Mangal Pandey … Brave martyr or an Accidental Hero

Mangal Pandey … Brave martyr or an Accidental Hero.
-Nimish Inamdar
30th July 2005.


This is the way the title of a book released recently by Penguin Publishers goes. The writer Rudranshu Mukherjee is a graduate from Oxford University and was awarded a D.Phil in Modern History by university of Oxford in 1981. In his book the writer pens down the detailed scenario on, before and after the fatal or the fateful day of 29th March 1857.

First of all let me clear a misconception about Mangal Pandey actually killed his senior. No he did not. Yes he did shoot on one of the officers, but it didn’t work as the ball missed Sergent Major James Hewson and he was saved. But Mangal Pandey seriously injured Hewson and Lt. Baugh in a sword fight and was hanged for the same.

Two days after this incidence started his trial that lasted for one single day, as a result which was well predicted by all that Mangal Pandey went to gallows. In his trial Pandey confessed of drug addiction, which he started off late and also made it clear that he was under the intoxication of Bhang when he acted the way he did. He could reveal nothing more than, “I was not in right senses and I did not know what I was doing.” This was as opposed to the British expectation of revealing names of his colleagues who could possibly revolt in near future.

The writer grabs this point and raises an issue that he being in the state of intoxication, was certainly not aware of what he was doing and turns out to be an accidental hero. But also raises out a possibility that Pandey needed that intoxication to carry the guts he needed to revolt.

I reckon that it makes sense, and thus for me at least there is no doubt about him being a true martyr.



But there are also certain facts that cannot be overlooked, and they do raise another question of whether his sacrifice was really worthwhile to blow the whole of North India against the East India Company? Mangal Pandey was a sepoy at the Barrackpore Cantonment near Calcutta. The first revolt that took place was miles away at Meerut.

The story there follows in this way that 85 sepoys were detained and sentenced to 8 years of rigorous imprisonment since they refused to touch the newly introduced Enfield Cartridges. The rumor about the Enfield cartridges being greased with the cow and pig fat had a grip over the whole of North India. Meerut was a place where according to the writer the name Mangal Pandey had not reached. It was the fury against the British Raj to detain those 85 sepoys that led to the revolt. The writer makes another point worth noting, that throughout the 1857 revolt, the Barrackpore Cantonment didn’t budge and the neighboring Calcutta remained loyal to the British Raj.

If Mangal Pandey didn’t much contribute to the revolt, then one would raise questions about his fame. The answer according to Mr. Mukherjee is that Mangal Pandey being one of the first revolting people, had created a sense of treat in the minds of the British. Pandey was a common name amongst the Indians and that prompted the rulers to generalize the term “Pandeys” against the revolting people. Thus his name got encrypted in history.

The forthcoming Amir Khan starred movie should be thus worth watching. I presume they must have completely exploited the mystery about Mangal Pandey’s life to make fiction out of reality. None of the records that exist till now have given perfect information about Mangal Pandey’s past, his parents, his wife, or that whether he was married or not, from where did he come etc. Thus Ketan Mehta gets a full opportunity to use things according to his convenience.

To sum up the 1857 revolt had a sole reason as the spark for the fuel, and that was the greased cartridge. I’d like to end here by a verse made by the last Mughal Emperor

Na Iran ne kiya, na Shah Russ ne,
Angrez ko tabah kiya kaartoosh ne.

[Neither Iran nor the Tsar of Russia could do what the cartridges (in India) did]
And thus... here started The Rising.

movie reviews: Sarkar

The GODkar
-Nimish Inamdar
July 1, 2005

The most awaited film of the year is here and I’m amongst the first people to see it, and I’m glad that I’m. Ram Gopal Verma’s ambitious project shot under the heavy schedule of 45 days incorporating heavy names like Abhishek (yeah that is a heavy name today) and Amitabh Bachhan under the banner of the prestigious K Sera Sera productions was released today.

Sarkar deals with a family practically ruling the norms of Mumbai where our big B is the numero uno enjoying the maximum support of the crowd. Subhash Nagare a.k.a, Sarkar played by Bachhan Sr is a messiah for people as he is the sole person capable of solving their problems or giving them justice of course by illegal meanings. He has his own philosophies. Neither him nor his principles can be sold to anyone. He is determined to do anything that he thinks is right irrespective of the system’s rules.

