My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Price of life...

Post 26/11 effects:
Resignation of Home minister Shivraj Patil by accepting the moral responsibility for the attack.
Resignation of Bilas Rao Desmukh.
India has seen public outrage from every section of the society.
We have seen Pranab Mukherjee in action like never before.
NIA & UAPA bills which aim to make laws on terror tougher were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 17.
India is might be on the way to declare war against Pakistan.


Serial bomb blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Delhi, Assam left a sizeable number of people dead in 2008. According to data, terrorist violence has claimed 20,000 lives in India since 1998. But it seems that our government doesn’t believe in numbers, that’s why only the people victimized in Taj or Oberoi hotel worked as an eye opener for them. Only the attack in South Mumbai was severe enough for the bureaucracy to realize that they are supposed to be responsible (morally or practically) for all these terrorism whether regional or international spreading through out the nation. My question is why so? What if the terrorists wouldn’t target the elite groups in Mumbai? I guess we all know the answer…the lives of aam admi wouldn’t be enough for the government to open their eyes. We need page 3 people to compel the politicians to take responsibility for a mishap. We have seen unforgettable public outrage in Mumbai attack which was missing in the last devastating attacks that took place in the country. This time the elites has realized that even they aren’t safe in India (of course our lives aren’t as valuable as their).

The prudent terrorist knew that they could ransack India by targeting the two hot spots of Mumbai. How many of us were worried about the victims of Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus? Only high profile lives of victims matter here…that’s why when the BMW owners understood the truth that their high profiles doesn’t offer them immunity, they have shown activism in the protest of terrorism.

But all is well is end is well…no matter what the reason is the truth is at the end of the day, ‘civic power’ prevailed.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

'Raj' ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi na mumkin hai!

After a long time last night fortunately my friend had the time & volition to take me out for a movie. Both of us are SRK fans, so without any hesitation we grabbed two tickets of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. I basically had two intentions to watch the film: firstly, after month long declining sensex , rising inflation rate & all devouring terrorism I was craving for a relief & secondly, few days ago I was slothfully surfing through the TV channels & then a news featuring on the channel Zoom, caught my eyes which was saying that if sources to be believed Aditya Chopra has made this new romantic flick to break the image of Raj of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge…from then I was feeling the urge to see RNBDJ.

The film started, I would say in a little hatke manner. You wonder why? Well because in every Yash Raj movie, the first entry of Shahrukh is some thing to watch out for, we all know that. But this film was a ‘trend breaker’ in this matter. The film is like any other boy meets girl story with a touch of over the top melodrama. I would say one word for the film i.e. ‘predictable’!

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with the review of RNBDJ (why do I? I won’t be paid for that!). But I just want to pen down my opinion regarding few matters which are flouncing inside my brain.

Firstly, how far the film was able to compete with earlier Adi chopra’s historical love story? I would say the film was no way a bit close to the script of DDLJ…the innocence; freshness we witnessed in the script of SRK’s blockbuster was totally absent in RNBDJ. The new Yash Raj flick is a well proven masala mix to lure audience but the weakness of the script was explicit enough.

Secondly, Tujhe dekha to yeh jana sanam or Ruk ja o dil deewane or Mehendi laga ke rakhna is still leave us spell bound. Compare to that Salim sulaiman’s music is in one word: ‘despondent’. In fact the song ‘Phir milenge chalte chalte’ is like the extended part of ‘Dum ta na’ of Om Shanti Om…both pays tribute to legendary bollywood actors! By the time, undoubtedly Shahrukh has excelled in the art of mimicry for sure…

Thirdly, Raj & Simran was the legendary love bird made in Bollywood till date where as on the contrary RNBDJ is a way too far to even touch the elevation they made. Age difference between the 40+ superstar & 19+ fresher is awkwardly clear enough. The charm of friendship between Shahrukh & Kajol somewhere overshadows the clichéd & confusing relationship of Surinder & Tani.

Fourthly, the heroine of the film Anushka Sharma is surely not worth a watch! Her dialogue delivery, expression, body language could not match up to the level created by spontaneous, candid Kajol aka Simran in DDLJ. It would be unfair to both of the ladies to compare them with each other.

