Bollywood's biggest mysteries

There seem to be so many unnatural pairings and gossips happening around in Bollywood which gets me thinking what went wrong. Here are a few of them:

1) Shirish Kunder: Why on earth will someone like Farah Khan marry a person like him? Well there might be many reasons but I just hope that she did a good prenup before the marriage.

2) Ranveer Singh: How did this guy get a debut with a Yash Raj movie inspite of no movie family background, no modeling career and a face that can put even Sunil Shetty to shame. If he is really a hard working guy who made it the right way, hats off to him. But if there is something more going on, then double hats off to him to keep it out of the prying eyes.

3) Kamal R Khan (KRK): He was hilarious in Bigg Boss. I wonder how a person in public life doesn't realize that he is so damn irritating and unnecessary? Even Rakhi Sawant knows that and she does an awesome job to keep herself in the news by caluculatively doing the wrong (or right) things at the right time. But this guy has an airy attitude about nothing.


4) Bakhtiyar Irani: Husband of somewhat famous Tanaaz who acted in superhits like Kaho na Pyaar hai and RHTDM, this guy has done nothing in life to be called a celebrity. But it is funny when he comes out with Statements like this: " Non celebrities like Siddharth should not be allowed in Bigg Boss". (Unfortunately, I am not getting the news link to claim this statement). What does he think? Siddharth is if not a fledgeling celebrity, atleast has more camera time than this dude in Splitsvilla and other MTV VJ-ing.

5) Jay Mehta: Well no complaints against him, must be a really rich and nice guy too to let his wife still do and rock the movies after marriage, but simply put, their pictures together are always funny.

Marks for Sports

After reading Nikhil's post about "Marks for Sports" campaign by NDTV, I am totally confused.

I am not able to decide if it is good or bad for the country. The simple justification says that it must be good as it will bring all those people to be more confident and forthcoming who were the so called "bad boys" in the school. But then, didn't everybody look up to those bad boys anyways?

The other problem with Marks for Sports is that Sports is not a subject like Math, it is like saying marks for "Language". Which sports to play? And of course, we cannot afford multiple sports in the same class. With 2-3 languages, 3 science subjects, 4 social studies subjects, it is already a burden. Add Cricket, Football, Hockey and a game of your choice to that, and the poor kid will be dead.

However, I think if it were me at that time, things would have been quite different. I would have been a totally different person by now. I have been thinking about that too. And now I think I would have been a master in at least one sport. After all, my skill was never good knowledge but smart knowledge. Do the basic minimum to get maximum output out of least effort. I could have applied the same things to sports class too. A little known fact: We did have games as grades in my school and I managed mostly A's in that too. If sports had marks, I would have got them from real work.

In cricket, it would definitely be a bowler for me. The batsman has more chances at getting hit and so does the wicketkeeper.

American Football would have had more choices, though my friends here joke that I would be a holder, but I think I would be a good center as well.

The other thing I could have bettered is swimming. I guess it is because the chance of hurting oneself is less.

Just trying to get back into blogging mode here. The post is abrupt and ill constructed.

Corruption eradication should be bottom up and not top down

Right now, India is reeling from an overdose of corruption/anti-corruption drives. I do not understand how or why people always tend to judge things and black and white. Whether Lokpal or Jan-lokpal bill is good or bad is a totally grey question.

Personally, my thoughts are that the version of Anna Hazare etcs Jan Lokpal is too aggressive. Corruption is a big problem but not the biggest problem for India. So, Lokpal should NOT be the most powerful person in the country. But Anna's bill suggests something different.

The other thing is what people mean by Corruption. Dictionary.com says it is perversion of integrity or dishonest proceedings. So anything dishonest is corruption. And so, unlike popular belief, watching pirated movies, downloading songs illegally, photocopying books, acquiring illegal version of Windows, MS Office, MATLAB and other such s/w are all acts of corruption. I have specifically mentioned these 3 points because I believe that most of the facebook and twitter noise is created by the people who have done these in the past and not even feel guilty about it. When I talk to them, they say, "Oh that is nothing, look at the politicians. They are collecting crores."

