Dipped in love ...

Love is what attracts the electrons to a positive charge,
Love is the umbilical cord that connects a foetus to the life at large.

Love is the force of earth that holds you abreast,
Love is ur relationship with the air till in peace you rest.

Love is in the comfort of the warm hug at night or in rain,
Love is in the faith that the sun will rise again.

Love is in longing to meet that kills you inside,
Love is in the smile in your eyes that reside.

Love is in the sense of belonging towards your old scooter,
Love is the magic that protected Harry Potter.

Love is in the white flower presented to sentries,
Love is in the music that dissolves the boundaries.

Love is the feeling of Oneness that syncs the universe with thee,
Love is what connects you and me.

Happy Valentine's day.

Nimish.

posted from Bloggeroid

Straight lines

These are few lines ... straight from my heart ...

Trees in search of water have their roots spread deeper
Nimish

The success of a person can be measured by the kind of people attending his / her funeral
Nimish

However good your intentions are, you cannot clean anything unless you use a clean cloth
Nimish

If it is your idea, then it is your responsibility to make sure it is implemented. Else you are just like anyone else
Nimish

Wishes remain incomplete to boost another motivation in your life
Nimish

you may never know the cost to ditch your discipline
Nimish

posted from Bloggeroid

Return to your innocence

Isn't it ironic that people engaged in the industry needed for our very existence are found neglected? Why do people we practically cannot live without carry an adjective of "poor" against their identity of "farmer"? Agreed a laborer in every industry doesn't necessarily be rich. A farmer - essentially is a labourer in the agricultural industry is merely working for the landlords, the traders, the merchants and the political bigwigs that govern the rules of the industry. But when you compare it to say a laborer in IT industry, you do not really find a starving person barely able to meet his family's square meal. Again someone would debate that this has always been a difference between a white collar job and a field work job. But should this be a prerogative of the industry that is responsible for our survival? Today all the billionaires have sprung up from the industries without which we lived for centuries together. These industries are not responsible for our survival. They simply soothe our existence. Logic dictates that this economics when peered through the glass of demand and supply asserts that our demand for our survival is no longer given the due importance. I think there is a paradigm shift in our requirements and priorities where today we value our existence more than our survival.

It feels ironic that today we worry about screwed up internet connection while taking our survival for granted. It reminds me of the story where once a lion hired an ant to do some work. The ant being hardworking and efficient impressed the lion very well with her initial deliverables. Lion now wished to increase the efficiency and hired an owl as a consultant. Owl suggested on introducing a grasshopper as a manager to the ant to monitor her work. The grasshopper reported on some infrastructure malfunctioning and requested a crow to repair their "logistics". The owl now suggested that since we are too many people to work, we need a place to work. The lion hired an eagle to scout a right work place and manage the admin of his company. Now with so many people working the lion couldn't really find the time to make sure his employees were happy. So he hired a parrot as an HR. With so many mouths to feed, all of the employees set their expectations towards the ant. They urged the ant to double the output by sitting late and working in double shifts. Ant, mentally tortured by this soon declined in her performance. With low output , the lion demanded a production report from the owl. Owl after a through analysis presented a report stating that ant has performed poorly. The lion then upset over the ant fired the ant. We, at times in the process of organizing our lives and soothing our existence compromise on the simplicity of life.

As stone age man, the funda was simple. We need food to eat. We formed a bunch of hunters. Then we found vegetables, we formed a bunch of farmers. Now someone needed to buy this food, we invented finances. To protect these finances we invented security. In order for this to synchronize, we invented systems. Then came people to govern the political , financial, military, healthcare systems. To automate these systems we invented IT. While all of these systems are needed to soothe our lives, we forget where did all of this began in first place. We have been giving excessive importance over the peripherals. Maybe the effects are slowly cropping up. With farmers committing suicide and increasing agricultural prices, we can infer that our ant is no longer in the mental and physical state to cope up with our increasing demands.

Let us pause our lives for a while, look back and ponder over this. Let us help our "poor" farmer remove the adjective from his identity. Let us return to our innocence.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Silent Mumbai

There is a paradox in the tile of this blog itself. Mumbai a city that keeps buzzing can never really be silent. Even at night as the eye lids get heavy, you cant escape the energy in the air that resonates along with your morning alarm giving you another purpose to begin a new grind. Pu. La. Deshpande once described that, "Mumbai is the only city that knows that the clock has a minute's and a second's hand. This is a place where a watch is tied not just to a person's wrist, but also to his destiny." In this city of dreams, running is mandatory. If you are not connected with this essence of a Mumbaikar, you will certainly misunderstand a Mumbaikar's resilience towards terrorism as his/her apathy towards a subject of national grief.

I was buffering a clip where actor Siddharth was incorrectly canvassing Mumbaikar's inherent nature to work for himself as a stone cold heart that turns a blind eye towards a scar just cast on him.
I highly despise such insensitive comments. The actor sensing the lively energy in the city, concluded that the city has forgotten about its scars within a month's period. I have read and listened a lot of Mumbai bashing off-late. Critics have been heavy on this 'zindadili' attitude of Mumbai. I would want all of those guys to leave their comfort zones for once and get on field here when Mumbai is actually at seize.

When the terrorists were spraying their bullets across the city, there were stories of the common man on the road being brave enough to be at ground zero to help the injured. The city has never let the blood banks go dry in such times. Donations flood not just come in form of money, but also in form of volunteering. During every bomb blasts, it is the locals who have done the first aid even before the police or the paramedics arrive. When we are flood victims, the able cook food and pass it on to the needy. The next day we make a tally of our losses and make a new plan on how to run our lives bearing the catastrophe. Please don't blame a Mumbaikar of forgetting his/her scars.

I have friends who have taken months to recover from the trauma of 26/11 before mustering courage to take a glance at The Taj and The Trident. So Siddharth, if you think that people forgot about 26/11 a month later, then you are sadly mistaken. Do not expect an event of grief to be a piece of conversation on every dining table every single day. And talking about the issue over and over again is certainly not justified. You should make an attempt to give a vent to your grief and look towards the time ahead. As far as actions of Mumbaikars are concerned, you should have been there at the rally of 3rd December 2009. The anger of an average Mumbaikar was pretty evident in the posters, slogans their acts and voices. The aam junta this time was not blaming Pakistan, nor did it booed the terrorists. The protest constructively demanded justice and security from the government.

Yes I agree, the anguish did not reflect in the General Elections that arrived few months later. However I do not still attribute the low turnout as Mumbaikar's indifference towards emotional issues. I think that an average Mumbaikar does not consider politics as an answer to his/her questions a misconception that needs to be changed.

