Who mourns for the little people ?

Few weeks back saw a 1962 B- movie Tarzan goes to India on HBO. It is set in 1920's and how the British Raj is building a dam which is going to destroy villages and destroy the natural habitat of 300 elephants and how Tarzan saves the day. With Feroz Khan and Simi Grewal playing the roles of loyal engineer and princess all the India stereotypes were firmly in place. But 2 points stood out for me in this movie,

• the villain says in large projects like these human life is the cheapest commodity.

• In the end Tarzan saves the elephants and also ensures the dam project is completed to ensure people doesn't suffer from famines in future.

Remarkable nothing has changed, the colonial power now has a corporate face in 2011.

Displacement is not easy; Imagine you have to vacate your home, your locality where you been lived for decades and made to push off to a new place, find new means of employment and resettle your children. The government will compensate you pittance (3-5 Lakhs) and the same place your house once stood will become a real estate gold mine because some automobile or IT company is going to set up shop there will make crores. your sleepy taluka becomes a noisy, bustling place with restaurants and discos to cater to young brats who will spend 5000 rupees for a new year's eve party and that is your monthly income after toiling in the sun in farms.

Economists and business journalists sit n judgment to say its easier to do business in China than in India. The fact is in China people are displaced discreetly without any bad press coverage. But India being the rambunctious democracy has its own unique challenges. Once trouble starts to brew NGOs and politicians who will make noise and draw mileage to themselves. Countless examples from Adarsh, Bangalore land grab by Yedurappa and sons and Narayan Rane clearly shows the connivance of the political class. As tribal rights are violated by mining and steel companies in states like Orissa and Jharkhand Naxalism will continue to rise its vicious head. Suddenly the government is at war against its own people and its a blame game between corporates and local political leaders.

This is battle between 2 Indias, one described by President Obama which are already 'emerged' and the other India which is still 'submerged' to get access to basics like clean water, education and medical care. Its is a battle of greed versus survival with corruption and political patronage suppressing the discordant voices. The difference is getting even starker with each big project may it be a new airport, nuclear power project or campus for new IT company.

There must stronger laws to protect the poor, as land grabbing has become an instrument for illegal wealth creation and politician patronage. While forced displacements for development and progress is inevitable but business houses and governments must eschew greed and arrive at an equitable solution which can take both Indias ahead.

Hoping in the years to come words like sustainability and corporate social responsibilities does not remain just embellished phrases on annual reports and translates into real action. Hoping for a geniune change in 2011.

First Love

Bittu was very excited today because she was going to come home today. He always hated his mom's music classes for years. But for past few weeks his mind had changed.
He never believed in love or cheesier concepts of love at first sight, but he was having second thoughts now. There was something about her which drew him so explicitly.

He was never uncomfortable with attention before. Girls had always found him cute and loved to pull his cheeks. He totally hated that but he was ready to make an exception
for her. Although he was so excited with the new feelings but he was bit confused. Life had become fuzzy in the last few weeks, it became the waits between the times she would
come in for her singing classes.

Man, she had the voice and the eyes of an angel. He worried if she knew how he felt, also if she felt the same way. Somehow he wanted a way to know how. One thing he knew asking
her out straight away would be too risky, play it cool. Next time, she came over he asked her, he greeted her, She replied “Hi Bittu how are you ?”, hmmm Sona you err...want to watch a movie.
“Sure only if you will you buy me popcorn?. but only Caramel ok". Man that was easy, Bittu thought with a sigh of relief.
His feelings were not hidden from his parents, especially his Mom.Mom asked what “Bittu challa (loads) feelings for Sona aah ?”. Bittu blushed taken in partly by surprise mostly by shock.
But slowly he admitted “yes I love her. Mom should I tell her?” Mom said “ No Beta let me talk to her, waise aren't you too young for this?”.
Next time Sona came for classes, Bittu was hiding in his room peeking with anxiety and excitement what will she said. But Mom knows best. She asked “Sona will you marry my Bittu?”
Ouch, very subtle Mom so very subtle, there goes any chance of even looking at her face to face forget giving this relationship a chance. Sona blushed for a second, she said
“why not Aunty, Bittu is so cute”. Wow that was easy. Days went by, as we spent time together life seemed perfect. But one day everything came crashing down....

