Triumph of Truth or of TV?

Source: Wikipedia

When I told a friend of mine about “Satyamave Jayate”, the much hyped and widely televised (Star network with the local channels getting it in the respective lingo+ DD) debut of the method actor Aamir Khan in TV, he told me “Isn’t it similar to what Actress Lakshmi did some time back in Tamil? There are many people who do this in various TV channels. So what’s different?”.  I scratched my head and tried to defend myself and the show. When was the last time any TV show got so much attention?... Ramayan, Chandrakantha… When was the last time the theme song as powerful enough? – Mahabharat or Swabhimaan….. Or when was the last time, social media was out supporting TV shows? It would be quite interesting to think of twitter thread where they discuss about Kyunki Saas… last episode. So what’s different about it? - The hype, a wonderful rendition as its theme song or above all, Aamir Khan. Why should I or you or anybody watch it?

Well, the soap-heavy TV industry is begging for a change. Many would acknowledge that DoorDarshan was a much better platform for some really sound programs instead of just chasing commercial interests. The best part was there was just one channel to watch and each one from a family had a time slot to watch something. Today, there are exclusive channels for Soaps+extras, movies, for sports, for shopping, nature blah blah… in the end, the channel which the family watches tends to be based on the one who wields the power on the family. That is not to say that only grown ups wield the power. Kids can be a menace if they don’t get to watch what they want during their early years. Older folks tend to be powerful before they get bed-ridden. Dads, teenagers should be the least powerful ones . Moms are powerful always and can override any of the family members. So, obviously soaps are the most selling programs, next comes cricket and then movies. Over the last decade, reality shows have made a severe dent in these 3 types of programs. However, increasingly, people are realizing that reality shows are hardly real and mostly staged ones purely to prey upon viewer’s sentiments.

If one were to stack the reasons for TV programs not measuring up to the audience interests, Honesty would top the list. We know movies are stage-managed and theatre is fit for the intelligentsia, live shows are too grandiose, radio shows are good to hear but what about other senses, Laptops/ computers/ Tablets are for the tech savvy. TV is the most intimate of all media and that’s why its no longer a luxury. Tamil Nadu govt. did not distribute TVs for free just for nothing. It’s a necessity even though being called an Idiot Box.

So, with TV forming such a formidable place in the common man’s home, it’s obvious that commercial elements exploit it to the hilt. However, what is not obvious is that it should be that much personal or maybe that much honest.

Why do we watch news? For a common man, I would think the news tells him/ her what should guide their daily and long term decisions. Simply put, how much vegetables he can buy with the same money he spent yesterday on a movie or whether it is safe travelling to Phuket for a holiday. Instead, we have breaking news. There is no simple news today, everything is breaking something. Breaking news that some actress had deliberately allowed her wardrobe to malfunction is only going to titillate viewers than help him do something useful.

Why do we watch cricket in TV? It’s a national game or because we see ourselves in the middle of the field catching, running, hitting sixes and fours. Shortening the versions of the game or fixing matches or merging it with Bollywood only kills the basic fabric of the sport. How much can you exploit from the sport? How many TRPs can you extract from the simple sport where 11 guys are stacked up against one guy with a bat?

Why do we watch movies in TV? Simply because we could not pay for it at the multiplexes or because the movie were long gone before we could even plan to watch it with our families. Even the good ones. So the common man thinks, anyways, its gonna be telecast for the next big festival, why waste money? Instead, he gets fed up of watching the advertisements that dot the movie than the movie itself. I remember when I was a kid, when, for the Republic Day or Independence Day, it was announced that “Sholay”, a blockbuster of yore would be telecast. It was quite an event in my locality with everyone who knew hindi meticulously planning for the D-Day. Each one had a responsibility – like who would get the chips and snacks, whose house would we be watching, how to evict any resistance to watching the movie etc. in the end, when the D-Day, it was a disaster. In 5 mins of the telecast, the movie would run for 1 minute while the advertisements would take it from there for the rest of the 4 minutes. The movie itself with a running time of 3 hours, ran for close 6-7 hours and in the end when the climax arrived, the power was shut down as part of the load shedding. I think even the British would not have exploited India so well, as we are exploiting ourselves today.