Overcoming yesterday's tragedy by setting out to work is a need in Mumbai. It is this need that drives its engines and makes Mumbai what it is. The resilience of the city begins its day 2 in remembrance of the tragedy, with high emotions, with fear but with a grit - a grit to work for myself, my family which in its own fraction adds some activity towards the nation. I see no reason to discourage this bounce back attitude of the city that in effect destroys the sole purpose of terrorism. I, a Mumbaikar, salute the spirit of the city.

Salaam Mumbai!!

Where Einstein Meets Hinduism ...

If someone asks you and me, “What time is it?” we would involuntarily check our wrist, or roll our head to the grandfather clock on our wall. But there was a man few decades back who would have snapped back, “You need time in relation to what?” That geeky German / American with innovative hairstyle and a thick moustache acknowledged as world’s most intellectual brain was none other than Albert Einstein. The old man in his”theory of relativity” went down to the pendulum of our grandfather’s clock and changed the definitions and the very foundations of the concept of time. He said that time is different for different people. “Well of course!” you might say “it is night in the USA right now while its day time here.” Please step back from that door in case your thinking is heading there. Do you think someone like Einstein would come up with a world renowned theory to prove that? What the genius meant was that what felt like 2 seconds to you might well be 2 days, 2 decades or maybe 200 years for someone else. “How can that be?” “Is he nuts to think something like that?”

I know, it is something difficult to imagine and understand, but needn’t be difficult to digest, after all even Joey the dumbest of all characters amongst the FRIENDS could assimilate the concept in one of his roles. Joey, acting as Victor on one of his stage performances in season 3 of FRIENDS gets on a spaceship to some BlogOn 7 planet in search of alternative fuels and is set to return back after 300 years. “And, when I return 300 years from now, you would have been long gone, but I wouldn’t have aged at all. So you tell your great, great granddaughter to look up to me. Because Adrian, baby, I would want to meet her.” This concept even decades after Einstein released his papers of “Time Dilation”, is found amongst comic series. People even today find it difficult to understand and easy to mock at. So guys, a standing ovation for the genius who could actually do an out of box thinking and come up with this theory. Come on, get up and applaud the man’s creativity and his efforts to prove that thinking.

But a Hindu would find a man in orange robes, with garland on his wrists and a pair of chaps in one of his hands that when stroked together add background music to his rhymes of, “Narayan, Narayan!” smiling at this discovery. Ladies and gentlemen meet Mr. Narad Muni, a divine sage in Hindu scriptures given the powers and the ability to travel between different planes and planets of the universe. If the Hindu mythology really exists then Narad Muni is the one who should know about this and the means to tackle with this kind of physics, mainly because the Hindu scriptures have professed this theory more than 5000 years back. “Now what was that?” Let me tell you a short story found in the epic of Mahabharata.

Once upon a time (isn’t this how a story should always start?) there was a kingdom beneath the oceans. It was ruled by a nice benevolent king called as Kakudmi who had an extremely beautiful daughter Revati. Kakudmi finding none amongst the earthlings as a capable life partner for his daughter, decided to consult Bramha the creator of the universe himself to find a capable groom for Revati. Since Lord Bramha was already engrossed in the music of the Gandharvas (yes, Gods rock too), Kakudmi decided to wait patiently for Gandharvas to finish their concert. After applauding their performance, Lord Bramha was amused to see King Kakudmi an earthling waiting at his door step with his daughter. Kakudmi sought consultations of the Lord Himself to find an appropriate groom for Revati. Bramha laughed at that moment and said, “O King, you have come to my door step. Here on this plane of the universe, time is different from what it is on earth. In the time that you were waiting here, 27 chaturyugs have passed by on earth. Your kingdom is long gone by and all of the grooms existing in your era on earth are now dead. All of your fore generations are already dead and an altogether different kind of human life is now growing itself on earth.”

Now let us dig deeper into this concept of Chaturyugs. 1 Chaturyug is actually 1 Mahayug made up of the 4 Yugs viz. the Satya Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapara Yug and the Kali Yug. 1 Yug equals to 432,000 human years. But the Hindu scriptures shaking hands with Einstein’s theory of relativity assert that these 432,000 human years are nothing but 0.01% of 1 day of Lord Bramha.




While 1 Maha Yug is 0.1% of Bramha’s day. So if you calculate backwards, 27 Chaturyugs (27 Maha Yugs) roughly turn out to be 78 minutes of Bramha’s day and that is the time King Kakudmi was waiting at Bramha’s doorstep with his daughter while the earth below spinning itself while revolving around the sun successfully completed 432,000*10*27 years of its life (1 Maha Yug = 10 Yugs). I am sure Einstein must have applauded this story. Now what happens later to King Kakudmi?

Lord Brahma assures him that the Lords themselves are now set to take an Avatar on the earth and thus you can marry this pure and pious Revati to one of them. King Kakudmi after setting back on earth finds a complete different picture from the time he left. Not just that the landscape and the places have changed, but the striking difference is the change in the human race itself. Instead of progressing, the human race has degraded itself. People now are that of lower intellectual and physical capabilities. But then comes Lord Balaram, the brother of Lord Krishna himself who is one capable person to marry Revati. So as per Brahma’s suggestions, Kakudmi marries Revati to Balaram.

This Yug philisophy is very much in sync with the Greek mythology where the Greeks have divided the life of human race into 4 ages viz. the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze age and the Iron Age. The Greeks profess that humans have degraded way of life from the Golden Age to the Iron Age. Each of the ages can be related to each of the Yugs in the Hindu philosophy. So when the Greeks say that we are now living in the Iron Age, Hindus christen the current time as the Kali Yug. The definitions and the descriptions of each of these Yugs do go hand in hand with the Greek Ages.

The difference that I would notice in the philosophies is that Hinduism drags the concept further to a cycle of Maha Yugs that come and go every now and then. And all of these 432,000*10 human years are nothing but few minutes of Lord Brahma. As per the calculations made in the Hindu scriptures, we are currently living in the 51st year of Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma along with this materialistic Brahmanda or today what we call as the universe, is set to live and exist for another 49 years. Ah well, excuse me, ‘Ahem!!’ 49 Brahma’s years.

VoteIndia

Innocent Anxiety

She was a toddler that could only falter without grasping her mother's finger. Her mother helped her trek the stairs of the immobile bus to the top of which the girl saw me seated right at the first seat. One cute smile and she guided by her mother proceeded to take an adjacent window seat. Sooner the mother left to get down from the bus and worried toddler followed her mom. The mom said something in Tagalog, but there are times when communication doesn't need words and I could feel the lady's instructions, "Do not get down from the bus, wait right here. I will be back." The obedient little child stood right at the doorway clutching a side bar firmly while giving some space for the new passengers to usher in. The tumult for me dissolved into a picture taken about 22 years back when I as a kid was holding the bar at the doorway of the train with expressions calling out to someone while my mother right behind me, making sure that I don’t get out of the train held me tightly. I was trying to reaching my dad.

