Ramblings, mostly.

Extremes

2022-10-13T06:58:00.003-07:00

The other day I was sipping tea by my balcony's window,

You know those languid hours, when ideas mostly come and go,

A strong wind swept across the trees, making them howl and bend a little low,

It just left me wondering, what really distinguishes a compassionate presence from just bland ego.

Why is cool such a nice way to be, yet cold is utterly frowned upon,

Why love always feels so warm, but hot is all about temper preferred to be long gone,

Breezes are always so gentle and moving, but winds keep howling in turbulence,

Good memories serve as gentle reminders of hope, yet trauma is reminiscent of a past quite violent.

Morning sunshine inspires us all, yet the afternoon heat scorches us to shreds,

Gentle showers revive us from despair, but violent rains wash away everything in floods.

Extremes and temperance, much like yin and yang,

Prevail through our lives and nature, just like the two parallel riverbanks,

Extremes create and destroy in abundance,

Temperance manages the in-betweens, making for great indulgence,

It is but human nature to always shun pain and yearn for pleasure,

Little do we know that they draw from the same source, they are a part of the same treasure.

Untoward ways of life

2022-09-28T09:46:00.008-07:00

Rise from the ashes, why don’t you?

Why the ashes, you’ll ask, won’t you?

That which no more serves you has been burnt down, you can see, can’t you?

A new self shall emerge from the ashes, that’s why the ashes, they are for the ‘new’ you.

The seasons, nature’s playful art, are there for all of us to celebrate:

Some moments happy, some sad, others awful, a few even great!

But even there, the spring proceeds the autumn, blooming in all its glory around,

The dry wilted leaves need to be shed down, for the fresh new ones to grow abound.

After the previous, comes the next, the next leads to something even more away,

These cycles, so many, sometimes lead us to light, at times make us go astray.

Never ending are these plays, confusing us to the core, right or wrong, what do we do?

Do we embrace the next, or should we hold on, where do we go?

We are mere characters in the grand scheme of things, so they say:

It’s cruel to imagine that one thing has to die for something else to find its way,

Sadly, all of the attachments would then always end in pain, all the love and memories would finally go vain,

Perhaps that’s the lesson, painful yet profound, we all leave everything behind; loss is a way to a new gain.

Toxic

2022-09-25T01:36:00.007-07:00

Toxic, wow I love that word,

Labels chase you everywhere, quite absurd!

Everything that fails must be toxic,

And everything that shines is clean,

Doesn't really add up, nothing's all toxic and not every shine is all that clean.

Between 'what is' and 'what should be', there's a thin line:

This side you are forever tormented, the other side you end up just fine.

This side you are totally toxic, that side quite clean,

This side you embrace the darkness, that side has its own sheen.

The Judges, they sit in the heavens, their messengers: they are all around,

All of them unappointed, their judgements all flawed, yet they float abound.

The sun shining through the morning sky, the moon engulfed in the night's gloom,

Both are innocent souls: one gets the light, the other haunted by perpetual doom.

Destiny gets decided in the heavens, they say: must be quite a sight,

One's black, the other grey, some are even white!

Angles and Demons: sometimes opposites yet sometimes they are the same,

An Angel if what it does bears fruit, a demon if it goes vain.

Us

2022-02-25T07:35:00.003-08:00

All Art, no matter how insufferable, matters. Art Credit: Aman Saxena.

I wonder why I won't let you go,

Why do I keep being with you just like a string with a bow?

What's that bond which binds me to you,

What makes me think that, perhaps, you feel it too?

Times, they are changing, you feel really stuck,

You still have memories, those you couldn't just chuck;

You go around with friends, none know how you feel,

You go about life, as if you were a part of some show reel.

It pains me to see you so, my love it just feels shaken,

To see you this way, to see that you'll eventually be taken :(

I just wish wherever you are, you find some happiness,

Some respite from the dreary madness.

As for me, I might just manage to be myself,

I don't know if that’s of any worth to you, or your future self;

I wish you always run back to me, to seek that love, that shelter within me,

I wish you too feel what you have always just seen in me.

याद

2021-10-27T07:47:00.007-07:00

कुछ पल तो जिया था मैं, करार भी था कुछ, बेचैनी भी थी कभी

कभी बेपरवाह था तो कभी लापरवाह, आवारगी कहते थे उसे सभी ।

धूप सुनहरी है, आसमान में है बदली, चाँदनी ख़िलती है आज़ भी अभी

पर आती नहीं मन के बागान पर वो बहारें, जो आती थीं कभी ॥

‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ is Overrated. Here’s Why.

2020-08-22T06:36:00.001-07:00

‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, popularly referred to as ‘DDLJ’, is, perhaps, the National romantic movie of India. I mean our grandfathers swore by ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ in their good days and our fathers by, say, ‘Aradhana’ with Rajesh Khanna singing in a Jeep moving along a mountain road. We swear by ‘DDLJ’, a much-needed acronym for a movie from the decade famous for its long movie titles. I have ‘experienced’ the movie twice in my short life. Once as a kid from the 90s and once as an adult, horrified by the way the movie gave Shah Rukh Khan a license to act in films with their own twisted and ridiculous notions about love and romance.

I have to admit that I like the film still and it would be improper to say that the movie is ridiculous or insane. Saying so would be hurting the judgement of the audiences that have shown so much love for the movie over the years. It would be proper, however, to say that its notions are ridiculous and insane. But before exploring its bizarre notions two things need to be said.

First, the movie is overrated. And Shah Rukh Khan is not be blamed, ignorantly, for that. He acted and acted well in a movie that was offered to him at a point in his career when he was happy doing Anti-hero roles in movies like ‘Darr’, ‘Anjaam’ and ‘Baazigar’. I believe that a lot of undeserved praise is heaped on ‘DDLJ’ while films like ‘Dil Se’, from the same artist, have been underrated. And it is the audiences’ perception that needs to blamed, if at all we choose to blame anyone. As far as the artists of the movies are considered they are to be praised at all costs because while they were working on both kinds of movies, they had no idea what the future held for them. It could be a fact that Shah Rukh Khan is as surprised as me at the fact that ‘DDLJ’ has made it so far. It is still running in Maratha Mandir, a cinema hall in Mumbai suburbs, while some of his far better works have been ‘arthouse-esque’ relics, which serve his critics well when they feel like panning ‘DDLJ’.

Second, the movie’s success has a lot to do with the music of the film than its lead pair’s acting skills or the direction and screenplay. I give a huge credit of its success to Jatin-Lalit, Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan and Lata Mangeshkar. When I watched the movie as a kid, I liked the movie locales and the songs of the movie. Raj (Shah Rukh Khan), wearing a Harley Davidson Jacket, with Simran (Kajol) in his arms in a beautiful mustard field to the tunes of ‘Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh Jaana Sanam’. I was awestruck with the European locations, the songs and the colorful clothes of the actors, the wedding scenes. I was a kid back then and had no idea about how screenplay works in movies. I did not suffer much because ‘DDLJ’ didn’t have much of both. When I grew up and watched it again, I had mixed feelings. I had a ‘feel good’ feeling after hearing those classic songs as well as the locales and a little bit situational comedy. But at the same time, I could clearly see that why despite the acting as well as writing having notable flaws, ‘DDLJ’ is not only a hit but enjoys massive cult following.

The ‘feel good’ feeling.

I do not understand to this day that what filmmakers like Aditya Chopra mean when they bring India into their movie theme. Are they filmmakers or salesmen? It is okay if Ashutosh Gowariker brings India into a film like ‘Swades’ because he means something, a change in people’s perspective. But ‘DDLJ’ seems to me like a product sold under the garb of patriotism to Indians and, significantly, Non-Residents (NRIs) to just appeal to more crowds than the film could attract otherwise. And the justifications which the film provides for its ‘Indian-ness’ are laughable, at best.

Let me elaborate a little. What exactly are Raj’s father Dharamvir Malhotra (Anupam Kher) and Simran’s father Baldev Singh Chaudhary (Amrish Puri) doing in London? Well, Dharamvir Malhotra is a millionaire businessman (apparently a high-school dropout) and Baldev Singh is a shop-owner. Both of them are making money. But we hear them rambling almost a hundred times about the greatness of India, the greatness of its soil and its rivers. And not just them, almost every other actor, Raj and Simran especially, are blabbering some vague notions about ‘Indian-ness’. I say that why leave India if one loves it so much. It is clear that both of them left it to make more money, an unlikely proposition in India.

Raj and his father drink expensive champagne on his failing to pass the University exams. They playfully dismiss people who study hard and enjoy the wealth they have made in London. But to marry off his son, Malhotra wants an Indian bride. Thames seems a distant second to Ganges for him but he has lived in his mansion in London, a city by the Thames, his entire life. Raj apparently has seen a lot of women, is a drunkard, even cheats on a shopkeeper to buy beer, but does not touch a drunk Simran to prove his ‘Indian-ness’. He could have done better. ‘India-ness’ has a lot more to it than what Raj thinks. Baldev has a family in London but does not take well to the western culture. He wants to preserve his culture by deporting his daughter forcibly to India to marry her off to his friend’s son, whom she has never even met once. He calls it an Indian tradition. It is hypocrisy, by the way, for the lack of a better word.

Despite these twisted perspectives, these people wear ‘Indian-ness’ as a badge on their sleeves. Enjoying their lives in a different country and trying to justify their hypocrisy by labelling every ridiculous thing they do as ‘Indian’. As I said, it is a good way to strike a chord with the NRI audience as well as residents by fondling with their insane notions about ‘Indian-ness’.

Creepy is the new cool, since 1995

We all have blown whistles when Raj lets out his hand to Simran to help her board the train. But what happens next is not something worth whistling. How does one behave with a woman one just met? By flashing her bra in front of her and then practically wriggling into her. Raj almost has his head in Simran’s lap when her friend comes to her rescue. How cool is that? People might call it the way ‘it’ happens but clearly Raj sure proves that he is an ‘Indian’ by doing that. I would expect a better Raj had DDLJ been made with just a little more thought.

Love is blind and ‘stupid’ too

I sometimes wonder what the scriptwriter had in mind when he was writing the movie. Raj nags Simran for marrying a man whom she has barely met. It is completely understandable. It is quite obvious, from the way he nags her, that he is attracted to her. What puzzles me here is that how has he fallen in ‘love’ with a stranger he met a few days before and has spent one or two days with. That is basically the same thing he has been nagging about to Simran. Raj is no better than her father’s choice. Additionally, he is a proven pervert. And the way Simran responds by turning back when Raj expects her to, is equally psychic. How love happens in this movie, is as messed up as its other parts.

On top of that, Raj’s psychic instincts do not just go away like that. When he decides to go back to see Simran and tell her about his love, he finds that she has left for India. It is interesting to see how he finds that Simran loves him back too. He finds a bell hanging outside her house, the one he had given her when they had parted after their holiday. He takes it as a symbol of her love.

Really! I mean she could have left it just outside her house thinking it was useless to take back to India. How intelligent of Raj to fly back all his way to India just because he found a bell outside her house. It is no wonder that the audiences choose to ignore all of it. Because they have the ‘feel-good’ feeling.

The Convenient Ending

The climax of the movie is too much dramatic when Simran’s father lets her go with Raj on the train. But I do not get the hang of it. This is because what they both leave behind is equally messy as their supposed ‘Happily ever after’ lives would be. Let us think about Kuljeet (Parmeet Sethi). A happy man about to be married. Everyone in his family is excited, all his relatives have come to attend his wedding. Enter Raj, his friend whom he has brought home. Only to realize later that the same man betrays him and runs away with his bride. He ends up beaten, dejected and humiliated.

Baldev, a man of Indian values who has come to India to marry his daughter off only to let her run away with a stranger who had earlier lied to him to buy beer from his store in London. Preeti (Mandira Bedi), who, though mistaken, likes Raj and finds herself cheated not because Raj does not like her back but because he was an imposter looking to grind his own axe. The list goes on. Not even a convincing end to the story.

Final Word

The movie lacks realism and is notional in its conceptualization of everything: love and India, for example. The reason for its immense popularity is perhaps its music and its ‘lack of realism.’ An average cine-goer goes into the cinema hall with an expectation to watch something over-the-top and not something realistic. Realism is perhaps sought by the intelligentsia who have the time and resources to debate over movies. The common man, perhaps, wants a relief from his already sad ‘realistic’ life, he doesn’t want the same life depicted on the celluloid screen. He wants some magic. ‘DDLJ’ does that and more. It gives him the ‘feel good’ feeling.

Originally published on thecinemaholic.com on 6th October, 2017.

Podcast: Ramblings, Mostly. Season 1, Episode 2: 19 August, 2020.