In this background comes Rashid from Dubai to take the permit from Sarkar about drug trafficking from the region where Sarkar rules, but returns empty handed. To bring down Sarkar he joins hands with the rest and turn all the allies of Sarkar his enemies. War breaks open between Rashid and Sarkar & Co with Sarkar going to jail on false accusations and then consecutively to the hospital as a victim of the war. In this scenario his own son Vishnu, played by K.K.Mennon, turns a traitor. Now the responsibility comes on Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan)
and he manages to kill all of his enemies and once
again restore the pride the Nagare family had in
the city, and becomes the next Sarkar.



This mafia story is an exact replica of ‘The Godfather”. We had Don Vito Corleone then as The Godfather, and now we have Subhash Nagare as Sarkar. Michael Corleone’s image is seen in Shankar Nagare. We can even find images of Pete Clemanza, Tom Hagen and Tessio. Clearly Rashid plays the role of Virgil Sollozo. And now we need a family traitor, in the year 1972, we had Carlo Rizzi to do the job and here we have Vishnu Nagare. The conceptual difference that I see is that Subhash Nagare gets arrested here. Those who have read The Godfather know that it’s impossible for Don Vito Corleone to get arrested.

So those who have seen or read The Godfather, don’t watch the movie with high expectations as in every scene you find yourself saying, “Godfather.” This especially happens in the second half and thus it is more predictable. The first half, dominated by Bachchan Sr., rocks. In second half you get to see Abhishek in mainframe. We get to see some good performances in the movie with K.K.Mennon as a special mention. Undoubtedly both the son and father steal your attention throughout the movie, and as expected both of them are fantastic on screen. I can say this is one of the best pieces by Ram Gopal Verma ever.

On the whole the movie rocks. Whether or not you have read The Godfather, do go and see the Indian version of The Godfather.

movie reviews :Bunty Aur Babli

Be my lover BABLI.
-NIMISH INAMDAR
11th june 2005.




I made did make an attempt today to watch Yash Chopra’s new comedy (or rather supposed to be comedy) flick Bunty Aur Babli (BAB). My 1st question to Mr. Chopra is, that was it really comedy? He should have at least given some hints when we were supposed to laugh. I did make few attempts to laugh during the movie time, but that sounded so artificial that the rest of the audience gave me the “Is he crazy?” look.



DO NOT and please do not go to the movie hall thinking that I’m going to have some rocking fun for three hours. Sitting in that air-conditioned hall I was thinking for ways to get out of that torture. My 50 bucks were waste- a total waste.



The plot seems all good when we here about two con people calling themselves Bunty and Babli run all over the country fooling people. But at every point the movie says, “Come on guys this plot was supposed to be funny… laugh.” And then we grin looking at each other. Don’t believe me? I can understand, with all the other critics and the review writers going ga-ga over it, what makes me sound it so miserable? Well the answer is simple; let me give you one example. There is a scene in the movie where Rani Mukherji (The babli out of them) sits on the rock all alone, then comes Bacchan Jr. to see her and notice that she is about to cry. What happens next? Well then our Bunty asks her “what’s the matter?” like any other normal person would do. Prompt comes the reply “Muzhe maa ki yaad aa rahi hai (I’m missing my mother)”. Fine pretty fair, no complaints so far. Now what happens next?? Well that’s it guys, it was a comedy plot in the movie, we all were supposed to laugh. Damn I missed it all.

If there is nothing to laugh, then u may ask what is there in the movie? Well I can say the plot is good. Two people fed up of life and the idea of living honestly sets up together to make earning out of fooling others. Babli as Binno calls herself aspires to become Miss India. But fails to do so and thus the blame obviously goes to her ‘Live with Principles’ attitude. Rakesh a.k.a. Bunty dreams of becoming one amongst the Tatas and the Ambanis but his honesty don’t allow him to do so. Both meet at this point of failure and decide to go to their Mecca i.e. Mumbai. In order to get the money to reach to their dreams, both successfully fool one person. But the money empties from their pockets soon and they make repeated attempts to make money. Soon they realise how good they are in this and now they realise the future of their career.

But obviously, it’s a Hindi movie, so they fall in love and get married (with no witnesses around). At this point comes Bacchan Sr. (mind you its second half of the movie by now). He is determined to catch these two culprits who have fascinated the whole country and lavishly robbed a few. Their crimes include robbing a shopping mall (completely), robbing a hotel (almost completely), and selling the great Taj Mahal to a phirangee (now how’s this? we need such capable people in our bureaucracy) and the last but not the least, robbing the gold out of RBI’s reserves.

