Ten Issues - 1

The first step in solving any issue is accepting the presence of the problem. A man convinced against will is of the same opinion still. So let us broadened our opinions about issues here -

1- Before the home ministry raises new paramilitary battalions, it needs to ask why the old ones are quitting in droves. raman kirpal reports on a brewing crisis : Soldiers of Misfortune .

2- Taking offense an be a competitive sport. Islam is forefront runner in this game : Not Even in South Park?

3- Opposition to reservations for women in Parliament have centred on at least four points. Step by step Vaijayanti Gupta rebuts the arguments and re-iterates the case for reservations. Women’s reservation Bill – the 2010 story .

4- Need tribal voices for their rights to counter corporate propagandist nationalism. The Fall Out Of Dantewada By Vidya Bhushan Rawat.

5- David Mumford reviews Kim Plofker's Mathematics in India ;

6- In this interesting paper [PDF], Lant Pritchett argues that India, despite its economic strides and democracy, is a "flailing" state:

7- Micro-foundations of Inclusive Growth [PDF]: The aim of this chapter is to go beyond these short-term and sector-specific concerns to broader questions of policy making in India and, at the same time, to focus on the relatively neglected subject of the micro-foundations of macroeconomic policy.

8- Remedial Education : Research by J-PAL affiliates has shown that providing remedial tutoring for children who have fallen behind academically can improve learning outcomes. Evidence from their study has contributed to the scale-up of NGO Pratham's Read India program in 19 states in India. In 2008-09, 33 million children benefited from remedial education through the Read India program.

9- Dropout engineering a hundred orphan dreams. Society needs person like Rajesh Singh as their role model. Thanks Vivek Padmanabham for the weblink.

10- Selections from Dalit Writing ; Let me close 10th section with an old Indian tale which maybe has some insights. A father used to read his child bedtime stories. One day the child asked the father, ‘Dad, how come in all the stories you read, the hunter always bags the tiger.’ The father thought for a moment and replied, ‘When the tiger learns to write you will hear that story.’

Thought of the Day: Conversations have three levels : people, incidents and ideas. The lowest form of conversation is about people. When we go up one rung we reach incidents which have a slightly larger spectrum than talking about people. But the conversation which really matters is when we talk about ideas, because they are universal and live beyond time and space. - Javed Akhtar

Something about Indian economy

There is huge learning resource by PBS here in this weblink. PBS is sharing with us the interview, profiles, essay and debates of great economists, leaders and entrepreneurs of recent 100 years. Commanding Heights. Few of them are 3,4 years old but are worth reading Interviews :Dr. Manmohan Singh , P. Chidambaram and NarayanMurthy.

Featuring India's Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Kapil Sibal on MIT.


This video is part of the B&K Securities MIT India Forum with featured speaker: Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission.


Crash Lecture on Indian Economy 1947- 2010:

Post 1947, Institutional capacities were created. The social institutions and the legal framework for a market economy were put in place. A system of higher education was developed. Entrepreneurial talents and managerial capabilities were fostered. Science and technology was accorded a priority. The capital goods sector was established. Much of this did not exist in colonial India. They all were started from the scratch with weightage given to huge public sector investment.

Then reform is several sectors were stopped completely. The social sector,i.e. Healthcare and primary education was given very low priority in developmental growth. Our independent India was against anything foreign. Its march to self dependency hindered free flow of information and capital flow in the development of nation. But protective economy was the need of those moment. There was need to move ahead and Dr. Manmohan singh predicted it long back in his days at England. Now its time to swing back to socialist reign to capitalsitic nature.

Indian Bureaucracy:

We've all heard, "It's not what you know, it's who you know.

British invented bureaucracy for India, the Indians perfected it. They built a perfect system of such complexity that nobody could penetrate it,nobody could defeat it. It is immensely elaborate and best brain of India working it. Today, RTI is slowly uncovering the hidden veils and making it more transparent. Still accountability part is far from the dream. The Right to Information Act can be regarded as an aberration in view of the government's longstanding penchant for secrecy, which is a colonial-era legacy. IT sector and bollywood succeed because government did not make it as a national priority. It was just investment of smart people in these respective fields. BCCI working very well unlike other sports bodies. Private Sector has mobilized the youths and enable them to be risk taking.