It was the narrow gauge train to Matheran that is often referred to as the "Toy Train". Built during the British imperial times, this train travels at the speed of a centipede thus lagging behind a strolling human. But the sheer size and the charm of this train has a tourist attraction to it even today. I was way too small back then to have a clear memory of the trip, but certain incidents stay vivid. I and my parents got into the train and then suddenly my dad left his seat to disembark from the train to take our picture. My anxiety about him coming back to his seat could not smile for that picture. The wheels of the train then yanked into the motion and the train at the top of the hill began its journey. Worried I ran at the doorway while the uvula at the back of my throat kept shouting in pleads for my dad to come back on the train. The incident remains afresh in my mind since it was accompanied by a pinch that pricked me with a feeling of losing a parent. The tender brain back then had little intelligence that it is less than a child's play to get back on that crawling train. So although the incident enriched me with the knowledge of speed and relativity, the worry that hovered upon me for certain time made a timeless space for itself in my mind. And today makes me realize about all the sleepless nights that I have given to my parents while they stood at the doorway waiting for me to come back home.

Here the girl obedient to her mom’s instructions didn’t step down from the bus and anxiously kept waiting at the doorway while grasping the bar tightly. She was patient with her actions yet anxious in her expressions. And with every pair of shoes entering the bus that didn’t resemble to the ones her mom wore, her anxiety took her to another level. Soon the bus got into motion and yet the girl stood there clutching the bar even tightly. Finally to her relief, her mom got into the bus set in motion with a glass of juice for her daughter. The child all happy then went back to her window seat and smiled happily at every passing car. With a complete and secured feeling she didn’t budge her mom once while enjoying the breeze from the window and sipping the lovely cold juice from her mom’s hands. I was appalled by the strength this girl had while waiting for her mom, there was trust in her actions that said her mom will fulfill her promise to come back, but it certainly accompanied the worry in her eyes that left her insecure. Perhaps this is love …

Nataranga

No, its not a movie for people who understand marathi, but a movie for anyone who can understand the language of passion. We are all passionate about some or the other thing at some or the other level. But what is the extent you can go to pursue it? The movie expands the horizon of the limitations of an entreprenuer and hence the ways to get over them.


The movie begins with the feet of an old man, faltering on the steps of the podium of "Zee Gaurav Puraskar" - a prestiguous award ceremony, and while he reaches the podium, the movie takes us to the flashback of how and what the man had to go through to pursue his dream. Guna Kagalkar (Atul Kulkarni), a man with a wrestler's physique, charming face and a typical masculine Indian moustache is a personality that all the men envy and all the women adore. Everything is perfect in his life, except for his passion for the Tamasha - the Marathi folk theatre. The man's addiction to tamasha forces him to drain down at least half of his earning, leaving behind his penniless wife and educationless kid.

With the machines greasing mankind's progress, Guna and his gang anticipating the sinking ship of their respective traditional livelihoods, resolute to disembark and make a ship out of their passion - the Tamasha. Being an entrepreur at determination and an artist at heart, Guna intrinsically carrying the traits to be the leader of the clan starts investing his money, time, vim, vigour to the extent of gambling his own dignity on the success of their new Tamasha.

The story of the movie revolves around the fact that Tamasha - the marathi folk theatre is incomplete without the presence of 'Nacha' - a panzy gay character. Here Guna has the entire pack ready with talent that garuntees entertainment. Even the female dancer that shall be taking the center stage stands alongside of these entreprenuers. But the only missing part is the presence of a panzy character. Days pass by with no hope and energy starts oqzing out of the chest swelled Tamasha. Guna's frustration is evident in one of his dialogues in the movie, "There's hunger right within, and a plate full of food right in front, but there are no hands to eat and no teeth to chew." Guna out of choice decides to play the panzy character himself. And thus begins an altogether new journey which eventually brings success.

The Indian film fraternity is sharpening itself towards perfectionism while following the likes of Tom Hanks and Renee Zelwegger. We had Aamir Khan flexing his muscles in Ghajani, just because he felt the role demanded that physique. Similarly, Atul Kulkarni, understanding the demand of the role, invested some good time in gym in sculpting a beefed up physique. Ajay - Atul as usual have been phenomenal in their music. But the most noteworthy aspects of the movie are exceptional direction from Ravi Jadhav and a remarkable acting by Atul Kulkarni. I wont be surprised if Atul wins the National award.

Rating: ****

PANAGBENGA 2010

Hi, the profilgacy of exhibiting pictures in this blog is evident because I have myself clicked all of these images. To view the rest of the images, click here

PANAGBENGA 2010

It fluttered by and then suddenly landed on his camera lens. The photographer and everyone of us around him were merrily surprised. "How often do you see a butterfly play with you?" It fluttered again and now landed on his orange T-Shirt. The papparazi that so far was busy capturing the biggest event of the day for Philippines, turned their cameras towards this photographer and his new playmate - the butterfly.

He and his buddies sitting on the top of a Pajero, with their cameras and their tripods posited on the roof of the car took some time out of the biggest attraction of the nation and spent some time on this noteworthy incident. Their Pajero was parked right next to the 2 feet high divider upon which me and 10 to 12 other budding photographers queued up securing our positions to shoot the best possible glimpses of the event. This entire set was amidst few 100 thousand visitors who thronged to Bagguio to witness the 15th Anniversary of Panagbenga - 'The Panagbenga 2010'.


I vividly remember Joel telling us "Believe me guys, this trip to Baggiuo is going to be way different than any of your previous trips." I have never really been to Baggiuo, but the vim and the vigour that filled the atmosphere on 28th Feb 2010 clearly concurred his words.
"The government decided to start this festival 15 years back in order to re-attract tourist to one of the best known hill stations of the Philippines." "Re-attract? Why?" "The Luzon killer earthquake destroyed the entire place back then. But tourism is expanding rapidly here now, courtesy - Panagbenga. And here we are to witness Panagbenga 2010." "So what does Panagbenga mean?" "It is basically a season when the flowers bloom." "You mean Spring?" "Yes. And that is why they have a butterfly as their logo." I was reminiscing my yesterday's conversation with Joel as we walked passed by the Burnham park at the early freezing morning, while smoking out the natural mist out of our mouths with every passing conversation, and I thought Philippines will be hot before I came here!

