Swades:5 years onward...

Swades:We, the people(2004)
...aka Desam (2004) (India: Tamil title: dubbed version)
...aka Our Country (2004) (International: English title) (USA)

Swades is a kind of movie which grows bit by bit after watching every time…
Personally,anything good spoken about Swades is less;For me its SRK’s career best till date. I did not watch it with the help of download culture of college but walked into theater for first show. I walk out of the hall being a different person. Three hour feels like a journey for rediscovering of own roots.

A masterpiece in Indian Cinema;Why?
Cinema is an art. Art express truth by false symbols. It tells us about abstract ideas or ground reality through eyes of filmmaker. Film is technical artistic medium. Art provokes our thinking and emotion.The medium can be cinema, literature or painting. It brings a change in our thinking pattern and view of the world. Swades has changed the life of various NRI and they return to India for making it a better place. It pushed a idea of change into practical reality. Change offered by film on society should be fundamental criteria for evaluation of movie. But most critics venture into land of surrealism, not reality.

This movie is simple story devoid of all makeup required for a beauty of movie. It is a cinema of documentary style but simplicity was its high point. It was not well received at box-office as people were not yet over with Lagaan hangover. It connected very well with the NRI audience because it was narrated through their perspective.

Movie deals with problem of India and Indians: We the people.
There are no iconic or mythological representation of hero or villain in this movie. There is no mind twisting plot or hostage situation. The characters are real and no larger than life concept is introduced. It is a story of protagonist return to his native land. His views are evolving by becoming part of the ground realities and a feel of self realization. The conditions surrounding characters are not only in reel life but exist in our real life. Person in the movie turns from a esteemed position to push society for overall development, not only growth of few elite or privileged groups within society.

Mostly in typical bollywood movies, filmmakers tries to issue a problem and then gives a fictional/innovative solution. Most of the solution provided by them are violent and abrupt. Every film exaggerate the situation and points few people as villains. They eliminate them by violent means in the end and establishment of ramrajya/utopia is presented to viewers. Just Pure hypothesis and spoon feed of escapism. There are ups and downs but a consistent gradual change is missing. The world is not simply black or white but has a variable shades of grey in each individual's action or words. It makes the world more puzzling and perplexing choice between right or wrong. Hence, most of the films fails to reflect the facts and became propaganda of fictional solution.

They only move society for revolt against corrupt system. Revolt is not the solution but a zenith phase to dismantle old system. The working of new system will again fall into the persons with different faces but same thinking patterns. An individual revolt against the working system because he has nowhere to run or hide. He is suppressed or tortured and with all resources, hope is taken out from his life. He is pushed for the last option: Revolution. Rebel person lives on fringes and he fights for survival not living. Still the eternal recurrence of problems occur in society because the solutions are not accepted by the people. But a stable society needs to flourish where an individual and his thinking not just exist but also grow.

Several movies left vivid influence on ours life. But they exist just as an idea in the trenches of memory. They are only used in philosophical/cinematic discussion. Only dialogue spitting from commercial films are widely accepted by masses and idea of struggle against unjust system excite the intellects. Talks only,no implementation....

Remember, Swades is the next generation of cinema.Why?
We have to remember that tall peaks are not always better than long plateaus as true greatness must include protracted excellence. Its a consistent and gradual path of self realization.

Swades is the new level of maturity in our views. It tries to reform the society not by guns but by education, awareness and rebuilding infrastructure. The reformation is more essential for growth of society and civilization. It helps in eliminating unjust laws and orthodox tradition by non violent methods. This movie does not enforce mutation but offers a gradual evolution in our view toward cinema, life and everything. It is middle of path movie which is neither artistic nor typical bollywood. It was not a pardesi venture of Brit/American/NRI but swadesi attempt by Mr. Ashutosh Gowariker and heavy accolades to him for his sincere efforts........

For better depth of discussion go through this weblink on pfc.

THE DELHI MANIFESTO

I have got a mail from the Nitesh;It was a manifesto about Indian cinema and cinephiles.;
Content---
Our manifesto is up on Indian Cinema, do read it chip in your support and spread the word. The more we can gather over the months will help in the cause of seeing cinema in the right direction.
Original Link
THE DELHI MANIFESTO

• Our cinema screen has become an ill-constructed, and conventional portal to a world we aspire of, rather than a mirror, which reflects us.

• Our emotions are guided by leitmotifs placed deftly, and religious beliefs exploited.

• Our spirit of inquiry has become dead and we have been reduced to mere receivers in the process.

• Cinema and television has replaced interaction with imposition of thought. Its thought. An artificial, fake and ill-created thought, a manifestation of our needs to escape ourselves.

• The medium has become a symbol of cheap entertainment, devoid of any examination of the form, and a victim of our collective need to create personalities, perfect alternate universes, and images of our aspiration.

• Our criticism has become trivial. Stories take precedent over the intrinsic qualities of the cinematic medium.

• Our film lovers are snobs, indulging in their wholehearted pseudo-intellectual diatribe, condemning the ignorant, and the ignorant have become so used to a cinema that’s meager that they are satiated with films from the West.

• Our parallel offerings remain strictly entrenched in the tradition of the mainstream, and hence, are versions of the same, rather than its replacements

We reject a system that encourages the above, despite its realization, and seek:-

a) To incite discussion on the possibilities, limitations and viability of the application of the auteur theory as a critical prism.

b) To use criticism and our theories to both champion and strive for innovation and cutting edge in form, form and content.

c) To attempt a formulation of a pure love for cinema, a middle ground between the pseudo intellect of the snobs, and the ignorance of the unknowing, and attempt to mobilize their film loves to this new ground.

d) To attempt a critical theory that moves beyond the supply of the story and the statistical rating points.

e) To observe, notice, and champion upcoming films, filmmakers, and technicians, who remain obscured in the looming shadows of commerce and a faux parallel cinema.

f) To champion cinema that creates dissonance, repulsion, interpretation, confusion and discussion rather than loud claps, whistles and scrupulous satisfaction

g) To work towards a film love which adopts a middle ground, to reinstate the cinema director to his deserved position, to celebrate Indian cinema of the past and the present, to examine its potential, we propose ''The Delhi manifesto.”
- A Delhi Suburb, 1st Jan 2009

SIGN IN:-
People who agree and think we are in need of a dire change.In the way our cinema, our social realm functions, support us.Leave a comment with your name/profession/country to add to the list and spread the word.The vote of support is open to the world.