Bureaucracy liked things to be frozen. That showed their power. Hence, you will find government offices to be always either ruled by the books or moulded in favour of corrupt and powerful. As the social, economic or political events become dynamic, the wheel of power shifts to other person. Hence, the static rule of bureaucracy disappear.

Vichaar Shoonya +3

A lot has been said, but not by me. I give weblinks of few articles in 'Vichaar Shoonya' because its just that their voices are not in all the noise that gets heard.

1- The disgraceful Armed Forces Special Powers Act allows the army the right to, among other things, shoot to kill based on mere suspicion that it is necessary to do so in order to "maintain the public order". For more details please read this article. This law is applicable in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Interestingly the residents of these states don't find it exciting to sacrifice their fundamental rights for the rest of us. I see their point.

2- The Ready-made Garment Industry: Global Chain Of Imperialist Exploitation : A revolt of ready-made garment workers have broken out in the last two years in different so-called ‘developing’ countries. A report by Debabrata Mondal.

3- Anjumans deprive Muslim women of microcredit by S A Aiyar, Economist.

4- How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws by William K. Black, Univ. of Missouri: What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector's current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.

5- ‘India is prospering, but Indians are not’ by Mani Shankar Aiyar : The same people who are brushing under the carpet that our relative position on the HDI has not increased are the very same people who are boasting again in comparative terms that ours is the second highest rate of growth. So, obviously, the high GDP growth is not translating itself into commensurate high HDI growth, with the consequence India is prospering, but Indians are not.

6- 'Indian democracy in a state of emergency' : Arundhati roy talking to Karan Thapar

7- Business Of Knowledge- Article on Higer Education.

8- Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia. --- Journal from Computational Biology.

9- Lessons for life, in black and white. - On power of books.

Unoriginal Vichaar

When I read the stories of Deep joshi, Venkat Krishnan, Sandeep Pandey & Kiran bedi, it helped me realise that these were ordinary guys who fell in love with something, worked hard at it and came through excellently. I hope that someday I will do something on my own merit, and earn the right to meet them. Till then, learning is the way to go.

Death of Nationalism: CPM is known to have extreme intolerance to any struggle that is not led by them. They will label those struggles as foreign funded or a Maoist uprising, how much public support behind the struggle becomes irrelevant to them. Congress is the mother of all regional parties in nepotism. There are only kripa-patras (sychophants) and chamchas (yes-men) left in the so-called socialist and regional outfit. 'Elections are fought to win and not to lose' , a nepotism supporter proclaim. 'But what of socialism? The lumpen brigade of socialist parties cannot be trusted to usher in socialism. Patriotism is the love to your country, not the refuge of scoundrels like BJP. Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost it militancy and would no longer find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrability of its outlook. Its the era of transcendentalism by eliminating boundaries of region, religion, color and caste. I dream that a new spirit of oneness will take hold of India.

Message: While awaiting for joining at CSC, Abhishek Arora sent me a sms one day. And It is the best SMS ever received by me---
Hum kuch iss tarah dosti nibhaenge, naukari na mili to bilkul nahi ghabrayenge
dono stationpar chai ki dukan lageynge, tum chai banana, hum chai chai chillayenge.

Mail: This one is from my mailbox (sender name kept secret) about youth icon Sania Mirza (no disrespect, but she is too hot)---
Kashti toofan se nikal sakti hai, Taqdeer kisi bhi waqt bhi badal sakti hai,
Hausla rakh, channel na badal, Sania Mirza kisi bhi waqt jhuk sakti hai...... 


Weblinks:

1- Blogs cannot change India: Atanu Dey

2- Interview of Lord Meghnad Desai

3- Capitalism and Humans Nature

4-Why Operation Green Hunt will fail ?

Today's fortune: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Otherwise, Those who forget history are condemned to relive it.

Mera Bharat Mahaan

Frederick Douglass had written over a century ago. “Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them … . The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Naxal problem is making up a civil war like situation in India. And we are talking the losses in the terms of loss of life in encounters. The big picture is going beyond our imagination and tales of exploitation of dalits, labours and adivasis is echoing the real India.

