Abhishek Bachchan in the Hindi version of Raavan

That’s when I wish I knew Tamil. Vikram exuded some great control over his emotions in the glimpses of footage he managed to extract from Ash-Abhi hullaballoo, that Mani Ratnam create in hindi version of Raavan.  

Vikram in the Tamil version of Raavanan

The paper thin plot concentrated in the three primary characters of Beera, Ragini and Dev. Beera abducted Dev’s wife to avenge his sister’s rape driving her to suicide. But instead of mindlessly killing Ragini he mindlessly saves her when she attempts a suicide by falling off the cliff on being abducted. The movie did had its Mani Ratnam touches but somehow it wasn’t consistent. The central plot of the relationship between three characters, of their changing dynamic and the various shades they exude holds the signature Mani Ratnam treatment, but other character in the fringes either make or break it because of their own caliber rather Mani’s directorial skills.
Beera falls for Ragini’s resplendent beauty (some awesome work by Santosh Sivan and Manikandan who merges Aishwarya Rai with the scenic beauty of Athirappilly Falls and other breathtaking locales that Mani chose around South India) and courage displayed (probably reminding him of the courge his newlywed abandoned sister showed when taken in police custody.) The abductor then falls in love with her and keeps asking her hostage if she would stay with him? Ragini had a perfect married life and ideal husband or so she believed. Beera came in to her life to pierce holes into it and her illusion breaks apart. She screamed, hauled and believed that her husband would come to her rescue within fourteen minutes but Dev seemed more interested in capturing the bandit than rescuing his wife (Dev kills the messenger for peace whereas any other would have utilized it to reach to his wife) and does not turn up till the fourteenth day (reference to Ramayan’s number fourteen.) Ragini’s indecisiveness with her loyalties increasingly became evident as the movie progressed and she gets back to Dev.
The climax of the movie did bring out the various imageries of good, bad against the colour white and black. The fight between Beera in black and Dev in white on the bridge is what Ratnam has depicted in “Yuva” as well. What Ratnam wanted to explore here was not the good, bad and evil, but how the hero can have shades of grey and how a bandit is more sensitive towards her hostage’s sensitivities. Beera is careful not to hurt Ragini but Dev is more efforted towards his duties as a cop than as a husband.
What is disappointing in the movie is the postured acting of Aishwarya and confounding animation of Abhishek. A far cry from their stellar stroke of “Guru.” There were so many moments in the movie that could have been great for want of acting caliber by Abhi_Ash. That’s when I felt my inadequacies with Tamil language. Beera’s character had so much to emote rather than the head shake and dirty grin. The diractor too felt their want and used shaky camera but only to add to audience’s frustration. I am hopeful that Vikram did bring about the magic of Beera through the screen.
The sub characters came and went without proper introduction or conclusion to their part of the story (though this is not new to Ratnam’s narrative style has done it before in “Dil se.”) It was only Beera’s sister Jamunia (Priyamani) who got a conclusion but more so because she was the one who sets the ball rolling. Others characters like the ones played by Ravi Kishan and Govinda disappeared in the end as the spotlight moved to the three central characters. Ravi Kishan effortlessly brought about the torn between innocence and revenge of a bandit for which Abhishek struggled till the end. Govinda was as much a nuisance as he is in any of his movies. Sadly, Mani Ratnam could not keep up his own expectation let alone help Govinda’s image.
The saving grace of the movie was few breathtaking moments created by Mani, Sivan and Rehman. Few of the shots with Rehman’s score (he did the background as well), Sivan (or Manikanda- we would not know) and the genious of Ratnam would linger on till a long time after the movie has ended. The shot were Aishwarya jumps off the cliff when taken into abduction by Abhishek and later when Abhishek falls off after being shooted with Rehman’s rendition of “Ja ud ja re” playing… these are some of the images to take back home.