Signatories

1) Supriya Suri
2) Satyam
3) Kshitiz Anand
4) Ronnie Sen
5) Anuj Malhotra
6) Ankit Choudhary
7) Indranil Kashyap
8) Srikanth Srinivasn
9) Nitesh Rohit
10)Himanshu Rai
11)...

Wah Kanpur,Ahh Kanpur!-1

I had not taken birth on the land of Kanpur but my heart belongs to here for ever. I have fist arrived on the soil of Kanpur on 9th July,1994. I was on the verge of completing 9 years of my life. Half of the previous life was passed in the hills, Nanital and remaining half was spent in the small town, Salempur. Kanpur was contrast to them in all ways...

Kanpur is shown in the films very few times despite its metro nature in Hindi heartland. I had watched 'Bunty and Babli' just because it has 5-10 scenes filmed in the Kanpur. And in the 'Dhadak Dhadak' song,when AB jr. is standing on the train top at the background of railway bridge on Ganga river, the cult movie become 'paisa vasool' for me. I recall with this scene about the train on narrow gauge (now converted into broad gauge) piercing Kanpur through middle and Doodhiyaas both in and out of train rushing back to kannuj, farukhabad....

And now on screen has come the clincher - Tashan. No film has used a city so intrinsically in its screenplay as Tashan does for Kanpur. Bachchan Pandey (Akshay Kumar) and his antics as Raavan, crimes as an electricity thief, dialogues as a collection agent, sighs as a Roadside Romeo and most stunningly, his language are so Kanpuriya that its unbelievable!

And after a high-voltage fight scene, Saif pays homage to the city of Kanpur in a perverse sort of way by saying – “In logon ke beech mujhe zinda rehna hain, to mujhe akalmand banna padega, khatarnaak banna padega, Kanpuriya banna padega…”

I heard a string of decorative words in my first season at the school. Kanpuriya people blend slang so fast with full flow of pure hindi that kanpuriya dialect become most sublime language in the world. For example mumbaiya word 'Raapchik' can be exclaimed in continuous streak of four different words prevailing same sense: Behtareen, Chaukas, Sateek, Jhakaas.

Koi Sagaa Nahin…
Gulzar’s one (self-acknowledged) act of plagiarism is the famous line from the 'Bunty Aur Babli' title song… (Aisa) koi sagaa nahin, jisko (humne) thagaa nahin. This, in turn, is the super-famous punch line of the super-successful 'Thaggu Ke Laddoo' of Kanpur. Known far & wide for his laddoos, Thaggu got his name from his grandfather, who started the shop and was particularly ashamed of using sugar (a videshi product) against the call of Gandhi. In an allusion to Gandhi’s verdict that anybody using foreign-made sugar is actually robbing (thago-ing) the nation, he called himself Thaggu – and the name stuck till date as a super brand! Intensive research is currently on to figure the origin of the other famous product of his – the Badnaam Kulfi. Thaggu’s confidence in his products shows through one more of his punchlines… Mehmaanon ko mat khilaiye, tik jayengey!. To know more about communist poori and apradhi aata, log on to Laddu Special.

You can also get 'Makhan Malai' at Meston road. It is brilliant and worth to taste..Not to forget south indian restaurant opposite to the IIT gate or Lucky Restaurant at Awadhpuri on G.T. road. The last stop of the Veggie Express has been identified in the city of Kanpur is Gyan Vaishna: A sattvik eatery, situated right next to a traffic junction (which, in turn, is very close to railway crossing) at Jareeb Chaukee. So, even if you do not get run over by a train, auto or bike while trying to enter the restaurant, you will find eternal bliss in their ghee-laden preparations of aloo gobi, daal tadka and fresh rotis. And they some how manage to gauge your fullness. So after a while, the benign waiter smiles and provides tissues and water - without trying to hard-sell their mithais. Priceless!!!

.............I love Kanpur...............

Talent in Indian Cinema

Before globalization, most of our Indian companies were run by families of Lala and Seths.They do not give preference to talent and people always end up doing Ji Huzoori, unless fresh talent happened to be connected. After opening of market,not many of those companies survived. Same story can be projected here. Barring few, not many will survive in bollywood in coming future. Times are changing.

Film making has became family business here. The bitter truth is that Bollywood of late has become Fortress Bollywood, shutting off its doors to non-filmi people. They are leaving out a wide section of society aspiring their career in this line.

Family rules despite lack of talent.
Bollywood is full of star parevaar like mafia families of 'The Godfather'.The Kapoors. The Deols. The Bachchans. The Roshans. The Khans. The Bollywood firmament is crowded with stars with the same surname. Apart from perpetuating fan following across generations, they make wonderfully symmetrical photo ops at the film magazines,awards and entertainment channels. Kumar Gaurav, Rajeev Goswami, Kunal Goswami, Suneil Anand, Faisal Khan, Pururaj Kumar, Sanjay Kapoor, Armaan Kohli & Uday Chopra... (the list continues) for those family members who fails in achieving goodwill of Indian public. Otherwise scenario would have been different and worse. Launch and relaunch of them through various means is well spread epidemic of our Bollywood.

Now let us talk about film makers.There is an entire breed of young directors who have been born into film families, the well-networked families and have easy access to almost the entire talent that the Indian film industry has to offer. what new talent have they given us? They take an SRK when he is a star. Not the SRK of 1991,the struggler one....

People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make in Bollywood. Kowtowing is performed and rumors of social service to acquire a role is always heard here. Any hero/heroine without Godfather or Sugar Daddy cannot stand in the rat race of fame and glory. Stereotype casting of good actors is waste of huge talent. Bollywood is full of babes. Every Miss India winner these days has a fair shot at making it in tinsel town if she keeps off the potato chips. Otherwise, there is enough demand from makers of hot & remix music videos.Ash - often denounced as 'plastic' and 'facile - indeed became a pioneer even though within a shabbily maintained bollywood standard of things.She has now become face of the nation and currently work with B grade directors of Hollywood and media (only Indian) creates the myth of her charm over firangees.