It is never the question of crores. I bet if all the social media noisemakers give 100$ per corruption they did (not even say for every movie watched but like 100 for all pirated movies watched, 100 for all s/w download, 100 for photocopying pages of books, 100 for music, 100 for the Indian Driving license you got, 100 for using the Indian Motorbike license to decrease your 4 wheeler license in US etc.) and donate that money to the government, it will be much bigger amount than even what A Raja has got.

Secondly, why is there corruption in the society? Well, Indians in general have a mindset that if a thing is available for cheap, why spend and more often than not it crosses the moral boundaries. Now, how to eradicate this mindset? Education, education and education. How education? Population Control, Poverty Control etc etc. So you see, how corruption is not the biggest problem in the country? And even if it is, the right way of correcting it is a bottom up approach and not a top down.

People might argue that catching the big people have a quick and bigger impact and will deter small time corrupts but that is not true. And again, implicit in that argument is the word quick which is the root cause of all corruption (getting things done QUICKLY.)

Continuing on the same example, BIG time money laundering will be caught anyways. You really don't need a Lokpal for that. A Raja and Kalmadi were caught without a Lokpal.

So in conclusion, yes probably we need a revolution/uprising to curb corruption, but that revolution should be a self realization rather than a blame game. I think this is what true Gandhianism is.

Image Courtesy: Audiovisit.com

Views on Skins (The UK TV Series)

Time flies fast, and really fast. I remember reading about a controversial show called Skins not so long ago and wanted to watch it too? Why? Just because of the controversial aspect. And it felt like yesterday that I had read this news. Suddenly, some 2-3 weeks back, I see that the series is available on Netflix. Old (rather not so old, because it felt like yesterday) memories rekindled and I wanted to give it a shot. And "bollocks", what do I see? The series is already 5 seasons old and 3 are on Netflix.

Anyhow, I start watching the show and I continued. And I finished the entire series in 3 weeks. Now, initially I thought it is just the way TV series are made, that it is very difficult to not follow. But then, I could not follow the hugely popular "Lost" though they always ended the episode in such a shape that you had to watch the next. I did not even continue Naruto, though I really want to revisit that series.

What all did I like about the series? Well first of all the fact that it is British and their funny accent. Secondly, the characters are all very fresh and good looking for most part and have more variety in terms of clothes and style than boring courtroom/detective series. As for the story line, it is pretty good and the way they arrange the episodes is awesome. Each series has a bunch of interesting characters and they dedicate one episode to one such character. But this is not done at the cost of compromising and deviating from the main story line. The subtlety in which they highlight one person but still let the main story continue is a first time for me and I liked it immensely.

As for the drug, smoke and sex content, yes, it does feel unrealistic but certainly not boring or obnoxious enough to stop seeing it.

My suggestion, go on, try the pilot episode.

Deathly Hallows 2, Why o Why

The last Potter movie. The excitement was electric. The buzz was just right and there I headed out for the midnight show of the movie which I believed will be the greatest movie of all time. It was a back to back show of 7-1 and 7-2 and people had queued up 5-6 hours in advance. Everyone dressed in their witch and wizard finery with Snape and Umbridge being the rare ones.

I watched the movie twice, one was the midnight show and the other one next day at IMax 3D. OK, so I believe that Potter movies are beyond comparison and you should rather compare individual characters, the changes in plot from the book etc.

Considering all that, I really liked the changes made from the book. Most of them were pretty apt, making the story much more grander than it was. I am sure it had Rowling's full approval too. Ron, Hermione and Neville together hunting for Nagini, the house where Snape was murdered (did not look like Shrieking shack, but a great place nonetheless) and of course the untold Ron and Hermione's destroying the Horcrux.

