Delhi 6: A Directorial misdaventure

After reading good reviews about the movie Delhi 6, finally yesterday evening I took out some time to go and watch it at a multiplex near by, and when I was going with my friends I nearly missed the bus, but the desire to see the movie made me run for the bus. I would have been lucky had I missed the bus, because the movie didn't live upto my expectations. One doesn't expect a movie of this kind from the director of Rang De Basanti and the lyricist of Taare Zameen Par, Mr. Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra and Adman Mr. Prasoon Joshi. Even I didn't liked the end of RDB, but it had all the ingredients for a good movie with a gripping screenplay which made the audience stick to the chair. Delhi 6 on the contrary doesn't seem to grip the attention of the viewers.

Delhi 6 excelled in only one thing that it brought the best from each of the actors involved. There were some fine performances by Abishek, Sonam, Om Puri, Rishi Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Prem Chopra and others. The inspector, the Jalebi wala, the Imam sahib, the whole family of Om Puri, each individual excelled in their role. But the direction and screenplay missed to create the sparks and it looked like small documentaries joined together without any coherence as it moved from Ram leela to household dramas to the monkey man episode and finally to the Hindu-Muslim tensions. 

Abishek Bacchhan is the dil of Delhi 6 and the story revolves around him. He brings his grandmother from Newyork to Delhi as her last wish was to die where she was born. and the story starts from here and ends in a communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.  At one point, Abhishek decided to return back to America when the situation was getting out of control, but Delhi as a city never ceases to mesmerise you with its mysticism and he decides not to leave Delhi. I love Delhi and it was good to see the lanes of Delhi, the autorickshaws, and its crowded street after a long time. He plays his part with great finesse and he proved that he has matured as an actor tremendously. He now doesn't even need to mince any words as his eyes, his emotions and his body language can speak for him.

Even though there was less scope for Sonam Kapoor but she played her part with ease. Sonam looked like a princess in her portrayal  of girl next door who is full of life. You will just fall in love with her at the very first sight. The scenes between Abhisek and Sonam were very little but the chemistry was awesome. My favourite scenes from the movie are the scenes between Abhishek and Sonam,  be it the scene between them when they were returning from Agra and Sonam was looking at Abhiskek's mobile, or be it the scene when Sonam gifted a sovenier from Agra to Abhishek, or when she came to thank him for telling Ompuri that she doesn't want to marry. Every scene between them are shot with perfection.

The music is also not that good as compared to Rahman's previous works. The song masakali is a hummable number, Arziyan is good and title track is trendy, apart from them the other songs are not upto the standards. The background music is good though. 

Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra has some fascination with social issues and has again tried to send a message for communal harmony. He also has fascination for making the end bloody, the end was a bit unrealistic also as Abhishek came back to life after shot by a pistol and after the severe thrashing he received by the local mob, but this is cinema. The movie is a directorial misadventure and could have been made better. I will give one star out of five and that too because of individual performances by its actors. Let me give half star more just for Abhi and Sonam. All in all, a complete waste of time, but if you do want to watch it, go for Abhishek and Sonam.

Oscars 2009: India makes clean sweep for the first time

It is a wonderful morning, I was continuously tracking the Oscars night, as it was to become one of the proudest moments for Indian Cinema. I was so elated by the fact that India almost made a clean sweep at the Oscars 2009, that I couldn't hide my temptation to write it straight in here.

A R Rahman made us proud again by bagging twin oscars for best music and best song (Jai Ho).  The Mozart of Madras as he is often called, studied western classical music at the University of Oxford, UK. He had earlier won all the major global awards, including the Golen Globe and the BAFTA's this year. Overall Slumdog Millionnaire bagged 8 oscars at the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony in LA.

It was truly a night where Indians shone and made their presence felt. Rahman shared the award with Gulzar for the best song, Jai Ho, for which Gulzar penned the lyrics. Resul Pookutty of Black, Saawariya and Ghazni fame also won an oscar for sound mixing. Smile Pinky won in the best short documentary category. The film is based on lip deformities in children , and how pinki a small girl from Uttar Pradesh, went for a corrective surgery to lead a normal life.

All in all 4 oscars for the Indians, great achievement considering the track record of Indian Cinema at the Academy Awards. India is getting truly Global and has started to make its presence felt in almost every field.

Hats off to Rahman, Resul and Smile Pinki for them they brought cheers and smile to a billion of Indians.

Global Recession

After a long and tiring week, it was my first weekend break this year and I had the comfort of relaxing this weekend. For me last couple of months were so draining mentally as well as physically that I desperately needed a break and once I got a transfer from Nuneaton to Birmingham, I got this break. I passed my time watching movies, news, and meeting up with friends.