Slumdog Millionaire is a British Production and the whole Indian media is in frenzy over it winning 8 Oscars. WTF!
AR Rahman was happy receiving a worldwide recognition for his contribution to music. And I was happy that it was awarded for a song like “Jai Ho” rather than something on i wanna #@$* you…
But seems out of sight is out of mind for Indian media and AR Rahman too…
Gulzar chose not to attend the ceremony and all but forgot that Rahman co-received the Oscar for Best Original Score along with lyricist Gulzar.
Well, media chose to mention Resul Pookuty mildly and forget Gulzar altogether.
Even Rahman seemed too awed by the situation to remember to thank Gulzar for his contribution of lyrics that make “Jai Ho” so hummable.
Coming back to Gulzar not choosing to attend, well is this his finest piece of work. I don’t think so and so does he, I believe.
His quest is far beyond the golden glimmer…

kataraa kataraa milatee hai
kataraa kataraa jeene do
jindagee hai, bahane do
pyaasee hoo main, pyaasee rahane do…

Strange ways people deal with strange things. Love is universal and timeless indeed but do we need a bunch of Baanar Senas to breathe down our neck on how and when exactly do we express it? The whole campaign of defiance against Pramod Muthalik is a matter of awareness and assertiveness. However much the Sagarika Ghoses’ dismiss the pink chaddi campaign as undignified, I believe this is a new Indian sentiment (and action of course) – a form of uprising. A similar expression was seen during the recent 26/11 attack on Mumbai when we had uproar over the role and responsibilities of people chosen to lead and safeguard us.

The point is about freedom of choice, about our fundamental rights as an Indian citizen, a citizen of a democratic country.  Well I am not supporting the hulla balloo about St. Valentine’s Day or the Pub Bharo Andolan. Let that be left to individual choices and tastes. If you love someone you don’t need a holy saint’s decent reminding on one particular day, to express to your beloved. Love and expression is quite a personal prerogative to be brought down to such a public level. Anyways let that be a matter of discursion .

On the other front the likes of Pramod Muthalik should know that they have been elected for a lot better causes rather than going around women on a certain day with a certain excuse. Well then, hail the soiled pink chaddis on them !!

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment centre of India, generating 5% of India’s GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India’s economy. Mumbai is one of the world’s top ten centres of commerce by global financial flow, home to important financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations. The city also houses India’s hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai’s business opportunities, as well as its high standard of living, attract migrants from all over India and, in turn, make the city a potpourri of many communities and cultures.

Taj Mahal Hotel

Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, on Wednesday night, killing hundreds in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a Jewish center, a movie theater and a hospital.

Taj Mahal Hotel on 26/11/08

Communal and militant forces have joined hands to tear apart Mumbai…

Tears and blood satiates their heart…

Peace and harmony fire their ambition…

Its tough test for you ahead Mumbai…

Stand up to these evil forces, never let them reach their goal…

I as an Indian pledge you my support and implore other’s to do the same.

For now, Bombay High Court has dismissed Ekta’s petition and accepted channel’s plea to take the draggy off.

It’s sad but Ekta has trouble accepting her fall from grace. I had expected her to move along with changing times, to understand the “pulse” of her viewers. To accept that fresh ideas needs to be infused to keep her audience glued to their TV sets. The success of “Balika Vadhu” from Colors needs to be taken note of.

Star has been quick to respond but Ekta I fear will take time…

Meanwhile, kudos to Colors ( a Viacom and Network18 joint venture) to have hit the bulls eye within three months of its launch. It is delivering varied range of programs dealing mixed emotions and certainly in a fresh avatar.

It’s time for Ekta auntie to cry hoarse over breach of contract. God finally listened to all those who saw creativity bleeding in all her rona-dhona. It was deregotary to portray Indian women as scheming individuals all in the name of emanicipation!!
Since Star scrapped the deal there has been a drastic fall in Balaji share prices. Star had earlier scrapped Kahani Ghar Ghar ki, Kasauti Zindagi ke and is now taking Kyunki saas bhi Kabhi Bahu thi off the air from Nov 10, 2008 after 1800 episodes and 8 years (phew and Thank God!)
Economics states that whatever goes up would come down, and seems its finally happening. Hope creativity so richly manifested in Hum Log, Buniyaad, Nukkad, Mungerilaal ke Hasin Sapne and Dekh Bhai Bekh but which sadly went spiraling down in Ekta’s daily late night riots would return. Ekta intends legal action against Rupert Murdoch owned group. I wonder who cares?