New wave in Bollywood
Today Mahesh Bhatt and RGV can be credited for bringing new talent on and off the screen. Aside: Whatever Ramgopal Varma may have degenerated today, he must be commended respect for giving break to all the newcomers. At the height of his career, the factory of RGV had consistently backed fresh talents in each aspect of film making.

Riskbearer Directors are hard breed to find these days but some directors are ready to experiment like hell. Some take their own time. New directors are projecting the globalization Hindi cinema and the liberalization of India. Never will quality cinema can take place of mainstream cinema or vice-versa.But for the growth of Indian cinema, the experimentation is necessary. Anurag Kashyap, Abbas Tyrewala, Raju Hirani, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rakeysh Mehra, Shimit Amin, Nagesh Kukkunoor, Dibaker Banerjee and Sriram Raghvan are the new talents to be watched in the future.

The Middle Path
When Vishal Bharadwaj makes a rural film (Omkara) with big stars, he beautifully mixed Deepak with Saif, Ajay, Kareena, Konkona and gang. How he took Shweta in Makdee. How, after the success of Hyderabad Blues, Nagesh chose to work with a newcomer in the lead role and wonderfully added Naseer as a support. This is the right way for our cinema.

Admiration of off-beat films with new faces and experiments are expected from this industry. The wonders of a Pankaj Kapur, Pavan Malhotra, Manoj Bajpai, Ranvir Shorey, Deepak Dobriyal or a rank, bloody-talented newcomer is still untapped for world cinema viewers. Some as-yet faceless cinephiles in some deep pockets of India can screw their heads and ask why? Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works,not just only bollywood. Hence, luck and chance are needed for new comers with talent.

And if all else fails, there is the one-liner of the decade for the sarcasm. The man who worked with stars only,Karan Johar: comes on the Filmfare Awards stage and says, "Heere ka kadar sirf johri kar sakta hain. Aur hero ka kadar sirf Johar hi kar sakta hain..."

Star vs Actor

"A viewer who has been addicted by melodramatic Bollywood dramas hardly have an understanding of good and bad cinema.The sudden change in mood for cinema something that challenges the viewership and demands certain intelligence requires time and patience to adapt and get used to such kind of films. Mythological characters laid the roots for ‘Idol-worship’ in Indian cinema that has continued to be an important aspect of identification for the Indian audience with cinema. When audiences watched their beloved mythology came alive on screen, the first seeds of ‘fascination’ and ‘love’ without a critical space became etched in our genes. Ever since, the admiration for stars on cine screen has grown by leaps and bounds. "(reference)

The love of cinema in India can be seen from two basic divisions:
1) Star "Idol" worship2) Actor admiration by Cinephiles

A star is a person who continues to be interesting even when he is not doing anything. An actor is a person who has to act (but of course!) to be interesting. Stars cannot be confused with their real life personas but these personas are important. Stars had managed the anxieties that people experience during times of such rapid change that we have lived through. his over-acting and mannerisms which so many people love to hate made him special.All that quivering and crying represented at a subliminal level the tremendous emotional upheaval that accompanies such radical changes. otherwise these films would have been empty consumerist fantasies! but the excessive and melodramatic emotions communicated the “pain” of these changing times even as the happy endings promised a better future.

Every era or region of Indian cinema has a star and actor pair.Bengali and Tamil cinema provide the best examples. The iconic pairs – of Uttam Kumar & Soumitra Chatterjee and Rajanikanth & Kamal Hasan – remain the subject of heated debates. Dilip Kumar was the actor while Dev Anand was the star. The former charmed audiences with dramatic pauses and natural tears while the latter’s puffy hair, scarves and 6:05 tilt held men and women in awe!Subsequently, when Amitabh Bachchan strode the industry like a Colossus, the actors of his generation got completely overshadowed and ended up in parallel cinema :Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, for example. Today,same thing is repeated with Rahul Bose,Kay Kay Menon,Irfan Khan and Konkana Sen Sharma overshadowed by Khans. Sometimes there is complete mis-use of some fantastic acting talent in insignificant and underdeveloped characters. I could name a few examples, but the worst had to be “Aaja Nachle” where Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak and worst of all Irrfan Khan were completely wasted!

Bollywood Masala films are mainly running on the faces of their stars but the circus around the ‘star’ has been running around for such a long time that the relation with the art form is lost.There is no ‘Method Acting’ in star's performances on screen – just madness in the name of art and fun in the name of chaos.There is almost no relation with the content and the story flow. Hence the dialogues, set-pieces and gags which are an integral part in building the blocks of narrative rhythm do not exist due to which there is no building of characterization, emotions or development of pace.

To my feeling, star system harms the cinema when stars are taken in repetitive roles all the time. This stops their growth as actors and it hinders the growth of cinema also because much of the money available in the film industry is available to the films having big stars.It really does not matter if a director always makes a film with a particular star/actor as long as he has interesting subjects and characters to present that star/actor. All good directors have been working with few faces only in the lead roles but they give different characters to their favourite actors and don't repeat them.

If a story can be shown by a known star face then in the following weeks people rush to the cinema halls after knowing the merits of the film.This is their prerogative to select any star to present their stories. End results will always be analyzed later.Repetition in films like medium will never get respect because it removes the trace of unpredictability from the cinema. Genuine emotion and effortless acting are rare in Bollywood and must be preserved either by a star or an actor.For detail and original cause of discussion,link is here;

Riskbearer Producers

Movie making is also an industry and film making is a project or like a start-up where its the team and your product that plays a major role in determining the success. The name of the game is to play safe. Big budgets and big stars bring in the big bucks. It doesn’t matter if the film is a hit. The cycle continues. When you take the risk for experiments, independent films are produced.

The reason behind a Karan Johar a Farhan Akhtar, Rohan Sippy etc going behind big stars with whom they are comfortable with is not only about making money- but also the kind of pressure on them to succeed and comparison to their family members. If anyone have SRK or Akshay or Big B available and ready to work with them and why wouldn’t work with them.