2020-08-19T08:40:00.006-07:00

A layman's look at the roots and branches of Nepotism in India. Is Indian Film Industry the worst case scenario of Nepotism ? Is it entirely the system's fault ? Maybe.

Listen to it here.

Podcast: Ramblings, Mostly. Season 1, Episode 1: 15 August, 2020. 74th Independence Day of India.

2020-08-15T11:12:00.009-07:00

The episode takes a look at how the country has fared through the 74 years that have passed since Independence. Vital to this analysis is the 'Tryst with Destiny' speech given by Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of India's independence.

Listen to it here.

Midnight in Paris [2011] Review: A Theme Park Ride into Nostalgia and Paris

2020-08-15T00:01:00.015-07:00

Can you picture how drop-dead gorgeous this city is in the rain? Every city has its own character, at least in Woody Allen’s films. There are countless times when we hear that a good story must hold itself on its own, it doesn’t really matter where it takes place. That is certainly untrue if the city happens to be Paris. ‘Midnight in Paris’ is Woody Allen’s attempt at dealing with everything that is either Parisian or else something that has come to be associated with himself.

New York has been a city that Allen has portrayed a lot in his work. His best works, Annie Hall and Manhattan have a lot of the city itself in them. The hustle-bustle, loneliness, dysfunctional relationships, and the idea of a city busy with itself creep in effortlessly into these films. Midnight in Paris could well be a French arthouse film. It has a lot of elements associated with the ‘cerebral French filmmaker’. It could find itself being discussed in intellectual circles: men with receding hairlines, dark suits, thick-rimmed acetate glasses, cigarettes, and coffee, debating on its relevance. But what pulls the film out of a select audience and a monotonous commentary is Allen’s narrative and direction.

Midnight in Paris is about a couple vacationing in Paris. Gill Pender (Owen Wilson) is a jaded yet successful Hollywood screenwriter who is trying to write his first novel. His fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) is the daughter of a rich businessman and wants to live a luxurious and materialistic life in Malibu. Gill is a completely different person, though. A romantic at heart, he wants to settle down in Paris and write real literature instead of writing forgettable scripts to earn a fat paycheque in Hollywood. He has also fallen prey to what is referred to as the ‘Golden Age thinking’. The idea that the era that has gone by is far better than the times one lives in. Further down the story, he actually gets to time travel to the age he thinks is the golden age: Paris of the 1920s. He meets literally everyone from that era: Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Picasso, Matisse, Dali, and so on. He finds love in Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who is also prey to his thinking. For her, the best era is the Belle Époque.

The movie starts with a 3 ½ minute montage of Paris with Cole Porter’s ‘Let’s Do It’ in the background. It is easy to see that Paris is indeed a place that attracts dreamers and romantics. The cinematography of the movie is especially brilliant. The way the city is portrayed in warmer colors in all its glory makes it highly palatable. The lights that shine on cobwebbed buildings, the orange glow on the Seine, the ambiance of the 20s Paris draw even the driest viewers into the romantic daydream.

The movie explores a variety of themes: romance, existentialism, modernism, nostalgia. But essentially it is about a man trying to come to terms with a conflict he has been carrying on for a while. The conflict is a celebrated debate, though. Whether what has passed is the golden age or the one we live in? And whether an existential and materialistic life is happier than a fulfilled life following one’s true calling?

Gill finds himself conflicted not just in terms of life choices he must make but also in the love of three women. His current fiancé, Inez, a representative of his current existential life, materialistic and morose. Adriana, his passionate dreamy love from the era he longs to visit, Paris of the 20s. And then there is Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), a fresh respite from the morose existence and the delusional past, who welcomes his idea of staying in Paris and its beauty in the rain.

The movie is not free from the clichés that have come to be associated with Woody Allen as a writer and filmmaker. He has survived for far more than his fair share of making films relevant to the times. The fact that some still manage to move audiences speaks volumes about his vision. Gill is the non-conformist protagonist who doesn’t really fit into the scheme of things as it were. Ernest Hemmingway is the feisty man who equates the absence of fear to making true love to a woman. Salvador Dali is a surrealist who would rather focus on his baritone than the problem at hand. There is humor in the chaos, soft sarcasm in difficult situations. As usual, the end is open for a new beginning, only one believes that it isn’t too late.

Midnight in Paris is a giant merry-go-round in the theme park that happens to be Paris. Everyone can take a ride, though everyone won’t be equally impressed. Allen’s ability to infuse pertinent themes of existence and nostalgia into a narrative around Paris and its history of art is certainly praiseworthy. The present in the film is a bit problematic, yet the glorious past fuses well with the narrative. This is certainly not the best offering from him, his best has long been in the past. But Midnight in Paris is a worthy contender if we consider his recent work.

Originally published on www.highonfilms.com on 11th June, 2020.

Damn you, 2020.

2020-04-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Irrfan,

I am not including the ‘Khan’ in your name, as you had dropped it because you wanted people to know you by work and not your lineage.

Aapne ek interview mei kaha tha ke aapki aankhein gehri isiliye hain kyunki aap raat mei andhera karke mom-batti ko ghoorte the. Sach tha? Pata nahi. Log aksar actors ki movies dekhkar unke fan hote hain. Main actors ke interview dekhkar fan banta hun. Aapke interviews mei hamesha ek ajeeb smile se aap kehte the, samajh nahi aaya kya mazaak tha and kya sach.

Now that you are gone, people will talk about your films and how much you meant to Hindi Cinema. You knew people loved you. I don’t know if you saw this much love, how would you feel. Everything was going fine in your life two years ago. Your recent films were hits. You were doing a show ‘Gormint’ with A.I.B. But then you were diagnosed with a rare cancer and everything changed.

As a person, I can’t tell you how much you meant to me. I haven’t ever met you. Your movies are tremendous. But that is not the real reason. I am not going to talk about your movies, many of them are stellar. I am going to talk about your journey. I remember how you once mentioned that you used to fly kites in your hometown when your terrace didn’t even have a boundary. You fell once and broke your arm. From there, you later went on to star in some of the biggest Hollywood films, let alone hindi films. Apna Tom Hanks, wahi Forrest Gump wala, bola ke Irrfan ke saamne main feeka pad jata hun. And yet, your genuine humility and grace is just unmatched. You are a hero to me. If I make it someday in life, it will be because you were an inspiration to millions like me that we could achieve what we always dreamt about.

Your exit from the world is also as filmy as your performances. There is an audio tape doing rounds on the internet which you recorded to promote your last hindi film, Angrezi Medium. Usme kya dialogue tha ek apka. Ke jab life aapko lemons deti hai asliyat mei, toh lemonade banana thoda mushkil ho jata hai. Aur phir aapka shandaar laughter. Bilkul filmy exit. There will never be anyone like you. I wish more than your films, people look at your life and realize that films are just films, the taste is actually in the person.

R.I.P.

Irrfan (1967-2020)

The craft of Kanan Gill and his new Netflix special, 'Yours Sincerely'

2020-04-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Straight away, Kanan Gill is in my opinion the most interesting comedian in the Indian Stand-up comedy scene. Weirdly enough, the only other comedian which piqued my interest as much was Eddie Murphy who was a rage in the U.S. back in the 1980s. That says a lot about how much my opinion is completely biased, or rather how much comedy I have actually seen. That’s a start.

Indian Stand-up scene has come of age finally. Ten years ago, there was barely anyone doing it. YouTube was just starting. Now, the comedians are everywhere. YouTube is full of fresh content, a dozen or so artists have specials streaming on platforms like Amazon or Netflix. And this is where it gets to me, what should I watch and what I should just skip. The flood of content even in comedy, is exhausting.

Comedy, as I see it, is intelligent observation but with a catch. The observation should be relatable but not too relatable to the audience. A hint of alienation is necessary to sustain interest. And that is why the flood of content exhausts me. Mediocre jokes about the average Indian and his surroundings just bore me. Too obvious. Indian-Americans talking about their unique yet frustrating lives growing up in the U.S. are not relatable at all. A la Shashi Tharoor comedian pandering to foreign audiences by introducing them to the oddities (read cliched criticisms) of India makes me shake my head in despair.

And that is why I look forward to more content by someone like Kanan Gill. His Stand-up is mostly in English which narrows his audience a bit. His content also has a mild cerebral touch to it, he talks about Pavlovian Dogs, Julius Caesar and Pretentious Hindi movies. That again narrows it a little bit more. Gill himself admitted that a comedian’s loyalists might keep on shrinking with time if he sticks to his core, in a podcast with fellow comedian Kenneth Sebastian. Yet, he is the most popular name in India today. His shows in India are instantly sold out and he tours the world as well.

Gill started his comedy career doing a YouTube segment called 'Pretentious Movie Reviews'. He along with Biswa Kalyan Rath, another popular comedian, humorously critiqued some of our much loved Hindi movies. Stand-up comedy was next in the order. What is always interesting is that his humor is razor sharp and his content is quite diverse. Newer jokes which are relatable yet funny.

‘Yours Sincerely’ is his latest show on Netflix. It is themed on a letter he wrote as a 15-year-old to his present self. The show bounces back and forth from his current life to his past as a 15-year-old. And that is where it gets funny but like a slow burn. Everyone quite relates to his past and this where he humorously talks about harsh realities of growing up.

Kanan Gill, Yours Sincerely/ Netflix

The show packs in punches on almost everything, millennial habits, Indian aunties, silent airports and unrealistic expectations about growing up. Gill has a put a lot of himself in the show quite obviously. The bits about ‘If Possible’ when talking about love and ‘You Lose’ being a general judging statement rather than a game line get sad laughs. Sarcastic detours into Julius Caesar, writing letters in school and students being confused about metaphors suggest an ICSE school which hasn’t really changed in all these years. Sanskrit phrases draw people to their own memories of mugging them up.

The show has its hits and misses, mostly hits. It is an affectionate pat on the backs of people nearing their 30s, yet nowhere close to the lives they imagined 15 years ago. The humor is gentle and makes people wonder about the things they have forgotten themselves. There is a line in the show somewhere. “Is there anything lamer than how you used to be? Remember previous versions of your personality?” It is a good line.

Strange Days

2020-04-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

The Corona pandemic has turned into something like the Football World Cup. The comparison is really crude, yes. But isn’t everyone behaving like a future pundit just like football pundits during the Cup? It is very privileged yet smug of me to write something from the comforts of the home, while thousands keep dying in my country and the world. The class difference as well the stars’ difference couldn’t be starker than what it is now. I am both privileged and lucky. Unlike millions.

Every Mumbaikar has at least once wished that Mumbai were this peaceful. Careful what you wish for, they said. Image by Indian Express.

Everyone is both worried and predictive about what the pandemic might actually turn into. As of now, it is turning into a giant monster just getting bigger and bigger every day. The toll of deaths is increasing each day supplemented in equal measure by conspiracy theories. China, they say, leaked the virus from a lab in Wuhan. Well, if there is an iota of truth in this rumor, then it is the dawn of a new era. The era of biological war. And since U.S. has been hit the worst, it fits into the scheme of things. China and U.S. were embroiled in an intense trade war for over a year or two, thanks to Mr. Trump’s imprudent protectionist policies.

It sometimes sends me into a thinking spree as to the current fate of the daily wage laborer in a country like India. With the poorest social security, thanks to humongous corruption even in these times, he is doomed. He has to actually see his family die slowly because there is simply no work outside. No medical facilities, no shelter, some are trapped in alien cities left to their own fate. Then there are layoffs in the corporate sector and more will follow. Meanwhile, Police and Administration are working day and night even at the risk of catching the virus. The only silent heroes.

I don’t think that the mere eradication or containment of the virus will serve any purpose. Sure, things will at least start rolling. But it will take a long time to really cope up with the losses the world will see. And this world is globalized. Every part of the body will share the pain. The industry, particularly energy, transport, manufacturing et al will have a real hard time and governments would have to reluctantly pump in money. The borrowings and the subsequent vices might turn Corona into an economic crisis as well. The monster has its body deep in the ocean.

Also, once it is all done, we selfish people will return to every bad habit which got exposed during the episode. I still can’t believe people burnt crackers at the behest of the PM to light diyas instead. SSI-Seriously Stupid Indians, that is what they are. Isn’t it more obvious, that our own misdeeds have led to this catastrophe? Overpopulation, lack of civic sense, pollution, waste dumps? I just dread at the thought that what if India had been as deeply infected as the U.S. Given our serious population and no considerable measures or infrastructure of containment, would we have survived even a month? Yamuna is cleaner after the lockdown than it ever was. And yes, millions were spent to clean Yamuna with poorest results. So, it is true? That the enemies of nature are indeed humans.