But in no story do we hear that the bad wins, ditto here, except that it’s a Hindi movie, straight from the heart of Bollywood. So we cannot expect anything new out of it, and thus they get caught just when they decide to become good guys and live an honest life. But that’s certainly not the end. The climax is something a novelty for Hindi movies where the con people are used for the good of the society and not jailed for life or hanged.

Honestly and very truly there are very few moments in the movie where anyone would feel like laughing. It’s a typical Yash Chopra film with all the regular gloss. Rani Mukherjee tries to be sexy, but I must say the attempts are futile. It’s a treat to watch Bacchan Sr, and Jr, dance together in an item number. But nothing else really works even in that song. Many of the dance steps in many of the songs are completely unprofessional something that I could make.(Ha ha just kidding.)

On the whole, go and watch the movie if at all you love Yash Chopra. But if you are like me who hate him after every new movie he has made after Mohobattien then please donate that money in children’s welfare fund.

My Views: SUGGESTION FOR SION TRAFFIC

SUGGESTION FOR SION TRAFFIC



As we all see that MUTP is accelerating its work, and now we can hope to drive on broader roads with less traffic problem. I would like to suggest the concerned authorities to also look into the traffic problem at the Sion-Bandra link road that is responsible to connect two major highways of the city. I would like to suggest a step to remove all the leather shops adjacent to the road and accommodate all of them in a five to six storied leather mall with proper parking space. This will relax the traffic problem and plus will generate good revenue for the leather shops existing there. The special allotment for the leather shops will certainly draw attention of the city towards it, and with organized parking space and widened roads the traffic problem in the area will decrease to a considerable extent.
-Nimish Inamdar

Veer Savarkar cannot be compared to Jinnah.

Veer Savarkar cannot be compared to Jinnah.

This is in response to a ridiculous statement by a CPI leader in one of the shows conducted by SAB TV, where he arguably compared Veer Savarkar to M.A.Jinnah.Although M.A.Jinnah had some role in the Indian freedom struggle, he had a major role in the Indian partition, which we moan till now. Partition was something that Veer Savarkar was strongly protesting. So Jinnah first being good and then turning hostile has no comparison with Savarkar’s sacrifice in pre-independence era and his national service in post independence India. Jinnah turning hostile later on was selfishness on his part, whereas Veer Savarkar never put himself before the country. None of the acts of Veer Savarkar were in self-interest. Whether or not, his actions were good, may be a question pertaining to individual point of view, but no one can disagree his sense of patriotism, national pride, and service to the nation. So its sheer madness to compare a patriot like, Veer Savarkar to a traitor like Jinnah.

My Views: JUG'S HEAD

JUG'S HEAD (As Appeared in The Times Of India Editorial Page :Conversation with the readers)
On the bright Sunday morning I decided to read the article written by Jug Suraiya about “Indians being the ugliest face in the world”. As I went through it I started feeling sick, and till the point I had completed it, I found myself besides my washbasin vomiting. That article almost made me to decide to get the next flight and run abroad. Although Mr. Jug Suraiya ruined my bright Sunday morning, I would give him a standing ovation for bringing out this topic. Everyday when I decide to walk on the roads, I’m deep in thoughts, and those thoughts just include my plans to dodge the live and dry spits. I think we, as Indians should realize the surroundings and its importance. There should be proper measures taken by the government to control the littering. The recently started campaign to ‘fine’ anyone littering, is a complete failure, and with this pace people will continue harassing our Mother India. There is an urgent need of introducing hygiene as an independent subject in the school curriculum, where even the social behavior and mannerism should be discussed. I hope that we do act as soon as possible to these unhygienic Indian conditions, and reach a stage where we say, “Daag, Dhoondte rehjaoge.” (“Keep searching for the stain.”)

