Watched Rann last night. To say it was great would be unfair on my part. The concept echoed my thoughts and hence my take is definitely a biased one. It is hard to come by good actors these days, but even harder to find better directors. While I have always sidelined Verma to category B, Rann shows a lot of calibre. Having often chosen Bhandarkar films over RGV's, I feel it necessary to congratulate RGV for his attitude shift and concluding the movie on a hopeful note.
Ritesh was refreshing. Veterans like Paresh Rawal, Monish Behl, Rajat Kapoor need no calibration. Amitabh yet again wins hands down for his depth and delivery. The characters are well defined and the plot is nicely paced.
The surprise element of the movie however, is not in its story. The character of Jai Mallik played by Kannada actor Sudeep steals the show. Several hearts broke for Jai. A new star emerged after a long cold period. Sudeep lives up to the quintessential model of tall-dark-handsome as well as the angry-young-man. After his highly forgettable role in Phoonk, Sudeep, thanks to RGV, seems to have finally found a footing in Bollywood. I hope he is here to stay.
As is apparent from above, my judgment of the movie is perhaps a little skewed. Hence, I leave it to you to watch the movie (or not) and draw your own conclusions.
Tuesday
My comment on PeerPower
Subject : Question: Will US protectionism on outsourcing hurt the Indian IT sector?
Protectionism or not, what matters is what happens next. Tax-cuts aside, the fact that most outsourcing enterprises "could" pull back is a threat that can no longer be ignored. With the Indian economy largely dependent on the service sector, the threat of an economic downturn in India, looms large. While China has from the very onset secured its internal industries, what are India's options? The sagging and overstaffed PSU's can no longer act as remedy. India will have to wake up to its nemesis soon. Concerted efforts and drastic corrective actions are needed with immediate effect.
We need to focus on strengthening our own manufacturing sectors. Subsidies and government grants are required to encourage budding entrepreneurs, thereby creating more jobs. Higher cess should be levied on electronic/appliance imports to allow emerging Indian enterprises (that lack scale) fair competition. Encourage private entrees into essential government sectors like defense, funding hi-tech r&d and offering lucrative grants. Our primary concern should be to protect, secure & eventually empower existing Indian industries from foreign competition.
It is unlikely that outsourcing firms will decapitate their Indian operations immediately. Keeping in mind the lucrative markets both within India as well the Asia-Pacific countries, tax-cuts may not seem a lucrative lure in the long term. We have therefore, a buffer of time. It would however be in our best interests to act before the buffer expires.
Protectionism or not, what matters is what happens next. Tax-cuts aside, the fact that most outsourcing enterprises "could" pull back is a threat that can no longer be ignored. With the Indian economy largely dependent on the service sector, the threat of an economic downturn in India, looms large. While China has from the very onset secured its internal industries, what are India's options? The sagging and overstaffed PSU's can no longer act as remedy. India will have to wake up to its nemesis soon. Concerted efforts and drastic corrective actions are needed with immediate effect.
We need to focus on strengthening our own manufacturing sectors. Subsidies and government grants are required to encourage budding entrepreneurs, thereby creating more jobs. Higher cess should be levied on electronic/appliance imports to allow emerging Indian enterprises (that lack scale) fair competition. Encourage private entrees into essential government sectors like defense, funding hi-tech r&d and offering lucrative grants. Our primary concern should be to protect, secure & eventually empower existing Indian industries from foreign competition.
It is unlikely that outsourcing firms will decapitate their Indian operations immediately. Keeping in mind the lucrative markets both within India as well the Asia-Pacific countries, tax-cuts may not seem a lucrative lure in the long term. We have therefore, a buffer of time. It would however be in our best interests to act before the buffer expires.
Monday
Sunday
Today's Femme fatale - Tomorrow’s torchbearer
Coming up with a list of my top five women of the future required a lot of deliberation. Obvious names which keep cropping up all the time like Indra Nooyi, Kiran Shaw Majumdar etc, I decided to ignore. Not because, they do not merit the credit but because, they belong to a passing out generation.