What will India do to better face such situations once it is done? I am not quite sure. Everyone will go back to the old ways after celebrating. And then we will go on, waiting for the next catastrophe to strike. We might need a new scapegoat, though. Because China won’t serve us long. Look at how well they did. By the way, the strange resurgence of the Ramayana and Mahabharata on television these days still puzzles me. Is is just a way to calm the nerves with some divine presence? Wait. Don’t tell me. No. Do we hypocrites believe deep down that the Gods might help? I don’t think so. They left this place long ago.

Sacred Games Season 2 [Netflix] Review: A long and hard look at India's dark underbelly

2019-08-18T09:11:00.004-07:00

Sacred Games Season 2/Netflix

Sacred Games Season 2 premiered on India’s 73rd Independence Day. It had a lot more burden of expectations on its shoulders as compared to the previous season. The reason is quite evident. The first season struck a chord with the Indian audiences and the cliff-hanger ending made the audiences wait quite eagerly for the next installment. The second season delivers on the promise by a good stretch- although the only drawback the narrative has is the spoofy demeanor and an overtly stretched story.

The reviews to the Sacred Games Season 2 started appearing very soon, in a couple of hours from the show’s airing. These reviews are a little short-sighted. The reason being the fact that most of them are based only on the first three episodes- Netflix has only that much to offer for the sake of reviews. Watching the entire set of eight episodes makes the experience a lot better because the starting episodes are quite sluggish in their pace as well as treatment. But the story starts gaining solid ground by the fourth one, and things move much better than on.

Watching the second season evoked mixed feelings as a viewer. There are many reasons for this. For one thing, the second season is a little gentler on the gore, violence and crassness, although the audiences have by now not only adjusted to it but even appreciated the treatment.

The second season employs more story arcs than the first one. It is much more reflective on human nature and relationships and even lends a perspective on the political narrative in India for the last 25 years. Reportedly, it has even exhausted the material from the original book which means that for the third season to air, the screenwriters have to move beyond the book. It is a tricky thing- the narrative has been quite stretched already. Too much of anything is bad.

The second season brings into the picture the larger story of modern India. It is no more surprising that Vikram Chandra spent almost a decade writing the book on which the show is based. And the story has its own unofficial affiliation- based on the collective narratives of dozens of policemen, film people, gangsters interviewed by Chandra and his equally famous friend, S. Hussain Zaidi.

It is quite appalling how politics, crime, religion and bigots are parts of the same wheel, completing and aiding each other. Even Chandra mentioned in an interview that what he set out to write originally was a 300-page thriller, which turned into a 900-page mammoth once he realised the width of the canvas he was looking at.

The story takes up exactly from where the first season ended. Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is given a new life and forced to leave Mumbai post-1993. He becomes a pawn in the hands of the RAW and starts a business in Mombasa, Kenya to further the interests of IFS Trivedi as well as K.D. Yadav, his handler from the RAW. Back in present-day Mumbai, Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) discovers Gaitonde’s bunker which leads him to the news of an imminent nuclear threat on Mumbai. Enter Guruji (Pankaj Tripathi), the religious fanatical leader who has insane thoughts about the current civilization and how to lead the world into ‘Satyug’- the purest age in Hindu mythology. The plot is weaved around these three major arcs with small intermittent arcs all around.

This season, like its predecessor, has some really outstanding performances. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is brilliant in his crass portrayal of the ‘Mumbai Bhai’. His role has been toned down in this season a bit. Working as a pawn in the hands of RAW, politicians and ultimately the Guruji makes him reflect on his reality. This also lends perspective into his insanity in the first season. His performance is more on the lines of a spectator witnessing a brilliant play that ultimately leads to destruction.

Saif Ali Khan gives an understated yet on-point performance as the ‘righteous yet self-doomed’ cop in this season. This time a lot more has been reflected in his tragic personal life. His broken marriage, his guilt over his subordinate Katekar’s death, his own exhaustion with the world and his timely pilgrimage to the Guruji’s ashram seeking answers- all makes sense.

But Pankaj Tripathi, through his portrayal of Guruji, clearly gives the breakout performance of this season. His role as the surprisingly calm guru with the most insane ideas of destroying the entire civilization to redeem the glory of past ages is perfect. His articulate use of mythological tales about ages and characters blends in very well with the narrative. Following his impressive acting, both literally and in the act, is Kalki Koechlin as Batya Abelman- Guruji’s closest aide and his ‘mistress’.

The best female role, however, is that of the RAW agent K.D. Yadav played by Amruta Subhash. A gender flick from the book, where Yadav was a man, she is the handler of Gaitonde in Kenya. And like many women in the previous as well as this season, she has handled his brash male personality rather too well. Extremely stoic and unaffected in her outlook, she represents the lives Intelligence agents actually live. Playing people against each other for the sake of the country slowly reaches to the point in life when there is probably no difference left between right or wrong. Ranvir Shorey has less screen time in the show but makes use of whatever is at hand as the terror mastermind, Shahid Khan.

The show has obvious limitations, also, this time. While the first season enthralled the audiences with this brand new world of a ‘bygone era’, this season has many narratives that the audiences have grown up watching in their own ways. Whether it is the religious extremism holding ground in India, the rampant corruption in the Police, Pakistan’s obsession with blowing up India, the silent communal divide in the country- each of these tonics has been sipped by the audiences over the years. The tricks get stale. Also, the narratives aren’t completely original. Suleiman Isa’s escape to Dubai post-1993 Mumbai blasts is similar to what Dawood Ibrahim did back then. Gaitonde’s attempt to finance a film on his own life is quite similar to what we heard in an audio conversation between Chota Shakeel and Sanjay Dutt with Mahesh Manjrekar playing the filmmaker.

The reference to Ram Gopal Verma isn’t quite subtle when calling the director making Gaitonde’s film as Ram G. Verma. The portrayal is quite spoofy as well as superficial. Guruji’s ashram is an obvious nod to Osho’s ‘Rajneeshpuram’ in Oregon, USA and the character of Batya loosely fits that of Ma Anand Sheela.

Sexually fluid orgies, blood-red pills inducing hallucinations, funding illegal trades and armed rebellions have been in the repertoire of religious bigots-‘babas’- for some time now. The idea of a pure Hindu race isn’t new either. So, is the story of ISI being complicit in every terror attack in India. The season might make it to some American University’s essential viewing list someday but this ‘primer’ on the Indian story isn’t entirely alien at least to the Indian audiences.

Above all, the show raises some deep philosophical questions. When Batya asks Sartaj whether the world he is so keen on saving is worth it- it does create a strong question. The moral ambiguity cannot be starker than it gets in the show. Mumbai, in its essence, does represent the inherent rottenness of the glamorous and shiny humanity.

Sartaj’s own lonely life and his inner fears show us, in light, the life of the man who is on the run to save Mumbai. It is moving to see how a good Constable’s son turns towards religious vandalism after his death. How a Muslim Inspector, Majid Khan, has to seek the patronage of a highly corrupt DCP to escape the unnecessary attention Muslim cops face in Mumbai post-1993.

Ganesh Gaitonde’s breakdown at the end shows us the inherent weakness he has been carrying around all the time. How a religious bigot manages to leverage his influence to erode an entire city from India’s map is disturbing. It shows us exactly how far this country has come away from ignorance.

There is a scene where a woman is at the mercy of both Sartaj as well as Gaitonde, being shot by them in the first instance. While Gaitonde eventually kills his woman, Sartaj chooses to spare the life of his victim. It is a classic contrast between the two major characters. While having similarly troubled lives, it is their choices that make them different.

Season 2 ensures that Sacred Games permanently enters the pop culture of India. While the first season gave us the oft-quoted line ‘Bhagwaan ko maante ho?’, the second season will have its fair share of memes with universal acclaim to lines like ‘Guruji ka pyaar’ and ‘Balidaan dena padega’. Not many authors writing about India have had the privilege of getting their work adapted on screen. The select few who had the privilege, almost all were upset with the way their works were destroyed to turn them into the ‘quintessential Hindi picture’. The legendary R.K. Narayan was quite upset with what Dev Anand did to his book to make the most critically acclaimed movie of his career. I am sure Vikram Chandra would probably be happier than R.K. Narayan was.

Rating: ★★★★

Originally published on www.highonfilms.com on 17th August, 2019.

The Best Leonardo DiCaprio Movies

2019-08-11T06:37:00.003-07:00

Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood/Sony Pictures

Leonardo DiCaprio belongs to a dying breed of actors- the breed of the ‘superstars’. Just as the age and times of the ‘great filmmaker’ have started dwindling, so has been the fate of our superstars. Today, we have a ‘boutique’ variety of entertainers. Actors work for TV as well as films and probably dabble in a dozen other pursuits. But our boy is not that guy, he is still the star. He is around, but not readily available. He is working but only in the finest projects of this age. And when the man is not buying islands or paintings for his mother, he is an environmentalist-a good enough hobby for a consummate bachelor in his 40s. The greatest testimony of his stardom, though, is him being the cause of the ‘breakup’ between Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro- a romantic relationship that lasted for three full decades, giving us the finest movies of our lives. But then, enters Leonardo DiCaprio making Scorsese embark on another relationship – Giving us five solid movies as of now. There must be something about him because the auteur has not collaborated this long with any other actor (DeNiro being the only exception).

When Chris Rock hosted the 2016 Oscars, he obviously trashed the lack of diversity at the Oscars taking a dig at Dicaprio for ‘getting great roles every year’. This is where he went a little astray- no one really ‘gets’ roles in Hollywood-actors ‘earn’ them. Leonardo Dicaprio has been in the show business for more than 20 years. And, while he may not be ‘the greatest actor in the last two decades’, he has indeed delivered some of the finest performances in these years and that too, rather consistently. Here is a look at the maestro’s ten films which have been indeed both great as well as brave.

Inception (2010)

Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who grew up studying the works of the legends of the Hollywood New Wave-something which he has incorporated in his films in an extremely refined way. Inception is the bravest as well as a truly original film to come from him. A science fiction thriller, which is about a thief who implants ideas into the subconscious minds of his target, this is arguably DiCaprio’s best performance. He shines as the man who, though tormented with his past, is extremely feisty in his action filled present. The set designs and visual effects are obvious signatures of Chris Nolan. Hans Zimmer has done a very groovy score for this epic, short of Gladiator and Lion King probably. Marion Cotillard is indeed the finest French actress of the present times to have crossed over in Hollywood.

The Departed (2006)

The most ‘Scorsese-esque’ movie to come out of the collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, it was quite a head turner at the Oscars-winning Best Director, Picture as well as a well deserved Best Actor nomination for DiCaprio. Based on a riveting story of two moles-one in the Massachusetts State Police and the other in the gang of an Irish Mob boss, this cat-mouse chase epic was received very well by the critics. DiCaprio was intense and brilliant in the role of a frustrated cop forced to prove his allegiance to his department, while Jack Nicholson wasn’t bad either in his role of a charismatic gangster.

Shutter Island (2010)

Leonardo DiCaprio plays a dangerous murdering lunatic in this movie- Scorsese’s tribute to the film noir of the 40s and the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock. Shutter Island is a very different kind of a movie relying on the psychological thrill of a secluded island, hallucinations, murderous delusions, all delivered along with the brilliant soundtrack featuring composers like Mahler, Penderecki, Ligeti, Cage and Ingram Marshall.

The Revenant (2015)

DiCaprio finally quenched his long due Oscar thirst with this Western masterpiece by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Based on Michael Punke's 2002 novel of the same name, the movie talks about the life and the heroic survival of frontiersman Hugh Glass played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The semi-biographical epic also has great supporting performances by Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter. The movie was quite the rage at the then awards with DiCaprio picking up the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

If there is one film that had the audiences worldwide assured that DiCaprio would clinch the Oscar that year, it was this mad movie by Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio gave one of the finest performances of his career playing Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street broker turned fraudster. The Oscars left the audiences shocked when the Best Actor was clinched by Matthew McConaughey for another great performance in Dallas Buyers Club. Based on a true story, the movie is a classic take on the hollowness of the ‘American Dream’- an obsession that pushes its taker into depths unfathomed. The movie also had Jonah Hill playing the role of Belfort’s friend-a camaraderie rarely seen between two actors in recent years. Margot Robbie was noted far and wide, credits to the movie’s appeal.

Blood Diamond (2006)

DiCaprio has mastered playing the anti-hero in tightly scripted thriller movies. Blood Diamond is another of those thrillers where he shines as a Rhodesian gunrunner cum diamond smuggler trying to keep his sanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Winning another Oscar nomination for his performance, the DiCaprio movie is notable for portraying the atrocities of war in African nations and how exactly they serve as foil for extracting resources like diamonds for the western nations. Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly give solid performances too.

