly dispappointing.

Current Mood : Disappointed :(
Current Music : Ajj Din Chadheya!

Magadheera

The Disclaimer:

Ohk this would not be called a review because to me it is more of a BTMWA(Boy! the movie was auh-sum!)Many might find my opinion a bit biased!And this also happens to be the first telugu movie I felt like writing about,also because the number of telugu movies that feature in my annual movie calender would be less than five!



The opening scene was so superbly crafted that it swept me off!The movie streched a bit in the beginning but picked up as it went along till the interval so much so that those ten minutes seemed like ages to me.Kajal looked fantabulously gorgeous.

Revenge and reincarnation are the leitmotifs of this movie.It is about this intrepid security chief Kalabhairava who loves a Princess, Mitra Vinda,the Princess loves him aswell but there is a villian RanaDev Billa who is defeated by Bhairava in a contest and is banned from the kingdom.He proves to be a renegade and joins hands with an invader Sher Khan and conspires against the kingdom.What follows is an intense battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition army.Kalabhairava is shown scything through their forces and the invader is so overwhelmed by this act of his that he offers Bhairava his friendship.But fate had a different story for the lovers.The recidivistic Billa in a fit of rage tries to kill Mitra and injures her fatally.The Princess lies at the corner of the hill,breathing her last.She asks Bhairava to confess to his love for her atleast at this last moment.KalaBhairava is also fatally wounded,he tears apart his armour and falls on his knees to tell Mitra Vinda how much he loves her,but she's already dead by then.The scene in which his hand falls on the ground close to her and precisely then Mitra slips into the deep canyon is fantastically done.



Highlights:

* 'Magadheera' was released in 48 theatres and six multiplexes in Hyderabad on 31st July, with a staggering 241 shows everyday. Yes, 241 !! The number was mind-boggling, even if you factor that this is Telugu cinema's costliest film and stars Chiranjeevi's son, Ram Charan.
* The battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition's army.
* The Sound and SFX were clean
* Kajal looked stunning like a princess.
* The new villian did a good job.
* Casting:for once a telugu flick did not rely on the regular actors,the story demanded new faces;any regular characters would never have given you the feel it does now.

Letdowns:

* The movie resorted to some usual cliches but that is acceptable given the fact that it is a regional movie and is meant also for the masses,front-row-ers,people in small towns and cities.The producer has to get this money back.And,looks like it did the same ; it reportedly grossed close to 20Cr INR in the first week.Ghajini and now Magadheera, looks like whatever Allu Aravind is touching is turning into gold.
* Charan has to polish his acting even more.He looks pretty cold at times.More so for the family he hails from.
* I personally feel Charan's hair could have been styled better.Something to suit his jawline and complexion.
* The song which was supoosed to be the biggest crowd puller proved to score tad lesser than others.It was poorly mixed.But,it was compensated for by the dance.

Verdict:

4.5/5

A must watch,in a good theatre.Can be watched with the family,kids will like it even more.U/A might have been for the fight sequences which were violent in parts



* Current Mood: blank
* Current Music: Pehli baar

We Indians And Optimism!

Indians are the most optimistic people you would ever come across.We are taught to be illogically optimistic right from ourchildhood and we even outgrow that as the number of candles on our cake increases.A mom tells her 3yr old kid stories ofhow he'll grow up and rule the country as she makes some dinner in her makeshift hut from whatever little she could forageall day.Optimist.A child prays that his test on the next day be postponed because he has not prepared well.Optimist.Youassume that there won't be a traffic jam today when you drive to the office.An Optimist again.A group of people sit down todiscuss about the new government and hope that the new government brings in some real good reforms and they'll do yougood.A bunch of Optimists.Someone in some distant town has gone to the nearby temple to pray that it may not rain on the final day of the test match because India is in a winning position.Optimist.An old man hopes that his alone sugar levels will hit normal and he will get to eat his favourite sweetmeat.An Optimist and veteren at it.The list goes on,well you may ask what is wrong in optimism?Well nothing,but for optimism we would all be living in acynical,depressing world.Some may even argue that it has got this placebo effect on our lives,because but for it the oldman in the tests lab might not find enough reasons to live n cheer about nor the mother in the hut.But what could be morally and mentally damaging could be the being optimistic and doing nothing about it,like the kidpraying that the exam be postponed,the prayer per se is harmless but what would damage would be the fact that he will growup to be an adult who wants something and does nothing about it,just hopes or prays.You want to crack that managemententrance every year,but you just hope that the project that you get at the end of the year would be pretty easy and you cando away without slogging more than 9.5hrs a day.This is a dangerous corollary of the optimism theory,that leaves everythingon your disaster management skills,which are good but might not save something as important and improbable as your career.This is how we operate.No,am not drawing parallels with our financially better off counterparts but a bit of logic mixed with this can take us a long way.