There were lot of good things but it was as if they had been half-hearted efforts. If they really planned to make the movie 3-D, the roller coaster ride to Gringotts vault could have been a real one. I didn't even feel a thing. They were all safe shots and felt like 3D was an afterthought and a software post processing.

Same with Killing Nagini, just one hot and Nagini becomes digital and disappears into cyberspace? What about Voldemort killing? He looked like as soon as Nagini is dead, he is gone too. Which is not the case, he was still powerful enough to take more people. The evilness of Voldemort was lost and he felt more like a small villain you kill in 1st part of a movie franchise than the last person itself.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it could have been so much more, and I don't thin budget was a concern. It had the potential of being the best movie of all times instead it was not even the best Potter movie.

However, I still wish that the movie keeps breaking all the records. At the very least, no transformer or twilight should ever touch it's records.

Slightly desi boston tour guide

With almost 3.5 years here, I have become a tour guide to many of my friends and relatives in Boston. I have tour packages ready for 1/2 day to one week vacation plans ready for anyone who wants to come to visit my place.

The "have to be there" places I have taken to people are very obvious: Harvard, MIT, Quincy Market, Long Wharf, Holocaust memorial, Boston Commons, Prudential Tower, duck tour etc. However, here are a few of my personal favorites, some which may take a slightly more time:

1) Here is an easy one to fit in the schedule, right next to Boston Commons, there is Boston Public gardens and in there in the public garden is the "Make way for the Ducklings" statues in the north east corner. Nothing extraordinary, but just the idea that a statue of a duck and it's kids finding a permanent place gives me hope, that the world is still a simple place to live.

2) Another easy one: The sky walk at Prudential. It is $11 well spent. You bring someone, who wants to see Boston but has only 1 day? Take them to skywalk and show them the whole of Boston in just 45 minutes. It is totally worth it and crowd free too.

3) This one is not really my real favorite but saves you from lot of hassle from the friends who come to visit Boston and want to see some cool things. It is the Sam Adam's brewery. And of course you get to sample free beer. If you had a history overdose along the freedom trail a day before, and friends are complaining that the city is so old, this might be a good idea.

4) Whale watch: You watch it once or twice but it is a must watch for any guest. I thing to do is, if they are in a group of greater than or equal to two, just leave them for the whale watch. It is surely exciting for the first time and oh yes, the nap on the way back. It is simply amazing. Believe me, you have seen the whale, seen the wonderful Boston Harbor islands, there is nothing to look forward to, in the next 1.5 hours. You cannot even unnecessarily refresh that facebook app on your smart phone as there's no network here, so, sit back, relax and let the breeze blow onto your face and before you know, you are in the dreamland. Once you land, you are as fresh as ever, for the next activity.


5) The beaver tail statepark: Most of the desi kids take their mom and dad to the "Newport Mansions". Next time you go there, call me, I can do a better job than those automated tour guide radios they give you. But please don't go back after seeing the mansion and the ocean drive. The beavertail state park is just 15-20 minutes away across the bridge. An awesome lighthouse at the end of the land with water splashing on rocks from all 3 sides. Go at twilight hours and you will love it. Round off the day with some nightlife in Providence if you wish.

6) Moving closer to home, Natick, m office is a good watch too. Ofcourse, I need to get permissions from the security and once granted, welcome to my office buildings and the construction that is happening while I tell you interesting stories about what the huge mound of excavated soil looks like and what we did in Feb 09, while you gaze at the huge monitors the friendly kitchen area.

7) For all the desi's, I highly recommend the Ashland Hindu Temple, the biggest temple in new England. Much smaller than the famous ones in Pittsburgh, Houston or Chicago, this is still a pleasant watch and believe me, you will see more south Indians here than even in Bangalore.

8) One of my personal favorites, the Hopkinton State Park, the most accessible state park by car, so that your walk distance is minimized. Good for boating and Kayaking in summer but even in Winter, you can have the fun of walking on a frozen lake and a stroll on the dam with white expanse on both sides enough to blind you.