Sona's mother came over one day. She came with sweets and greeted Mom. “Charulatha, Sona's marriage is fixed, boy is MBA and works with the IT industy and works in Gurgaon.Ladka is very nice”.
Mom said, “ great news Saritha, good good so Sona will relocate then.” Bittu felt he got hit by lighting. The feelings and dreams which felt so real came crumbling down.

That devilish girl, she led me on for so long. Why? My parents instead of raging and taking my side, are congrating that girl and her family. Is this what love stands for? Why was I such a fool?
Even though, the bitter pill of betrayal was hard to take, his undying love for Sona was even more hurtful. Why could he not forget her, why does she still seem the angel he fell for.

Sure she was older than him, She 23 years old and him all of 4 years.

Love still hurts doesnt it. Yes Bittu will learn to love again, but that first flush of emotions will always remain special. First Love indeed :-)

PS: Loosely based on a true story

The Return of the Mass Hero

An interesting phenomenon has returned to Indian Cinema, last month has seen 2 mass hero centric movies Dabangg and Endhiran (Robot) smash all box offices records gaining both mass and class approval. The remarkable thing is not the amount of money these movies made but the fact that the so called critics has given up the condescending attitude and cheered for these movies.

The Formula

All mass hero flicks have a typical premise, an underdog takes on the evil system and array of evil villains and wins in the end. The heroine will always be a super hottie who will fall for the non-conventional looking hero. There is comedy, awesome fight scenes and even more awesome punch dialogues. The masses in tier 2 and tier 3 cities lap this up and experience tremendous joy. Cinema separates them from their daily grind and lives; it gives them hope and cheer that one day they shall also triumph. Even if they don’t, they closely identify with their hero and live out their aspirations through them. Probably Hindi cinema’s only popular mass hero was Amitabh in the 70s, with anti system movies like Trishul, Dewaar, Sholay and Don. The angry young man worked.

Brand Rajni

There are lots of Chuck Norris forwards which are recycled and attributed to Rajni and they seem to brand him as the Mithun Da of the Tamil Industry. But what people fail to recognize is the meticulous care with which he manages his brand equity.

Rajni in spite of being a Super star has made just 6 movies in the last since 1997. He endorses no brands because a demi-god cannot be seen peddling cars, chocolates or DTH TV connections. Each of his movie release is a festival since fans wait to get a glimpse of his movies. There is music, dancing and celebrations. Tickets of price Rs70 were sold just for the movie trailer release functions; such is the mania of the man. It is like a semi-cult status he enjoys but when he tried to dabble in politics he burned his fingers with Baba in 2002 being his big flop in decades. He learned his lesson and become apolitical.

At 61 years, the man can headline a 160 crores budget regional movie which steamrolls over Bollywood biggies like 3 idiots and Dabangg at the box office.

The Magic of Cinema

There is a class of people who always condemn commercial cinema and find it cool to endorse the new age cinema. But people don’t realize that the vast sections have miserable real lives outside, they don’t want to see stories of gritty farmer suicides, unhappy marriages or other social issues. They want escapism and a hero with whom they can identify with. They want to see winners not whiners, they want to see a hero with roguish charm and are tired of metro-sexual heroes . The era of mass heroes is truly back in vogue.

Chitti the robot, Chulbul Pandey the corrupt cop and Ranchodas the rebel engineering whiz rule the roost now, the pseudo NRIs Rahul and Raj can take a hike.

Once upon a Time ...

There was once a time, when I was first introduced to the term “generation gap” and I was on the right side of it. I was the young generation and parents never understood us. Now as time has passed and the new Facebook generation taking over, I have already started feeling the effects of being on the wrong side. I grew up as a kid in late 80’s and all through 90’s. I had my first computer only in my second year of engineering and learned about yahoo messenger in as late as 2004 (total technology laggard J ).

Life has changed a lot in India since 1991, and liberalization has touched our lives profoundly. So here goes.

Friends

Then: We had 1 best friend and 4-5 good friends and a dozen hi-bye friends

Now: we have 500 friends on orkut, 350 friends on facebook and some lost souls who still use yahoo messenger or hotmail God knows why?

Television

Then: I had one television channel Doordarshan and my black and white EC TV had only 1 channel, so to watch Thunderball and Johny Soko and the Giant Robot I had to go to my neighbor’s house to watch DD II.