Secondly, every new and also many an experienced director is repeatedly asked for an actor’s approval for a film by the producer before he decides to finance it. Why would any director who wanted finance and had best buddy SRK on his ’speed dail’ do in this case when hiring SRK could create boxoffice hit and a new talent a risk no one would like to take? So it’s really not a lack of commitment that makes the star-kid go for bankable stars in their kitty. They have insecurities of their own.

Team selection may not be only merit based but depends on personal rapport. It works.Why cant they mix two 40cr films with one 10 cr experiment? It is no dent to them! Make all your K films. It is these ‘money making’ films which let people make smaller experimental films. I also watch and love them. But add something new to your bouquet... The point is, choose an actor that suits the character. Not write for someone you have already decided to take. There is a lot of difference.

Only these giants are the ones who can afford taking economic risks more than the others. As long as Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra or Suraj Barjatya or any director in this club of rich and powerful directors/producers, are willing to present their chsoen stars in different roles, everything is fine.

Many people have managed balancing the act. But I talk from the Producer’s perspective. Shah Rukh has managed doing a Chak De and Swades with an OSO and RNBDJ. Aamir has done a TZP and Mangal Pandey with a Fanaa. And box office failures of 1-2 films will not affect SRK or Aamir personally. They will always keep getting films. The Producers whose risk taking threshold is higher can be the torchbearers of change. That’s all that I wish an begin happening...

Popcorn Movie Lover to Cinephile

In Hollywood, there is an unspoken dictum: “No film should have the mental age of more than ten years.” So, the birth of popcorn movies. We call ourselves Bollywood. How can we be any different? We lament the fact that there is no more a Hrishikesh Mukherjee amongst us. But really the question is where are Kundan Shah, Sudhir Mishra and Saeed Akhtar Mirza? --- This is from a article written by Kundan Shah.Its the reality of bollywood in simple lines.

Bollywood and Cricket culture is here in Indian same as Hollywood and Baseball in america. But unlike modern American history, Bollywood is not something you can squeeze in just one lifetime. It is in genes of movie watchers.But a new trend is happening here in recent past. Bollywood totally losing its touch with the Hindi heartland and instead catering to the multiplex-going city slickers. The latest India Today calls it the 'popcorn' movie trend - films specially conceived and designed for the youth which, today, is the highest spending demographic. Young people - and even older folks, families - are going to the movies because it is 'something to do'. In this country we don't have baseball games or any other weekend sporting events(Currently IPL). Well, often a movie gets just 3 stars out of 5 but junta goes to see it because it's 'good time pass'. We don't have a clubbing culture. After 5 days of BPO or IT culture, weekends are just part of great consumer culture.

IT revolution lead to the rise of Internet and mobile culture with people attached to the technology. There are lot of films downloaded over the Internet that forms an important growth of watching films, sharing films along with music in colleges in India. Students across India; consciously or unconsciously watch tons of films from all over the world. Then they feel the shock impact that a lot is happening in the world of cinema and why are we not there. I have felt the same PAIN and AGONY.

All these aspects has lead to the growth and ‘Appreciation of Cinema’ in the country, where people are getting aware about watching good films and not just sticking to watching routine Bollywood fare. These groups of people mainly belong to the urban class. The urban class of film lover notably refers to people leaving in the metros in India because they have the facilities and the accessibility to watch foreign films in theaters, film festivals, and in their own homes.

Today foreign films are released in theatres and Film titles are available in the market, and there are 24hrs satellite TV showing not just Bollywood or Hollywood but World Movies. NDTV Lumiere is releasing foreign language films in India, World movies is up and running, palador and ndtv lumiere again releasing great titles on DVD. Independent films are clicking their space inch by inch with coming years. There is light shining at the end of the tunnel.......

As Indian Cinema needs a support (who love the medium- Cinephile), and not just another SRK fan clubs. Since the importance of such fan clubs or critical look at filmmakers could only hold importance when compared on the overall merit of the 'Indian Film Industry,' since Cinema in India also exist beyond the boundaries and clutches of Bollywood.

Bollywood Award Ceremonies

Today, Bollywood is cursed by epidemic of award ceremonies. These ceremonies are used as platform for tieing superstars with production houses. But, now we have atleast 5-10 big award ceremonies and each award is given to strengthen business connection or satisfy the ego of ruling bollywood families.

Starting from the 1950's, Filmfare Awards continue to remain the Big Daddy of Indian film awards - probably because no other award has the might as big as that of Times of India behind it. Long before the Filmfare nominations became the subject of nationwide debate and controversy, it was more of an exercise in bonhomie than any serious competition between actors. Anil Kapoor was given a prize for Beta, which was announced (by Dimple Kapadia) without opening the envelope! . It is one of the most blatantly rigged prizes in the history of film awards.This angered Aamir Khan (in the running for Jo Jeet Wohi Sikandar) so much that he has boycotted the awards ever since!

We have now IFFA award each year (not staged in India) and only bollywood films are in contest with the brand name of Indian film federation awards. No regional language films other than pure commercial bollywood flick can enter the competition. And they call it Indian film awards. A real tribute to diversity of India.Hail Preetesh Nandy!!!

News/Scandel/Controversy: Akshay Kumar has rejected the best popular actor award that he received at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards. However, Akshay came with his wife to attend the award function. But, later on when he was presented the Best Popular Actor award he refused to accept it saying that he had watched Ghajini recently and he felt that Aamir Khan, the 'Ghajini' star had done a lot better than him or any other Bollywood actor this year. He said that he believes that Aamir Khan should have won the award irrespective of the fact that he attends award functions or not. It was done by him deliberately either to show true face of awards or as he was not given best actor award for 'Singh is King'. Award for the Best Actor went to Hrithik Roshan, 'Jodha Akbar' star as he attended the award function just in nick of time. Other wise, the prize of best actor would have fall in the laps of Akshay Kumar. It would also be ridiculous for sponsors for presenting best actor award to Akshay in front of Hrithik for 'Singh is King'. To satisfy ego of AK, the sponsors presented him the award of Best popular actor. He just nominate his award to the fellow who does not give damn to the award ceremonies. The point to note here is that it was not critic award for acting but was given for popularity among audience. How can one present his popularity to other which solely depends on fans...

One more article about truth behind award ceremonies is here.

Bottomline:In the end, Bollywood Award Ceremonies are all about loving your sponsors.