9) Your visit to Natick is unfinished if you haven't had the Sushi buffet at Miandos. Experimental veggies can have a good time as there are atleast 5 different veggie sushies (more than anywhere else) but you will still feel neglected because 5 consist of 5% of the available items. It is here that you understand what Sushi really is. There are more stylish Sushi places around Boston area but this place is UNLIMITED and definitely 10000000000000 times better than mall Sushi.

Raju guide signing off. Shabakhair

Two distinct categories in Bengali literature

Disclaimer: Yes, though everyone knows that opinions expressed in a blog is of ones own, but I reiterate it here owning to my potential limited exposure on the topic. As I think it is worth a discussion, hence putting it here.

My liking for poetry is very limited and except the classic ones, really find it hard to concentrate. So, let's ignore that. And ignore non-fiction too.

What I have observed is that in Bengali fiction, there are two very distinct kinds: Kishore and Bayaska (or Teens and Adult). It might be a good idea to have this distinction but I have some apprehensions about these two disjoint sets.

The Kishore or Teen books are generally the adventure kinds and the immensely popular Feluda series falls into this category. But I always wonder, why is there not a single hint of any woman in these stories. I mean, with such a able hero, having a heroine is so much desired/natural. Same with the Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay kishore upanyases. Always about kids or man. There is never any love interest in any of his books. The Pandob Goyendas, Shontu and Kakababu, none have any trace of romance in them. Is this intenntional? Is the Indian mindset of romance being a taboo really the reason for this? Is this a marketing decision? It is surprising because as little kids you hear stories about a prince and princess falling in love and prince killing some demon to rescue the princess. Is one supposed to be immune to soft feelings as they grow from kids to teens?

Look at the English ones of the same kinds: Harry Potter, Hardy Boys, Twilight or even Asterix comics all have a love interest in them. It is not that you have to be vulgar as soon as a woman comes into picture.IN all the books above, romance is very sweet and cute. None of the above have even the tiniest bit of vulgarity in them.

There are exceptions. For example Famous Five, Tintin etc hardly have any romantic interests. In Bengali, only one author stands out: Shorodindu Mukhopadhdhyay (better known as the creator of Byomkesh Bakshi for rest of the world). The Byomkesh series is divided into 2 parts, the first one is pretty non adult but it still has Byomkesh getting married to his love. Part two is more adult in nature but yeah, it needs to be, because so many interesting murder mysteries can be made out of weird relationships. Shorodindu also has a teen series called Sadashib, about a young recruit in Chatrapati Shivaji's army. That is perhaps the sweetest love story I have ever read. The author has a bunch of other historic fictions which also have some romance. But apart from that I really dont see many crossing the line. Of course, I have not read "Rabindranath Tagore" as yet. But even if he maintains the balance, 2 out of 100s is still considered exception.

Coming to the adult part, it is more disturbing. By the time you are 17-18 in India, you really grow out of the Feludas and Byomkesh Bakshis but (call me old fashioned for it) you are still not ready for adultery. The so called grown up books in Bengali all not only have frequent and elaborate descriptions of sexual beauty but they also are in most cases about adultery. Compare this with the Jeffrey Archer, Ludlum , Sheldon, Grisham,Michael Crichton etc. Many romantic moments but romance/relationships is not the primary thing. Basically I think kids from 17 to say 25 really do not care about relationships and they grow out of Feluda kind of adventure too. But in Bengali it is just not it. Adult books are always about complicated relationships. I wonder if Bengali literature is loosing it's market/charm for this.

Sometimes I think, it is probably the general tendency of Bengalis and it is ME who is out of the place. People like the same "complicated relationships" themed movies of Rituparno Ghosh. Bengali movies have always been about subtle changes in relationships in probably some bigger context like WW2, India's freedom struggle, naxal movemennt etc. I long for an epic drama which creates an era of it's own. It should not take shelter of some real world incident but create a new world, like Harry Potter.

Any recommendations?