Most importantly, why do we watch soaps? Because, Saas Kabhi Bahu thi means that every lady has gone through all the crap as a daughter-in-law before she becomes mom-in-law and the incidents resonates with their daily life. The theme of some soaps are so very relatable to the housewife although the content may not. But what happens, you sensationalize things, bring in Bollywood and sex and what not. (Let me tell you that only soaps I have known since Mahabharat and Junoon days are Lifebuoy, Cinthol, Chandrika, Mysore Sandal soap)

So, after all the Gyaan I wrote here to prove that I am some sort of bald headed Social scientist, let’s get back to “Satyamev Jayate” . Is it truly honest in its intentions or is it just another media vehicle laced by Mr. Aamir Khan to extend his market share beyond the Bollywood shores? Maybe, maybe not. What it has however, proved is that, for us Indians to watch and hear a desperate and tortured soul amongst us, we need a celebrity, lots of publicity and a Television. It may so happen that the very neighbors of the people interviewed by Aamir in the show, may not have known of the person before watching the show. We are not willing to help or reach out to people who are being victimized every passing day by life, by other people or by institutions created “of us, by us and for us”.

Can it get more pitiable than this?

Satyamev Jayate !!!!!!!

Ekdum Khotarnaak "Kahaani"

That's true. After a long time, a movie worthy of watching, let me stress that, “worthy of watching” and going back not feeling intellectually insulted. That may be way too condescending for the movies being churned out with the unrelenting efficiency of a Automobile Assembly line in Bollwood. Before reading any further, please answer the below questions

• When was the last time a suspense thriller had, well, “Suspense” and not suspension of brain activity? (Please don't answer this with any RGV movies or you will be “Aag”-ed?
• When was the last time a commercial movie had a heroine backed plot?
• When was the last time a commercial movie sans the song and dance routine create such buzz?

If you answered the above questions with “Long time”, “Long long time” or “Once upon a time”, then, proceed to read the rest.

Kahaani is an intelligently packaged film. I was a bit apprehensive, considering that it has been riding on the success of the media's newfound sensation- Ms. Vidya Balan in that Picture which was supposedly Dirty. Somehow, after watching many of the recently released over-hyped movies, you feel you have just served yourself to Dr. Hannibal Lecter who removes your brain and makes a recipe out of it to be fed to the Bollywood film makers. It's a common joke nowadays, please leave your brains at homes and come watch movies, because the film makers themselves did that when making the movie. However, 15 mins into “Kahaani”, I felt I would need my brain back in place in all its glory to decipher the suspense thrown at me by Mr. Sujoy Ghosh (Director). The movie starts with a terrorist attack in a Train and then all of a sudden changes tracks to the search of Mrs. V(B)idya Bagchi's hubby right in the center of a city gearing up for its most loved and celebrated festival, the Durga Puja. Add to this the fact that Bidyaji is expecting a baby pretty soon. What a setting? Wow!!! The clues never seem to end and one clue leads to another and we follow Bidya Bagchi and the innocent-faced Rana as they try to unravel the mystery of the Missing Hubby. Questions galore keep you hooked like how is Bidya's search related to the Terrorist incident? is there a Mr. Bagchi after all? Why is the IB trying to suppress and depress to oppress the facts about the supposedly Mr. Bagchi lookalike? The pace of the movie is just right ot keep you guessing all alone and has lots of clues thrown in the running time for you to decipher in the climax.

Vidya Balan is amazing as always and I wish she gets a national award every year if she is willing to do such roles regularly. The best thing about her are her eyes, deceptive inherently that we are always guessing if she is on the wrong side or the right one. I remember a certain Kajol from Gupt a long time back, who was amazing at deception. The supporting cast is equally great and sometimes even better especially a certain Nawazuddin Siddiqui who plays the role of an IB sleuth. Where did they find this guy? He is a monsterball of energy chewing away everyone else who share screenspace with him in his scenes. This diminutive dude spews fire in each dialogue he has and his body language over compensates for the lack of a body build to play an IB detective. Vidya and Nawazuddin have some great exchanges in some scenes and its downright thrilling to watch the performances. However, the heart of the movie is Parambrata Chatterjee. The eternally soft spoken policeman who stands by Bidya Bagchi in her quest for her husband in spite of several challenges thrown at them. He is the one who really handholds us as we find our way through the clues because, he is equally clueless like us about the happenings around them. It’s like we ride along with him in the movie accompanying Bidya unraveling the mystery. That said casting has been absolutely apt from the Station SI to the IT company HR head to the local guest house receptionist to the Insurance agent/ Contract killer.

Sewing up everything in place is the director. I remember watching his “Jhankaar Beats” with a perennial smile throughout the movie. I am happy that he has taken some time to prosper since then to reach Kahaani. The maturity is evident in the film and hats off for trusting his instinct for such a off-the-beaten-track subject. He has had to wait for the Dirty Picture to succeed to bring his “Kahaani” out of the cans but he should be happy with the box office results. Hoping to see more of this promising director in the coming years.