My Views: Jassi Jamboree

Jassi Jamboree (As appeared in Times Of India Editorial Page: Conversation with readers)

I agree the TIMES VIEW in the editorial section dated Sept the 2nd 2004, that we need to agree on official and national level that our icons or idols are changing, from the power-thirsty politicians to the glamorous television. And in that glamorous site, something as unglamorous as the character of Jassi definitely creates stir in the whole scenario. But still this doesn’t justify the recent attempt by the Indian postal service, to use Jassi as the main frame in the postage stamps. We can certainly smell commercialization here. Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi is a series running currently on a popular television channel, and imprinting Jassi on something as popular as postage stamps certainly promotes the series, which is not the job for Postage. If Jassi is gaining some popularity by this surrogate advertisement, may be they should return some part of it back to the Govt. run tax-payers’ service of Indian Postage. Here all I want to suggest is that any Govt. run institution or service is not meant for promoting any product, brand, or any company. I hope that the Indian Postal Service keeps this in mind before taking any further steps on one of the most popular medium of communications.

SLUMMY CITY

SLUMMY CITY

I saw that few people have grudges on the government's plan to remove the poor hut men’s homes, as read in Times Of India dated January the fourth 2005. There was one letter stating about the utilities of these hut men and thus their need for the city. I would like to mention this that if the government has decided to remove the illegal constructions then they are on right track. City is right now flooded with unemployment, so I don’t think that there is any vacancy for the jobs like sweeping streets, or cleaning drainages etc mentioned by my friend in his letter. Here I would like to emphasize on the point that the illegal constructions are to be removed and not every hut in the city. We all do share a dream to make our city look better, with better infrastructures facilities. But with increasing immigrants there is no space in the city to make the dream come true. So the solution to this would be vertical expansion and for the same we need to relocate the slums sometime or the other. So if the huts are legal they better be untouched or else relocated in order to elevate living space. But illegal constructions ought to be brought down.
-Nimish

My Views: LEGAL SUITE

LEGAL SUITE

I completely support the stand taken by Mr. Subhash Bhende (TOI Sept 15 2004). In fact I wonder that how come any didn’t come across such an intelligent solution, to remove the voting rights of the illegal residents, a decade ago? Anyways better late than never is all I can say. If at all statistics mentioned by Mr. Jokin Arputham are true, it should be a matter of disgrace. If only 25000 illegal residents are occupying our city pavements, then we can imagine the amount of illegal land legalized by these power thirsty politicians. You walk across any road in the city like Mumbai and you are bound to come across some or the other slum colony. I ask, are these slums not illegal? If they are not, then the damage done by the politicians so far is tremendous, and it needs to be halted right now, so that the railways and the PWD don’t further lose their ever-decreasing land.
-NIMISH

IS THIS INDIA'S GATEWAY?

IS THIS INDIA'S GATEWAY?

A trip to The Gateway Of India brings, filth, dirt, chaos, encroaching hawkers, beggars, and such odds into sight. Slowly these parasites are overshadowing the beauty of The Gateway, which happens to be the pride of Mumbai. Every foreign tourist coming in the city would like to make a peep in here. The monument comes with a history, which needs to be preserved. So as the government plans to renovate the Gateway’s Landscape, I would also recommend keeping a check on these activities. If possible, start ticket system to enter the monumental area, as they do for The Taj Mahal and other monuments of the country. I would also like if the tourism police try to maintain the decorum of the area, by actually implementing the rule of ‘Fine for littering the area’. I don’t object hawker’s intrusion if people are interested in them, but then at least they should be organized and not allowed to intrude area more than a certain limit. When we try to make our city clean, let us start by the monument that represents the city.
-Nimish Inamdar (Mumbai.)

Wrong Aid

WRONG AIDs

I am not much in support with the government’s decision to grant Rs. 50000 to the family members of the victims of Methyl Alcohol. First of all, who is responsible for the drinking problem of these people? Although I do share the plight of the affected families, who have lost their loved ones, but drunkards are of no use to the society; in fact they create problems in the household work. With this logic the government should grant the aid to all the people facing drinking problem, just because they the financial burden for the family and the family is in need of some support. I think this action of the government will only encourage people to consume the ‘desi’ alcohol leading to still many deaths. Right now the people who are in need of aid are the innocents who faced the Tsunamis. I don’t think that the people who can’t live without alcohol, and who always prefer to stay in the drowsed state of mind, are innocents in any way! Yes, their families are innocents, but then there are innumerable such families. Is it practical to provide aid to them? So it would be better if the money were used in educating people about alcohol, the ways to consume it, prepare it and also the level or the limit to consume it. We should also educate people the ill effects of high-level consumption of alcohol, the way it affects their families, the society and ultimately the nation. Perhaps this may also help in reducing the rate of crimes that people commit for a bottle of alcohol.
-Nimish