American Desi

American Consular Officer: "How do we know you'll come back to India?"
Student: "Sir, my roots are here - my family, my property, my business... I want to study in America, but I will come back and put my education to good use."

I read this conversation from someone'sblog and idea about state of indians living abroad struck me. Thousands of Indian students have given this earnest answer at their visa interview. A significant number never return to their motherland. You have to wonder - why bother to ask? Because the idea of America, to a large extent, is to attract the brightest and the best from around the world. NRI ideally stands for Non Resedential Indians. Practically NRI means- Non Returning Indian or Non Reliable Indian.

When the race for food, clothing and shelter becomes over, then green card migrants try to find a identity for themselves. Next generation faces issues like choosing their sides between Indian family and American culture. Desi Indians may perceive herself as 'American' but the colour of her skin and country of birth still make her/him a 'foreigner who's done well' as far as (a section of) right-wing America is concerned. It is about finding identity in a country that will treat you as alien if you are born there. They become like pendulum bob swinging between Indian family and American social surroundings.

Desi is all about rediscovering your roots. Generally, Desi is turned usually associated with Indians living abroad. Now, a new term is framed for the generation born there: ABCD .

ABCD: American Born Confused Desi ;American Desi is used in short for them. The movie 'American Desi' was really upper view of lifestyle and relation of Desi youths. For cool pass time watch it with open mind and heart....

The Namesake as a novel and movie is one of the original and first attempt to address this issue from American perspective. The settling of a family in alien land for the search of livelihood. Their gradual acceptance of the new land. A bemused incomprehension of their extended family to appreciate their better (different?) way of life. Clinging on to certain customs while leaving others. The alienation of the second generation from the first. The second generation's assimilation into a more modern way of life. Halted communication of the first generation to the second. Three hardly identifiable characters mostly lost in a distant land from their own makes Namesake a passable attempt at winning western audience. And i will not spoil the plot here.

Lets put our attempt to understand about Indians living abroad. We were not much aware of America before 90's as brown skinned natives who didn't elect George Bush and live 3000 miles from Graceland. With the globalization era, the periphery of an average Indian with outside world has increased dramatically. The journey starts with Bollywood.

“Watan se chitthi aayi hain” (sung on screen by Pankaj Udhas) was NRI anthem from film 'Naam' but the movie was mainly targeted to middle east based Indians. Forget Purab aur Pachim, now bollywood can make film like Salaam Namaste, Kal ho na ho, Namaste London, Kabhi khushi kabhi gum and Dostana (list cont...) . But movies like 'Provoked' gives also other face of the reality. They are entirely based on NRI life with fictional Indian value embodiment in them. Now,an overseas market are targeted with Desi junta as potential consumers. Swades was genuine Indian attempt to pull the strings of NRI to their motherland. Sivaji was also on footstep of swades but on a much broad fictional stance. Some are worth mentioning here as they have done Real Life Swades.

Worthy to mention Punjabi NRI who's mixed bhangra rhythms with hip-hop and reggae to create new genres of music altogether. I am mere observer here. Its flight of elites and plight of masses in mine motherland India.

Death of Parallel Cinema

There are now two decades over after the demise of parallel cinema.Literature and Theater are the main sources of parallel cinema in India.The turbulent situation of the 1970's gave birth to the ‘parallel cinema’ movement in India.With the open market policy in film industry and decay in government funding,this movement dies out slowly after economic liberation.Indian Cinema is thriving today thanks to an audience who is hungry for films, however, our works have degraded over the years, and regional cinema and few great filmmakers are marginalized to the film festival or art house circuits.

Regional films constitute of high percentage in parallel cinema. The regional cinema, obviously in majority formed the alternate cinema. Ever since the decline of regional cinema throughout the nation, and the dying out of the parallel movement, the viewers have been feed with repeated image, sound and music.Most of us had used to watch regional films on DD on Sundays. With the advent of cable and dish culture, the regional cinema has suffered huge setback. There is no information either in the print or electronic media about alternate films.Dish Channels do not show off alternate movies even in non prime time.

Today, the films of ' New Wave' are hard to find, and the aesthetics of these filmmakers were never carried forward, meaning, the tradition not only got lost, but never translated or taken further- explored in new avenues. Not only that, the lack of availability of the films of ‘New Wave’ in the market is another important factor which slowly spelled death for the filmmakers and their films. It’s sad, because, even when one wants to rescue these films most negatives are either lost or destroyed or its in hands of people who are not willing to part away with them for reasons unknown.

For,deep view in the subject:

-To each his cinema.
-Wikipedia Link about Parallel Cinema.
-Indian New Wave- a potrait.
-Old vs New Parallel Cinema.
-Parallel or New Cinema in India.
-The demise of parallel cinema.
-Demise Of A Different Kind.
-Parallel Cinema not getting visibility at global festivals.

While other directors other mainstream directors usually try to be time consumer and economical by saving on cuts and indulging into unnecessary zooms and moves of the camera, it feels positive that there existed what we call Indian Parallel cinema, wherein the directors were at least trying to find their style with a sense of aesthetics .

As Andrei Tarkovsky once said, "Cinema can never be a true art form till it’s confined by the constraints of money."

3 Idiots (Based on Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone)

3 Idiots:Wikipedia and Imdb link.
A new movie is directed by Raj Kumar Hirani which is based on the novel "Five Point Someone" written by Chetan Bhagat. I hope that some decency will be maintained by Hirani in the movie, i.e.exact representation of certain scene will cause turbulence in young generation. Certainly, all of us know that this novel is best seller by Indian Standard and based on the backdrop of IIT campus. A rare place to study in student life. 4500 selected in 0.3 million of students choose between 7 IITs, ITBHU Varanasi and ISM Dhanbad. This movie will remove the myth that only studious student can make it top notch. 3 idiots are students of mechanical engineering, the worse and macho branch of all fields of engineering.

The gender ratio may be little to worry about but graduating in Mechanical Engineering was like being perpetually in a place that's a homogeneous mix of a crowded men's locker room and a sports bar that does not allow females. But we have even then one girl in our batch in 1st year.