Shoma Chaudhary examines the tricky and dangerous terrain of Operation Green Hunt, the offensive against Naxals, might blow up in our faces: "Dalits and adivasis comprise a staggering one fourth of India’s population, yet are disproportionately destitute and low on the Human Development Index scale. Worse, they suffer the most humiliation and indignity: the proverbial insult on injury. Our country represents a show where 77 percent of Indians live on less than Rs 20 a day while 5 percent enjoy lives that border on obscene excess. For most urban Indians, the lives of tribals and dalits has no meaning, no face, no flesh. Our books no longer write of it, our films no longer evoke it, our journalists no longer cover it. It’s not just the poverty; it’s bumping into a face of the Indian State you have never seen before: brutal, illegal, rapine, pimped out to serve the interests of a few. "

Study CPI Maoist booklet on Salwa Judam Movement for understanding the root cause of the movement termed as Naxalism. Still want to know about hidden reality of Salwa Judum movement, for the seekers of truth: The Inconvenient Truth -- the real face of Corporate governance. And below written is my naive idea about our 'Swades' with little reasons and more emotions.

The struggle for social justice is against those that produce resentful domination in power distribution in society. Sociopolitical change is best when organic—rising from the bottom rather than imposed from the top—the odds of assimilation improve dramatically. Populations that are better informed and better connected to opportunities, in societies where information and access are widespread tend to marginalized between few people. India has low social mobility, and say that in villages in two Indian states where 300 children had graduated from high school, only four had found well-paying, white-collar jobs. Advancing information and enabling access are as much a critical part of enhancing development success. The sacrifice of human beings on the altar of abstractions or the subordination of the realities of individual happiness or unhappiness in the present to glorious dreams of the future has stopped us from achieving our dream of just and liberal society.

History and journalism is the inquiry through medium of story telling of past and present respectively. Journalists living and reporting from the grassroots are more vulnerable than those based in the cities. Things are pretty savage at the grassroots level and the fear of police and the vested interests is quite high, a fact quite neglected by armchair journalism by news channels in India. Journalists who investigate and uncover the truth take enormous personal risks – This is precisely why local journalists need greater support and protection to continue their good work.

The chaos in the society is always caused by group of persons who had hardly travelled, and relied for information on policy documents and the reports of media personalities sitting interviewing elite or middle-class contacts in big cities. Hence, their narrow idea of the world never captures the whole scenario. Despite the Internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute of foot soldier work needed for journalism. The medium of Internet is used for distribution of information but there is always need of 'primary' who can record the voices of dissent or support of each person of the society. India today is diseased with propagandist journalism. Corroded with corruption, the death of idealism, communalism and deep casteist divisions which has resulted in a steady degeneration...

The young generation of seventy's inhabited a Nehruvian world. After a few wars and riots, India was witnessing a decline of idealism, there was disillusionment with socialism. Baba Amte, J.P. ,Vinoba Bhave and others are now gone in the past. Their followers like Shyam Benegal, Vijay Tendulkar, P Sainath, APJ Kalam and Mahasweta devi are on the verge of last years of their lives. I am looking into the empty space where there are no heroes or protectors to idealize life for. The youth icons are now Shahrukh or Sania. Its not the insult of star actor or player but showcasing of their dwarfness in comparison to previous set of role models. Practical mentality how good can be, have never been as inspiring as idealistic personalities.

An escapist culture of consumerism is fast replacing the tradition of mass struggle and writers, cinema and media is obsessed with the loves and lives of the urban middle-class. There is a loss of ideology in the wake up call of globalisation and India Shining. Handful of people are there working for the people but the sense of closeness among community is dissolving with time. The distances has reduced but the alienation among people is spreading. The rise of individualism with the fall of social values is changing the scenario. The feudal mentality, caste superiority feeling and religious divisions are coming to surfaces from the deeply rooted consciousness of new generation. The 'dalits' are searching for new myths and symbols for reworking of community histories and mythology. This ecstasy of rising and shining India should be shown the face of ground realities of India. And this need lot of work at ground level by media and citizen journalists. For, to quote from Mahasweta Devi's essay The Seventies and After: "These are bad times, these are the times to work. "

Yeh hai mera India

Why people in India die for the government service?