Zindagi maut ke pyaale mein piye jaayen

Yeh kahan aa gaye hum

Na aage jaane ki icha hai

Naa hi peeche mudke dekhne ki himmat

Jiyon to kis liye, kiske liye,

Na maksad, na chaahat, na intezaar, na aas

Kshitij se khelte rahe aankh micholi

Sooraj ko doobta dekhte rahe aur kuch na kar paaye

Aur aaj chaand bhi naseeb se ruth gayi

Raat ka andhera kabhi uththa nahin

Ab baaki hai to sirf dar

Dar lagta hai agle kadam se

Dar lagta hai har ek lamhe se

Dar lagta hai saamne ke andhkaar se

Dar lagta hai kahin chook na jaaye

Dar lagta hai kahin gir na jaaye

Dar lagta hai kahin haar na jaaye

Aur Zindagi maut ke pyaale mein piye jaayen

My first attempt at poetry in Hindi..........

“KO”kkaro…. “KO”

If the superstars and mega stars of Kollywood kingdom were asked 3 weeks back if they wanted to play a journalist in a film, I doubt anyone would have relented. If you grew up in the 90s and were fed with a staple diet of Movies of Hindustan (both south and north), you will be able to recall the fate the characters who played journos met with. Invariably and inevitably, the poor chap would be caught snapping the villains in one of their bad a$$ acts either murdering someone or smuggling out drugs (or was it sugar/ salt in those packets) or the usual act of rape etc. etc. and invariably and inevitably he would hit on to something triggering off a chase by the villain’s henchmen. Invariably and inevitably, the journo meets a Dead end and the camera’s film would end up in the hero’s hands who would then go on to become the savior of the common man and stand toe to toe against the mighty powerful villain. 
But then, equations change, the hunted becomes the hunter, Dada got a birth into IPL as part of pension plan and Obama killed Osama.
Ko, the latest blockbuster from Kollywood factory has a journo playing protagonist for a change. Impeccable wardrobe, unbelievable stunts, gorgeous lady loves and savior of the common man- Jeeva’s journo portrayal is quite enviable especially for the “lady love” piece.
Things get rolling right from Frame 1. The screenplay makes sure that the viewer doesn’t have to waste time thinking of the logic in the scenes and things move at break neck pace. The very first scene is a chase and should easily be one of the best choreographed one in recent times. We get introduced to a photo journalist and his colleagues (lucky bugger has 2 lissome ladies as colleagues. That itself should be an inspiration for many to take up journalism as a profession. Wish someone made a similar movie on IT). There is a young leader of a rising party formed by youth (mostly guys from IT who did not get to go onsite because of an autocratic Project Manager). Then of course, there are the bad guys a.k.a politicians. The movie follows the journo and the young leader as they go about uncovering the dark underbelly lives of the bad guys and bring about a change in the system until the climax where another twisht is revealed. In the process the journo hero gets to romance the girls in ecstasic exotic exhuberant locations and beat up the baddies’ henchmen. A nice mix of realism and commercialism and the perfect masala for the escapist delights of the tamil moviegoer, this summer.
A few things gave me an itch though (and I had to use nycil to fix it. Phew!!! Chennai summer). First one the heroine Karthika. She looks hot, smoking hot at that in those wonderfully designed clothes to highlight the right curves. However, you just get a feeling that she is trying to emulate her mother (Radha, another smoking hotty star of her era) and in the process trying to overdo it in some scenes. She does too many things with her eye brows, in fact, all her expressions call for some action from her eye brows. So, watching her in some scenes, you get a feel of a Jim Carrey. In the scenes with Jeeva, the contrast becomes clearer with Jeeva doing it so very naturally and Karthika trying to do all sorts of things with her eyebrow acting. I think she should be fed with a daily dose of films by actors who have reveled in subdued/ zero acting (Vijay, Dhanush, SJ Surya, Ramarajan, Arjun…)
The other itch came from hearing the songs. I can bet on the tips I give to the waiter in the roadside hotel, that, those tunes have been already used in the past by the same music director. I liked the “enamo edo” song but all others are just “remixed versions sans the old lyrics” of some of his older songs.
The biggest itch I got was when I saw a duet coming from nowhere immediately after a bomb blast had wiped off some of the important characters in the film. I thought it was done purposely to make the viewers understand that after great dark hours come greater happy hours, but then it will be an insult to my hardly built intelligence working in the IT industry, if I were to digest that as a fact. Here we are watching many of the characters losing their hands and legs, some even their lives and all of a sudden the director decides to show us a song replete with gigantic sets and the protagonists expressing their love and innermost desires for each other. Phew!! I wish the director gets away with this as all his good work in the rest of the movie goes waste thanks to this sequence. Anyways, I think his editor put in his papers as he was not sent onsite.
So , if you want to spend an evening with your loved ones or potential loved ones or hated ones, Ko is a good option. You can save those extra bucks which you would have to spend otherwise on food, shopping etc. which are getting costlier every passing day thanks to inflation, GDP, IT industry and management graduates. Importantly, you wouldn’t have to feel assaulted on your intelligence after the movie (which I tell you is the latest weapon in the hands of ISI. They finance dumb Indian movies and make sure that we lose our intelligence, so that they can carry out sinister operations in our soil).