Perfectionist Aamir Khan, cool R. Madhvan and cheeky Sharman Joshi are there for full fun of audience. I am dying to see Boman Irani as HOD, Mechanical. My only complaint is Kareena Kapoor as heroine of the film. But, you have to make lot of compromise in making bollywood film. Wase, Aamir Khan’s character in 3 Idiots is named Rancho.

Idiots will definitely have something meaningful to say, with gentle humor and zero pretension. Aamir Khan has been quoted as saying that 3 Idiots is very different from 5 Point Someone. I don’t know why, but that makes me very happy. Maybe because Bhagat’s One Night at a Call Center filmed as 'hello' bored me to death. Wase bhi student life is not all about uni-dimensional thinking about grades.

Thought of the Year:
American politics is like ITBHU Engineering.
Democrat is Computer Engineering --- full of geeks and philanders.
Republican is Mechanical---You are always looking for a scrape. No matter how much you screw up, you are proud of yourself. And of course, if there is a good-looking woman standing for election, you vote for her.

Calcutta Chromosome

I was going through all post of Calcutta Chromosome and after reading 100 posts from archives, posting some of the funniest lines here. FYI, I and that great guy has a similarity that we have degree in mechanical engineering.

1-'I hate Ekta kapoor fans' will find it interesting.

"Religion is the opium of the masses – Karl Marx.
Karl Marx did not know about Ekta Kapoor – Anonymous."

2-Manmohan Desai fans will love and hate it for same reason.

" Manmohan Desai wrote only one story in his life.
x (where x = integer greater than 1) siblings and y sets of parents (where y = integer greater than 1 but not equal to x) are separated due to evil relatives or natural calamities. They have a unique common trait in physical (locket, letter, tattoo) or metaphysical (secret, habit, song) form. They grow up (old) while coming in contact with each other at regular intervals but are unable to recognize each other. They are united after 7 songs, 4 fights and one drunken scene featuring Amitabh Bachchan.

Manmohan Desai: At least two brothers separated at birth. Three religions. Shuddering Nirupa Roy. Doddering Pran. Amitabh Bachchan. One gibberish song. One trained dog/hawk/cow/Easter egg/heroine's bodyguard. One operating theatre scene. One natural calamity (not including Kader Khan's wig). Divine intervention to cure blindness/TB/AIDS/obesity. Fourteen coincidences, each having odds of 786,000,000 to 1.
And he directed 21 films, of which at least 16 were box-office record-breakers."

3-X rated article(not for everyone.....)
I find that after 'Garv' the pride,its gay pride coming into our bollywood by Karan Johar,the fighter of lost causes.Lot of Dostana here.....
"Konkona Sensharma has already become to this what Nirupa Roy was to motherhood! She has already done in twice (Page 3, Life in a Metro) and looking good for more. With more and more films being made on a realistic gay relationship, it is only natural that the most dominant theme – closet homosexuality – will have to be depicted pretty regularly.
What will make it tiresome is the way it will be shown. In both the films mentioned above, the scene unfolds in exactly the same manner in which the hetero partner (cuckold?) arrives at the apartment of the closet-gay for a celebration (Konkona was even holding exactly the same things – a bottle of wine and flowers) and sees her lover in bed with (an)other man.
How long before a man walks on to a lesbian couple? I can bet the expression would not be the aghast look which Konkona had!"

For more post like this just wait for few days or read the blog of that guy only....

13 Movies I will see again before I die

13 is very suspected number in the common masses. Hence, I prefer to choose 13 against mainstream choice. I am great movie viewer from my childhood by watching "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" on DD but real dream of watching mainstream and foreign language gems were fulfilled in my graduation years. I had started from scratch i.e. "The Mummy" on HBO to zenith i.e. "Pather Panchali" on PC. I present here list of 13 feel good films before you.

• Golmaal
• Truman Show
• Dead Poet's Society
• Malena
• Groundhog Day
• Spirited Away
• Cinema Paradiso
• Stand by Me
• Lage Raho Munna Bhai
• Khosla ka Ghosla!
• Ferris Bueller's Day off
• The Good, the bad and the Ugly
• Kung Fu Panda ;

They are 13 movies to watch again before I die. I have already watch each of them atleast 20 times or more. They are the movies touching to the heart, not of being brain only. Films are not all about playing with light and shade and creating conflict between characters or depicting twisted and unpredictable stories. It is not bloody science but mere combination of art and technology. Technology is just medium of presenting idea but viewers/audience will always be affected by the raw emotions only. In short, I love these movies not due to technology and end result but due to their inspiring and refreshing nature. They contain unfiltered raw emotion affecting me deeply in some uncorrupted part of soul. They remind me that we are more than a speck of sand in the universe.

Regional Cinema in India

India is a large country where many languages are spoken. According to the 1991 Census of India there are about 10,400 'raw mother tongues' in India.If closely related and mutually comprehensible dialects are grouped, the number can be reduced to 114 main languages. These 114 languages are the ones surveyed in the Indian census. Indian film producers have made films in thirty of the largest languages. However, only the very largest language groups support major regional industries. These are: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Odiya & Malayalam. Official statistics categories Indian films according to the languages in which they are distributed.

Masala movies are made both in regional and Bollywood film industry. But regional films constitute of high percentage in parallel cinema. The regional cinema, obviously in majority formed the alternate cinema. Ever since the decline of regional cinema throughout the nation, and the dying out of the parallel movement, the viewers have been feed with repeated image, sound and music. Indians do not watch movies made in other part of India itself but able to watch latest flick of Hollywood. Why?

Firstly, I personally don’t think language should pose a problem but it does, not a lot of work has been done when it comes to movies. Frankly people need to get over this as subtitling as an art has really developed. Still people are irritated & afraid at the though of reading subtitles. If we can watch Japanese, Chinese and Iranian films with subtitles, we can watch home productions too. If subtitles are available there is no issue in watching good regional films. Subtitles are not easily available for any films and it’s not easy for everyone to get access to any foreign or regional films through P2P or torrent client.

Secondly, film education is nonexistent in India. If we were to educate people in films studies Bollywood masala films might just be a subject of history. I believe that a lot of good regional films are not of excellent production (technical) quality like Hollywood or Bollywood. That is also where they score less... but unless regional filmmakers find financial backing, it is very difficult for them to produce good production quality.