Fifthly, here comes the most important factor…how far Shahrukh was successful to destroy his dashy lover boy image Raj…well, overall in RNBDJ King Khan was near to believable as a common man Surinder Sahni of Punjab Power! His body language has been changed with the attire of the character swiftly but some smell of illogicality arouse with the character of Raj…the person who can’t speak his heart out how can he become so over expressive in the form of Raj? But we, as audience of ‘Yash Raj movie’ were intelligent enough to adjust with such small tread mark unreasonableness! But on the whole Surinder was not competent enough to compete with Raj. I agree love is not all about PDA (public display of affection)…but an amount of expression is mandatory in every relationship. The playboy & romantic image of Raj was captivating enough to make the young girls suffer from insomnia till date. I won’t disagree that at one point of time even I longed for a guy like Raj in my life! That was the charm & charisma we have seen eight years ago in Bollywood…but I, as a fan of SRK, as a love-lorn of Raj was a bit dishearten! But it doesn’t mean I love to watch films with heroes of larger than life…but in a stereo typical romantic film some amount of depth & passion is required to be manifested on screen. You can’t create an ordinary & simple love story on screen with the biggest superstar of the nation which has an amateur heroine along with bollywoody melodrama. More over the truth is, the paw of age is now clearly visible on Shahrukh…in this stage he is more convincible as the coach of the woman’s Hockey team instead of the bechara husband who join dance class to woo her lady love. His contemporary Amir Khan is clever enough to switch on to the image of ‘Character Actor’ from typical ‘Romantic hero’.

That’s enough for today, enough criticism of SRK…I’m signing off for now…hum hai rahi pyar ke, phir milenge, chalte chalte! Cheers!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Dubious development

‘Krishi amader bhitti, shilpo amader bhobissot’ (Agriculture is our base & Industry is our future) – the CPI-M led west Bengal state government is said to be run by this motto. In recent Singur melodrama, we have seen the concern of state government for industrial development. If that was to be believed then why they are now contradicting their stand on the shut down of Dunlop Sahaganj factory? The factory had to close down since the automobile companies feeling the heat of global melt down worldwide; the demand of tyres has gone down sharply. The owner Pawan Kumar Ruia is now expecting the grant of loan or capital intensive from state government to boost up the moribund Dunlop factory, which is arguably one of the largest tyre producing factories of India.

It’s obvious that the WB state government isn’t in a condition to finance every other emaciated factory of the state. But Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the ‘sanskriti manoshko’ (cultural) CM of India can spend profuse money on International Film Festival every year but when it comes to the future of over 1200 workers, his government makes hue & cry over limited finance! Cultural interaction is necessary, but he should now realize that hunger-stricken mind can’t relish a good movie. If the government won’t be able to grant the capital required for the reopening of Dunlop factory, it should at least be involve in effective discussion with Ruia to sort out the problem. Every other progressive Bengalis has lend their support with Buddhadeb led government in latest Singur incident but if situation continues this way in Sahaganj, its evident that CPI-M might lose public support in coming Elections.

Every other state criticizes the political frivolity of Bengal these days. If members of left parties say Mamata Banerjee’s demand on the land of Singur is ‘Farcical’ then Trinamul leader says Dunlop is another example of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s ‘Incompetence’! And the blame game continues.

Throbbing factories, Bandh culture, viscous political condition – these now has become synonymous with West Bengal. In spite of that, we know at present there is no other leader except Mr. Bhattacharya to fit the chair of CM. But if he could be able to devote at least half of the impetus he usually spends on IT industry, Films or Kolkata Book fair; on the overall development of the state, then it will be a different picture altogether.

Monday, December 8, 2008

succession of ingratitude

Such rage & apathy among civilians against political corruptions, India have seen never before. Every discussion programmes in news channels, editorial columns of newspapers...all are still crammed with peoples' agitation against political leaders. Wrath against our political system, gratitude for our military force, compassion for the victims, abhorrence for Pakistan's' foster children...we are done with all. But somehow forgot to thank 'Media' for the stupendous duty it served. In these days I came across many people who thinks media popularized the crime for its own business motive. Being a student of mass communication, I wont disagree that media do negatively popularize few things for TRP or circulation...but isn't it unreasonable to blame them? Can you utter in keeping with the dictates of your conscience that your profession isn't corrupted? Naturally media industry is also run by business motive...but all the people who loves to be indulge in criticism should remember that journalists at least do something for the country, although run by business motive but its still a public service medium.

I have seen quite a few blogs in the last few days which says that our children's innocence is decomposed by media during these terror attacks... I wanna know in which way does media sensationalised the whole dreadful drama? How many of you have an idea about the effort journalists had to put in to wrung out the real story in front of you? You glutted the reality media brought out into your TV set or in your morning newspaper, but after the curtain dropped you started to censure the same complying people for the service they provided. How many people raised their voice when the wise & frugal (who arranged his vacation in abroad from the fund i.e allotted for sports development) Sports minister Subhas Chakroborty abused media? How many people criticised the security guards & West Bengal police when journalists were beaten by them at Indira Bhaban? The people who point their finger at the credibility of media, should realise that working in this profession isn't a cake walk...channels & newspapers of the world over were presented in Mumbai along with the military force & police through out the ordeal...its because of them we got to know about our unfortunate near & dear ones who were victimized in Mumbai. Is it equitable to blame media for every other thing you come across? Don't recriminate media,if you cant give eulogy of which it is worthy.