It was early morning with lot of time to straggle along. I would generally wish to be in bed at this hour of a day and especially when its Sunday, but looking around at Bagiuo that morning all I saw was energy, anticipation and a verve to witness the festival of flowers. Looking at the tents where people stayed all night (presumably because all the hotels were overbooked), children playing around, people helping each other, I could feel warmth amidst that morning mist.Although, the Panagbenga parade was about to commence an hour later, we decided to secure ourselves in the best possible locations, before people began to congregate. But our assumptions were refuted by the general crowd. All of the places were already occupied and there began our struggle to position ourselves in the best possible location. Mervyn, Aaron and Mel found comfort along the road side while I, Joel and Cha pretended to be the officially appointed photographers while passing few clicks of the anxiously waiting crowd. But it wasnt really a matter of surprise that we were busted pretty soon and were pushed into the back layers of the waiting crowd by the strolling sentries. But luck found its own way to us. There was a road divider right behind the crowd that could give an altitude over the exact point where the road turns and the floats would halt for their performance. We werent really the first ones to think this, but being an early bird has its own advantages since I was now just 4th in the line, giving me a fairly decent view of the perfect angle to capture the event. And how I know that it was the best view, because right besides us was parked a Pajero, upon which a man with a dangling badge that boasted "Secraterait - Panagbenga 2010 Documentation Committee" was plumbing his tripod pipes to fix his camera on the car roof, while the rest of his team mates were busy securing their own positions at different corners of the car's roof. An hour passed away with no action, apart from the one when a garbage truck passed by on the parade track and the person
atop amused the crowd by flying celebrity kisses from the top. I was getting little fussy , even Joel and Cha had gone out for a drink and I, not in a mood to lose my position especially after kneering behind me at the ever extending queue, preferred to stand firm until the show begins. To kill some time, I perched my Sony Walkman on my ears to listen to Rahman making people dance on 'Fanaaa'. I never really understood what Gulzar had to say in this song with words like Ulfat, Darya and something that happens with Saaya and its Badan. But who cares, I enjoy Rahman in that song and the exhiliration of that song perfectly matched the zest of the exodus gathered at the Panagbenga 2010. The anxious faces soon started cheering the first float of the morning that begun an hour late. Well everyone in Philippines can understand that, it is Filipino time after all. I envied the mayor of Baguio that day when I saw angels dancing for him in front of his float that kick started the Panagbenga 2010. Looking on my right, I envied Cha since had secured herself atop a drinks van giving her best position and the comfort of her feet getting the due rest, in sitting position. while my legs shuffled their position taking turns to bear my body weight all the while. On my left, the camera men had suddenly turned their attention to the butterfly who had chosen to play with an Orange T-Shirt photographer belonging to the 'Documentation Committee'. "What is a butterfly doing here?" Was such a dumb question from someone behind me. Quite obvious, it is a festival of flowers, where we are about to witness one of the best floats entirely dressed and designed in flowers glide on the surface of the tar road.

With so much of fragrance in the air, the butterfly branding the logo of the festival decided to say 'hi' to everyone across the globe by conveniently choosing the officially appointed photographers to play with. And thus began the replendent ride of one float after another where there were performances, dressings, designs, art, culture, zest, enthusiasm, colours, music and all possible combinations that can make a festival successful mingled with each other. It all began with the leviathans of the retail industry in Philippines - the SM group showcasing their roaring tiger
entirely drenched in the yellow flower (I guess it is called as Marigold). Soon after floats from the likes of AMA, Metro Pacific, LBC, San Miguel, Aegis etc accompanied by school children, professional dancers together summed up the strength of 24 floats that paraded on the streets of Baguio for 2 whole hours entertaining and surprising the masses with every passing moment. "Do you have such festivals in your city back home?" Lego enquired. "Well we do have a republic day parade but it happens in New Delhi and I have never really seen one live anytime." However now I do promise myself to sit amidst that crowd sometime someday to witness the live performance of the Republic Day parade along the India gate. I enjoy watching the parade over the television, but watching it live is surely going to be one hell of an experience and Panagbenga 2010 just talked to me in the same language. I never realised that I have been standing (rahter struggling to stand) on that divider for as long as an average Bollywood movie would last and my legs are now complaining for the ire they had to undergo, but my mind and my heart knew that it was all worth it. Panagbenga 2010 was indeed an experience to remember.

Zeitgeist - The Spirit of the Times

"So what do you do for living?" is generally the one of our FAQs when we get introduced to someone for the first time. Well ponder a bit at the object of the preposition - "living". It is a concept accepted by the world that we do something for our living and then we do something for our liking. Which means that the activity that we do for our living needn't necessarily be same as the one we pursue as our hobby. Imagine a world where you just pursue your hobby where all of your living needs are being taken care of by technology. Imagine living in a world where technology is the driving force and you are greasing the wheels of human progress by just doing what you like to do.

What would you like to do say entertainment - love to act? So pursue it until you get bored of it. Who will pay you for that? No one. Sounds weird right? If no one is going to pay me, how the hell do you expect that I would be feeding myself? Well, the answer lies in technology. Just like you are passionate about stage performance, there are a bunch of geeks who are passionate about lab performance. They would be the ones inventing robots and machines and automating the world that would help you make your own food. So right from purchasing goods - well wait a minute, lets hit the backspace key; so right from procuring goods to processing them and then finally serving a delicious dish on your table, everything will be done by technology.

"Buddy, robots working for me? I don't have that kind of money." Again, why did we hit backspace? Because in the Lotus Project of the Zeitgeist movement, no one pays for anything. They intend to remove the concept of money from our system. So you do not pay for robots and the scientist working in the lab doesn't pay for your stage performance. Sounds like a barter system isn't it? Well it does to me to. So let us dive ourselves a little deeper into this concept.

"Why is air free and water so cheap?" asks the video documentary of the project. Well we all know the answer that it is available in abundance. No one would really be spending a rupee or a cent for a cubic meter of air, because it is available for free and in abundance. Now air is not available in water asking divers pay for the oxygen cylinders. So what do we do to make sure that the food we talked about short while ago, comes to my table for free? Well, that's right, you know the answer - make it available in abundance. How to do that? The scientists of the lotus project believe that technology has answers to all these questions. And honestly, this doesn't seem impossible from my perspective too.

Again, little difficult to digest right? Let us consider wikipedia's example. Remember the times when we used to spend thousands on the stack of world books occupying an entire wall of our living room! Wikipedia was kneering on you and it said "Ha!". Today we have the best of the knowledge about our world available on internet and that too free. How was it made possible? Well, technology did it, didnt it? Well I would like to rephrase the sentence, 'Effective use of technology did it.' People who are passionate about their own subjects scribble on this online forum where information is validated by people themselves. Who pays all these goons? No one. And yet they do it because they love doing it. There are millions of programmers publishing their codes online. Why do they make it all available for free? Because they love that work. So today, coding is not really a rocket science, because most of it is available online. Then programmers build something over this free code and erect another beauty on it. Together we create marvels in the computing world and device something like Java, Linux or Android. Zeitgeist movement's 'The Lotus Project' is basically transitioning these already achieved benefits in the online world onto the real life. And 'yes' they say, it is possible.