These days wherever you go, where you are in a pub, in a business meeting, in a university or whatever you do, where you work in an automobile industry, or in a retail store, you will listen only one thing from your colleagues, friends and that is Recession. There are no jobs in the market, companies are going bust and people who have job are thanking god and hoping that they don't get a redundancy letter. The unemployment is rising to all time high everywhere. The number of job losses in US alone has reached 5 million that is its worst ratings in about half a century. In UK the unemployment rate is similarly rising and is at approx 7.6% which is again highest in the decade. The job loss in UK has reached near to 3 million. Other EU countries are in similar financial crisis and the state of their economy is as bad as UK/US or even worse. Emerging markets are also vastly affected by the recession and their growth is halted if not stopped. The growth of India and China is also affected and there growth is projected at 5% and 7% respectively for the year 2009 unlike there unprecedented growth at around 10% per annum for the last decade. There have been huge job losses in these countries as well, with Guandong facing most of the burns of the recession in China. The 

People often blame the greedy western banks for this mess and they are in a way right. The global recession can be seen as a successor to sub prime mortgage crisis that started in US. The banks started giving home loans to almost everybody without anticipating whether these people can return the amount or not. Most of these people defaulted and banks faced the burnt. The property prices hit an all time low and the banks who gave money as credit for the properties started going bust. Most of the big investment banks including Lehmann Brothers, Washington Mutuals and others filed for bankruptcy in US or suffered huge losses and the federal government had to propose bail out plans. In Europe the situation was similar with most of UK banks requiring bail outs by the Bank of England. Falling of some of the major banks rocked the whole world and the financial crisis deepend. The investors were wary of the returns and hence remained far from investing money and hence the global crisis worsened with stock exchanges hitting all time low ratings. The credit crisis has taken such tolls in terms of rise in unemployment, closure of banks and other companies, job losses that it is compared to the great depression period of the 1930's where the global economic growth had seen a rapid downturn. The banks are wary of lending money now which has worsened the matters and government is finding it difficult to motivate the banks to start lending money again. In UK alone the government opted for interest rate cuts five times since October 2008, it now stands at 1%.

 

UK retail industry took a hit and some of the biggest retail chains like Woolworths, MVI, Piers etc all closed their stores. The trend is still similar with Zavvi, Barrats, Priceless have started closing their stores. Automobile industry all over the globe saw reduced sales and profits declined, with Japanese major Toyota showing negative growth and losses for the firts time in its 79 years of history. The big three of America GM, Ford and Chrysler has requested an interference and bail out package from the federal government. US senate has just passed the bill for bailout for the banks and recession hit industry and the stimulus package is of $787 Billion. 

Feb' 2009 saw some growth in retail business as the inflation dipped largely due to fall in crude oil prices and the retailers in struggle to survive reduced the price considerably. There were good news for retailers in London as shoppers from foreign countries are coming to the city to shop, thanks to the falling value of Pound which is now almost equal to Euros.

Chinese and Indian economy which were growing at more than 10% for the last decade has also felt the shocks of the financial crisis. Chinese growth model was based on exports which made them richer in terms of foreign exchange. The major chunk of its exports went to US, but as US is vastly affected by the crisis that it has started to adopt a protectionist policy which has led to closure of factories in China. There have been huge job losses in China as the companies are now closing down as the demand from US is declining. But one thing positive about Chinese model is that they are investing in resources in other countries which will give them fruits in the coming years. They have recently signed a deal with Brazilian petroleum major Petrobras, and Australian mining company. Investing in natural resources can turn things around for China in the coming years. There are huge job losses in India and the companies have freezed any hiring, but the situation is not as bad as in West. Inflation has touched 3.9% this month as compared a year earlier and the RBI has suggested for further interest rate cuts. It has also urged the companies to cut the salaries instead of making them redundant.

This is surely one of the worst financial crisis that this world has seen and it needs an overhaul of the financial system and major work from the government all around to fix it. The world leaders are all having meetings almost daily to fix the problems and to tackle the issues of financial crisis. EU leaders met today at Berlin and they raised several issues from protectionism, to further regulation and supervision of financial institutions. One of the most important tasks of these leaders would be to motivate banks so that they start lending again and also to encourage the otherwise dormant investors to rise and start investing in the economy. There is another meeting of G20 in London on 2nd April and let's hope that these leaders are able to do something to put the gobal economy back on track.   

St. Valentine's Day

As always today was also a very tiring day for me but I am delighted that its Valentine's day, and for me it's a day for the dear and loved ones. I got some small presents for my friends and my sister, and they are preparing something special for the dinner.

I was coming back to Birmingham by train and it was full of lovely couples dressed in designer attires. The town centre was all red with the heart shaped balloons and glittering decorations, it was looking beautiful. 