Titanic (1997)

Perhaps, it is the most popular movie of DiCaprio till date. The movie launched him to instant stardom, the ‘Titanic Kid’ was all over the place due to this one film. Interesting, however, is the fact that the movie has managed to stay in the pop culture even now. Fan theories and instant adulation is still bestowed on this movie. Recently, when DiCaprio was promoting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he was asked the biggest question- whether the wooden plank had space for two people, a reference to the climax of the movie. The actor couldn’t help but grin silently.

Nevertheless, it is one of the most revered romance epic of our times telling the story about how two people from different classes, unlikely to meet, fall in movie. It was the biggest movie at the launch of its time, quickly turning into the highest grossing movie. The movie not only launched DiCaprio to stardom but also gave instant recognition to Kate Winslet, relatively unknown at that time.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Steven Spielberg tried his hands on this biographical film about a con man Frank Abagnale who, before his 19th birthday, successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. DiCaprio turns on his usual charm to play Abagnale- a typical con man role which has been doing so well for years now. The film is notable for bringing out his versatility to light and hence helping him with breaking away from the mould of a romantic lead- something that has immensely helped his performances over the years.

The Aviator (2004)

Martin Scorsese has indeed elicited the best from DiCaprio-utilizing him to every inch in his movies. The Aviator may not be the greatest performances of Leonardo DiCaprio but is certainly a valuable addition to his illustrious repertoire of biographical movies- quite a good deal of them. Although quite sluggish in its pace and treatment, DiCaprio manages to make the audience sit through his portrayal of Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer and director of Hell's Angels.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Claimed to be Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to the 1960s L.A., Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has been getting rave reviews. Apparently, the movie received a seven minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival- Tarantino’s home turf ever since he clinched the Palme d’Or for Pulp Fiction 25 years ago. Extremely well shot, with meticulous attention to the aura of 1960s Hollywood, the movie talks about the lives of a movie star Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Along with this story we have a real life crossover-the ‘Manson Murders’. Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie, was pregnant with Roman Polanski’s child when she was killed by someone from the Manson family. So, we have a lot going on in this film- supposedly Tarantino’s second last as a direction. Oh, and yes, there is cute fight scene between Cliff Booth and Bruce Lee- apparently Tarantino’s Kung-Fu movies’ love comes around in his movies, even in those he just writes (True Romance opening scene was quite ‘Tarantinoed’).

Honorable Mentions

Django Unchained (2012)

Quentin Tarantino has an interesting and almost pervasive tendency to revisit history through his own movies. Django Unchained is the auteur’s nod to the ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ of the 1960s with a unique revisionist history. The movie is about a freed slave, Django (Jamie Foxx) and a bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz, (Christopher Waltz) who set out to free Django’s wife from the plantation owned by Calvin Candie- a charismatic but a very cruel white man. DiCaprio does not have much screen time as compared to the other two, but delivers a brilliant performance as the prototype racist white plantation owner. There is even a scene where he actually cut his hand with glass but nonetheless continued acting in the scene as if the whole thing was staged.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

DiCaprio plays a famous millionaire, Jay Gatsby, in this romantic drama based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name. The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann. Supporting DiCaprio, in this film adaptation of a literary magnum opus, is his old Hollywood buddy- Tobey Maguire. The movie is about the love and obsession of a millionaire for a woman called Daisy, who he had hoped to marry once, but she gets married to someone else. As always it is DiCaprio’s show all the way.

Gangs of New York (2002)

This movie would have it to the top had it been a list of Daniel Day Lewis’ best performances. It took Martin Scorsese twenty years to develop the script for this magnum opus on the roots of New York- the confrontation between Catholic immigrants and native Protestants. Daniel Day Lewis, in a right nominated Oscar role, plays the cruel Protestant leader while DiCaprio takes on the role of the son of a dead immigrant leader. DiCaprio’s role is obviously less meaty and gets even more toned down considering the fact that he, arguably, faces the greatest actor alive. Yet, it is one of the memorable performances of him playing the underdog who rises through his ashes to fight for the righteous.

Originally published on www.highonfilms.com on 9th August, 2019.

The Pianist (2002) Review: A poignant commentary on the horrors of The Holocaust

2019-08-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Context. Perspective. Aftermath. These words are continuously called into the minds of the viewers while watching Roman Polanski’s masterpiece, The Pianist. A favorite at the then award shows sweeping multiple awards, including the Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for Actor, Director, Screenplay- The Pianist is a very strong representation of the sensibilities prevailing during the Holocaust.

‘Context’ becomes very important while watching the movie and rightly so. After all, how could the millennial generation understand something that is entirely alien to them? The world is radically different today, we do not have any great wars. Yet, the world is becoming increasingly paranoid. The great wars were fought on lofty ideals, today there are no great ideals- just identity theft. And while there are umpteen reasons why a movie such as this would never reach this generation as much as the previous ones, it does open doors- we need to see what happened then and make of it whatever we want to.

‘Perspective’ is another important thing that comes into play here. Often, it is has been seen that historical narratives are biased or one-sided, at best. While everyone is free to offer their own narratives, it is the narrative backed by the most powerful agency that endures. American narrative on the world wars has not only dominated academia but the film industry as well. War, however horrific, definitely makes some people very rich. Well, in the case of Hollywood, it has continued to make filmmakers very rich.

While there are indeed some films which stand out as brilliant, many of them are flawed narratives. The whole American narrative focuses on the triumph of the righteous, while graphic violence cluttered with technology is used to add effect to it. War seems a just reason to redeem the world and everything in between seems justified. But, there is a completely different narrative, mostly untold in Hollywood- that of a survivor’s. The survivor is not portrayed as a hero like in the American narrative- he has somehow survived by running away and not fighting injustice. The wounds inflicted are permanent and nothing goes back to normal once the war is over. There are no medals of honor nor any celebration of the war heroes, only a sense of profound loss.

The Pianist has two Holocaust survivors- Roman Polanski and Władysław Szpilman (Adrien Brody). Polanski himself escaped the Kraków Ghetto when his mother died. It is quite obvious that his narrative would be quite different as well as uncluttered from technology- something American filmmakers haven’t done yet. The movie opens to a brilliant piece by Chopin played by Szpilman, who is a pianist at the Polish radio station. Poland has just been attacked by Germany and we get to see how this affects the life of Szpilman and his family. The movie is the story of how he survives the horrors of the Holocaust through sheer luck and desperation. The walled ghettos are a site in the movie and how millions of Jews were exterminated in Operation Reinhard makes for a nauseous viewing.

Violence is quite graphic in the movie- shooting of Jews in the heads, burning down of hospitals and buildings, a man in a wheelchair is tossed off a balcony, a man lying injured in the road is run over by a tank. But it is not without purpose like some other movies. Polanski has a difficult story to tell and his art shines throughout the movie. A particularly touching scene in the movie is where Szpilman’s entire family shares a caramel before being sent away to the extermination camp. The profound sense of shattered families and lost homes is heartbreaking and this is where the sheer cruelty of Nazis shines on us.

Adrien Brody delivers a stellar performance. His transformation from a suave pianist to a desolate skeleton desperate for survival is outstanding. The movie manages to use him well. However, the last leg appears stretched and creates a sense of monotony. A lack of sense of drama is also visible which, though is a chilling portrayal, gives the narrative a lull. The rest of the characters come and go just as they are meant to in a lone survivor’s life. A particular thing which seems lacking in the narrative is Szpilman’s reaction to the murder of his family and his losses in general. He seems to go all the way quite numb to everything that has happened in between. The only reaction powerful enough is when he plays Chopin’s ‘Ballade No. 1 in G minor’- a reminiscent of his earlier life as a pianist in stark contrast to what the war changed him into.

The cinematography of the movie is top-notch. Polanski’s own background seems to help the cause of filming well. The movie was primarily shot in Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam, Germany where most scenes of the ghetto and neighborhood were shot. Soviet barracks were created and even the hospital was used to provide realism to the visual narrative. The flow of the movie is such that it grows on the minds of viewers- slow but tender. This lends a sense of drag in some parts of the narrative due to less visual tension but at the same time, it makes the narrative sensitive and real.

The Pianist has a difficult story to tell, especially when the story is nearly biographical. The irony at various points in the movie is starkly evident. War has a strange effect on people- it reduces them to gut-wrenching survivors. Szpilman’s journey from a successful pianist to a numb survivor is proof of that. The movie does end on a positive note. It shows the transcendent and unifying nature of music and art. But it never talks about the ‘Aftermath’. What inspired the worst in humankind is another story. But, yes, the aftermath is still scary-the wounds this deep rarely heal. The Pianist remains one of the best works of Polanski while also being the most touching. The movie has some minor flaws but how can the true account of a Holocaust survivor be entirely perfect?

★★★★½

Originally published at www.highonfilms.com on 3rd August, 2019.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) Review: Art, Horror, Chills.

2019-06-23T01:48:00.002-07:00

Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews

All Art is dangerous. At least in Dan Gilory’s Velvet Buzzsaw. Art, as a medium of expression has been in our society since ages. It is as old as mankind itself and has truly evolved as much as human beings over the centuries. But what is more important is the fact that the perceptions we hold about art, both historic and modern, are not entirely our own. They have been greatly influenced by people who judge art. Critics, reviewers and academicians review it, rate it and judge it. And the opinion passes on to the general public. But who judges those who judge art ? Isn’t art entirely subjective ? How can we rate a wall mural and a Turner painting on similar scales ? Can art follow the patterns which critics want it to ? Can we truly isolate the artist from the art ? Are critics free from any bias, malice or greed ?

Velvet Buzzsaw is a fairly avant- garde attempt at satirizing the art community, with splashes of dark comedy and supernatural horror throughout. The movie sets out to achieve a very ambitious goal but somehow misses it. Many A listers form the impressive cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, and John Malkovich.

It opens in an art exhibition in Miami where we get to see the art scene. Art critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) walks in with his friend Josephina (Zawe Ashton) who works for Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), an ambitious and keen art gallery owner. But that is what it seems on the surface. There is more to just art. It is business and capitalism that has engulfed it. Rhodora is keen on getting Damrish (Daveed Diggs), a new independent artist, for her agency. On the other hand, Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge), a rival of Rhodora, is keen on persuading a veteran artist Piers (John Malkovich) to leave her agency and join him. Morf’s love life is in shambles and he starts a sexual relationship with Josephina. The movie sets the right mood for a beginning. The art scene in Los Angeles juxtaposed with the messed up and ambiguous lives of people involved in it. Shades of neo-noir.

The movie hints at picking pace when Josephina discovers a dead body of an artist, Vetril Dease, in her apartment building. She steals his paintings and shows them to Morf and Rhodora, who find them very impressive. Rhodora decides to display them and mint money through it. And with this starts a vicious chain of people each of whom get a share of the pie. Morf gets some art pieces and the rights to a book on Dease, Josephina and Rhodora mint money and Dondon seeks to destroy the image of Dease as a lunatic. Most characters are drawn into the scene, each standing to gain something out of it. The horror starts then. Slowly everyone starts getting killed. It is here that the movie loses pace and becomes predictable. The reference to the evil greed and selfishness of people associated with art seems clear and nothing surprises anymore. The screenplay shows signs of weakness as it doesn’t hold the situation very well and starts giving away the suspense too easily.

The cinematography and imagery of the movie deserve applauds. The blue labyrinthine sound room and the artistic ‘sphere’ which kills Gretchen (Toni Collette) look amazing. The deaths of the major characters are equally poetic and metaphorical. Morf is killed by the same Hoboman, which he had criticised at the Miami exhibition. Josephina gets stuck on a wall mural which she had disapprovingly made fun of in front of Damrish. Rhodora is killed when her Velvet Buzzsaw tattoo animates itself and slashes her. The paintings of Dease have an eerie quality to them and show disturbing events from the past. Most of them do materialize into reality. The motifs are not very subtle but are clear in conveying the message.

The performances in the movie are quite decent. Gyllenhaal is absolutely amazing as an astute art critic who does not compromise on his artistic vision, whether he is attending an art exhibition or a funeral. Russo does her job well as the eternally persistent gallery owner who knows what she wants. Others are good too. Malkovich isn’t used much but he adds his characteristic touch as the reticent and alcoholic artist who nurtures art and looks at the commercial agents with disdain.

The movie has its moments and deserves praise for its material and visual treatment. However, it does falls short on its ability to deliver a hard hitting story and climax. The motifs and the cinematography are there but it appears like a false ceiling ready to give way as soon as the burden becomes too much. Perhaps, it is too much to expect from a feature film to delivers answers to questions so deep. But the movie is clearly not aimed at answering any questions. What then it sets out to do ? The answer to this question isn’t there. What we do have is a horror film with moments of dark humour, some of them uncalled for.