I got the indirect answer of not only this question but few more by an article by Gurcharan Das. It explains our mindset and employment of large amount of workers in unorganised sector.

"India's labour laws protect jobs, not workers. They assume that a job is for a lifetime, and do not allow employers flexibility to lay off workers in a downturn. Thus, Indian companies avoid hiring permanent employees, and 90 per cent of India's workers have ended up in the informal sector without any benefits or safety net. This is one of the reasons that the manufacturing sector has not become an engine of mass employment in India."

One more worth reading page about India's tryst with corruption is available for readers. Your concern and opinions are welcome.

DYSTOPIA

NYTimes journalist, Anand Giridhardas once asked Mufti Shabbir Alam Sidiqi, an important Islamic cleric, whether disenfranchised Muslims were losing faith in India and taking solace in fundamentalist ideas.

“What you have in India you have in no other country,” he replied. “In this republic there are rights. We can demand our rights, speak out. In other countries: eat, drink and shut up. Go to Saudi Arabia: you can’t speak. There is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, Iraq, Iran. These things are nowhere. They are all dictatorships.”

Indian democracy should not work. Democracy brings little to the poor, the state is corrupt, politicians lack principles and ideas. Yet we as citizen with no reason to hope continue to believe, vote, speak, petition for better India.

One fine day, to understand life of people practicing Wahhabi Islam and searching about censorship on blog in Middle East, I came across this blog: The Religious Policeman.

It states on its first page: In Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.

That shivered me deep inside and I dig the digital archives for complete archaeological survey. The blogger has been commenting on Saudi Arabia, off and on, for two years. I have read it completely now and the whole trauma of horrifying real life stories is not going way. Power, Politics, Money and Religion have clubbed together for violation of each good emotions, humanity stands for. It has confirm my worst fears that we humans are living in dystopian society. Here is living example of George Orwell's "1984" in this world. A concrete jungle made on petro dollars..

And then I just cherish in vanity that I have taken birth in India. How lucky I am to have freedom and human rights.......

Independence Day

A collection of songs for provoking emotion of nationalism in this numb mind.

Hum Hindustani


Hum Honge Kamyaab


Aye Mere Watan ke


Aye Watan Aye Watan


Sarfaroshi ki Tamana


Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage. Loving my country gives me courage to change it for better tomorrow and alter yesterday's mistake. Despite many intellectuals think 15th August,1947 as change of government, I prefer to stick to mine opinion. All those who sacrificed blood and life for this country were not fools and they deserve respect from our side. And there is also no use of silent gratitude for all martyrs. They deserve more than these patritoc songs, they deserve more...

I know that hundred years of rule did not just colonize the land but it also colonized the body, mind, thought and culture of the conquered people. Independence to the Indian people was supposed to have come over 62 years ago but we are not free because of the brown sahibs surrender and denial of their self esteem and their dominance in politics, media and public discourse.

Still, want to read more. Stop and just think on this line -- "What do they know about India, who only know about India !!!"

No rain drop blames itself for the flood

JRD Tata had once observed “I don’t want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country.”

Currently, there is the alienation of students from the ground realities of India. In the race to become technologically advanced, we have given no attention to social science and the rural sector. See, everyone knows and has seen the fact that if the rich sell a gun, the poor use it to destroy them. As long as the idea of 'potential resource' is equated to power and control, development will always be about money. Never about people or real social development perhaps. Deep Joshi, Magsaysay prize winner in 2009 points out the fact that "Development work is considered intellectually inferior, unlike high science, industry or diplomacy. We want to prove that it is both a challenging and a noble choice."

The lack of social scientists is hurting the growth of India. There is a lack of serious study of economics and social science in India. Read Fractured Social Sciences for a detailed view.

There is a huge lack of awareness among youths about our own country. I once commented in desperation " When youth do not associate their identity with the social and cultural fabric of their country, nothing is going to change. People from UP do not know about Vijay Tendulkar and people from Tamilnadu do not know about Amrita Preetam. A whole English medium-oriented generation has no idea of the ‘Samporan Kranti’ movement by Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. They will die to see MTV Roadies or Splitsvilla but do not have heard names of Carnatic or Hindustani classic music."