When I came home, I watched Indian news channel and they were full with news of people and parties opposing this wonderful day. In India we generally call them moral police. Now a days it's a trend or norm in India to do such kind of things to come on TV. There are many parties, political or non political that act as protectionist of Indian culture without knowing the essence of Indian culture. There were many incidents in different parts of India where innocent couples were beaten or manhandled and this shows how intolerant we are as a community. We Indians always boast about our culture, but does this culture preaches us to beat a boy and a girl if they walk together. There should be liberty and freedm to express one's love and affection. Sometimes the policemen also act as moral police  and they take undue advantage of their position. I sometimes feel that we, the common people live in virtual jail, we are either frightened by the might of police, if not, then surely by the goons and goondas and if this was not all that we wanted, we have one more thing to be scared of and it is Moral Policing.

I was shocked at seeing my country and my people behaving in this manner, but I can take solace as there are some people who do care about the liberty and freedom. In many cities, old people came out for peaceful protests again these moral police or in better words the hooligans.

On one hand our country wants to go forward and on the other hand these people are dragging it back, I sincerely hope that our government and our leaders will do something so that these hooligans can't take the liberty of doing whatever they feel like. These moral policemen should be prosecuted as criminals as they encroach on a person's right to live, which is a fundamental right of every citizen. If the police helps them and acts a moral police,  a manner in which they have acted in the past, they should be dismissed from the duty as they are not the one to teach morality. 

I hope a good sense prevails in everybody and they start loving each other instead of hating. They have made this wondeful day of love into a Hatred day or the H-Day. I request everybody to respect every culture and become more tolerant towards each other. Valentines day comes once in a year and it should be celebrated with great enthusiam, love and zeal, because only love can diminish distance between two hearts, only love can bring two people close, only love can connect two lives and only love can unite our India. Let's take our beloved nation forward and not backwards.

A R Rahman: A musical genius or an over rated music composer?

This is my second day here and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I was shattered by the continuous work for the last 24 hours, I didn't get to sleep, was working all day and night, but I am back here thanks to the near by pizzeria where I ate my favourite chicken and chips and special thanks to my friend, who gave me a glass of yummy strawberry milkshake that rejuvenated me.

Last week I was watching TV and in every news channel there was only one person who was making headlines as he became the first Indian to win a Golden Globe Award. He then later on went on to win the prestigious BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television awards). Does he need any other introduction, he is one of the most celebrated Indian music composers of all time, AR Rahman. Rahman started his musical career at the age of 11 when he joined music maestro Illairaja's group as a keyboard player. He then started his own music company and got his first break in Hindi movies at the age of 25 for which he won the national award becoming the first Indian music composer to win a national award on debut. The film was Roja that was released in 1992, and from here, there was no looking back for this musical genius.

As I was watching the TV various thoughts crippled in my mind, is he the best indian music composer of all time or is he an over rated composer. The next day I had an arguement with my sister Amrita who is a very big fan of Rahman, and I termed this musical genius as an over rated composer.   

I don't want to snatch any credit from Rahman and going by his awards, he can be rated as the best music composer of all time. The only reason why I said that he is over rated because there were lots and lots of other music composers who never won an international award or got global recognition but were simply outstanding. The calmness and soothe in the music of SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Madan Mohan to name a few was such that even today the songs composed by them are hummed by millions across the world. The music was real and original instruments without any modulations were used and were based on Indian Ragas. Those composers used traditional Indian music instruments such as flute, Sitar, Tabla etc that gave their music a touch of innocence. During the 70's western influence was felt all over the Indian music. This was the time when the composers like RD Burman, Bappi Lahri and others brought an element of rock, hip hop and Jazz to Indian music. RD burmann, one of the best music composers of all time had multiple dimensions to his music and was very versatile. His music was at one end very calm and at peace and on the other it was heavy. He used instruments like drums and guitars to an extent that singers had to raise their voices to be heard. He also charted out music for ghazals, thumris, classical, hip hop, techno etc.

In the modern day also, there are some very good contemporaries of Rahman like Vishal Shekhar, Jatin-Lalit, Anu Malik to name a few. What makes Rahman different from these lot of music composers is the element of fusion that he brings to his music which is very global. He uses percussion instruments, keyboards, violin and a range of other modern and traditional instruments to make his music. One of the best thing about Rahman is that he fuses classical Indian music, Carnatic music along with western music and that makes him special and one of the main reasons for his global reognition as he relates to the global audience.

Another major reason why only Rahman won global recognition is that the veteran music directors did not get the global exposure as the present composers do get. India got independance in 1947 and till 90's it was virtually a closed economy. After the 90's India started to make its presence felt in every field and in the last five year or so has become a global super power which has led to more and more Indian movies premiered in foreign locations like US, UK, South Africa, Europe etc. UK is considered to be the biggest market for Indian Cinemas and as the music is an integral part of Indian film, Indian film music is also gaining lots of acclaim worldwide.