License to Kill

License to kill
I recently came across a popular TV serial where in a sequence the main character of the series, is shown chatting on a mobile phone while driving. I think media, and films make a major impression on minds of people and thus it becomes imperative for the stars to be responsible on the screen. People should be acknowledged that even chatting using hand-free is an offence. Many a times the screen artist refuse to tie the seat belt, speed on a 2-wheeler without using helmet. I think this makes a negative impact on the audiences. It’s high time that we get more responsible on small and big screens.
-NIMISH

My Views: Desis

DESIS (As appeared in The Times of India Editorial Page: Conversation with the readers)

This is with reference to the ‘The times of India’ article, dated 17th December 2004, where Asian Indians were compared to Asians, and the rest of Americans. I personally feel that, comparing the Indian and other Asian immigrants with The US citizens is something unfair. This can be explained by the fact that, the best amongst the Indian lot gets the opportunity to go abroad, with US in top preference. So it’s but natural that, the best amongst all the 1b Indians may have settled amongst the Yankees. But on the comparison chart we saw the average of US citizens, where just the best lot wasn’t considered. It showcased the proportions of the average American. So, an average American can only be compared with an average Indian, and not an average Indian settled in US. When we say that about 63% of Indians are graduates and above, we should also consider that the literacy rate back home is merely 65.4% ad that of US is 96%.
But something that satisfies is that Indians have proved to be the best immigrants amongst the lot, as they are lot better than an average Asian. The desis shine along with India.

My Poems: Great Decision

GREAT DECISION!
-NIMISH INAMDAR

TROUBLED A PERSON VERY DEEP IN A THOUGHT,
WILL HIS SON FIGHT THE WAY HE FOUGHT?
TO WHICH CAREER HE WOULD LIKE TO EMBRACE?
TO ALL SUCH QUESTIONS HE HAD TO FACE.

STRUCK AN IDEA IN HIM TO FIND,
THE ROUTE OF INTEREST IN HIS SON’S MIND.
SO THAT HE CAN HELP HIM TO MOVE AHEAD,
AND SUCCESS TO HIM BE EASILY LED.

MADE SOME SPACE FOR A LONG TABLE, IN THE ROOM OF HIS SON,
BOUGHT SOME THINGS AND PLACED THEM ONE BY ONE,
AND PRETENDED TO BE OUT OF THE HOME,
SO THAT, THE SON FELT, HE IS ALONE.

HE ENTERED THE ROOM WHICH HE USED TO LOVE,
UNAWARE OF HIS FATHER SNEAKING THROUGH WINDOW,
HE PICKED UP THINGS ONE BY ONE,
MAKING HIS FATHER HIS CAREER LEARN.

FIRST HE PICKED UP THE PACK OF CARDS,
THE THING WHICH WAS TO BELIEVE – VERY HARD.
THEN HE STARTED PLACING THEM,
AS IF HE WAS PLAYING A GAMBLING GAME.

THEN HE PICKED UP THE MEDAL OF HIS FATHER,
AS TO PEOPLES’ GRIEVENCES HE USED TO BOTHER.
AND GAVE IT SUCH A PROUD LOOK,
AS TO PEOPLES’ SERVICE HE WOULD HIMSELF HOOK.

THEN TURNED HIS ATTENTION TOWARDS THE BOTTLES OF RUM.
AND DRANK THEM ALL EXCEPT FOR SOME.
FOR HIS FATHER TO SEE THIS WAS VERY HARD.
AS HE COULD NOT IMAGINE HIS SON - A DRUNKARD?

UNABLE TO STAND PROPERLY HE CAME TO THE END,
AND TO PICK UP SOME HOLY BOOKS HE REALLY DID BEND,
SAT ON A CHAIR IN VERY PIOUS MOOD,
AND READ THEM AS MUCH AS HE COULD.

“WHAT POSTER OF MY SON SHOULD I PAINT?
A GAMBLER, A DRUNKARD OR PEOPLS’ SAINT.”
WIH A BIT OF THINKING CONCLUDED THE FATHER,
HE WILL BECOME TODAYS POLITICAL LEADER.

My Poems : From Full Stop To Coma

FROM FULL STOP TO COMA.
-NIMISH INAMDAR
8TH AUG 2003.


“Think again before taking any action,
Are you sure that you have to do this?
Look at the world from horizon to horizon,
There is so much that you are going to miss.”