The whole system has failed to equip students with either reasoning, language, or logic skills, this is the effect of putting a premium on mediocrity over the last 60 years. Indians have fallen in love with selectivity. Everyone loves rejecting everyone else. Infosys selects 1% (link), jobs paying 100 rupees a month claim 5% selectivity (link), police jobs claim less than 1% selectivity (link), and becoming a police constable in Bihar implies you belong to the top 0.7% out of 130000 applicants (link) and the list goes on. Unfortunately, no one asks what the standards of our top institutions are.

Technical growth was the main area of progress along with learning English as a medium of communication. We are ahead in the service sector more due to our efficiency with English rather than technical super skills. What we are waiting for is, for the whole of Africa to learn English and adapt to technology. Then these MNCs will switch their production and services to Africa and the third world for the search of cheap labour and we will become a leading developing country with 100 million consumers and a very tiny contribution to world trade. Our country has turned into a dustbin of MNCs as a country of mass consumption rather than mass production. This growth will not long last if we don't invest this wealth in the production/ manufacturing sector. For example: We need to create tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Adobe from the generated money through the IT industry.

There is a great paradox of what economist A.K. Shivakumar points out the children of the rich go to public universities and children of the poor go to private money-squeezing institutes. These second-rate institutes turn out second-rate students, condemning the peripheral to further periphery. The lack of scholars from our universities is stagnating our chance to grow as a developed nation. A blogger correctly pointed out the fact that:

In the humanities, we need a William Dalrymple to teach us about the history of the Deccan, or Delhi. There are many economic and social factors involved in this sad state of affairs, but one of the most prominent of these factors is the utter lack of a vibrant university system fostering unfettered interaction and exchange of ideas among people of widely disparate interests and expertise. All this affects another important part of the higher education system of the country – Graduate School. We are creating more PhDs than any other country in the world with the possible exception of China, but are our PhDs really worth the title of “Doctor of Philosophy”? I am not sure. Are our research institutes producing loads of doctorates who are nothing but highly trained technicians or are we producing leaders and thinkers who can cross boundaries of discipline and think creatively?

Another blogger makes an analytical study on social sciences in this worth-reading article. One paragraph on the liberal arts education is worth excerpting here:

Regarding education in the liberal arts, you have to admit there is a certain class element to those who choose to/can pursue serious study in its various fields. For example, someone who is a first-generation college student, i.e. first in his/her family to pursue education beyond high school, would much rather choose a ’safe’ field such as engineering or medicine or aim at clearing the IAS exam, simply because it makes the most economic sense to do so. I would even go so far as to argue that for a country to have a vibrant intellectual environment in the liberal arts, a substantial middle class is a pre-requisite; the liberal arts being a more likely choice of perhaps the 2nd or the 3rd generation college student. Now whether the second or the third generation born in India post the 1991 reforms demands better avenues for education in the liberal arts remains to be seen.

India is and has been a banana republic where organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy. Our populace never felt to be really democratic; it is dishonest, corrupt, and opportunistic. The middle class has degraded to rank money making without ethics, businessmen profit without quality, and at our basic nature in the country, we are becoming aware of rights but unaware of duties. It has eventually led to politicians and bureaucrats who are liars and hypocrites with additional power-hungry nature. The increasing disparities between the rural and urban sector is creating a big vacuum in the development model. The irony is that nobody bothers about the poor anymore or needs a real change. The most basic need is urgent and inexpensive medical care. There are teachers in private schools who don't get even 4,000 a month. And so many other people working in hundreds of other unorganized sectors. A serious illness or an operation in a family is enough to give them a financial jolt for several years. As the vocal middle class has abandoned places like government hospitals and schools, nobody takes up these issues as newspapers and mass media only listen to this class of the software techie, the BPO guy, a businessman, or an IIM graduate. It is this particular section of the urban class, which constitutes less than 5% of the population, that gets disproportionate coverage. Job shredding at the airlines becomes a bigger issue than the mass suicide of farmers in our country.