My quest was to identify young torch bearers and futuristic women of potential. Sorry guys but Katrina, Aishwarya and Kareena simply cannot hold the candle to these gusty others. Don’t get me wrong but I have no patience for someone who cannot get herself to even converse in the very same language that helped her showcase her only talent (read looks). Kareena and Bips own precious little in the higher department and lose points each time their inter-“views” and personas are aired. Aishwarya falls just short of reaching the top five. Much as I admire her wax-like beauty, she could have done a lot more than just working for personal gains. While I have cited the reasons for the why-nots, the toppers get only a brief generalization for being chosen.
1. Brains as indicated by their ‘word of mouth’ or pen/keyboard.
2. Actions in real life that range from community service to personal lives to business acumen.
Those wanting more credibility can do their own research. Please understand these are my top fivers and you can beg to differ. I do not pay heed to character certifications or cast value judgements. Hence, feel free to take your own stand. So without further ado, my top five women for the future in alphabetical order are –
Preity Zinta
Priyanka Chopra
Sagarika Ghose
Sunitha Krishnan
Sushmita Sen
Having a point of view is important.
My quest was to identify young torch bearers and futuristic women of potential. Sorry guys but Katrina, Aishwarya and Kareena simply cannot hold the candle to these gusty others. Don’t get me wrong but I have no patience for someone who cannot get herself to even converse in the very same language that helped her showcase her only talent (read looks). Kareena and Bips own precious little in the higher department and lose points each time their inter-“views” and personas are aired. Aishwarya falls just short of reaching the top five. Much as I admire her wax-like beauty, she could have done a lot more than just working for personal gains. While I have cited the reasons for the why-nots, the toppers get only a brief generalization for being chosen.
1. Brains as indicated by their ‘word of mouth’ or pen/keyboard.
2. Actions in real life that range from community service to personal lives to business acumen.
Those wanting more credibility can do their own research. Please understand these are my top fivers and you can beg to differ. I do not pay heed to character certifications or cast value judgements. Hence, feel free to take your own stand. So without further ado, my top five women for the future in alphabetical order are –
Preity Zinta
Priyanka Chopra
Sagarika Ghose
Sunitha Krishnan
Sushmita Sen
Having a point of view is important.
To be or not to be
It was quite upsetting to note in a recent survey that Shashi Tharoor did not qualify in India’s most eligible bachelor list. Which idiot cares about an age gap when a man has brains in spades? And then found he had married again :P. Nevertheless, it requires a significant size of guts (not using the b-word for propriety) for a public figure to express a personal opinion with candour, court controversy as well as risk the ire of seniors.
It is a known fact that certain regressive policies of certain haloed individuals set India backwards by a good many decades. If facts come as a shock to some old bones and some newer, much softer ones, then I recommend shock proof vests for them. Tharoor, join a better party. Better yet, start a newer and better one.
Granted, his TED India talk wasn’t great. Granted, the five star accommodation fiasco could have been avoided. But hey, no one is infallible. I like my heros real.
It is a known fact that certain regressive policies of certain haloed individuals set India backwards by a good many decades. If facts come as a shock to some old bones and some newer, much softer ones, then I recommend shock proof vests for them. Tharoor, join a better party. Better yet, start a newer and better one.
Granted, his TED India talk wasn’t great. Granted, the five star accommodation fiasco could have been avoided. But hey, no one is infallible. I like my heros real.
Wednesday
Could have been much better
Multiple technological inconsistencies in 3 idiots wrt laptop models, airtel usb modem, scooterette models etc. Bane of in-film advertisement - Timing it right. 10 years ago some of these items were not even in existence...let alone in India.
The film failed to live up to my expectations. But Aamir is still my favourite and Madhavan and Sharman rock as well.
The film failed to live up to my expectations. But Aamir is still my favourite and Madhavan and Sharman rock as well.
Saturday
Wake up Chetan
'The two states' was a good read. But will someone please tell Chetan Bhagat that, life is not all about him and his experiences. There is more to life than he, his and himself. So wake up and stop being so full of yourself.
Tiger of the Woods..An exaggeration?