Love Aaj Kal-Dissection

LAK is about Jai(Saif) who is like any other guy you meet,chilled out, anti-commitment,you IM him Love and he would reply with a suprised smiley.Jai ,as in any other lovestory, meets a girl Meera.Meera Pundit(Deepika) is again the usual girl who her own set of ideals and is pretty cool about this love stuff herself.The story is about how these people who seem all so 'practical' fall for each other.All along Imtiaz tried explaining the audience that no matter how casual you are about relationships and people,there would be this one person you would fall in love with.This one person understands you and knows you inside out and is your 'soulmate'.
Imtiaz starts with his trademark guy meets gal,they are not quite keen(read sure) about each other but eventually destiny has it that they meet.'Socha na tha' started similar;but again it doesnot leave you with a deja vu as many critics put it; neither do I see the director being overtly cautious.It is plain his-own-style.Romance, we understand is his forte,his real test now would be coming out of his comfort mush zone.
Story:
The story quite interestingly starts with the lead pair calling their relationship quits!Talking always about being 'practical' and how long distance relationships don't take off;given the fact that Meera had to fly to India for work.Both wanted to grow professionally and so they part ways but they decide on not to sob their way out of this but celebrate with a party,a 'break-up party'.It was at the end of this party that Veer Singh(Rishi Kapoor),a cafe owner bumps into him,telling Jai how he resembled him in is youth.
Veer Singh had dated a beautiful young punjabi girl Harleen(Giselle Montero) who lived in Delhi,when he was young(played by Saif with a turban).Harleen and family relocated to Calcutta,but Veer Singh is so smitten by this girl that he travels to Calcutta just to catch a glimpse of her.The next time they meet is at a wedding in Delhi,when she tells Veer that she is getting engaged the day after and has no say in this.He eventually wins her home,despite opposition from her family.
Screenplay and good slick Editing are the stars of the film.The movie darts smoothly between Veer Singh's past and Jai's present drawing parallels between eveverything in their lives.
Saif plays Jai,he has done similar roles in Salaam Namaste and Hum Tum before, so pulls it off pretty effortlessly.This might go down as one of the better performances by Deepika,who I felt showed us that she too can act, for the first time esp. the last scene where she proved that she can cry.She has miles to go in terms of acting still and is wooden at times,particularly. the dance sequences.Deepika again has usually been potrayed in roles like these,which are by and large similar to how she is in real life aswell.Her character and 'practical' approach to life remind you of Bachna Ae Haseeno.
Rip Masand:
"The screenplay, for one, is far from foolproof."
I feel it was one of the best narrations of 2009.For example,one of the last scenes in which the love-lost Jai finally goes to Meera.The shots move quickly between Veer Singh going to get Harleen and Jai going to Meera's house.The parallelism has been smoothly crafted.

"The incident that drives Jai to realise where his heart lies is ridiculous"
It is funny how Masand expects everything to be senselessly scientic.This is how life is and this also precisely the charater that Jai and Meera play.They have no idea that he/she is the one for each other.And that is also what Meera tells Rahul Khanna,"Jai does not know this yet.And if he does anytime,he will come back to me". The one good thing that I observed in this is how she doesnot forecast that Jai 'will be back' .Quite unlike "Woh zaroor ayega,mera dil kehta hai"or "Agar mera pyaar sachcha hai toh woh zaroor ayega" cliches.

"The young Veer and Harleen track is wrapped up with a convenient culmination that isn't even dramatic enough to justify how much time has been spent establishing these characters."
What more does anyone want?Any more frames into their story and people might have started getting bored,given the fact that Veer is not the lead protagonist.

" Deepika Padukone lacks the maturity or the skill to make up for the lapses in the writing and to construct a credible character out of Meera. "
I could not figure out any lapses as such but Deepika did a commendable job as discussed before.

Verdict:
The film is a fitting next to the director's previous "Socha Na Tha" and "Jab We Met" and if we talk about the storyline and the depth,I personally found it to be tad better than JWM.You can watch it anytime with anyone.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

Worked Out!