Lastly Media has glorified Hollywood and Bollywood. Regional films are not given so much coverage in the media slots. The marketing and distribution system is under developed. The major problem is being lack of availability not due to the fact that such movies don’t exist but because they are not marketed properly.

Indian Cinema is thriving today thanks to an audience who is hungry for films, however, our works have degraded over the years, and regional cinema and few great filmmakers are marginalized to the film festival or art house circuits. Most of us had used to watch regional films on DD on Sundays. With the advent of cable and dish culture, the regional cinema has suffered huge setback. There is no information either in the print or electronic media about regional films.

Language Barrier:
Language controversy has nothing to do with the topic which is primarily a problem of socio-economic & cultural conditioning in which media is responsible to a great extent. Regardless of the language, a film is a film and must be regarded as a work of art. Some films are language less, soundless but are classics. The point is only this that statistics cannot determine quality of a film and regardless of how many people speak a language, a language is a means of communication and nobody can decide on a superior and inferior language.

A good movie is a good movie whether it’s being made in Hindi or Tamil or other foreign languages. But many talented directors like Hriskesh mukherjee, Basu chatterjee, Shyam benegal made many films in Hindi the reason being that it reaches over to larger audience. Many good directors make movies in Hindi or English irrespective of their mother tongues. Even legendary Satyajit ray made a film 'satranj ke khiladi' in Hindi.

I am saying Hindi is just like any other language and is grammatically similar to all devnagiri languages. The point here being that when someone puts his efforts in making a film it’s quite logical he expects it to reach more audience. I'm not getting into this language debate.Back to movies!!!

Obsession with Bollywood/Hollywood(Studied from above Link)
"Our bureaucracy and the ruling class (irrespective of political affiliations) are mesmerized by the glamor and dazzle of Bollywood, quite ignorant of the fact that it is the strength regional cinema primarily that the true picture /reality our vast country is reflected or represented. No doubt I.F.F.I. was shifted from New Delhi to Goa to create a carnival atmosphere on the lines of Cannes film festival oblivion of the fact that evolution, nature & utility of the two are entirely different. Besides after 200 years of domination by the Anglo-Saxons culture we still in our subconscious mind feel whatever comes from foreign/ Hollywood is superior(though technologically they are, yet cinema is not only about technology). "

Even Satyajit Ray’s "Pather Panchali" was appreciated only after it got recognition from abroad. A new and independent thinking pattern is needed with clever marketing strategy for upheavel of regional films.There is huge growth in overseas market of indian films. It provides basic investment needed for people working in regional film industry to move to other regions. Now, the good point is mobility and exchange of technical crews and artist with different regional background. There is a great deal of mobility between the regional industries. Many workers in other regional industries, once their talent and popularity is established, move on to work in other film industries, nationally as well as internationally.

In end, simply it’s just that not a lot of smart people have invested themselves in this marketing and commercial aspect of film industry.

Quotes for Cinema

Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world..
All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl..
Photography is truth. Cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.
--Jean-Luc Godard

One man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential that one man make a film.
--Stanley Kubrick

Superheroes of Indian Films

Rajnikant, Mithun Chakraborthy, Mohanlal, Mammoty, Kamal Hassan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan & Chiranjeevi are the prominent superstars of Indian film industry.

First two names are the phenomenon in Indian film industry. They are not even stars of Indian movie industry. Rest of all names in the list is of superstars. But anyone do have clue over superstar and phenomenon. Phenomenon has cast charm over the people without any acting. They are worshiped by the people due to their iconic presence and style on the screen.

Most of the people do not have clue that ‘Mithun da’ has won national award for his acting in prestigious art film 'Mrigayaa'. Now, the commercial movies have made brand image of ‘Mithun da’. Masses know him for his hit films like Disco Dancer, Boxer and Dalal. Most of young people feel his presence in epic roles in Gunda, Loha, Cheetah & Ravanraj. He is virtually style icon of youths coming from down trodden society in north India from past 25 years. For die hard fans of mithun da, read this website.

‘Rajnikant’ is name of living style to each filmi geek of India. His special technique of igniting cigarette becomes a fashion in his fans. Now, cigarettes are changed by Chewing gums due to dangerous following of successors in public smoking. He is second highest paid actor after Jackie Chan in Asia. He is living legend in every sense.

From past 30 years, both of them are ruling the hearts of Indian people. They have got exclusively fan club and temples dedicated to them. The fight scenes in their movies can make envious to comic super heroes. Law of nature (even gravity) cannot bind their action sequence. Their external beauty and style has attracted heroines from last 3 generation. Also, their action scenes are synchronized with each other in different movies. They are the binding forces of north and south India. Least exaggeration sentence: They are pole stars (2 in same constellation) of great India reel life…………

I was looking for the reason of the rise of these phenomenons. ‘Mithun da’ hails from Bengal and ‘Rajnikant’ start off his career in Tamil movie industry. Tamil and Bengali societies are one of the leading societies in term of reformation with English education. People with western way of thinking forms a small but influential intellectual part in the society. There is no entertainment for common masses. These two rise on such occasion and becomes the role models by their screen roles of rebel hero. They stand against the local mafia, corrupt policemen, greedy merchant and shrewd politician. The violence and struggle life of ‘mean streets’ match the attitude of ‘Rambo’ in the background. They rise as a voice of family, community and society in reel life.

These two mortal gods have been face of India mostly go unnoticed or undisclosed in intellectual society.They are role models for masses. Despite of all these nonsense stuff, just do not forget about real heroes of children: Krish or Mr. India (Big Screen) and Shaktimaan (T.V. Screen)………………………………

Movies for Teachers

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward

Teacher inspires you to think for yourself. He is friend, philosopher and guide for learning minds. Teachers sometimes need to be reminded about why they teach in the first place. Teachers face stiff test from student in the depth of their knowledge. Shallow people hide in the veils of seriousness while sincere one rules the heart of student.

There are movies which transform your attitude for teaching profession. However, there is a career lesson in films. It doesn't lie in the film, though through viewing. The lesson is: Look beyond MBA, Engineering, Medical and Journalism. Any career you choose today, you can make a difference.