Exaggeration sells and the media knows it. So to hell with "Responsible Journalism" or even reporting ethics. Tehelka was "Investigative Journalism" not the Liberhan report expose and subsequent name-calling. The sugarcane price rise somehow seemed a bigger issue to be addressed than a report over thirteen years overdue and in effect nothing more than a piece of paper. The associated costs of that report (over 8 crores of tax payer's money) and its beneficiaries seems a much better topic for discussion. Farewell newspapers and magazines...welcome tabloids.
It is alright to record a live footing of a girl being humiliated and paraded in broad daylight in Patna & doing nothing to rectify it. It is alright for the media to point fingers at the late-comers, namely - The Police. It is alright for the media to air that same video over and over again on mass-media for hours on end. It is alright to bemoan the burning of priceless tapestries when an entire city is under siege. It is alright as long as the collective opinion of a public debate is exactly that of its renowned host. The media is the king. Jai Ho!
With all the tamasha over Tiger Wood's morals or the lack thereof, I kept waiting for at least one article somewhere with a humane approach. From the actual count of Tiger's mistresses, to what Elin could get out of it, to Tiger's continuing relationships, to the loss of his endorsements, to the best divorce lawyers in the country, everything was covered. The only thing left out, was the impact on the Wood's kids. The trauma for a three-year-old and a ten-month-old over losing a parent and the news being splashed all over the place was happily overlooked. It is not tabloid, hence, doesn't sell. No doubt the media will find the best shrinks for these babies when the time is right.
Under what category of 'Maslow's needs' do we classify "Tiger's Itch"? Whether or not he clears the murky waters of multiple relationships, this Tiger certainly seems better suited in the Woods. To Tiger, I have nothing to say. What compels successful men and women at the top of their careers to commit professional suicide, I am yet to find out. But in a recent article of a well known Indian daily, a journalist supposedly asked a serious question. It made even a completely uncaring person like me, fume. The question was, "Do a few transgressions mean that one loves his family any less?". Well DUH!
The question is not about the respective differences of cultures or civilizations. The question is about right or wrong. There are certain generally accepted notions of right values and moral conduct, which hold good irrespective of which part of the globe we live in. I doubt if anyone would have asked this question if Elin had been the one to slip up. So my dear brothers and sisters of the media world, go back to doing what you do best - Exaggerate - and spare us the horror of your questioning the middle-class-morality.
It is alright to record a live footing of a girl being humiliated and paraded in broad daylight in Patna & doing nothing to rectify it. It is alright for the media to point fingers at the late-comers, namely - The Police. It is alright for the media to air that same video over and over again on mass-media for hours on end. It is alright to bemoan the burning of priceless tapestries when an entire city is under siege. It is alright as long as the collective opinion of a public debate is exactly that of its renowned host. The media is the king. Jai Ho!
With all the tamasha over Tiger Wood's morals or the lack thereof, I kept waiting for at least one article somewhere with a humane approach. From the actual count of Tiger's mistresses, to what Elin could get out of it, to Tiger's continuing relationships, to the loss of his endorsements, to the best divorce lawyers in the country, everything was covered. The only thing left out, was the impact on the Wood's kids. The trauma for a three-year-old and a ten-month-old over losing a parent and the news being splashed all over the place was happily overlooked. It is not tabloid, hence, doesn't sell. No doubt the media will find the best shrinks for these babies when the time is right.
Under what category of 'Maslow's needs' do we classify "Tiger's Itch"? Whether or not he clears the murky waters of multiple relationships, this Tiger certainly seems better suited in the Woods. To Tiger, I have nothing to say. What compels successful men and women at the top of their careers to commit professional suicide, I am yet to find out. But in a recent article of a well known Indian daily, a journalist supposedly asked a serious question. It made even a completely uncaring person like me, fume. The question was, "Do a few transgressions mean that one loves his family any less?". Well DUH!
The question is not about the respective differences of cultures or civilizations. The question is about right or wrong. There are certain generally accepted notions of right values and moral conduct, which hold good irrespective of which part of the globe we live in. I doubt if anyone would have asked this question if Elin had been the one to slip up. So my dear brothers and sisters of the media world, go back to doing what you do best - Exaggerate - and spare us the horror of your questioning the middle-class-morality.
Monday
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