Now consider a nice house on the sea-shore where you can lay on a rocking chair reading your favorite book in the verandah while the sound of sea waves soothe your senses. Who would not like to live that life? So there are tens of thousands of people who would like to own that place. You cannot make such places available in abundance, can you? This is a place where demand will always succeed the supply and then you hit a barrier of economics where you need money to decide a price on the property. "Well I agree", explained Eric - an active member of 'The Lotus Project'. "I agree that our system is not foolproof. All we are saying that this is an initiative and there are good chances that we can come across a good way of living if all of us work in this direction. There are certain loopholes that we would want to plug. But we believe that technology has answers to all of these questions." So that means that the egg is still incubating. We cannot hatch it now.

"I want to cite another example. Talent is rare. You cannot have that in abundance. Everyone plays cricket, but Sachin Tendulkar comes once in a lifetime. Everyone works in science, but Einstein is born once in centuries. How do you encourage the talent if there are going to be no incentives? Today Sachin, a guy brought up from a middle class family would aspire to own a Ferrari and rightfully desire to have a plush bungalow in one of the most expensive places in Mumbai. How can you give him an incentive to play?"

"Well we think that talent doesn't need incentive. We believe that people would pour out their devotion towards their field without any of these incentives." Eric answered although not entirely convincing me. Even the zeitgeist videos about religion and the conspiracy theories are nothing but a mere entertainment they do not convince me.

But looking at the broader picture, I think its worthwhile to keep a tab on this movement so that the next time we meet, I can just ask "So, What do you do" - removing the "living" part from it.


(Image courtesy: BP.blogspot)

3 Idiots is not a five pointer film

3 Idiots



About 3 years back when Raju Hirani released his last film, I remember all the facebook and orkut statuses had been updated to "Bande Mein Tha Dam". It was the after-impact of the film. The story repeated this time with words being changed to "All izz well". Raju does make some impact on the audience everytime he makes a film and he has indeed done a good job in adapting Chetan Bhagat's "5 point someone" to his own "3 Idiots". The reason I am saying 'his own' is because 3 idiots is actually different from the original book.

Ranchordas Shyamaldas Chanchard aka Rancho (Amir Khan) a boy with a different outlook towards the concept of studying, a brain who thinks about applying science rather than merely learning it, got admitted amongst the geeky pundits of the Imperial College of Engineering aka IC where grades and marks determine how successful are you going to be in the road ahead. Veeru Sahasrabuddhe aka Virus (Boman Irani), the director of IC a man with constant wrinkles on his forehead and an ability to make anyone feel small is clueless of what is going to happen in his own college when his staff placed this guy Rancho and 2 more idiots Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and Farhaan Qureshi (R Madhavan) in one room of the hostel.



Rancho with a mentality of "Strive for excellance and then success will follow you" is least bothered about grades and results, and on the contrary, Raju and Farhaan however inspired are by Rancho's theory, have to focus on grades due to family pressure and the outcome is contrary. Rancho someone least bothered about grades stands first in the class while the other set of idiots come last and second last respectively. Rancho's answer behind this is the word 'passion'. He coaxes Farhaan to pursue his own passion of photography where he will stand way ahead of others. Raju on the other hand is lost in the race of grades and has long forgotten the word 'excellence'. Both the guys at the end rectify their flaws and follow what Rancho had to say for them. It is a happy graduation day picture, except that Rancho has disappeared from the set. The entire movie is in the search of this guy Rancho who disappeared from the graduation day 10 years back and the story above features in bit and pieces as the flashback scenes.


Raju has very well captured the student life, the race for grades, the student superstitions, the student pressure, the student suicides etc painting the education system very well on his canvass of 3 Idiots. It was a lively experience reminiscing the good old student days where we have lived parts of these lives in bit and pieces. Songs are very well made expect that I would say 'Zoobie Doobie' was a mistake.

C.K.Muraleedharan has done a wonderful job in his cinematography capturing Laddhak, Shimla, Manali and the IIM Bangalore campus as the IC at it's brilliance.

Now going back to my first expression, the movie is different from the original book - the reason being, it is a film. Raju has made it filmy with his typical melodramatic masala and obnoxious scenes where Amir Khan delivers a baby using a vacuum cleaner. The book I guess is Chetan's own story and hence much closer to reality. Ryan the hunk, Hari the guy with Prof Cherian's girl and Alok are 5 pointers and thus below average graders. None of them top the class. So to sum it up, Chetan has done a good job of bringing out an important real life topic while Raju has done a good job in putting it on the reels.

Rating: ***1/2

2 States - A Book Review

Shuffling from my seat, I came out of my trance to see few Filipinos staring at me and pondering at the red colored cover page of the book I was reading. I realised that I had been giggling a lot in that 20 seater Jeepney. “Well you know this guy in a costume called as ‘veshti’ is running out of his wedding ceremony while his father-in-law is running behind him” I thought of offering an explanation. But ‘aah!’ whom am i kidding! They wont understand what it is all about. It is not their story. It is a story from my homeland, and my country. It is a story from a country where political beaureacracy governs family relations. It is a country where there is a constant fight, a fight to preserve your community’s dignity, a fight to preserve your own dignity, a fight to withstand your cultural principles and finally a fight against all of these fights. “2 states” , is a tongue in cheek story about all of these fights.





Krish and Ananya, meet at IIM – A, fall in love and then decide to get married. But the Amrish Puri here are their families. Sounds like a typical 90s bollywood movie right? Yeah, even i thought of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, DDLG etc. But the twist here is that the families are against because both the they belong to different communities. Krish the Punjab – da-puttar is loathed a lot by the Tamilian tigers of Ananya’s family. Krish and Ananya have to mould their plausible resolution into a marriage where the Malhotras and the Swaminathans congregate without a dissent. In the process, they go through vicissitudes of disagreements, family fights while struggling with the fine thread of their own relationship.
Again, sounds like a typical bolywood movie, well indeed it is! “2 states” is a complete bollywood style entertainer. Where it would score above any typical bollywood story is the nature of the story telling process. Chetan has very well managed to stick to the topic and write about the ‘2 states’. We get to see Chennai, its culture, the people, the places and their own reasons for hating north Indians. We also get to see the Punjabis justifying their hatred towards the Madrasis. The writer in the entire story has very well managed to debate on both the fronts and then emerge victorious with a nice chocolaty climax.

Ironically, Chetan claims this to be his own life-story. Well, his life in IIT has been in such a way that we have Amir Khan acting on him now. I wonder who is going to play him in “2 states” now. Well I have read this line somewhere, “If you want to be remembered after you are dead, either do things worth writing, or write things worth reading” And Chetan has managed to do both very well.