The name is Valthaty…… Paul Valthaty

Its not even a month since Cricket World Cup 2011 drew to a wonderful close with the Indian team reaching the zenith of its game right when it mattered  most and here we are with IPL trying to rinse off the memories of those World Cup winning moments. Not that its easy to erase them, but, the performances of the teams in the IPL seems to ring in a feeling if the World Cup is indeed a benchmark of how good a sportsman or a team is performing. Scores of 190-200 being scored in a matter of 20 overs and many a time being chased out too by the opponents, batting innovations, bowlers attempting a Yorker off every ball and almost getting it, life is one great gladiatorial arena in those stadia. As with any sport, the idea is to go beyond that proverbial “limit”, to stretch the possible limits and compress the impossible boundaries.

And then there is Paul Valthaty. I hardly knew him and so did many who follow cricket closely, till a week or so back. Now, he seems to be the new prodigy, a wonder kid who has turned the IPL matches right over its head single handedly. Teams are preparing their strategies to counter him rather than the Punjab XI team. Nah!!!!!!!!! I have nothing to do with IPL team strategies, neither am I any good at that.

Mr. Valthaty, though, has become my favorite. Not for that malluish accent of his  , neither because I am a supporter of Punjab XI ( Kochi man… I am the Kochi man which I know had no clue how it won the last encounter with MI) nor because he got a hug from Preity Zinta for that knock of his or because he is that the exquisite batsman on whom the cricket connoisseur sings paeans about. Its all for one reason and that is because he doesn’t distort his face into expressions reminiscent of constipation problems each time he gets a century or a wicket or any other signifier worthy of praise. It seems to have become some kind of fashion fad these days for our cricketers to pump in the air or to emit their wonderful vocabulary of censored words each time they score a half century or a century or take a wicket… so on and so forth. I often wonder what makes them so angry when they are supposed to celebrate.  Media often calls it the fighting spirit of these guys but I think we can do better than Aussies for that matter.

So then, Mr. Paul Valthaty is that quintessential performer who takes the wind of the opponents sails so very silently. Now that is a gift one has to earn, because all said and done you don’t want to lose your energy pumping and jumping right when you are in the middle of a humdinger. Sachin Tendulkar is one shining example of this virtue, the little master is at his menacing best when he is silent and least expressive. He goes about his job with no fuss about it. How better can you answer a sledging bowler than bang him to the fences the very next ball? That matters and matters a lot. It tells a lot of the character one possesses. Not that the jumping and pumping ones are characterless, but, the game is all about concentration and getting things done. It’s not about the batsman who can hit six sixes of an over or the bowler who can bowl swinging Yorkers every other ball, but it’s about putting runs on board and chasing them up, taking wickets and saving runs.

I admire Paul Valthaty for that virtue and I wish he endures in him this quality in the coming days. It was amazing how he scored in that match against the CSK and then against the MI. he took 4 wickets in the match against MI. I couldn’t help but admire him while he spoke after the match in the presentation ceremony. He sounded so level-headed and straight, no airs about it.  That’s how an Indian cricketer should treat these moments of glory because you can be beaten out of your senses if you go down the very next game. M S Dhoni is another cricketer who does this commendably well. Indian cricket needs Cool guys like them who can treat each moment at the field with some equanimity.

So then, here’s wishing Paul Valthaty and other such talented cricketers all the very best and hoping to see some cracker contests in the coming days.

Of war, revenge and Glory with Bat, Ball and Gloves

What an evening it was? A bunch of young men brought a whole nation in front of their TV sets for close to 8 hours, all for a game of cricket. Is sports capable of doing this? It can and it can specially for the Subcontinents’ denizens.