Now: We have 32 inch LCD TVs and DTH connections, but who watches TV today it’s the boring same old Saas bahu and Reality shows crap. We watch only sports or new channels occasionally.

Relationships

Then: If you liked a girl, you had to call her landline and pray to god, her Dad didn’t pick up and you had to identify yourself. Getting into a relationship was a big deal and you had to face lots of parental pressure.

Now: you can IM her, sms her, scrap her, leave her a message on FB and if things move voice / video chat with her with no fear of Dad Mom or bhaiya ! Although life is much easier, the thrill of the older days kahan ! Breaking up is so easy; falling in and out of love is very common. Your parents are glad you aren’t gay and you have found a person of the opposite gender.

Music /Movies

Then: You had a 2 in 1 National Panasonic or Sanyo player; you purchased cassettes and heard them over and over again. If you are well off you had a VCR and played VHS tapes on it.

Now: You have DVD players, VCD players which you hardly use, you have laptops and external hard disks but you end up watching movies and listening to music on you new shiny Apple iPod.

Cinema Theaters

Then: Single screens ruled the roost, 30 rupees stall and 50 rupees balcony seemed expensive, 20 rupees for pop-corn which looks pretty oily and manufactured from a sidey location. To watch an English Movie, you had to go to Regal or Sterling in South Mumbai. The only English movie we knew was Terminator and Rambo and Arnold and Stallone were our favorite English Actors J

Now: We only go to multiplexes now as low brow crowd go to single screens and playing 200 bucks per ticket is no big deal, pop-corn looks much better but it costs twice as much a balcony ticket in the old days. The theatre name is no longer a brand nowadays its PVR, INOX, Fun Cinemas or IMAX. Sadly Metro, Basant and New Vijay are closed now to become shopping centers and surviving few relegated to screening Bhojpuri movies.

Sports /Games

Then: We all played cricket in the summers and when it rained we would be miserable and play football for a change. Our first and cherished video games were Mario, Contra and Duck Hunt.

Now: Now hardly kids play outside and are glued to the computer or the cell phone. Multi player games like Counterstrike or games like God of War, Grand theft auto rule the roost. The era of couch potatoes is truly upon us.

Although I agree life has gotten lot easier since I was a kid, but the simple pleasures of life have been robbed from this generation. Kids are experiencing failures in relationships and peer pressure in whole different ways than the past. Social networking sites have made people lives so open to strangers to the point of becoming a tamasha. The business of relationship status or discussing personal life thread bare on a social networking site is frankly beyond me. That apart, spending money in malls, restaurants or branded clothes has become little too easy, the pocket money comes more easily as parents have little time to spend with them.

Today whenever I see a teenage guy sitting with his girl friend and having a fight in a food-court in a mall somewhere, I feel glad to have grown up in the early 90s J when life was lot easier.

Some Movie Gems which deserved better and some movies which could have been better !

One of my favorite passions is watching movies, I have a great threshold for pain, I can watch any B grade hindi potboiler or a dubbed southern movie for kicks. On a serious note, there have been some great movies which audiences never appreciated. Also some movies I seriously wished the directors had done a better job of since I watched them with so many expectations only to be led down.

Luck by Chance (Director Zoya Akhtar)

One of the most layered and character driven script written and executed in recent Hindi cinema, it is tale of 3 struggling actors and how each one makes individual choices with varying degrees of success in the film industry. The fickle relationships and ease with which star kids get a privileged entry into cinema is well treated. With a number of stars playing cameos Luck by Chance drives home a subtle message, success is not easy, one has to work for it and even if one is hard working, the ability to create visibility and networking is crucial only then does Luck favor you. Farhan Akhtar is aggressive attends film parties, builds contacts with producers and charms the star-kid co-star while his friend believes in honing his art and doing theater. It’s any one guess who succeeds in the end.

Mumbai Meri Jaan (Director Nishikant Kamat)

An ensemble cast of how people reacted to the July train blast in Mumbai, how an unemployed Hindu youth Kay Kay becomes a bigot, why a true blue Mumbaikar Madhavan cannot take a local train again, why a poor man Irfan Khan who is denied entry into malls makes fake phone calls to spread panic and fear. How Soha Ali Khan a journalist who loses her fiancé in the blast is exploited by own channel by asking the most obvious and vulgar question “Aap ko kaise lag raha hai ?”. The best performance belong to Paresh Rawal a police havaldar who has seen the old Mumbai where there was no fear and how he could go inside the airport with his wife to see the planes take off. That one line conveys how India and world were once at peace when terror and fear was not part of our daily lexicon.