One of the most common excuses that people give for not hitting the gym is "am not interested","it is not good,it strains your muscles/bones" and the lame-est of all "I don't get time".No, working out does not strain your bones,it strains your muscles only to the extent that is required,well that is what 'working out' means.You are not interested or pretend not to be for the sole reason that that you are lethargic,this can be attributed to the i-don't-find-time category above aswell.Who does not want a good body,none of us likes chiding remarks on our body,our on our increasing waist-line.

How long does a fifteen minute cardio take?fifteen minutes;3 sets of 8 reps each of crunches 15 minutes.That would be enough to just tone down the excess fat and burn down those needless calories. Again there is this category that drools over a toned body but has some dumb myths on weight training,this is the category that comes feels your biceps,slaps your abs,gives you a lame I-can-have-'em-too look and says,"Am not too much into bodybuilding n all,it's just that my clothes should look good on me".Well none of us are into 'bodybuilding' unless we aim to and when we say bodybuilding the image that flashes in our mind is of dark(no!I wasn't being racist) men on a stage with oiled up bodies,trying to flex every single muscle in their body,standing in a minimalist costume that has a huge white circular cardboard piece with some number on it.Another popular fad is that,I am thin and so will not workout.Eat lots of of protein,that should suffice!

Some chest and lats(latissimus dorsi) or shoulder or triceps-biceps reps will do you a world of good apart from the regular cardio.

It is not against people who can-not do it ,it is against people who do-not-do-it or do-not-want-to-do-it.We do not have the right to stay unfit/unhealthy and comment on how the other person is looking.People who are not working out are slowly killing themselves.And among these ,majority are boys,and in this there is a subset of boys who register for the gym on the first day of the month,come all geared up,want to hit the machines and weights on the first day itself,but the instructor wants them to do a mix.Eventually, after a week they get pissed and stop coming to the gym.Working out is an essential part of our lives and not just going to the gym.

For all those of you ,who are seriously into this,There are a couple of fundas that I follow:

1)Against the Gravity; Slow(when ever you are lifting your body/part thereof up(against the Gravity)take your body up ,as slow as possible.

2)When working out concentrate/try-visualising that particular muscle.

3)Never concentrate on girls dance-practising in the activity room beside the gym.You could end up with an injured neck!

4)If your instructor says that he was drunk all night yesterday,has a hangover and so he cannot give you support while you are doing weights.Trust Him! Else you might end up with a muscle tear or something even serious and might have to stay away from all this for a good part of your life!

I know that this post ain't going to change nothing,but this was what I've felt always.We take our bodies for granted. humph!
Hit da Gym!

Second Class Luxury

There is something about travelling sleeper class in the trains in India.I know there are hundreds of people who hate it for all the hygiene and other high funda factors.I have been one HUGE sleeper class lover.The wind in your face,your co-passengers staring down your luggage as soon as you unzip your bag, trying to get a sight of what all you are carrying,people sneaking inside the bathroom to smoke,people throwing coins in a river and praying,people joining hands and praying at the sight of a famous place of worship,guys sitting at the door even if they have a reserved berth in the coach,someone playing music on their mobile,hawkers selling stuff.Everything!The list is endless.
There is some rustic-purity in the way people see,talk,behave and react that you will never find in another class of the train.

There are many amongst us who prefer not to travel in the second class sleeper and there are people like one of my ex-girlfriends who didn't even know how the interiors of this coach looks like.Not that the people in the other 'higher' classes are not interested in the stuff their co-passengers are carrying or that they don't feel like throwing coins in the river and praying or that they actually don't,it's not even that they don't feel like sitting at the gate of the coach with breeze in their face;it is only that they feel they are too refined to show that they like or do such stuff.
The second class is sheer luxury to many in our country at the same time a last resort to another set of people and a no-go to many others.Well this is how most of our India is,this is how many countries are.Second class is the majority,the bourgeois.People come in without reservation sometimes with heavy luggage and without reservation with the hope that there will be someone who'll let him sit,if he is lucky some might even let him share their berth for the night.Things like these are pretty ubiquitous in the second class and pretty rare in the 'higher' classes.
The choice of travelling in the class of their liking is purely dependent on that person but this was something pretty generic that I observed.

P.S.Hope I didn't sound like one NRI who returned to India after twenty years :P