“I don’t think that I am worth it all,
To this competition I really can not bend.
I have been a big loser in my life,
To all this I must put an end.”

“But will jumping from this mountain top,
Help me in the society to change my image?
Will I really be an ideal person?
Or no traces of me on the history page.”

“But how does that matter when I am no more?
No burden or tension of life.
I will be finally free from the people and the career,
And will no more be sitting on edge of knife.”

“But getting success was my only dream,
And I will be ending it soon.”
“But why should I think that people will need me?
As my birth was not any boon.”

“My parent have spent so hard on me,
And my returns are not even small.”
“But killing myself would waste their money?
And from where will the returns fall?”

“Standing alive I can at least work hard,
And struggle to restore my pride.
And I will give my best attempt to earn,
And will die with the satisfaction that ‘At least I tried’.”

He stood up from the rock dusting his pants
And moved ahead in a new confidence.
Was all set to face the world,
After forgetting about this incidence.

Chameli Reviews

Charm Meli.
-Nimish Inamdar 23rd jan 2003.

Sadak, Chandani Bar, Market, and now Chameli. PNC has has come up with the same concept of Red Light Area with a minor change. The one night show builds up a scenario of the RLA as witnessed by a rich white-collar person.

The story starts with depressed Aman Kapoor (Rahul Bose) who sets out in his car in a stormy night to get stuck in a RLA and by fortune or misfortune, meets Chameli (Kareena Kapoor) and then the ball revolves around them. The film snatches out the human out of the sex worker. “Even we have hearts” is the motto carved by the film.

In the first half the script dialogues Chameli. It’s all about her life, her family, her friends and her approach to life. The crew has successfully managed to create a sympathetic angle in the life of Chameli. The second half is basically tussle of Aman’s and Chameli’s life as the former encounters the daily problems of the later. He spends heavily, bears all the abuses, beatings, and yes influence, in order to save her. At this point the cupid strikes and brings some light in Aman’s darkened life. This part of the film encarves “Even we have hearts and we do care.”

The plot seems to be good with good direction, and a realistic approach. Everyone from the cast are good enough to portray their characters. The film reviews were flooded with the story that Kareena Kapoor was brilliant in her role. I would like to back out from this. At no point in the film did I notice that her acting was natural, and meant to perform as Chameli. According to me she is not yet fully matured enough to understand and carry this type of role. Such roles of sympathy always prove beneficial in career of any actress, and its this stage when they declare themselves to be away from the mainstream cinema. But in case of Kareena, I think her stage is still to run amongst the trees and sing songs. Cause more than acting her selling point is glamour, and its better she concentrates on that rather that choosing “meaningful” roles.

Lakshya Review

Bollywood to unveil new “Lakshya”.
-Nimish Inamdar (21st June 2004)




The year was 1999, when the whole of the nation was closely monitoring the northern part of India, as the Indian army faced the enemy bullets to conquer the lost land. The phase popularly known as the Kargil war, had shown its effect on every part of our country, and as everyone predicted we couldn’t just exclude our very own film industry from this impact.

Our film industry, popularly christened as the Bollywood, tries it’s best to project a love story in every possible background, and even army is not spared from it. In Bollywood movies focusing an Indian war, more than the conflict between the two forces, the conflict in the army mind between love for nation and love for wife, family, fiancée, or friends catches the center stage. This scenario is also repeated for the Kargil war. As expected, one of the great filmmakers, Mr.J.P.Dutta made a film L.O.C. and gave an unusual equation to the industry, that number of stars in a movie is inversely proportional to the success of the movie. Perhaps it was due to this that Farhan Akhtar learnt a lesson and made a film with lesser number of stars as compared to his first movie.

But that formula didn’t work effectively in Farhan’s new venture, Lakshya. Although he has made a good impressive movie, still it was well below his standards. Someone would have been expecting something still better from the writer and director of Dil Chahata Hai. It seems that Farhaan is now bending towards the mainstream cinema, which has the same regular masala.

The story starts with Karan (Hritik Roshan), a college going guy, without any goal, or obsession in life. The ball continuously revolves around Hritik, when he gets inspired to join the army by Romila (Priety Zinta), and his passion to become an army man changes his personality, and attitude to look through life. This breakthrough, gives him an opportunity to display his talents on the battlefield of point 5179 in the Kagil war.