Sandipan Bollywood Awards 2010

And the Awards go to:

Best movie: Rajneeti
Best Actress : Vidya Balan for Ishqiya
Best Actor: Salman Khan for Dabangg
Best Song: Pee Loon from Once upon a time in Mumbai.

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To make up for the time-stamp, I published the main list at 11:57 pm on 31st. Here’s the detailed one:

This year the awards might be a bit subdued. I really haven’t seen many movies thanks to my “No Pirated Hindi movies” resolution last year. The resolution continues though. So, I really haven’t seen many of the god movies including Pankh, Lamhe, Aakrosh, Housefull, Tere Bin Laden, LSD etc. So the awards might be a bit skwed but as usual please feel free to suggest the deserving candidates in the comments section and I will update accordingly.

For TV:

Best television interview: Nothing that I remember a lot this year. Actually Deepika and Sonam in Koffee With Karan was good. But for me the discovery of the year was Nita Ambani in Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta after IPL 2010. It was probably her first interview and she came across as a very positive person.

Most hilarious moment: Barkha Dutt crying like a baby in her own version of reality show in news, and then blushing on being called beautiful. The guy must be blind.

Now for Movies:

Best Story: I think it has to be one of Well Done Abba, or LSD or some such but as I haven’t seen those movies, the award goes to Prakash Jha for Rajneeti.

Best Song: ‘Pee Loon’. Not only me, but all my friends have been humming it for the past few months. Anything we like, becomes the part of this song like Gobi Manchuru, Snowuu… you get the point.

Best Music Director: Shankar Ehsaan Loy for “My Name is Khan”. The reason being this movie has all songs in the good/decent category. Rest all movies have only 1-2 good songs.

Best Singer (Male): When the best song is Pee Loon, the best male singer has to be Mohit Chauhan for Pee Loon.

Best Singer (Female): My favorite is Rekha Bharadwaj for ‘Ranjha Ranjha’ in Raavan. Better than Munni or Shiela for sure.

Best Item Song: Munni Badnaam Hui by Malaika Arora. Munni beats Shiela anyday.

Best Comedian: Salman Khan in Dabangg.

Best Supporting Actor: A tough one this year. I would give it to Arshad Warsi for Ishqiya. But here’s the list of all who are really good: Ajay Devgan in Rajneeti, Raghubeer Yadav in Peepli live and Ajay Devgan/Imran Hashmi in Once upon a time,


Best Supporting Actress: Prachi Desai for Once upon a time in Mumbai.

Best Villain: Sonu Sood in Dabangg. Full Stop.

Best Newcomer (male): Rajat Barmecha in Udaan. Don’t really know of that many this year. Luv Sinha was a dud.

Best Newcomer (Female) : Sonakshi Sinha. No doubt. Tere Mast mast do nain 

Best Director: Prakash Jha for Rajneeti.

Best Film: Rajneeti. The only movie to have story, songs, star cast.

Best Actress: Vidya Balan for Ishqiya. She dared to act opposite Nasirddin Shah and Arshad Warsi and she did it in style.

Best Actor: Salman Khan for Dabangg. Pure star power. What else do you want.

You see what you want to see

Blogdosts,

Haha, that’s how Shobhaa De starts her blogs. For my case if the only dosts that I had were blogdosts, I would be a pretty loner in life. No agenda for this blog, but basically just getting back to the habit.

I had decided that there should be one post in every 2 weeks so effectively 26 posts a year but this is the first year I am missing that goal and that too by a large margin. November was hectic but I don’t think even with that in I could have made 26. It’s mainly my fault. But now with this post and the eagerly awaited annual Bollywood awards, 20 posts are assured.

I had been to India in November. It is strange how I viewed the country in a totally different light in every trip. Of course all of my trips always had a main motive (brother’s marriage, H1 stamping etc.) but there were also different angles to how I see the things around me. And I have come to the conclusion that we see what we want to see. Let me explain.