Originally published on www.highonfilms.com on 24th June, 2019.

'Sacred Games' : Could they get any dirtier ?

2018-07-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

‘Sacred Games’ is a story about Bombay. I have to admit that I like Bombay more than Mumbai. The difference does not just lie in the nomenclature. It lies in the times and the colors that have come and gone by over the years. Bombay is not just another city. It is more of an entity that has grown up and evolved as much as the people of this country. And that transformation has underneath it, a host of stories, tales, myths and what not. Bombay was a brilliant cauldron which immersed in itself every single emotion that a human being feels : greed, jealousy, ambition, power, love, betrayal. And it had a place for every other person in its belly : actors, gangsters, prostitutes, businessmen, politicians, pimps, low life addicts, power brokers, journalists and so on. Strangely, all of them were virtually connected in this ghost like city which had place for the elite in its brighter quarters and its dark old alleys held regard for the downtrodden.

Bombay became Mumbai somewhere down in the late 1990s when probably the crime syndicate shifted gears to foreign lands. Although shreds of the old days still lurk around the corners and the new city has been galloping breathlessly yet the old days were brilliant. There was violence, crassness, bloodshed and mafia: all in bad taste but it was brilliant. The criminal underbelly of Bombay had its hands pretty much in every pie and had this invisible presence around the country and even abroad. Bombay was, and probably is, a kind of subcontinent in itself and had a flavor like the Banarasi Paan: distinct and killer, which could easily outmatch the rise of American Mafia in the neighborhoods of New York and the liquor dens of Chicago. Probably it has not received the kind of coverage its other counterparts have.

The Hindi Film Industry, quite ironic since the Bombay Mafia had quite deep roots in the industry itself, has produced quite a number of films that give us an insight into the intricacies of the Bombay Underworld. Some of them have been exceptional : ‘Parinda (1989)’, ‘Satya (1998)’, ‘Vaastav’ (1999) and ‘Company (2002)’ to name a few. But each of them has suffered two basic problems. First problem is the industry itsel : the format is such that they have to tell a story with conviction in just two hours and also include lame songs and romance to cater to audiences who otherwise would not care enough to watch them. It is quite difficult to deal with a topic as detailed as this in such a limited time. Second, the ecosystem in which such films are made is rife with questionable censorship and lack of suitable means to reach international audiences.

‘Sacred Games’ is one such online TV show streamed on Netflix which not only overcomes the above two problems but also tells the rich and brilliant story of the labyrinths of Bombay and its sordid nooks and crannies. It is perhaps the best attempt at dealing with the subject.

The Plot and the Characters

‘Sacred Games’ is about Bombay and what happens in it around a certain period of time. The storyline is non linear with splashes of the erstwhile chapters of a crime lord and a present day chase to save Mumbai from an imminent threat. ‘Sacred Games’ follows Ganesh Eknath Gaitonde, a dreaded gangster, who suddenly appears in Mumbai after 15 odd years. He calls up Inspector Sartaj Singh, a middle-aged policeman with a below average service record and a broken marriage, to inform him of an imminent danger to the city in 25 days. What happens next is a wild goose chase that shakes up the entire system. Interlaced within this gritty action is Gaitonde’s own history of how he makes it to the top of the mafia starting his life a nobody.

At its core ‘Sacred Games’ is dark, depressing and crass. Violence, Sex, Drugs and Religious Bigotry find detailed attention in it. Yet the story has a mythical vibe to it. It tends to grow on the minds of the audience given the sheer intensity of the world it transports its viewer to.

A good thing about the show, however, is the Netflix medium which is liberating at its best. There is no censorship on the medium, which is a double-edged sword. It allows the filmmakers, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, to give considerable attention to their subject and the freedom to craft their cinematic vision. However, that has caused considerable crassness, gore and violence to seep in which is a fine line to walk: Audiences could appreciate or reject this with equal ease.

The show’s characters are flawless and this makes it easier to serve the plot to the audiences since it tends to get dull at times. The attention to detail is another aspect which the show has catered to. The evolution of Bombay from the 70s to the present time is worth appreciating. The novel Sacred Games, on which the show is based, itself was quite evocative , weaving images of burgundy shoes, a green sofa and sequinned sarees to the distinct marathi flavour in the dialogues spoken by the constables. The detailing lends itself well to the screen— be it the kada worn by Sartaj Singh, or the long-collared, full sleeved shirts sported by Gaitonde, reminiscent of the ’80s.

The presence of Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Ganesh Gaitonde is menacing and he consumes the entire space in his scenes. His art of storytelling is mythical and his crass abuses add flavour to the kind of profession he belongs to. His intensity and his belief in himself creates the vital ground upon which the whole drama unfolds.

Then we have Sartaj Singh, an Inspector of Mumbai Police, in his middle age with a broken marriage. Rather plump for the profession he is in, he is resented by his colleagues and enjoys little respect in the department. Sartaj, an honest cop dealing with the failures of the system, finds himself in the midst of a turmoil when Gaitonde enters his life. Many small characters add the necessary edge to this complex Bombay story : the mildly corrupt yet empathetic Constable Katekar, the hot headed Hindu gangster Deepak “Bunty” Shinde, the cold assassin Malcolm Mourad, the mature and know-it-all DCP Parulkar and the devout religious fanatic IFS Trivedi.

The show’s portrayal of its women is quite admirable. Most of these are strong characters who give their male counterparts a run for their money. RAW agent Anjali Mathur is courageous, determined and adamant to serve in the field. Kuckoo, the glamorous transgender has a strange magical attraction and she makes her suitors prove their mettle. Zoya Mirza aka jamila is the quintessential Bollywood actress but has a dark past of her own and is willing to stake anything to have her own way. Subhadra, Gaitonde’s wife, is quite vulnerable around him but has a strong will when it comes to lead Gaitonde on the right path. Kanata Bai has a fierce temper but has a lot of acumen when it comes to deal in the illegal business.

Originally published at www.thecinemaholic.com on 18th July, 2018.

Rest in Peace, Shashi Kapoor.

2017-12-05T02:17:00.001-08:00

Shashi Kapoor passed away yesterday. I came to know about it through a humorous incident where people were ringing up 'Shashi Tharoor's' place instead of 'Shashi Kapoor's' to pay condolences. One can only wish peace to the departed soul whose life was marked by a career full of outstanding performances.

I have always been the kind of person who is against any form of star-worship. I have found it quite juvenile as well as misplaced to do so simply because our film and sportsmen make a lot of money out of what they do. They lead lavish lives and perhaps there is no difference between them and a stranger businessman one meets across the street apart from the fact that their work is quite there in the public domain. The only ones who deserve fandom, if at all, are our beloved leaders and social workers, quite rare in these days, who have worked tirelessly for our well being. And we have been quite lazy to even show an ounce of respect for our national idols while we can wait for hours to get a glimpse of our favourite star.

But Shashi is one of those exceptions which all of us make to our own beliefs. He was one those rare actors whose presence in a movie exalted me into a blissful ecstasy. Easily one of the most handsome men ever to grace our screens, my personal favourite is Shammi Kapoor though, his smile, his demeanour, his accent, his dialogues- all have made my childhood a happy experience.

Connecting with him as a 90s kid was quite easier than his elder siblings, Raj and Shammi. Raj's films, although spectacular, didn't relate much with me as a kid since their subject and treatment was quite 'Nehruvian' and 'Chaplin-esque'. Although it is a treat to watch Raj Kapoor's cinema as a mature adult, a child was not fascinated by it back in the 90s. Same goes for Shammi. His whole song and dance stardom was quite eccentric for me to digest.

But Shashi Kapoor was quite a relatable star. For one, he was versatile. He had played lead romantic roles in movies but at the same time he had done decent action in movies too. He had worked in prominent international films mostly by Merchant Ivory House and at the same time he had worked in art and offbeat films like 'Ijaazat' and 'New Delhi Times' too. His most memorable moments, as I remember watching as a kid, were those 'masala movies' where he would dance to catchy songs wearing colourful clothes, do some action, romance a bit and so on.

'Deewar' is a special film of his which I have watched as kid. Amitabh Bachchan's role as 'Vijay' was quite larger than life which suited him well. But I was equally impressed by the understated yet persistent role of Shashi as 'Ravi'- an honest cop standing against his own criminal brother.

His repertoire of movies is quite huge and I guess I might have missed out on many of them, especially his international collaborations. He was the only mainstream star of his times who was involved in such films.

He might not be alive today but he certainly leaves behind a great deal of good work behind for forthcoming generations to enjoy. As for me, I think he was one of those actors who saw light of the day in an era of Indian Cinema when content and artistic vision still had their share in films.

R.I.P.
Shashi Kapoor (1938-2017)

Some better war movies worthy of their cause.

2017-09-13T05:18:00.001-07:00

War films are just interesting. Not only are they visually stunning they also lend us a perspective into our past that was horrible and mislead. Most audiences have loved this genre and a great deal of people have made such movies in abundance. However, some them have been outstanding and brilliant. I have particularly enjoyed some of them very much. I would put some bits about them here.

APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

Francis Ford Copolla directed this great war epic. Featuring an ensemble cast of Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall, this is the story of a Vietnam Veteran's journey to murder an astray Army Colonel who now commands an ethnic tribe. The movie is notable for focusing on the psychological impacts of the war rather than a gritty depiction of violence which a staple of major movies of this genre.

SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)

Written by Thomas Keneally and directed by Steven Spielberg, this is a movie that goes beyond a usual commentary on the violence inflicted upon jews by the nazis. It goes further than this to display the Capitalist power regime and the corruption underneath the nazi regime which had gloriously proclaimed itself as the purest race . It tells the story of a German businessman whose sensible acts of business save the lives of many Jews.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)

Another Steven Spielberg movie featuring an ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Vin Diesel. The movie is based on US army's operations in Normandy and their journey to save Francis Ryan, younger brother of three U.S. soldiers who have died in the same war. The movie is notable for its graphic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes scene depicting the butchering of allied soldiers. Also noteworthy is Hanks’ performance.

PLATOON (1986)

Written and Directed by Oliver Stone this Anti-War movie stars Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe. The movie is about the horrors of Vietnam War and how wars should never happen. It was the first War movie that was directed by a Vietnam War Veteran.

FULL METAL JACKET (1987)

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short Timers (1979). Its storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their training, primarily focusing on two privates, Joker and Pyle, who struggle to get through camp under their foul-mouthed drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and the experiences of two of the platoon's Marines in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The film's title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by soldiers. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 1987.

FURY (2014)

Fury is a 2014 American war film written and directed by David Ayer, and stars Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal and Jason Isaacs. The film portrays US tank crews in Nazi Germany during the final days of World War II. Ayer was influenced by the service of veterans in his family and by reading books, such as Belton Y. Cooper's Death Traps, about American armored units in World War II and the high casualty rates suffered by tank crews in Europe.

HACKSAW RIDGE (2016)

Hacksaw Ridge is a 2016 biographical war drama film directed by Mel Gibson and written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan, based on the 2004 documentary The Conscientious Objector. The film focuses on the World War II experiences of Desmond Doss, an American pacifist combat medic who was a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, refusing to carry or use a firearm or weapons of any kind. Doss became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for service above and beyond the call of duty during the Battle of Okinawa. Andrew Garfield stars as Doss, with Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths and Vince Vaughn in supporting roles.

DUNKIRK (2017)

Dunkirk is a 2017 war film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. It features an ensemble cast starring Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy, and portrays the Dunkirk evacuation of the Second World War. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is a co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Netherlands.

Originally written here.

Some lesser works of greater artists.

2017-09-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

Mostly films are seen as a source of entertainment. Some of them get a lot of commercial success and are considered Blockbusters. However, I believe that most film-makers as well as movie stars would agree that while they work on a film they have no idea as to how the film would perform once it hit the theatres. It is also true and has been found in abundance that many films that had been worked upon with the greatest dedication and by the best people in the business disappointed the cash counters or were not as impressive in their collections as well as their impact on the audiences. On the other hand, movies that were made in haste or with a constraint on the budget turned out to be big surprises. Not that they were less wonderful in any way, but the expectations were low from them and also perhaps, a reason for low expectations, they did not involve the best people in the business.

I have always felt that some movies are so well ahead of their times that they fail to enthrall audiences at all. Later on, these films go on to become cult movies. A brilliant example here is that of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) which was the last directorial venture of the great film-maker Stanley Kubrick. It is brilliant yet not considered close to his 'usual' hits like A Clockwork Orange (1971) or The Shining (1980). I believe that the movie has created a niche for itself over the years and, well, maybe some years later it might get tagged as a 'Cult Classic'.