Many movies depict determined teachers using innovative teaching tactics according to need of student. They break the continuum of boring lectures into interactive sessions. One of the best known innovators is Anne Sullivan who persisted in teaching Helen Keller in the movie 'The Miracle Worker'. Anne Sullivan had high expectations for Helen Keller and helped her realize her incredible potential. Film 'Black' is scene by scene lifted from this movie. One fun way for teachers and students to recharge is to watch movies about the real or reel life stories of inspiring teachers.

This is the list of top quality cinema for inspiration to young minds:

• Dead Poet’s Society
• Good will Hunting
• Mona Lisa Smile
• Entre les murs
• Freedom Writers
• To Sir with Love
• Ron Clark Story
• Finding Forrester
• Ciao, Professore!
• Half Nelson
• Breakfast Club
• Dangerous Minds
• October Sky
• Taare Zameen Par
• Jagriti
• Sparsh
• Rockford
• The Miracle Worker
• Conrack
• Stand and Deliver
•The Emperor's Club
•Lean on Me
•Merry Andrews
•Educating Rita
•Mr. Holland's Opus
•Blackboard Jungle
•Good Morning, Miss Dove
•Born Yesterday
•Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Individual success will not be attained by migrating to a particular 'hot' industry, or by securing government jobs. Instead, Teacher inspire the students to realize on two questions: who they really are and work that they truly love. A teacher motivates students to build a new success path for themselves. Result of efforts of teacher will be distinct individuals unleashing a productive and innovative power in their field.

Plagiarism in Bollywood-2

Courtsey:This information is provided by Srikant Verma of Mech08 Batch.

In this song, neither the voice is stolen or copied, nor the lyrics. So the lyricist and singer are not to be blamed. But since the music is copied, the composer needs to be held responsible.
In this case, it is Pritam.

Plagiarism in Bollywood

I Love Cinema.
I Hate Copying.
Hence,Bollywood is mine target.

I will remind all of you from where word "Bollywood" comes.
It originates from this equation- {Bombay+Hollywood=Bollywood}.
Our Bollywood truly works on this equation.Take a movie from Hollywood and carbon copy it in Bombay(now Mumbai).

Bollywood represent India everywhere in world due to its huge market base.Those who know about cinema will be critical of these lines.I am also critical of it but it is brutal truth.Bollywood is not the face of Indian Cinema but merely an ugly part.Practically,it is quoted as an film industry because it produces 600-800 films per year.Ideally,99% films are foreign films wrapped in Indian format for recreation of viewers.Only 1% films are original or adapted.Rest of all copied from Hollywood,Tollywood or Korean Cinema.
We,Indian Viewers do not either feel shame or anger on our films due to our ignorance.Most of our commercial movies are copycat of Hollywood blockbusters.Bollywood do not even pick any rare known movie for copying.Xerox copy of hit movies are made without any fear of copyrights.Scene by scene copying is the trademark of our movies.If censor board does not exist,then even sex,love and violent scenes can be copied without any concern for Indian viewers.
Music is also picked from English albums for soundtracks,but its Bollywood.Nothing is impossible here.On questioning men involved in it,a simple line is answer.Original movie is just n Inspiration,nothing else.Everything can be justified on the basis of it.
I will now categorize Bollywood Movies in 3 parts.Each part have its own distinctive features.

1-Inspiration:
These are genuine movies inspired from another movies.These movies acknowledge their recreation of old movie in new way.Sarkar attributes its inspiration from classic Godfather1 and Godfather2.Inspired director and producer either remake the old films or uses its theme material.Creative directors like Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee often used theme material of English classic to make films with social message.I cannot even remember the name of such movies. If you remember it ,then acknowledge me in comments column.

2-Adaptation:
Adaption word is used by me where our movie is based on material previously published or produced in another medium.Like literature and theater are two primary sources of adapted movies.Novels,short stories and even poems provide enough material to make a loose script for a movie.Theater is the source of parallel cinema in Indian Cinema.It is the base of all good aristic movies.Irony of Bollywood is that it demands for star rather than an actor.Filmmaker like Shyam Benegal,Vishal Bhardwaj & Gulzar had taken literature and theater as working ground for their few masterpieces.

3-Ditto Copy:
Plenty of material is beside me to write about junk.This junk is like pile of garbage so nuisance beyond our capacity to neglect it.Again and again,same trend of putting a superb plot of Hollywood movie in ours cinema through Bollywood.
According to Screenwriter-director Anurag Kashyap "Our screenwriters have always been taken for granted, I have so many original scripts no producer wants to touch. They prefer to play safe, making remakes of Hollywood hits. Hopefully, this case will force Indian producers to buy the rights of films and books before copying them."
List of the movie is endless.Whole Bollywood is full of moneylenders and mafia,no artist is there.There is a website devoted to acknowledge original source code of a Bollywood movies.
Before watching any annoying Bollywood,just check its originality from here.This is the link of the website.

I will pen down the name of these movies in my next posting,Till then ,any comment and suggestion are welcome.

7th Sem Ended with Russian Connection

End of the semester exam was not celebrated with huge loud and cry. Only mouth fouled language was used to discuss about academics and life. It was a great day for me as in cricket Wasim Jaffer cracked a rocking century against Pakistan. Then, I started watching films with Russian cultural background. It was not due to 'Look East' policy of India but due to mention of such films at my favorite internet site Imdb.

Eastern Promises (2007):
It is drama and thriller feature film directed by David Cronerberg.The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is in danger when he crosses paths with Anna, an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Courtesy -IMDB

Nochnoy dozor (2004):
Night Watch is a Russian fantasy action thriller film, made in 2004 by the Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on The Night Watch.
Courtesy Wikipedia

Dnevnoy dozor (2006)
Day Watch is a Russian fantasy action blockbuster and sequel of Night Watch. It is based on the second and the third part of Sergey Lukyanenko's novel The Night Watch rather than its follow-up novel Day Watch.
Courtesy Wikipedia

I am mentioning these movies in blog because latter two stunned me with the visual graphics and stunning action. American movies has over utilized the concept of vampires and dark side. This was a good change and shows the great imagination of the Russian counterparts.

Eastern Promises was made by Canadian director but with a good search on Russian background. It was one of few movie which shows why not what and when. In the end, the day was over at 1 December at 2 am.