Iruvar -the Duo (Director Mani Ratnam)

Fantastic biography of Tamil Nadu’s two popular chief ministers Karunanidhi and MGR, the tale of 2 friends who rose from obscurity in cinema and then made the leap to politics and finally ambition got the better of their friendship. The movie also highlighted the multiple affairs the men had and was not an air dashed eulogy. Predictably it was opposed by supporters of both political parties and it bombed at the box office. Ashwiarya Rai played the young Jayalalitha in the movie and years later when Simi Grewal interviewed Jayalalitha, she admitted she did like Ash to play her role in a biopic.

Anbe Sivam (Director C Sundar)

The tale of 2 men an atheist communist Kamal Hassan and a god fearing ad-man Madhavan and how they come to understand each other’s point of view over a course of journey from Bhubaneswar to Chennai. Instead of seeking God externally; one should realize that love and selflessness of a fellow human being is the true manifestation of God. In the climax when the henchman realizes his folly and does not kill Kamal as instructed, Kamal said he is no longer an atheist he just saw God in him.

Rocket Singh – Salesman of the Year (Shimit Amin)

Very few Indian movies focus on an office story and very few explore the life of a salesman. Rocket Singh was a take on why companies resort to corruption and fake promise instead of delivering genuine products and building lasting relationships. Towards the end of the movie, Ranbir Kapoor tells his nemesis and former boss, “You cannot run a company on numbers alone, you need the people to come along”. Although the movie is bit indulgent and has dialogues repetitive the authentic depiction of typical characters in an office and cynical bosses was very good.

Movies which didn’t work

There are some movies which I am sure when the director and script writers began with the concept it must have seemed fantastic on the story board but somewhere in execution the movie went for a toss. I feel with a bit more of control and focus on character development these movies could have been classics.

Raavan

When there is enough of blogs on the internet panning this movie, but the relationship between Beera (Abhishek) and Ragini (Ash) could have handled more maturely. It seems Mani Ratnam copped out from presenting a bold love story. Also there was no back story for either Ram and Ravaan characters or justification for the choices they make. Visually the movie was stunting but undone by the weak screen play.

London Dreams

The plot is about two best friends Ajay Devgan who is ambitious and hardworking whilst Salman is talented and easy going. The jealousy which Ajay experiences when faced with his own best friend Salman effortless success in his chosen field and his subsequent treachery was a nice premise which was squandered.

Tashan

The original B-Movie with outrageous heroes and villains set in lawless land. The movie was meant to be kitschy movie which of the 80’s &90’s like Tridev and Main Khiladi Tu Anari . Instead of been a parody or high octane action comedy instead it stuck to a very predictable plot franking boring. However action movies are back with hits like Ghanjini and Wanted doing well these days.

Salaam-e- Ishq

Remake of the extremely popular English movie Love-Actually, but it was led down terribly by weak subplots and predictable performances. Clearly Nikhil Advani proved to be one movie wonder after making a decent movie like Kal ho Na Ho, he delivered 2 flops back to back like Salaam-e-Ishq and Chandini Chowk to China.

Interesting Desi Shop Signboards

As part of MBA course in marketing, students are taught about segmentation, targeting and positioning and dope on brand building. We MBA folks once armed with this gyan really love to condescending look down upon the rest of world. However, in the last few weeks I am come to realize that some shop-keepers/entrepreneurs have a clear idea of their brand even better than slick MBAs. Here are some of them which hit the mark.

“Shear Elegance” – Amazing name for a hair stylist shop definitely cuts through the clutter of dozen hair stylist shops; I really loved the homonym usage of shear instead of sheer. (Yes, I had to google to find the word Homonym and its meaningJ)

“Prompt Printers” - A printer who appreciates the urgency associated with your printing needs, another Tamil signboard I loved at this place was “Seripayum Veripayum velila voduvam” (Leave both your footwear and anger outside when you come in)

“Zimendaar Travels” – In my brief travels in North India recently, I realized what a pain it is to travel in private transport; delayed buses, getting offloaded in the middle of no-where leaving you at the mercy of cab owners who fleece you. Also the rash driving by taking such sharp turns in the Ghats who increase your blood pressure and devotion to God. “Zimendaar Travels” actually captures your mind as an ideal travel agency should be J I have no clue if they offer better services or not but they definitely have my vote for getting their brand promise spot on.