The first time when I came, I had heard from everybody how India has changed a lot. So I was looking for those signs of developments and I really felt that India has changed so much. Plus I had started looking for jobs that time and when I saw my friends in India already settled with stable jobs, things obviously looked rosy and nice in the country.

The second time I went, I had a job at hand, friends were getting married and I really didn’t care for how India has changed. So things looked very much the same. I was trying to tell people that my home-town (Barasat) was a village contrary to what the people of Barasat think. So I was looking around diagnosing what consists of a city look and what is a village look. In Bangalore, friends were getting married, brother had finally settled into his own flat. There was nothing really I was looking out for. But the thing that hit me was the price of things. Now that I had started earning again, I was comparing the prices and I was always shocked by how expensive Bangalore/India had become.

Now this time, I saw things in a different light. I was comparing lifestyles. And Bangalore to me looked like as if the city has only home returned NRIs. This ofcourse can’t be true and that’s when I realized, you always see what you wanted to see. Everywhere I go, I see only NRIs. I was so proud of the Madras shorts that I bought this summer, but every tom dick and harry there was wearing Madras shorts. It was not as if that was the current fashion in Bangalore, but it mostly marked the home returned NRIs. One of the shops I went to had Thanksgiving discounts. I was shocked. As for the lifestyle, I had a notion that people like to have way too much fun in India love hectic weekends full of movies, malls, parties etc. And that was a negative for me. So this time when I looked out for that, I was again pleasantly surprised. People/ my friends had actually calmed down. They did things slowly. Weekends were relaxing and everything was peaceful.

I guess it has got more to do with phases of life that makes you think how you view things. Generally a place essentially remains the same. Afterall comeon, the country is 5000 years old. Looking out for drastic changes every 2 years will just assert ones ignorance.

Gossip news

In the Indian media context, or may be to a large extent world media too, the gossip news nowadays has become a child’s play. I guess there was a time when gossip columnists had to work hard to find some gossip. They went to great extent with paparazzi stuff and we all know what drastic consequences it had. However, now it has become very easy to create reports with the information obtained from celebrity twitter accounts. I find twitter reporting against journalism best practices, but my “Bade Bhaiya” has said it is perfectly valid and I take it for granted whatever he says without arguing. But this also means that I can generate some news as well. Here are a few:

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Aamaar Kolkata not aamchi Mumbai for Bipasha this year

After the fiasco in the Mumbai Durga puja pandal last year, Bipasha is not taking any chances and going to her own Kolkata for this year’s Durga puja. It so happens that the occasion coincides with her Birthday. Like a happy bird, she tweets:

“Landed in kolkatta! Yay! Nia. N my sisters came to pick me up! Time to surprise mom!”

She also wishes her fans Happy Durga Puja and Dushera.

Her joy is visible in the words. After all, home is where heart is.

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Sonia’s Dilemma

Soniaji has solved many big issues both for the country and for herself but there are seemingly two affairs that Soniaji may be confused about

1. Wedding of the nephew: Ofcourse, the families are not very friendly on public platforms (being from different parties) but not to go to the wedding of nephew Varun and Yamini might be a tough decision for even the biggest decision maker of the country herself.
2. The national awards ceremony: This year’s National awards ceremony will be something to look forward to. With both the Bachchan boys surely to be there, to collect the best actor, and best movie prizes, we wonder if Mrs Gandhi will be conspicuous by her absence.

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Tit for tat

Recently RGV came up with digs on his friendly enemy Karan Johar on the context of his new movie Rakta Charitra with comments like this:

“Rc has no loving families..it only has warring families.so all those who liked kabhi khushi kabhi gum better stay away from Rakta charitra”.

What else will you expect from a man whose forte is anything but subtlety.

“Apparently Rakhtcharitra is not for people who liked K3G!! Didn't know planet pluto had multiplexes!! Aliens can't wait to see it!!”

We were waiting for the war of words to continue but alas, RGV liked the joke and put an end to it :(

“@kjohar25 ha ha ha ha that's a super one karan”

We say, really RGV, you thought that was a good one? You can do better.