One other recurring thought that I always have is that some movies just like cult hits are not there in the popular culture as much as their other counterparts. For example, if one were inquisitive enough to inquire into the war movies which Steven Spielberg has made over his entire career, one would usually get recommended a Saving Private Ryan (1998) or a Schindler's List (1993). But a warm and brilliant movie of the same genre was also directed by Spielberg that was called Bridge of Spies (2015). A special thing about such movies is the change in perspective that these movies bring about. They are informative, entertaining as well as low-key.

Often I doubt whether the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is perhaps the best way to go about getting movie recommendations. Or a movie critic like Roger Ebert could be given such a huge responsibility as to deciding whether a movie is fit to be viewed or not. Well !

Here are some movies that I found great, entertaining as well as informative. However, the love of audiences as well as critics has not been as eloquent for them as it has been for the other works of the same people involved in creating them.

BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)

I have to admit that I reckoned the movie to be a typical world war thriller at the first instance. But as I reluctantly moved with the movie I found it totally amazing. The plot of the movie along with some superb cinematography makes the movie stand out amongst all the acclaimed world war movies.

It is basically about an American Tax Lawyer who takes up the case of an accused Soviet spy for the sake of providing him defence in the case to uphold the American values of Justice. He makes progress by getting him off the electric chair (death sentence) by getting a term of life imprisonment for him. He receives a lot of flak and even his family’s security gets threatened since the public gets angry. All for being dedicated to his job, however dishonourable it might have seemed. He finally succeeds in exchanging his client for an American spy.

It changed my entire thought process regarding the limits of dedication which one can stretch beyond any paltry lines of popular acclaim and wealth. The character upholds the highest virtues of professional ethics and loyalty to justice despite suffering initial dents on his personal and professional life.

SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)

Steven Spielberg made this black and white movie out of a Booker prize winning novel. This film is about a German industrialist who saves the lives of some thousand jews during the holocaust after witnessing their persecution in concentration camps. He does so by employing them in his factories.

It changed my perspective on the impact of the efforts of a single person. A single person who was able to save thousands of jewish lives actually saved several future jewish generations! The part being most commendable is the fact that the person himself was a native German.

THE BIG SHORT (2015)

This epic film is actually a string of stories of some people involved in making money from the Global Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis of 2008 that started in the US and spread throughout the world in varying amounts.

This changed my perspective on globalization and capitalism. As can be found in the movie, we see how greedy bankers sold sub prime mortgage bonds by repackaging them into seemingly safer CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligation) taking advantage of the real estate bubble and their deeds brought the entire financial community to a standstill. Supporting such practices were the trusted rating agencies which mislead the society by rating such bonds highly.

A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)

A legal thriller with Tom Cruise as the leading man in his good old days is a treat to watch. That too a movie based on something sensational like what happens behind those closed military doors.

This movie is about a reluctant lawyer (Cruise) taking up a case for the court-martial of two U.S. marines charged with the murder of a fellow marine. Apparently the deceased marine transgressed some norms for which he was ‘disciplined’ by the two accused marines on the orders of their Colonel. The act leads to some unforeseen consequences leading to the death of the marine.

The movie is a rare glance at the legal complexities involved in a court martial. It offers an insight into the workings of an entirely opaque system held in the highest esteem.

THE INSIDER(1999)

It is one of the two movies of Michael Mann which I find very cool and timeless. The other one is Heat (1995).

It is a docu-drama centered around the billion dollar tobacco industry. It is about a former executive of a tobacco major who is trying to let off some steam regarding the alteration of the chemical composition of tobacco products by his company, enhancing them to an extent where they might get addictive. Russell Crowe gives a very commendable performance here. I loved him in Gladiator (2000) too.

It brings to light issues such as malpractices in the processing industry, deliberate usage of contents to increase tobacco use (read abuse), failure of judicial and regulatory authorities to curb such practices and also the involvement of money so huge that the settlement of the issue highlighted in the movie was to the tune of some 60 billion US Dollars.

HER (2013)

The movie is basically carried on his shoulders by the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix, perhaps one of the most underrated actors of all time alongside Robert Duvall. I found him at his glowing best in The Master (2012) and Gladiator (2000).

The story revolves around a lonely letter writer, going through a divorce, who finds solace and company in an operating system designed to interact with people by gradually evolving as the interaction between the system and the human grows. What happens next and so forth is worth a watch.

The film throws light on the changing nature of human relationships and how we as humans are dealing with issues like seclusion and loneliness. The impact of technology on dealing with these issues is both drastic as well as dangerous.

JFK (1991)

This less popular but an extremely definitive movie by Oliver Stone is centered around the events and circumstances of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Seen from the perspective a New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, it only offers glances at various angles to the assassination . The perpetrators of the assassination are yet to be discovered and the case got closed due to lack of any definitive evidence. Some people were found to have a hand in the event but that was it.

It is revealed in the movie that there could a conspiracy by the Arms Industry and the U.S. armed forces to kill Kennedy since he was a supporter of lesser military interference in other countries like Vietnam. This could have been detrimental to the position of both the actors involved in the conspiracy. A lot needs to be learned regarding the power battle that U.S. and its associates have waged for more than half a century now.

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

I have to admit that I am a little biased towards this movie. I keep talking about it in every movie discussion that I undertake and also in everything I write. I guess a part of it comes from the De Niro worship (Robert De Niro : Actor, Taxi Driver) and some of it comes from the magnificence of the film itself .

The movie centers around a young taxi driver who is an ex U.S. Marine back from the Vietnam War. He likes to drive around for long hours at night and seems disappointed and frustrated with the state of things in the city. This leads to some drastic consequences.

The movie helps develop a perspective, though not a very definitive one, on the issues which soldiers and military men involved in long wars like Vietnam face. Issues like loneliness, difficulty in adjusting to the societal norms, frustration and psychological disorders are some of them.

CITIZEN FOUR (2014)

To be very honest I am a not a big fan of documentary films for the reason that they are boring. Basically a series of interviews clubbed together under the garb of a film! But not this one. A real and gruesome account by Edward Snowden, an ex N.S.A. (National Security Agency , U.S.) employee, about the N.S.A. spying scandal. It is brilliant and horrifying at the same time.

It just brings to the fore the horrible as well as illegitimate spying of the agency on the vulnerable private lives of billions of individuals in the name of cyber counter intelligence: something that emerged in the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Centre Terrorist Attacks.

Governments do need to put effective checks on the overreach of the intelligence and security agencies which have, many times in the past, gone extremely overboard in meeting their mandates.

P.S. I am limited in my perspective since anyone can only tell from his limited knowledge, which keeps growing and evolving as time passes. I will try and update this post if I find something worthwhile.

Originally written here.

Film Trivia.

2017-09-12T05:28:00.001-07:00

I loved collecting trivia at school and college. And Film trivia was something I always looked up to. A certain sense of realism got into me after graduating from college. Though I still adore films, perhaps my sense of inquisitiveness regarding trivia has faded.

Here is a little collection of trivia I found over the years.

1. This series of picture messages appeared in the magazine Variety over a period of many years. They have a connection. Guess what ( You might figure out if you can read out the blurred text. Sorry for the quality).

When George Lucas’ “Star Wars” eclipsed Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” as the all time box office leader back in 1977, Spielberg took out a full page ad in Variety to congratulate his old pal. Once Spielberg’s “ET: The Extra Terrestrial” reclaimed the box office title in 1982, Lucas returned the favour by taking out an Ad in the same magazine Variety. Lucas kept the tradition alive by taking out a full page Ad when, in 1998, James Cameron’s “Titanic” sunk the re-issue of “Star Wars” to become the top Box-Office movie of all times.

2. Once the director of a famous movie was driving his car when he noticed the movement of a glass of water on his dashboard due to the sound emanating from his speakers. He immediately went back to his studio to incorporate that effect into his movie.

The movie was Jurassic Park ( 1993 ). The person was Steven Spielberg. The effect being talked about was the ripples caused in a glass of water upon the entry of the dinosaur T-Rex . That effect was actually created by connecting the string of a guitar to the dashboard over which the glass was placed. And then the guitar was played. Thus, an iconic effect was born.

Watch it here.

3. Taxi Driver (1976) formed part of the delusional fantasy of John Hinckley Jr. that triggered his attempted assasination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Hinckley stated that his actions were an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster, on whom Hinckley was fixated, by mimicking Travis's mohawked appearance at the Palantine rally. His attorney concluded his defense by playing the movie for the jury.

4. It's well known that Robert De Niro auditioned for a number of roles in The Godfather, alongside fellow "failures" Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman. You can see him auditioning for the role of Sonny on YouTube.

5. On March 5, 1973, Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his gut-wrenching performance as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather (1972)" - for a very unexpected reason. On the eve of the 45th Academy Awards, Brando announced that he would boycott the ceremony and send Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. A little-known actress, she was then-president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee.

On the evening of March 5, when Liv Ullman and Roger Moore read out the name of the Best Actor award recipient, their gaze fell on a woman in Apache dress, whose long, dark hair bobbed against her shoulders as she climbed the stairs.

Moore extended the award to Littlefeather, who waved it away with an open palm. She set a letter down on the podium, introduced herself, and said : "I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you ... that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry -"

Watch the complete scene here

6. There is a sound effect called the Wilhelm Scream that has been used in over 200 movies and TV shows since 1951. Listen to it here.

7. The charcoal drawing of Kate Winselet in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) was actually drawn by James Cameron.

8. Alfred Hitchcock has made a stunning 39 cameo appearances in his 52 major movies like appearing in photographs, crossing a building etc. This is a scene from 1963 movie 'The Birds'. But so did Subhash Ghai in almost all of his famous movies.

9. Lata Mangeshkar's song ‘Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum’ from ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ (1957) which was an original composition by Vasant Desai, was adapted by a Pakistani school as the school anthem.

10. ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960) was a trilingual – with all scenes shot thrice in Hindi, Tamil and English. When the Tamil one flopped miserably, the English language one was aborted.

11. Aamir Khan's ‘Lagaan (2001)’ had the maximum number of British actors ever to be cast in a single movie in the history of Bollywood cinema.

Originally written here.

Things we are doing wrong collectively.

2017-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Undeserved attention, rewards, adulation to P.V. Sindhu

1. I need not talk about her achievements in sports. They are illustrious and phenomenal. But I fail to understand that what on this earth qualifies her for the post of Deputy Collector for which many poor, rich, disabled, backward etc students burn their midnight oil for ?

Source

Maybe the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri Chandrababu Naidu thinks she has a badminton shot ready to tackle all of it.

Pity ! And I thought that I was the only one who thinks that these students were stupid to just toil for years first preparing for the exam and then in the Training Institute.

Anyway her attendance in the Collector’s office would be much like that of Lord Tendulkar’s in Rajya Sabha.

I wonder why Tendulkar and Sindhu took up these jobs knowing well that they won’t be able to do justice to them. They should be aware that their salaries and allowances come from the valuable money of tax payers. They should have also known that some very deserving candidates in their place could have done much better jobs. Anyway they had had lucrative careers.

But who doesn’t want a free ride in India ? Hats off Tendulkar and Sindhu !

Well Played !

I don’t blame Shri Chandrababu Naidu for offering her a lot of money (I will talk about this later) and that post to her.

After all in the next elections he would have something to claim.

“ Please vote for us. If you do, we will ensure that nothing good becomes of the common man. But yes we will continue to seek acclaim by offering important government posts to useless people who have no idea how to go about them, just like us.”

It is unbelievable that the leaders of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh even went to the extent of fighting over the fact that whether Sindhu belonged to Telangana or Andhra Pradesh.

Such “Honourable Buffoons”.

I wonder where were they and their stashes of cash when Sindhu’s coach Pulela Gopichand had to mortgage his house to be able to finance a training academy for Badminton.

2. Rewards for winning the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics

₹5 crore (US$780,000), and a land grant from the Government of Telangana.

₹30 lakh (US$47,000) from the Indian Olympic Association.

₹1.01 lakh (US$1,600) from Salman Khan, for qualifying as an Olympic participant.

₹3 crore (US$470,000), a Group A cadre job(Deputy Collector of Andhra Pradesh) and 1000 square yd land grant from the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

₹2 crore (US$310,000) from the Government of Delhi.

₹75 lakh (US$120,000) from her employer, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, with promotion from assistant to deputy sports manager.

₹50 lakh (US$78,000) from the Government of Haryana.

₹50 lakh (US$78,000) from the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

₹50 lakh (US$78,000) from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

₹50 lakh (US$78,000) from Badminton Association of India.

₹50 lakh (US$78,000) from NRI businessman, Mukkattu Sebastian.

₹5 lakh (US$7,800) from All India Football Federation.