Here it goes…

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With global meltdown continuing to stretch its arms all over the world, we Indians are still saying “India is least impacted”. Should it be called optimism or sheer escapism?  Let’s take a closer look at the situation facing us: Inflation is still above 11%, Rupees is around 48.50 / dollar, IIP growth stands at 1.3% and Sensex has closed at 10269 points. Are we waiting for a harder impact? Sure there is more to come.
Banking industry is the worst hit. It is reeling under liquidity crunch with home loan market slowing down, retail loan sector not performing well and borrowers running away from banks. Surprisingly, Mr.KV Kamath of ICICI Bank announced that it will take legal action against those spreading rumors against them but remained mum over the steep fall in its share prices. HDFC too has burnt its fingers in the home loan segment.
The aviation industry is crying with Indian Airlines announcing that its 15000 employees will go on leave without pay for 3 years. How does one call this a leave? It’s only when their boards of directors are assured that their employees can stay without food for 3 years. Jet Airways too sacked its 1600 employees only to take them back in a dramatic manner. Naresh Goel, the MD was brought under tremendous political pressure but validated his decision to the tears he saw in the eyes of his employees. I believe he couldn’t afford a kick in his ass by the Prime Minister. Kingfisher can’t stay far behind in any race, and immediately announced salary cut for its trainee pilots and further froze in pilot recruitment. But does it stop Mr Mallaya from spending more on his wines and babes than his employees’ salary.
The automobile industry is also under tremendous pressure with sales falling sharply as compared to previous Diwali. TATA pulled out from Singur under “ M” influence and Mamta Di is claiming the biggest political victory for Trinamul. She needs to go to an economics school to understand the magnitude of her “victory”. She would turn India into Afghanistan if allowed to claim such victories on national level!

IT Sector is worried over the scrapped projects of US and Europe, cutting down of the onsite jobs and throwing of the employees on bench. Though dollar appreciation has given them some relief but with new business not coming and pipeline projects being scrapped there seems to be no end to their misery. NRI’s too are feeling the pinch and as a result the foreign funding has taken a backseat. Real estate and stock market which rode heavily on these foreign investments and had its prices skyrocketing in the past few years are now running for cover.
How to forget our Big brother in this situation?  Unfettered capitalism which made USA scale the heights of successes …is now making them bleed. USA believed that free flow of capital coupled with minimum regulations would lead to rapid growth have now learnt a lesson the hard way and hopefully realized that regulations are necessary to keep the economy in control. Americans are known to spend more than they earn all thanks to the credit card and their banks are known for funding without taking adequate mortgages and credibility check of borrowers. The worst affected in the US economy is the home loan segment due to sub prime crisis , the borrowers defaulted in the EMI payments and banks having no proper mortgages, got the whole system crumbling. Bail out measures offered by the government may improve short term liquidity but it cannot plug the loop holes in the system.
Now their only hope appears to be Obama because McCain is expected to follow the same Republican policies of Bush may be with little changes here and there.
Bush babu has vested interest in the oil business …both father and son waged wars in the Middle East for oil and never for their country. Bush the junior made sure that a major chunk of US national budget was apportioned towards capturing Saddam and Osama.

Barrack Obama is promising end to wars. May be then the US budgets would channelise themselves for productive purposes.

I would agree with Amartya Sen’s statement that if USA does not recover in short term it may lead to a major economic breakdown in India.

But friends, when the whole world is crying our neighbor Pakistan is doing something out of the box. They are trying to make two nuclear reactors with China’s help. When the whole world is bleeding isn’t it the right moment to make bombs?