Free Your Thoughts

[A Disclaimer and a confession: I am not too good in remembering names, so i might have goofed up with them in this blog of mine. Anyway, this time I would like to believe Shakespere 'What's in the name?' ]



“You know Eknath right?”
“What?” I was stumped.
Red mistook it to be a reaction that I didn’t know Eknath and continued, “Well I can understand India is a huge country, this person Eknath was very well known in the western part of India,”


“Well of course Red, I know Eknath in fact I come from western region of India.”
“That’s right” Carl suddenly came into picture, with a cup of coffee in his hand that clouted the Starbucks logo on it. “He is from Maharashtra, which is below Gujarat.”
“Oh! You know well about India.” I was really keen to see Filipinos know a lot about India beyond “Jai Ho!”
“Cool so you know Eknath. Then you must know his translations of Upanishads and Bhagavad Geeta.”
Had I decided to call up Preshit, Nilay or anyone from my old school days and begin a conversation about Ekanth. I am pretty sure that they’d say with watery mouths, “What lovely samosas he used to make!” referring to the canteen owner of our school. And here I was amongst some 20 odd Filipinos, discussing about Eknath and his lovely translations about Bhagavad Geeta, with a boy who was an atheist himself.
“We have people like Red in our group” Frank like a spokesperson, was explaining me the uniqueness of his group. “They have tried all religions and then decided to be atheist. There are agonistics, there are people from various religions and there are people like me who believe in Christianity.”
“Well I can see the cross as your locket. Wait a minute that is not a cross that is a ‘T’. What is that?”
“The crucification of Christ is a mystery in itself. Few say that He was crucified on a cross; few said that He was on a ‘T’ shaped structure when He died while others say that He died on a tree log while his hands were clutched together above His head.”
“Then why do we see the cross in churches?”
“Well this is one of the Pagan symbols. It was adopted by Christianity during medieval times so that the Pagans would find it easier to adopt Christianity.”
I nodded acknowledging reading something like this in Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”.
I felt it was such a good decision to come within this bunch of Filipilno Freethinkers.


When Frank told me about this Free Thinking concept, I wondered why would citizens of a country where 85% population belongs to one particular religion talk about religious tolerance. My curiosity led me to Starbucks café at the Shangrilla Mall. Well it was my house warming day and I was little late (again, I am not making any excuses, I was late due to genuine reasons).
“We call it knon-Indian.”, chuckled John. “When you decide to meet at a time and then you don’t show up on that time, we have a word for that in Tagalou.”
“Although I wonder why would anyone relate ‘no-show’ to Indians? Are they always late?” seemed to be an honest question from Wella.
“Maybe we mean Red Indians.” Frank was I guess covering up for my community.
“Well!” I offered an explanation “maybe it is because India is 2 and half hours behind. So if you are 2 and half hours late, you are right time as per the Indian Standard Time.”
And everyone laughed, ‘Joke well received’ I thought.
When I reached little late, the group had already begun with their topic for the week.
“The situation is like, to be a recognized political party herein Philippines, you need to get an approval from the election commission. Here was a party GLP (Gay and Lesbian Party) whose application got rejected and we believe there is a role of church in this.”
I nodded, now understanding the need of such groups in a place where 85% are Christians.
“The panel is discussing as what can be done so that this imposition of church can be prevented.”
“Guys, there is a rally organized.” I heard Red addressing the rest of the gang. “If you support the GLP, come to the rally, wear colorful clothes. Make banners saying ‘Gays are OK.’”
“Yeah but write a disclaimer ‘I am not Gay’ “giggled John.
“Also, there are so many people yet in their closet, and we would like them to come out and declare their individuality.”
“Well, wait a minute; we don’t want people who are yet in their closet.” Paused Regg.
“Yeah, but people who are on fence, we can encourage to come out in open. Can’t we?” queried Frank .
“Yeah we can, but again that’s not the theme of the rally. The theme of the rally is to give us gays a right to have our own place in politics.” Regg clarified.
Sooner the gang moved their eyes on me. How are homosexuals received in your country? Is homosexuality approved in your religion? What are your own views on homo sexuality?
I answered their questions to the best of my knowledge. And soon the topic swayed from homosexuality to India in general.
“Why are Indians associated with computers everywhere? Is it that they are better in computers than us?” asked Red.

“Well yes I agree, Indians are really good in computers. But that’s mainly because there are just too many of them. They have many more computer geeks than we do here. And India is a big competition to Philippines.” answered Frank. I felt like thanking all the forefathers who never considered family planning as a way of life, thereby giving birth to computer geeks in such a large number.
I remembered JP’s presentation in our office town-hall meet where he compared our company rates to the Indian counterparts indicating that my Filipino company was indeed doing better than IT firms on my homeland. But this corporate competition is nowhere seen in the warmth of the Filipinos that I meet. In this group itself they declared, “We are cool with Indians. None of our communities have any issues with Indians.” I can vouch for that.
And amongst that warmth, this rendezvous with this bunch of people whose thinking I could very much relate to was indeed a tonic for my knowledge thirsty brain.

PS: TO Know more about 'Filipino Free Thinkers' click here

My Dear India

My Dear India, I wish you Happy Birthday
I wish you Happy Independence Day,



I wish you a secured zone,
Where the Ganges and the Godavari play like a child.
I wish the Indus gets purified on the other side,
And the Padma-Meghna’s violent delta turns mild.

I wish the Himalayas stand tall to protect you from the yellow fever,
And your peninsula shines like a dagger,
Defending your borders with a vision of an eagle,
While claws of that of a tiger.

I wish you prosperity and growth,
Where the circular disc at center focuses on developmental politics.
I wish the investments within you gain returns very high,
And your GDP finds a growth in double digits.

I wish you electrified villages,
Where your farmer smiles when he droves his tractor,
I wish a GPS enabled device in his hand,
For him to forecast the climate factor.

I wish you 1 billion smiling faces,
All standing firm and united under the turf of your tricolour.
The tolerance level all so high,
That the saffron and green embrace at your foundation pillar.

I wish you happiness, I wish you success,
I wish you the enthusiasm to take over many.
I wish you a very happy Independence Day,
As we your children, make another tryst with the destiny.

I want madhur Bhandarkar to come up with a new film .. TRP

TRP

Rakhi and her Swayamwar, the roadies of MTV, the talent hunt singing on the tunes Sa Re Ga Ma, the guts and the added glory of the reality show has taken over the boo-hooing of the family soap operas. Tulsi and Parvati have been replaced with Rakhi Sawant and Baani. The scripted drama still continues (as recently confessed by Ilesh from Rakhi ka Swayamwar, that the poems he wrote for Rakhi were not really his brainchild), but the dressing has changed. TV has evolved itself by showing the unreal under the name of "reality". But 'yeh public hai... sab jaanti hai'. Ilesh Bhaiyya, we have always been knowing that the reality shows are well scripted and pre-decided. What we would like to know is in what way is it pre-decided, who decides it and who is controlling this multi million dollar industry? It is certainly not Pramod Mahajan's laadla, neither any of it is in Anu Malik's hands. The big boys are well behind and shooting from these shoulders (I know I made a direct translation from Hindi, 'doosre ke kandhe se goli chalana').