BMW car from the Hyderabad District Badminton Association and as well as Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Miniature badminton racquet memento with gold and diamond from Kirtilals.

Source

I wonder why such hefty amounts of money have been showered on a sportsperson whose only achievements have been winning some medals at international level.

I am sure that playing and winning matches at international level require the highest levels of sportsmanship and talent. Sindhu has worked very hard.

But so does a labourer who works all day and is still not able to meet his ends.

In a country as poor and underdeveloped as India how can we afford to waste so much money just to glorify the leaders who award them ?

And mind the fact that these awards are in excess of the legitimate Remuneration, Allowances, National Awards and so on.

And apart from platonic returns that Sindhu brings in by winning matches what service is she doing for the nation or for that matter any sportsperson in India ?

The sad truth is that they contribute nothing majorly. The sponsors that they bring in pay a hefty fees to the government but God knows where that revenue goes. And that is also true about only Cricket. The kind of money that is involved has led to widespread corruption in BCCI and to scams like that of Commonwealth Games 2010.

3. One thing which is very sad is the dismal performance of India in every sport except Cricket. Just look at the performance in Olympics. It would be better that we do not send in any team there at all. Because we won’t win medals anyway. A major cause for this is the lack of infrastructure to train athletes.

An interesting observation in this regard is that the lack of training infrastructure is not due to the lack of money. This is so because the kind of monetary rewards Sindhu received after winning the Silver Medal are enough to fund some quality infrastructure to train athletes at the national level.

But Politicians don’t care. Why would they ?

Sadly even Sindhu does not care. Despite having a platform to speak up and bringing this issue to light, Sindhu decides to take the rewards, a free bureaucratic Job and keep mum.

Why should she worry ?

Perhaps I expect too much from her. Before asking her I should pay heed to the fact that even I have done nothing for the welfare of the nation. Even I have taken free rides when I got the chance.

I am not a National Icon.

But so is P.V. Sindhu.

She is a mere Badminton Player.

But we do have a National Icon.

Kailash Satyarthi

1. I am very sure that all those stupid Tendulkar fans who went berserk when Maria Sharapova denied knowing him do not even now Kailash Satyarthi. Although his contribution for this nation’s welfare is much greater than any sportsperson let alone Tendulkar, even the most sane people of India came to know about him only when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2. He is the person that India needs but does not deserve at all. It is a shame that his efforts were recognized by foreign enclaves like the Nobel Prize Foundation but his own country failed to recognize him.

Well, they were busy awarding Amitabh Bachchan the stupidest award only presented in countries like India : “Star of the Millenium”. Either this or may be they were making John Travolta dance to the tunes of “Lungi Dance” at IIFA awards.

3. Satyarthi is involved with a major movement called “Bachpan Bachao Aandolan” credited with saving the lives of almost 83,000 children from bonded labour.

4. I am very sure that he might never get awarded the Bharat Ratna which he deserves more than anyone else around. Because I am very sure that Bonded Labour is not as glamorous as Cricket or Film or Music.

This guy has no fans.

Sad.

Pathetic.

EDIT 1:

1. I would like to point out that I do not believe in name calling to prove my point. I also do not believe in blaming others for not being righteous enough. It is their call just like mine. But I had to take names because that was the only way to prove my point otherwise this would have been a general debate and people would have called me a lunatic. As you all may have noticed I have cited the relevant source whenever I have made a point.

2. As Jahnavi Patel pointed out, I think I should clarify myself here.

My comparison of an athlete to a labourer, though looks very awkward, is justifiable. First, both are citizens of this country. Second, lets not say that any athlete who plays for India makes it proud. Because anyone who does anything being an Indian citizen either makes India proud or disgraced.

I will explain how.

An army soldier fights for the nation at the border and gives away his life fighting for the country. He makes the nation proud. Not awarded 200 million and a deputy collector’s post to his relative.

A labourer works hard all day. Earns his living. Contributes to the GDP. Acts as a backbone to the manufacturing sector. Meagre income. No access to healthcare and education. Still survives. Makes India proud. No 200 million and a Deputy Collector’s post.

A Physicist in India works hard and researches to make inventions and discoveries despite the poor infrastructure as well as poorly paid reserach fellowships. Makes India proud. No 200 million and a deputy collector’s post.

An Economist works on theories related to economic development, poverty alleviation, welfare etc. Helps in real growth of the country. Poor salaries and allowances. Makes India proud. No 200 million and a deputy collector’s post.

An important point here to note is that I have mentioned ‘Deputy Collector’s post’ liberally throughout. Its usage is arbitrary. I mean what would a Physicist do with a Collector’s job. Here I mean to say that in return for his services he is given employment in a sphere where his expertise does not lie. For example, a Physicist is given the job of the Chief Security Advisor of the country by the government as a favour for his research in a completely different area.

The reason employed behind all these weaknesses of the system.

“India is a poor country, with a population of 1.35 billion.”

Boom comes the sportsman.

Works hard. wins a medal. national awards. land. job. car. 200 million. still counting…

How much reward did Pulela Gopichand receive who mortgaged his house to train sindhu ?

How much reward did Amartya Sen receive when he won the nobel prize for economics?

How much reward did Kailash Satyarthi receive when he won the nobel peace prize ?

A Nobel prize is equal to, if not greater than, an Olympics medal in terms of prestige and honour at “international level”.

A Bharat Ratna for liberating 83,000 children from bonded labour is equally desrved, if not more than, a Bharat Ratna for playing cricket while earning billions.

Do not compare Physicists, Economists with Sportsmen. It is an insult to some of the noblest professions.

3. Naresh Jilla Do you check the news website when you plan to select the college you have to attend ? Or the hospital where you would take your grandmother to for her arthiritis ? Or which tourist spot you would like to visit next summer ? No. You find out yourself.

Do not blame media for not reporting an issue with greater coverage. What can they do ? When the only information Indians want is “Who is Virat Kohli’s next girlfriend ?”. Sorry Kohli. Had to say that.

4. I do not underestimate the importance of sports and its relative impact on the well being of people. But those 200 million could have helped set up a good Training Academy for athletes. We could have had many winners. There is a lot of talent going wasted due to utter lack of reverence and corruption and irresponsibility.

EDIT 2

1. Here is something good Manjinder Singh Swann has to say:

“In my opinion rather than giving her crores of Rs. government should have invested that money for the next Olympic preparations so that our athletes can perform better. Only few lakhs are enough for these athletes because after winning a medal at an event like Olympics these athletes already grab the attention of big brands which offer them advertisement contracts from which they can earn crores of Rs.

On one hand some athletes don’t even have money to pay for the air tickets to attend Olympic, or to get a medical fitness certificate, or to prepare for the event, and on the other hand some athletes gets crores of Rs. just for winning Silver medal.

Who knows if some of the athletes who don’t have money to prepare or who don’t have coach like Pullela can grab us a Gold medal if given a chance ?”

Originally written here.

Books and beyond.

2017-09-08T05:05:00.001-07:00

I am writing about the said question after having read almost all the answers already posted for it. All of them are fantastic. Each represents the mind of the reader as well as what they have understood by the phrase “expansion of mind” as requested by the question.

Before delving into my bit I would put forth two thoughts which come to my mind as of now. One, as I found in many answers, writers have assumed that “expansion of mind” is basically fed by stuff which either motivates you to think, manipulate or do well or it helps you become more smarter at certain things considered integral to an intelligent human being. I personally do not believe so. I believe that “expansion of mind” simply means being more aware about any aspect of life. We, as humans, are extremely limited in our understanding of the world and there are infinite avenues to expand our mind. Two, I am limited in my perspective by the limited knowledge I have about literature here. Some very bright people surfing through this might not find anything which might help their minds expand.

WEALTH DISTRIBUTION

Capital in the Twenty-First Century By Thomas Piketty (2013)

Thomas Piketty has written a very important work for our times. Economic inequality in the world has been on the rise and recently a record high as measured by the household consumption expenditure in countries like the U.S., China, India, U.K., Germany and France. Perfect equality is when everyone has a similar income while perfect inequality is when all income is accumulated in one person. The issue of rising inequality is also socially and politically important as it may harm societal stability, especially in a large, diverse and young democracy plagued by widespread poverty and vulnerability amid rising expectations.

MODERN HISTORY : OPIUM WARS

Ibis Trilogy By Amitav Ghosh (2008–2015)

Ibis Trilogy is the most ambitious work of Amitav Ghosh, comprising Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire, published between 2008 and 20015. It is a gigantic piece of work, totalling about 1,700 pages, with dozens of principal characters from very diverse backgrounds, moving from Bihar to China to Mauritius, with the British opium trade in the 1830s to the First Opium War in China as the backdrop.

He complements his craft with alarmingly deep research. The Ibis trilogy (Ibis is the name of the ship on which most of the characters find themselves at one time or another) wows the reader with 19th century Bhojpuri songs, minute details of opium cultivation, Chinese society and culture, the peculiar language of the laskars (sailors), botany, the engineering details of ships and intricacies of sailing them on the high seas, the Indianization of the English spoken by East India Company officials, Parsi customs, and even early 19th century pornography.

LEGAL THRILLER

The Firm (1991) by John Grisham

I think reading The Firm (1991) by John Grisham made me fall in love with reading. I think this was because I was compelled to read books at school to score marks. All we read were a handful of classics and those too were rendered tasteless by tacit manipulation for the exams. The novel takes you to the exciting work of Corporate Tax Lawyers. It is about a young attorney who finds a very lucrative job with a firm in Memphis. He later discovers through FBI that the firm he is working for, actually, is just a front to launder money for a Chicago Crime Family. He now has to run for his life as well as help the FBI in taking down the firm. Very exciting read. I admired this book thoroughly. The one thing at which the writer excels is acquiring a grip over the reader's mind. I was completely mesmerized while reading the novel. No doubt Grisham is the master of legal thrillers. The novel is phenomenal.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson (2011)

Walter Isaacson has been a biographer of many famous celebrities. He interacted with a lot many people associated with Jobs to write this great biography. The biography takes us through the college years of Jobs up till his days at Apple Inc. The biography is a mind numbing tale of an Art School dropout with a sense of design. It takes us through his journey with Steve Wozniak to establish one of the foremost companies dealing in specialized products. Special insights in the book make us aware of a number traits that made Jobs one of the foremost entrepreneurs of his generation.

INDIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY

The Discovery of India (1946) By Jawaharlal Nehru

This voluminous work of Indian culture and history was written by Jawaharlal Nehru during his time at Ahmednagar Fort. It is a tribute to the rich cultural heritage of India by the foremost writers of India. The book tracks the history of India from the advent of Aryans up till the present period. It meanders, in between, to his reflections on the Journey of India through the times. His conclusions are vivid and point out to the fact that India had been one of the foremost stages of Civilization in the world. India’s immense potential and cultural diversity are some of the themes that find their place throughout the book.

WAR DOCUMENTARY

The Things They Carried (1990) By Tim O’ Brien

This work is a collection of linked short stories based on the soldiers of a platoon in Vietnam War. It is one of the foremost and finest works of War Documentary in a long time. War has always been depicted in popular culture as something very fantastic and gritty. One major aspect of wars, especially long ones like Vietnam, is the impact such events have on the mental architecture of the soldiers who return from them.

Reading this work takes the reader into the intricacies involved in the effects of wars most of which are psychological.

PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology By Robert A. Baron (2014)

Ever wondered what goes inside people’s mind ? Why they behave the way they do ? Why some children perform well on intelligence tests while some fail miserably ?

Reading the Science of Mind is perhaps the best way to expand our minds. This book is a brilliant illustration of the complexities involved in determining the behaviour, thought processes and cognitive abilities of human beings.

I thoroughly enjoyed the lucid explanation of the mechanisms and theories that govern the functioning of our minds.

Originally written here.

Capitalism, greed and Wall Street.

2017-08-27T07:53:00.005-07:00

I have been thinking about this from a long time. I first thought about this some 5 years ago when Rajat Gupta, an Indian educated at IIT Delhi and Harvard University, while being on board for Mckinsey&Co. was convicted for insider trading. It seems that Capitalism for all its worth has ultimately led to wider destruction and chaos than the good it set out to do in the first place. I know we live in the 21st century. With our Apple i-phones, BMW cars, Chinese electronics, Microsoft Windows, efficient ACs, subsidized oil and cheap credit we do owe Capitalism a lot. But lets not entertain these thoughts for a while. Lets spin the wheel the other way round.