Although Hritik has managed to outperform his previous performances, in the second half, he is not completely convincing in the first half of the movie. He seems to carry the same trait of his previous movie (Koi Mil Gaya) where he acts as a mentally retarded person. So either he has overacted his role, or else his character is not made clear in the movie, since he is certainly not a mentally retarded person in Lakshya. Preity has managed to get the Barkha Dutt approach, in her journalist’s character, Romila. To my surprise big B, playing Colonel Sunil Damle, doesn’t have much of footage in the film.

The presentation of the film is excellent. Especially the war scenes shot with great accuracy does bring the audience closer to reality. The effort taken in the side of Computer Graphics is all worth it, as the Helicopters hovering the Kargil sky, the hiking of Karan and his fellow mates, and many other sequences as a part of Operation Vijay monitored on the computer, have managed to give a real life tinge.

I remember a widow of a martyr on the Kargil field relating her husband’s death, to J.P.Dutta, as it was his movie Border, to encourage the soldier to join the army. Well what can I say about Lakshya is that it could just encourage still more people to sacrifice their lives on the battlefield for their motherland. The impact of Hindi films on the peoples’ mind, is sure to set new “Lakshya” for it’s ever wanting audiences.

Swades Review

WE THE PEOPLE
-Nimish Inamdar. 30 December 2004.

“Don’t forget Captain Russell that you are here to fill the treasury of the Queen!”
“I beg your pardon sir! But that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
These were the words scripted by Aushutosh Gowariker in his previous mega hit Lagaan. There he was talking about the Economic Drain. Many great Indian thinkers of the British era pondered on this issue viz. The Great Economic Drain. Now it seems that writer, director turned producer wants to amplify the existing buzz of a more serious threat to the nation, and that is of The Brain Drain. That’s how his new venture Swades was made.



Swades begins with Mohan Bhargav, a NASA scientists dealing currently as a project manager of a very important satellite that will help him create a mark on his dreamland. But Mohan isn’t much aware about his connectivity back home. But one thought always bothers him, and that is about his childhood Dai (care-taker) or Kaveri Amma, for whom he crosses the seven seas in order to bear his responsibility to take care of his Kaveri Amma from henceforth. But none other than Mohan’s childhood friend, Geeta, also equally loves Kaveri and both want their share of her pie. In this tussle, chemistry strikes between Mohan and Geeta and they fall in love. But Mohan also falls in love with his motherland, and especially the small village called Charanpur where Kaveri Amma along with Geeta is residing, and where Mohan works passionately in order to bring out a permanent solution to the electricity problem, becoming a undisputed hero.

What’s the best thing captured by the director? Well the answer is nor NASA, neither the USA but Charanpur. The movie has brought you the best possible glimpse of a typical Indian village scene, and there lies the genius of Ashutosh Gowariker. Shah Rukh Khan has given his best performance so far. The model turned actress Gayatri Joshi is also nowhere less than brilliance, may it be in acting, dancing or fully understanding the character of Geeta.

“Our lamp giving light to the neighbor’s home” isn’t the only motto carved by Swades but more importantly it creates a sense of independence amongst us all. If the government doesn’t act then it’s we, the people who should work for our own good, or else we will be habitual to the darkness of night. Country’s progress doesn’t solely rely on GDP, but the upbringing of the downtrodden villages. Although the movie has very few areas to be compared with previous film of the director, I should say that there isn’t much “Lagaan” effect in the movie. The movie has very less enthusiasm and comparatively less energy. Even few of the songs are inappropriately fitted, which creates few boring spots in the movie.

But looking at large the film is good, well thought and very well directed and I can rate it as a must see one, if not then at least once. After all it’s about We, The People.

welcome to my blog

50000 graduate each year and few hundred companies to employ.
When few do sincere efforts others insert some ploy.
Growing technology, collapsing world too many people we meet.
Growing population, increased communication,
The hell!!! There’s no place to keep our feet.

Living in today’s fiercely competitive world is not an easy task, as at every nook and corner we face identity crises. Today is an era where people find space crunch, mentally, physically, economically but not virtually. The future is a virtual world and this is where people will find their own space. Here as I make my own website I engrave my first flag in this inviting world.

Welcome to my blog.
Am I a flirt? Am I full of dirt? Am I cool? Am I a fool? Am I full of fun? Or hot tempered as sun? This is where you get to write anything you feel about me as well as about my blog.

Thank you once again for visiting my blog.

NImish

hi there