We as youth are the tools of change. We have to raise voices for our countrymen who are fighting for their survival daily without any representation. And I don’t want to be a product of an environment where only no. of zeroes of your salary will reflect your potential & prestige in relatives and society. The environment of society should be balanced by giving empowerment to women and removing caste discrimination. Dalit, farmers, and women's social empowerment embedded with democratic values can only guide India towards integrated development. How India uses health care, consumes energy, and educates the next generation, the future will be determined. No raindrop blames itself for the flood, we as citizens are that rain drop...

Salaam IPL or Salwa Judum

Two News affected me in this 24 hour.Just want to capture the big news in summary and small news in descriptive way. Feel free to read and choose importance of them.

Deccan snatch title in tense finish.

My views: The fortunes have reversed. Desi team and videsi captain strategy works for winning this year also. Previous year 2nd last team is runner up and 1st season's last team gets championship of IPL season 2. Akon with Katrina instead of Gilly and jumbo after the match disappoint me. But the most discussed name among all of us was of fake IPL player blog. He has showed the power of blog and anonymity to the media giants in gossip/news coverage. For fun, surely KKR will be hoping to win tournament next year after this turnaround of DC. For more usual stuff, follow the grand story coverage on cricinfo.

OR

Supreme Court grants bail to Binayak Sen:

It took just 30 seconds. And five words: “Bail is granted on personal bond.” But these numbers pale when confronted with another, 24 — the number of months for which Binayak Sen was in jail, before the Supreme Court granted him bail on Monday. The initial charges against Sen were weak and prime witnesses turned hostile during the trial. Yet Binayak Sen remained in jail for over two years. Even convicted criminals got bail faster. Curious about Dr Binayek Sen, know about his identity on wikipedia only.
From the rediff reporting 3 paragraphs:

"The Binayak Sen case is primarily about the rotten state of affairs in the rural hinterland. It's about higher poverty levels; shortage of food and lack of nutritional planning for the chronically undernourished; it's about missing healthcare; lack of protection for the vulnerable; it's about rampant exploitation of the forest dweller and tribal peoples. The districts where Maoists or Naxalites [Images] are active, and it's true of not just Chhattisgarh, as we all know have the worst social infrastructure, and thus offer the best breeding ground for extremism and violent conflict.

The case is also about one vision of development colliding with another that is backed by the might of the state. Bastar and adjoining districts of Chhattisgarh are home to the highest concentration of mineral rich deposits in the country and is one of the reasons why these areas have become high-intensity conflict zones. Is resistance to land acquisition by industrialists a major contributory factor to the violence in the state? Few are aware of the extent of the problem in Chhattisgarh. Thousands of tribal people have been uprooted from their forest habitations -- close to 650 villages in the forest areas are reported to have been cleared in an operation reminiscent of the ways wars were fought in Southeast Asia -- and have been housed for the past five years in refugee camps that are run by trigger-happy and lawless elements who are supposed to be fighting the Maoists.

If this is how democratic states function surely we need a reform of India's democracy? But these and related issues are seldom raised in the general clamour for reforms that have picked up in crescendo post the election verdict. One and all, media pundits who have been setting the reform agenda for the new government are screaming for reforms that are focused exclusively -- and predictably -- on financial sector liberalisation."

Still want to know about hidden reality of Salwa Judum movement, for the seekers of truth: The Inconvenient Truth -- the real face of Corporate governance.

Talk about Films

Statutory warning: This post is not for cinephiles. Read on your own behalf and brain storming in comments is not needed. After dedicating many years of life in watching cinema from bhojpuri to french lingua, I have made futile attempt for penning about typical films in punch lines.