One of the first major indications of the not so good consequences was the crashing of U.S. stock markets leading to the economic depression of 1930. The U.S. GDP contracted by 15% during this depression. To lend a perspective, the U.S. GDP contracted by roughly 1% during the 2008 economic recession in the U.S. Although the size of U.S. GDP in 2008 was significantly larger than that in 1930 yet a contraction of 15% is important at least for speculative purposes. Several theories exist till date regarding the causes of the depression. However one clearly outstanding conclusion from the depression was that the market, supposedly, did not have the power to self correct itself completely. There seemed to be bottlenecks in the mechanism since much of the investment in the economy came from profit speculation. The principles of a free market took a beating for the first time ever since the industrial revolution served the "Free Market Agenda" of the influential capitalists to the world in general.

I profess that I am not someone who hates capitalism or socialism for that matter. I am no one. But yes despite the benefits which Capitalism did bestow on the global economy there are some horrific consequences which emerged with time.

The U.S. recovered and continued to soar through the decades. The market was regulated through new laws. Regulation acted as an effective check on banks and financial institutions and investors as to the limits of their transactions. Most regular banks were local businesses and were tightly regulated. They were not allowed to speculate with depositors' money. Investment banks which dealt with bonds and stock were small establishments. The Managers of such banks paid close attention to all the money they managed. All was well.

The 80s saw the emergence of a new kind of greed for money. It started with large Investment Banks going public. This gave them huge amounts of stockholder money at their disposal. Suddenly the banks didn't take a liking to regulation. A new wave of deregulation started emerging slowly and got a support of a large number of economists and financial lobbyists. In 1982, the Ronald Reagan administration started a 30 year long deregulation phase by first deregulating loan and savings companies. By the end of the decade many major loan companies had got bankrupt. Several executives went to jail for looting their own companies.

Computerised trading had just set its foot in. Traders started selling bonds, securities and derivatives by computer speculation based on an 'arbitrary economic boom' which never existed. Rampant selling of such instruments created a whirlwind of speculations which was one of the major reported cause of the crash of stock markets of U.S., U.K. and Australia in 1987.

A growing trend of fraud on wall street emerged which could be observed in the selling of fake derivatives which stood upon on dubious underlying assets. The conviction of Jordan Belfort in the penny stock scam is a brilliant example of that.

Corporate Raiding was one such concept which took rapid ground in this phase where investors who had acquired major stakes in corporations turned them upside down by mostly liquidating them. A great movie Wall Street (1987) was made on the concept where Michael Douglas played Gorden Gekko, a corporate raider.

Insider Trading was another such evil that emerged out of the greed for money that avenues such as wall street had to offer. It is a practice of sharing vital information of an organisation, detrimental for its interests, by an insider employee putting his interests in conflict with his organisation. Several people have been found guilty of insider trading world over by the regulatory agencies.

One of the most horrible forms of capitalism, Crony Capitalism, showed its face in the East Asian Crisis of 1997 leading to a whole new set of problems for the economies like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Thailand's economy developed into an economic bubble fueled by hot money. More and more was required as the size of the bubble grew. The same type of situation happened in Malaysia, and Indonesia, which had the added complication of what was called "crony capitalism". The short-term capital flow was expensive and often highly conditioned for quick profit. Development money went in a largely uncontrolled manner to certain people only, not particularly the best suited or most efficient, but those closest to the centres of power.

At the time of the mid-1990s, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea had large private current account deficits and the maintenance of fixed exchange rates encouraged external borrowing and led to excessive exposure to foreign exchange risks in both the financial and corporate sectors.

A facet of Capitalism that worries me is its propensity to increase Consumerism to ridiculous levels. A trend that sets apart the last two centuries from the whole previous lot is the dramatic increase in the consumer base during the aforementioned period. Industries especially like cosmetics, electronics, food, liquor and tobacco, real estate and financial products have seen rampant growth amidst all major booms. What is worrisome is the incapability of the regulatory sector to regulate them before they harm the consumers they target. For example, the global GM crop major Monsanto has been selling Bt Cotton, a genetic variant of cotton, despite proven research that it might be carcinogenic. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been at its wits end in dealing with the issue. Meanwhile Bt Cotton has found its place globally as a beneficial alternative to the regular cotton despite no proven research in regards to its yield as against the natural variety.

A wonderful movie The Insider (1999) by Michael Mann was released based on a fictionalized account of a true story about the struggles that a tobacco industry insider and a TV show producer go through to come up with a show to expose the malpractices in the industry. It cited the handicapped U.S. Judicial and Regulatory mechanism unable to deal with the billion dollar tobacco industry where inappropriate and unauthorised usage of ammonia to increase the addictive quality of tobacco was taking place.

Following deregulation the first major crisis that erupted was in the late 90s in the form of the Dot Com Bubble. Investment banks started investing heavily in the internet stocks that were basically those of startups. By 2001, however, the market had crashed with an estimated 5 trillion dollars investment loss. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency to look into such matters did nothing.

Analysts were paid according to the amount of business they brought in. Extensive investigation found out that the banks had invested in stocks they knew would crash. There was a stark anomaly between what the analysts talked about inside and what they invested in publicly.

The most debated and perhaps the most fresh example of the greed is the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis which took place in the U.S. in 2008. It lead to a global financial meltdown. The crisis posed some very serious questions. As a background, the crisis was an aftermath to a real estate bubble that had emerged due to the slack monetary policies of the U.S. Fedreral Reserve and the Treasury Department. Throughout the whole episode none of these agencies did anything within their easy ambit or power to avert the crisis. Supposedly this was because these agencies had their top executives as people who had interests at stake in the ongoing gamble.

Availability of easy credit along with no collateral and inquiry led to a rampant increase in the loans due to the banks. The banks decided to write these loans off their books by restructuring these loans into derivatives like Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO). Although these derivatives had sub-prime assets underneath them they were still rated highly by the top rating agencies who were paid to do so indicating a complete fraud with the buyers by the banks-rating agencies syndicate. I have never heard of a Corporate Fraud more horrendous than this one.

The fraud is horrendous in the sense that its criminal intent is so blatant and obvious since the entire system was involved in it. From Late 90s till date the appointees to the Fed Reserve and the Treasury department have been people with an extreme conflict of interest. People with earlier positions in major private financial institutions were being appointed. They did a wonderful job at stressing heavily on the deregulation of derivatives. Derivatives were a 90s innovation that were perhaps the most dangerous financial weapons ever thought of. Using a derivative, which was basically something that derived its value from an underlying asset, one could bet on oil futures and hell, could even predict the weather.

Around the same time as this was happening two important developments came in. The first was the deregulation of Credit Default Swaps. Now Credit Default Swap (CDS) is a kind of insurance with only one major difference. While in case of a regular insurance only the owner of a property can insure against that asset, in case of a CDS anyone can insure against any asset. So it could be a possibility that 50 people have purchased CDS against an asset which none of them owns. A horrible development that came about was that banks selling CDOs to investors were purchasing CDS against those very CDOs. This leads us to a conclusion that the banks did know that the derivatives they were selling were going to default sooner or later. The second development was regarding the insurance major AIG. It was selling CDS at a massive scale without putting aside any collateral or capital reserves in case of defaults where it would have to pay the CDS owners. It was finally bailed out by the government for 180 billion dollars.

When the crisis did hit it hit the common man the worst. The top most executives came out unscathed with most of them having earned hundreds of million dollars. None of them were criminally sentenced and all of them along with the organisations they ruined got away with nothing. Unemployment rose, however, at a dramatic rate. This led to spending cuts by the public which had reverberations all over the world. For example, the cheap labour industry in China took a hit since there was a slump in manufacturing due to low demands. It would be foolish to think that any economy got away without getting affected. We live in a global world where economies are interconnected. The degree of losses varied depending on the integration as well as the level of regulations in the economy. Even Iceland suffered losses due to heavy investments of its public money by privatised banks in Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). However, countries like India were less affected due to the active work of its regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). Moreover there was a considerable constraint on the banks freedom to invest depositors' money into securities.

An interesting impact of the crisis was that its influence was so huge that it even trickled down to the academic institutions that taught economics. The professors at top schools were found to have worked as lobbyists for the wall street greed. Some of them were found to be on the boards of major banks which had defaulted later. Most of them were found to be drawing fat pay cheques by acting as consultants to investment banks. Also instances were found where they had praised imprudent policies of the wall street such as deregulation of profits in their reports and academic writings.

An interesting movie The Big short (2015) was released based on this crisis and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. A documentary titled Inside Job (2010), also on the same issue, was released to critical acclaim. I have watched it thrice. It seems cool every time.

The world has slowly emerged out of this whole crisis and new laws have come up. But I guess I see a whole old pattern here. A crisis occurs and the authorities come into action: catch the perpetrators and enact laws. The top criminals of the act get away easily without remorse or regret. Common man takes the burden of the crimes mostly. Then things go back to normal and the chaos settles. A boom comes and things start drifting slowly to the old order. People with larger stakes (read insatiable greed) find a way around the weak rules. The crisis arrives at the climax of this ape show. It is a whole vicious loop.

India has not been unscathed from the vices of capitalism. Only stakes have been slightly lower due to its status as a developing economy.

Actually, I personally feel that the economic liberalization that the country has had over the years since 1991 has made really positive impacts on the economy in general. But at the same time it has led to huge corruption and corporate fraud as a collateral damage. The Harshad Mehta scam of the 90s was just an example. Over the years the scams and their net value have increased dramatically. For example the 2G spectrum allocation scam was to the tune of ₹1.76 trillion (US$27 billion), based on 2010 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices.

The disturbing trends are not only visible in the scam led corruption but also in the hugely stressed banking sector. The loan sheets of banks are ridden with billions of dollars of corporate debt. And all of it is taxpayer's valuable money fed to the perpetrators of crony capitalism. Huge boom in credit due to speculative growth led to massive borrowings by indian companies in the period after 2000s. Much of it didn't work out due to structural inefficiencies and the global crisis of 2008. This led to loan defaults on a massive scale. It has been continuing since then due to many reasons like political patronage to the industrialists.

It will be a whole new challenge for India to combat corruption which is rampant, clean up her own debt as well as her banks' clogged sheets. Also India needs a stringent check on its regulatory efficiency to avert any crisis. Greed is universal. What happened on Wall Street could well happen on Dalal Street. NSEL scam where 5600 Cr worth of debt was accumulated by trading futures with no underlying commodities is a big example.

I wonder where this capitalism will finally lead us to. I agree that perhaps it is the best solution as against all other models of production and political administration. But the side effects of this practice have been wreaking horrors on the common citizen.

Capitalism is not just limited to money. It extends to everything. From climate change to resource depletion, everywhere we find the invisible yet all pervasive hand of capitalism. All decisions whether they are political or strategic have its imprint.

I know I am naive. I am not trained in economics. It could be equally true that all these issues have been presented in the wrong perspective. Maybe the countries had it coming. Maybe the economies had to take the fall, capitalism or not. I dont know. All I know that these are my thoughts and I do have my questions and doubts. I am an ordinary citizen. I am at least entitled to doubts and questions if not welfare and clean water.

Why Cinema is a lifesaver.

2017-08-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I take up multiple viewings of single films. I would not shy away from the fact too that I am addicted to them. It is not a pretentious attempt to glorify myself as a movie freak but a manifestation of a festering weakness of mine. The Dull Reality of Life. Life is dull and real. Cinema is an illusion which wants to become real. Sometimes it does, mostly it doesn't.

Often we try to judge people by the kind of films they like to watch. I have had discussions about movies with my friends all the time. Some of us even pretend to like a particular genre because it seems cool: it is all over in the papers and news and social media. But whatever be the likes of a person one thing is for sure. That is our escape from the dull monotony of life. Whatever be the nature of visual content we see, it is meant to soothe the itchy dullness that life offers us.

Cinema offers us an escape from that dull life we lead. Not all of us are movie stars, celebrities, writers, CEOs, singers, astronauts and so on. We have a routine life. And routine is boring. It kills impulse, it kills vitality. I am not mixing routine and discipline: both of them are far apart. Even those of us who have very happening lives look for some sort of getaway from the edgy lives we have. In short everyone looks for a getaway from the lives they lead. The cure to that monotony, that particular kind of dullness, for the lack of a better word is entertainment. That is where cinema sets its foot in.

Fantasy, Crime, Noir, Neo Noir, Period, Romance, Action, Musical are some of the facets that cinema has to offer. These are just some names that take you away to worlds different than your own.

Many would argue that some movies get us to face realities too. For example, the documentary movie "Before the flood" makes us aware of the dangers associated with climate change. Or the movie "The Big Short" makes us aware of the circumstances that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US around 2008. But in a way I believe these too are getaways into something more alien yet important aspects of human life.

As time has passed by the efficiency of the medium has increased yet the purpose has remained the same. From those bulky tapes showing black and white films back then we now have this amazing web application netflix where we can stream all we want in colour HD. The need still remains the same.