The point is, there is a system that is making 100 crore people crazily glued to the television sets. There are people that thong to the auditions of these shows, in expectations that they will somehow land up in Mumbai and fulfil their dreams of becoming a national icon. These national icons wave kisses to the aam junta (the mango people) while standing on the carpet of this system of reality shows. Once this carpet is pulled off their feet, they get lost in the crowd below and people die to take kisses from the icon next in line. Remember Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana? Where are they? They are certainly out of the spot light and hence out of this system that runs the TV. What is this system? What does it thrive upon? What does it need?

The bottomline of all of the above questions is TRP.
TRPs are rating that decide the success of one particular show.
Sponsors endorse a show based on their TRPs.
The fighting judges (to get in the reality show, and then on the reality show), the fighting participants, the fighting audiences (with sms as their weapon) are all in the battlefield to ensure that the TRPs of their show do not fall. Who gains from these TRPs and who does not, will be an interesting thing to look at.

Madhur, imagine a story that talks about these TRPs, I am sure you can have a promotional campaign by asking people to vote from their mobiles whether the film will work or not!

Send TRP space A if you like the article or TRP space B on my mobile number, if you do not like the article. And you wont get anything out of it, it will only enhance the TRPs of my blog.

Work in recession

This is one exceptional blog over here that is not original.
Just read it somewhere and found it very relevant to current market scenario.

Read on.. you'll like it too.

A Senior Manager working in an MNC, as usual after lunch goes to the cafeteria for coffee.

He relaxes in canteen.. He sees a canteen boy cleaning tables there.

To Kill time he decides to have fun with him.

He calls him.

Senior Manager - (Asks canteen boy) : How much do you earn?

Canteen boy smiles...

Senior Manager - what are your future plans?

Canteen boy keeps quiet...

Senior Manager - where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?

Canteen boy gives a cold stare.


(Image courtesy: http://krishlogs.blogspot.com )

Senior Manager - Jab mai Mumbai aaya tha tab mere paas bhi kuch nahi tha.... Aaj mere paas kya nahin hai... ???

naam hai..........,

shohrat hai.........,

paisa hai............

Izzat Hai..............,

tumhare paas kya hai??

Scroll down to find out his answer

Don't think that he answered like Shashi Kapoor of Deewar ki "Mere

paas Maa hain"






Canteen boy - Sa'ab mere paas bahut KAAM hai....

Senior Manager leaves the cafeteria silently........

Enough is Enough

Enough is Enough

Mumbai has seen and stood in resilience against all sorts of terrors.
Mumbaikars have seen explosions in cinema halls, petrol pumps, corporate offices. They have seen, trains, taxis, busses, rickshaws and for that matter even cycles being blown out to pieces. The entire nation feels the pinge when the families of such victims cannot do anything beyond mourning. The recent attacks on the two most prestigious and luxury hotels on Mumbai, brought out a new face of terror. The so called Fidayeens are no longer here to fear their death. A scary chill does run down our spine when such murderers come out with the power to sacrifice in the name of religion. Let us talk to Mr. so-called-Jihadi, in the typical Mumbai style. " Boss, we are not terrorized. "

Now for a moment let us turn our heads from the west (both, west to India and India's west) to the center. The question is, what were the government officials doing with the red alert report submitted by the RAW? Were they busy playing "Malegaon arrest politics " with the opposition? And the opposition gracefully spent their resources featuring the accused and the casses as their election mascot. Why arent our leaders not sensible enough to understand that terrorism is an issue sensitive enough to be not used for petty politics?

We need a concrete solution for the problem. We need some good leaders in place to take the due course of action. Had there been a single casualty on the parliamentary attacks, the scene probably would have been different today. Our leaders would probably have taken terrorism as a serious issue. Let us go out to vote, and vote for the best possible candidate. Let us collectively understand the responsibility of choosing the right leaders for us.

I remember after the mayhem at the Malegaon blasts, the affected Muslim families were brave enough to throw the compensation cheques back on the government's face demanding for an action on the issue. The nation is in a need to draw up some inspiration from the episode.

Right now, my heart goes out to all of the brave policemen who have died in the counter - attack. Let us all pray for the safety of all the hostages, with a hope that the trauma end as soon as possible.

VOTE INDIA

Whom do you think should be blamed for your taps running dry? Your building secretary? Or the local corporator for not policing or rather encouraging the water theft? Whom do you think should be punished for the potholes on your roads? The daily increasing traffic or the corrupt ministers at pwd who aim at filling their pocket at the tax-payer's expese? Who is ultimately responsible for the load-shedding that you and me have to bear for hours? Is it the lack of resources? Lack of funds? or is the existence of few dumb-heads heading our country with no vision in mind aout the nation and its power needs?

We travel in crowded busses, fall off the crowded trains, fall sick during some epidimic, face inflation, settle down to the mediocre education, fight in riots, feel insecured to travel in nights, live a terrorized life like there may not be tomorrow.
And we face all of this with a "Chalta-hai" kind of attitude.

We, the people of India have developed a sickening mentality of adjusting to the mercy of few power thirsty people.
Where there is a seat for at most three people, we push ourselves to discomfort to accomodate the fourth or even the fifth person. While appreciating the nice brotherhood feeling, we ultimately eclipse the flaws of the government and their sincere lack of planning in terms of calculating the influx and maintaining a proper infrastructure for the same.

But what is government? it is a set of people whom we give the power to govern us. in that case they are nothing but a set of people arisen from us. Then where do we lack in choosing the right? The main issue is here is that we, the people have forgotten to excercise our moral right to vote.

(Image Courtesy Vivek Thakkar's blog)

"What shall happen if and when we decide to vote? I love tackling the potholes." Nice point. Potholes may not be a problem for you per se, but they put the unborn babies at high risks. Potholes create problems with your neck and spine in long run. In such situations how can we live with the "Chalta-Hai" attitude? It is not just our right, but our duty to voice an opinion against this unjust approach. The constitution of India, world's biggest democracy has give you the ultimate power to voice your opinion by excercising your right to vote.

Dear India,

Give up the "Chalta - hai " approach.
Ensure that the power goes in the right hands.
And realise that this kind of power is there in your hands.

Vote India.

taSHUN

ta-SHUN

Let us first of all evaluate as to why would anyone be pleased with the paper ticket exchanged for some considerable amount that permitted the person to step inside the dark hall flickering images of Tashan.
A. He/She is insanely in love with either of the actors and that it is to be considered a sin to curse their movies.
B. He/She is an ardent admirer of Yashraj films (i know a remote possibility, but for a moment let us consider the category) and that it is beyond his/her imagination that Yashraj is capable of producing crap.
C.You think when it is action, it has to be the extreme where the boundaries of all possibilities fail to score a goal.
But if you dont fall in either of the categories, then its much advisable to save your buck by reading this article.