Manashanti BAR - Actually a bar which promises you maan ki shanti :) Its near Mankhund Station and no I havent been there !!

While above are some shop signs which are fantastic there are others that really shake your confidence. Here are a few for good laughs.

White water rafting Contact Mangesh – 98xxxxx76 Profashnals available: Would you really want to your life in the hands of this profashnals (professionals) ?

Multi-cuisine Andhra Style Restaurant – Err sounds very much like a recent movie dialogue from a Kamal Hassan starrer “Naidu Sir can speak 5 languages in Telugu”

Cyber Café Music Downloudable Here – This actually could have been an intended pun on how today’s music is actually very loud: D

Chainees available – Gobi Majuryran : Don’t expect get authentic Chinese here for sure J

Let me know if you have encountered some funny signboards to add to the list.

What happened to my TV ?

Before the era of liberalization, India was a sleepy nation which had few choices in terms of cars, scooters or Television (Ambassador, Bajaj Chetak or good old DD). As reforms kicked in, the standard of living has improved and so has the choices increased. As economists state as competition increases, competitiors have to differenitiate on quality and so it is better for customer. Right?

Wrong at least in Indian Television, I feel things have taken a turn for the worse. Earlier, we had Doordarshan which is played versatile role of entertainment with shows like Hum Log, Buniyaad, comedy like Flopshow, Dekh bhai Dekh and informative shows like Turning Point and Surabhi. The sheer range of programming was fantastic. True, DD benefited from a monopoly of being the only broadcaster in the country so the finest talent had only one platform to showcase their skills.

Circa 2010 :

We have 130+ news channels and several General Entertainment channels; definitely a viewer’s delight and advertisers’ misery on which TV channels and spots to target to maximize eyeballs. The focus has shifted to formula driven TV rather than being a creative platform to educate and entertain the audience.

General Entertainment Channels

One day, I surfed through Colors, Starplus, Sahara One, Zee TV, Sony and Imagine. Just shows about well dressed Saas-bahu soaps with dramatic music. So I got bored, I thought I will follow music channels, MTV, Channel V and UTV Bindass, what do I see young wannabe in reality shows who have learnt the choicest of expletives. You cannot follow much except the BEEP BEEP BEEP. Apparently market research by some firms have convinced target segment for GEC are only housewives or college going youth who want 2 mins of fame.

News Channels

New channels are no less, all of them will follow the exact same breaking news; A channel will claim an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton, within 15 mins other channel will run an interview with the same celebrity; did people forget the definition of exclusivity? The Hindi channels keep running clips of film stars, wrestler Khali and TV stars who I don’t know at all. The hindi news channels are pathetic to say the least and the English media is pretentious and is ever cynical and prying on the negatives of each story. As a journalist, the focus is not bringing out facets of a story but only pick out the titillating crude aspects which have shock value. My most hated TV news anchor is Arnab Goswami, his modus operandi, get a large panel and he keeps talking all the time. He pushes his personal opinions down the viewers’ throat with smugness and screeching tone. He asks Lalit Modi “please touch your heart and tell us the truth”, ya right, Lalit is going to tell us the truth on prime time (Hopeless). The only news channel which has some credibility left is NDTV 24x7, Barkha, Dr Roy and Vikram Chandra still hold out some hope yet for Indian TV journalism.

Television today has become victim of TRP/TAM ratings syndrome, TV channel owners are ready to accept blindly the ratings/research of certain media agencies; thus they are appealing to the least common denominator of the audience; there are islands of viewers who’s sensibilities and interests which are going a begging. Today’s TV cannot hold a candle to the enduring icons of yesteryears like Jaspal Bhatti, Pankaj Kapoor or Girish Karnad or characters like Karamchand, Rajini or Mungrilal. Today its about hype and less about enduring legacies.

Hoping for a better Television viewing until then I remise about the good old days of DD when Fauji, Circus, Nukkad, Mahabharat, Giant Robot and Star Trek ruled the roost.