But saying all  this I must admit that Rahman is a musical genius, he is the find of the last decade as far as Bollywood and its music is concerned. If one listens to his music, at first one may be repelled, but the best thing about Rahman's music is that it grows. Apart from his music, I admire Rahman because of his humbleness and unpretentiousness. He is one of the few Indians along with Sachin Tendulkar (for the same reason of humbleness in behavior) whenever speaks my hair rises and I feel proud to be an Indian. I can't forget his speech at the Golden Globe award night where he dedicated his award to a billion Indians. He has an incredible aura surrounding him that attracts people from across the globe towards him and they like him as much as they like his music. He has achieved in his decade long career what no Indian music composer has achieved and he has still a long way to go. Next week is Oscars week and he is again nominated for best music for his music in the British film Slumdog Millionnaire. May he win the prestigious Oscar statue and make all of us proud again. He has along way to go and I wish he becomes the best Indian composer of all time, for he is one of the best human beings in the egoist Indian film industry.  

Three cheers to my favourite Mr. A.R. Rahman!!!!!!

Cricket - Shift in world order

As I was to begin my blogging journey, different topics and issues went through my mind and then I realized what better to start with other than cricket. I have been watching and playing cricket since I was a child.  I have one regret that I couldnot play it professionally because of my studies, but then its fine, if everybody will play then there will be no audience.

There is a very interesting thing going in around the world cricket at the moment as to who is the next numero uno or cricketing super power. The crown once held by the mighty West Indians during the 70's and early 80's and then by the dominating Aussies till 2008 is out in the open. The dominance of Australians till 2008 was such that no team came closer to the top slots during that period. They dominated world cricket for nearly two decades and not only won most of their home and away series but consistently won all the major tournaments that includes three back to back world cups. 

Its not that the other teams did not do well during this time but they lacked consistency. The power order changed after the retirement of Australia's bowling greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. The first sign of change was seen when an young Indian side led by a dynamic MS Dhoni won the inaugral T20 world cup. India then went to Australia in 2007-08 to play four test and the one day series (last edition of the famous summer tri series). The Indians with some fine performances from the old warhorses Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and some scintillating bowling by Zaheer Khan, Bhajji, Ishant and co. if not won the test series, but surely the hearts. With the sydney test being one of the most controversial test as the indians were bowled out on the 5th day, the Indians lost the test series by 2-1. The Indians then outsmarted the Aussies in the one day triseries in Jan'09, that also included Sri lankans. A hundred by the little champion in the first final followed by a 91 in the second final of the VB Series laid the foundation for the victories.

When India was at one part of the world dominating the Cricketing superpower at the other part South Africa was in a rampant mood defeating its opponents in every format. They defeated the Englishmen in their own backyard and went on to thrash both Bangladesh and Pakistan in the subcontinent. They even drew the test series in India with India winning the last test in a spinners paradise at Kanpur and making it 1-1. Indian then lost the test series in Sri lanka 2-1 as the famed Indian middle order was mauled by the mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and the old magician Murlitharan. MS Dhoni who was not the part of the test series came back for the one dayers and saved further blushes by winning the one day series.

The real twist in the world order came when Australia came to play a four match test series in India in Oct-Nov'08 and were defeated 2-0. This series marked the end of two of India's most celebrated cricketers Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly. Indians then defeated england in the one dayers 5-0 and in the tests 1-0. 

South Africans on the other hand gave Australia its first test series defeat in Australia and became the first one to beat Australia in Australia in almost 25 years. They also won the one dayers 4-1 removing there chokers tag and displacing the Aussies from the ODI rankings. Indian went on to beat Srilanka in ODi series played in Srilanka by 4-1 and the also won the lone T20 match showing there dominance in the world cricket. New Zealand defeated Australia in first two ODI's and it helped the Indians to move to the 2nd ranking, but it was short lived as the Aussies won the next two ODI's and claimed back their second ranking.

Irrespective of the result of further matches till April'09, South Africa are on top in ODI rankings followed by the Aussies and the India at 3rd position. Australia have held their first position in the test rankings because of their past dominance but it would be very interesting to see if they can  hold it till next summer.

At one end where the Aussies are affected by the retirements of its stalwarts, on the other end young and aggressive Indians and Proteas are making their mark in Cricketing world.  And as the competition for the top slot is rising, it is making world cricket more appealing. This year surely saw the rise of two cricketing powers, India and South Africa and end of a truly emphatic era, The Australian Era. Lets see what's in store in for next year.