What went wrong with the movie that I am chanting its praises right from the begining of the review? Remember the good old days of our hindi films where the lead actor of the film had to be neccesarily a hero! His singing should create an electric atmosphere, his romance should melt down all of the women and most importantly he should be a rambo or a demigod when his fingers culr to form a fist that no one in this world can face. His one shot from the gun shall perish the evil and the converse shall never be true. Take 1000 snipers against this one guy and yet he'll emerge vitorious.

Well while watching Tashan i felt like i went back through the time machine where the villan with a cruel laugh kills an honest union leader and his son/daughter emerges after 20 years for the much awaited moment when he/she finally gets to kill the villan and his cruel laugh at the last fight and then everyone lives happily ever after. The difference with respect to Tashan lies with the fact that because thou is moving more and more towards Kaliyug, thou shan't find an honest union leader. That good honest union leader is replaced by the leader of today, the Don of the area.

This Don faces a well-planned murder, masterminded by Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor) who is the rickshaw driver of our Don. Bhaiyyaji then erects his own empire from ground zero with the help of the gold he just robbed from our Don. But Gudiya, the daughter of the Don, after witnessing this cold blooded murder, sheds off her charming, innocent, girlie type of skin to give birth to Pooja Singh (Kareena) charecterized by the vivacious and cunning qualities. This con lady fooling the globe has only one Lakshya in her mind, Badla (revenge). Hmm i know there are bells ringing in your mind, you now know the story and the climax.


But we'll talk about the climax later. Well the movie starts with Jimmy (Saif), a call center employee whose only weakness is girls. Melt down because of requests from the cute, charming Pooja Singh, Jimmy agrees to teach Bhaiyyajee (Pooja's Boss) the queen's language. Here in the process of achieving the impossible, Jimmy and Pooja start swiming in the pool of love to the extent that Jimmy plans to rob Bhaiyyajee off 25 crores, only to find out that the betrayal of the absconding Pooja and the money have left him stranded with police on one hand and Bhaiyajee the big time don of Mumbai and UP on the other hand. Now Bhaiyyajee assigns Bacchan Pande (Akshay Kumar) the job of accompanying the surrendered Jimmy to search Pooja Singh and the money. This is when Pande google's out Pooja and their lost love and then you of course know the climax of this typical Bollywood flick.

Here the character of our Bhaiyyajee bhakt Bacchan Pande is painted closer to that of our Raam bhakt Hanuman leaving apart fact that the climax differs from Ramayan. Pande is capable of jumping from any place to any place, escaping unhurt while tackling thousands of bullets making him an ideal God but playing the game on the wrong side of humanity. The action stunted out in the movie is as meaningless as David Dhavan's jokes which is certainly not to be preffered over doing something constructive. What you only get to admire in the movie is the ravishing looking Kareena and her improving acting standards, and some real good acting performances by Anil, Saif and Akshay. But on a larger scale the picture lacks the Tashan to make a genuine cinema.

We can surely conclude that the experiment made by the Yashraj banner to change the course towards making an action film has failed. I think they better stick to their side of expertise attracting at least their type of crowd.

KRAZZY kiya Re

KRAZZY KIYA RE

“Be a rebel !” shouted Mr. Sampath and slapped the Roshans with a charge of stealing his music track that he used for the sony errickson advertisement and vindictively came out of the court with a cheque of 1 crore and 70 odd lakhs. But imagine if everyone across the globe decides to take him as his role model! Roshans would go bananas behind the movie “Kraazzy 4”.
Because it is not just the title track that has been lifted directly, but the entire movie is the Indian version of a 1989 comedy flick “The Dream Team”. Well for a moment, Mr. Roshan, heave a sigh of relief cause I am not going to bash you for that. Let us come back to the valley and find out why have you been Krazzy enough to make this film?

The movie is centered around four lunatics that have one common role model, Dr. Sonali Saniyal (played by Juhi Chawla) a psychiatrist treating them. Now to introduce each one of them, may I call upon the stage Dr. Sonali Sanyal? But where is she? Oh! Yes I forgot, she just got kidnapped. Well let us finish off the introduction first and then we’ll crack the mystery of her kidnapping case. The first lunatic is Raja (played by Arshad Wasi). Raja an angry young man falls in love with a girl Shikha (played by Diya Mirza). But their hopes to tie the knot are shatteed because Shikha’s dad lacks the manner to smoke cigarette. Sounds weird isn’t it? Annoyed by the smoke coming on his face Raja’s right hand swivels in the air and hits the palm part on Shikha’s dad’s cheek with a lightening speed. Disrespected by the behaviour Shikha claims that Raja is a lunatic and off he goes to seek solace under the shade of Dr. Sonali.

Our next contestant is Gangadharji (played by Rajpal Yadav). Stuck with Schizophrenia Gangadhar loves to walk around the lanes of freedom movement keeping Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Tilak etc as his role models.
Patriotic by heart, he knows how to respect the national anthem, the national flag and is determined to teach the world their importance and value. Next I call upon the stage Dr. Mukherjee. Well this is a case where the doctor himself is a patient and that too a lunatic. Obsessed with cleanliness and neatness the doc here wants to make sure that everything is at the right place. Last but not the least, may I introduce Mr. Dabboo (played by suresh menon). Dabboo hasn’t spoken for years and is always in the frightened mode.

Now imagine these four characters that cannot behave the normal way, are left lose in the suburbs of Mumbai! That is exactly what the movie talks about. Well, now how do we make this happen? The movie channelizes this through the kidnapping of Dr. Sonali Saniyal and this is when these four guys realize that we are here as a team to crack the kidnapping. Whom do they approach? The hospital authorities! Who are under impression that it is these four guys who have done the kidnapping? The police! Who have done the kidnapping themselves? Sonali’s husband! Who is the mastermind in the kidnapping case? Our four Krazzy guys are now caught surrounded by all of these on one side and the whole of unwelcoming Mumbai city on the other side.



In these circumstances that director has managed to tickle few funny bones, although by and large the movie is quite kiddish in nature and at times melodramatic. The climax of this melodrama occurs at the climax when Dr Sonali talks about “Bedard Duniya” and “Paapi Sansaar” in front of a dozen camera lenses. I would say this is where the story differs from the script of its parent film “The Dream Team” . Songs are not really attractive except for the ones where SRK does a hip-hop. Even the dance steps done by Hritik are captivating. Arshad Warsi has given a good performance, and so has Rajpal Yadav. Irfaan Khan is again at his best. But I feel that casting of Suresh Menon was not proper. The guy has amazing talents when it comes to tongue and speech, he can act out and smart out any actor very well. But we seldom notice him in the movie, and my expectations from someone like him were crushed mercilessly.

One message that I would want to give to the Roshans is that, Hindi cinema has matured a lot since those old time melodrama days of 90s. Please don’t go back to the time machine.