Thursday’s quarterfinal between India and Australia was significant for many reasons. About 8 years ago, a resurgent Indian team marched to the World cup finals amidst severe criticism and backfire after their initial performances in the league stages. Hope and spirits were exploding like Japan’s Nuclear reactors when India met Australia at the Wanderers in South Africa. After initial losses and a shaky start, India had arrived with new found confidence especially after the game against Pakistan, a match, which will go down as one of the most fiery World cup matches ever. India looked very convincing in the Super sixes and the semis and the finals was billed to be an occasion for the Indians to extract sweet revenge for the loss in the league match against Australia. however, as fate would have it, the match proved to be nothing short of a washout as Australians simply made mince meat of Indian bowling and then went on to clean up the famed Indian batting clinically. That day will never be forgotten for the millions who watched it with bated breath. I was in college those days and remember going to the auditorium where the match was being screened. We were all painted up with the tricolors and were hooting all along till the match started. Once, Adam Gilchrist got into his groove, the silence was deafening in the entire hall. To top it Zaheer’s attitude was treated withcompelte disdain. Then came Ponting and he simply clobbered away. Australia made 359 and the Indian batting just withered away wilting to the pressure. However, that day gave rise to an animosity of mammoth proportions against the Aussies. India- Australia matches have been nothing shorn of war ever since, making it equally if not more interesting that India- Pak matches.

So, what better a stage than the world cup again. india got a chance after 8 long years. However, not many things were going in our favor. Shaky performances, sting-less bowling, sloppy fielding , India was definitely struggling. So was Australia, with a not so formidable side like the last 3 world cups but then Australians being Australians don’t give up easily. Except for the loss against Pakistan, Aussies were clinical in their performances. Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson were doing a wonderful job and so was the fielding department. There were concerns over the batting but it was quite balanced with Mike Hussey and Shane Watson in top form. All they needed was Ponting and Cameron White to pitch in. we all know how much Ponting loves Indian bowling attack. India on the other hand, was gearing up slowly. Ashwin’s performance was very encouraging, so was Yuvraj Singh’s. Zaheer seemed to be at his best ever with tricks overflowing from his hand.

The sides were evenly matched and what was needed was TRUE GRIT. Aussies are known for their never-say-die attitude, so if India had to win, it had to match it up to them.

The events that unfolded during the match will remain etched in memory. From Ashwin’s first over, Shane Watson’s wicket, Brad Haddin’s rampage, the subsequent wickets, Ponting’s masterly century and final total which was competitive. Then came the Indian batting, Sehwag’s early fall, Sachin on song, Ponting’s call for a review for a grounded catch, Sachin going down, Gambhir conjuring up a nice half century, the goof ups from Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni falling to a brilliant catch and then finally Yuvraj and Raina holding on their nerves to see India through.

If this match does not give India the much needed boost they needed, then we can be sure of being smacked around by Pakistan. The oft-repeated record of a no-loss record against Pakistan in World cups doesn’t really matter as Pakistan thrives on aggression and confidence. They have one of the best bowling attacks and know the subcontinental pitch very well. All they need is a respectable total to defend or a below-par total to chase down. They are capable of that with their supremely unpredictable nature. They have resonated the world cup with their fire and hunger, evident from the mathces against Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies. They have shown the same attitude as Imran’s Tigers of 1992. They topped their table in their pool and are just 2 matches away from making history.

So, its going to be a battle of nerves again. The team which has the cooler head will win and I pray it be the Indian ones.

Exploring Karna

Madras Players, one of the oldest and most revered theatre groups of Chennai staged “Karna” last week. The players are experimenting with various theatre forms and for “Karna” they fused theatre with dance and music. Music comprised of classical carnatic and local folk. Dance was primarily Bharatnatyam customized for the play.

It was a different experience altogether, with all these extra art elements thrown in. There was lesser theatre on stage and that saddened me a bit.

Karma, an epic character in itself, intrigues me. Not many characters in the epic Mahabharata has to go through the motions which Karna has to and in the end too he pays the price with his life. In spite of possessing all the powers and the skills of a warrior prince, he remains banished on the sidelines. He is abandoned by his mother right at the time when he enters this world and curiously, she doesn’t decide to reveal the truth until the day she knows that lives of her other 5 sons are in danger. He is cursed by his own teacher for not having revealed his caste. He is abhorred and ridiculed for being from a lower caste whenever he tries to show his prowess in war. And in the end too, he doesn’t get a level playing field in the final epic war being stripped off his armor which was invincible. He is killed while trying to pull out his chariot from a pothole.

There are questions galore coming to think of this character but the most important ones for me are

- Is good or dharma a captive of a select few? A group of guys decide that something is right or wrong and it becomes binding on others to follow.

- How prudent or decisive we are in deciding between the good and bad? Often, our actions are greyer than black or white. So, does that make us good or bad?

- Importantly, Karna dies for following his set of truths and ideals. How many of us would be willing to do that, to die for what we stand for?