Genrealization of commercial film texture from the World Cinema:

a Korean film: Mostly romantic, where humiliation and love always seem to share a symbiotic relationship.

a French film: Mostly Thriller, where very tight bound script with dynamic camera involves you till end with sensitive sex scenes.

an American (Hollywood) film: Mostly sci fic/action ,where hyper specialized persons working in a team to fight alien problem to save humanity with loads of ammunition.Horror films need special mention as Blood flows like water with scattered body pieces and sex part is quite wild & erotic in them.

an Italian film: Mostly memoirs which revolve around a character with nostalgic music filling the environment.

a Spanish film: Presence of homosexuals/surrealism almost guaranteed with strong female characters.

a British film: Depicting highly elite or common man lifestyle with a unique sense of humor or based on Shakespearean plot.

a Japanese film: Samurai stuff with characters having extreme pride with death integral part of the movie.

a German film: World war,Holocaust and Berlin wall. Nothing more ,nothing less.

a Chinese film: Hero skilled in Martial art at shaolin temple taking revenge on villain who had killed his master in past.

a Middle East film: They alienate or exile every good film maker in the name of Islam.

a Russian film: Every genre is touched to promote communist propaganda.Hell for free thinking artist.

an Indian (Bollywood) film: Zenith of emotional Drama and item dance with illogical adaption of plagiarized Hollywood script. Social message is must with honest gareeb lover fighting with corruption and mafia in the adrenaline charged jingoistic movie.

Ok, Enough of my talk about films. Let us now discover India. Do you know about India?
If you say yes,then surf other websites. If no, then you are welcome here to remove your ignorance. Read the conspiracy theory/urban legends about India written by genius bong : Urban Legends and Not Growing up - Part 1 & Part 2.

Dark side of India

Indians are stricken by the disease of cynicism and negative thinking. They are all more materialistic, less idealistic, and even termed as prudent and practical. Lack of independent thinking and risk taking tendency has doomed us to the slave of western thinking till now. The colonial rule and dominance of one party over has produced more followers than leaders.

The lack of social entrepreneurs is more gray issue than any financial problem. Engineers can build the physical infrastructure of a nation, but someone needs to build and develop the institutions that nurture democracy. The government does not promote free thinking and scholarship in the social sciences. The present political structure is based on ignorance and irrational thinking.Even within a university environment, saying social or political things may be rife with problems from fellow students or administration.

All this talk is given in the seductive influence of Gulaal. Gulaal is a flawed masterpiece. I like the movie because of its connection with youths and university politics. The first half is an introduction of characters but second half is just manipulation of scenes together. I don't want to enrage the readers with synopsis of plot. But after Haasil, a movie has come depicting university politics in limelight with honesty. The depiction of caste system, university environment and puppet politics is beautifully presented here.

The unusual point about the movie:Films contains references of US war of Afghanistan, Iraq and 9/11 , Cynical comments of Indian Democracy are made by some characters & Piyush Mishra wears a locket of John Lennon. The soundtrack and lyrics are refreshingly good and flows smoothly as the movie progress. The lyrics remind me of Hindi poetry still unheard by majority of Hindi speaking people.

The movie content is good and directly associated with Hindi heartland of India. The cinema halls will remain empty and people from metro cities will not be able to associate with characters, hence a wide margin of revenue will cut off. Leave trade analyst and critics alone. Watch the movie for sheer performance of KK and superb performance of Abhimanyu Singh (do not panic, he is not a star kid)...

I have read atleast 10-15 reviews of the movie but the most balanced one is here. There is positive and good face of India but this experience was like discovering dark side of the moon. Celebrate the democracy with courtier culture and dynasticism. The talk of loyalty and nihilism in one same place is revolt to the Indian tradition, but independent thinking is budding in young Indian minds.

Rebel Wave of Cinema

I do not know about mainstream but welcome all ortho-para-meta dox way of making good film. I wander into middle path cinema like most Indians. I love partially both soul stirring and crowd pleasing movies. The vacuum of good cinema with healthy and sensible entertainment is missing from our bollywood. I do not know, either imagination is missing or Indian public is not intelligent enough to appreciate creative work.

Cinema is for the broad minded people who wants to explore horizon of human mind. It is not for pseudo intellectual or cult followers. Changing with the time is natural human quality. Honesty is in the promise of filmmaker with the expectation of people. Quality is not directly proportional to quantity in any field of life. Cinema should be focused on quality not quantity. Few people act /think ahead of time, they are visionaries of our society. Creative auteur make their opinion finely blending with entertainment in their creation to society.

There is very marginal difference between movies and cinema. While impression of the average movies is short lived, cinema creates everlasting and deep effect with time. Each review of the cinematic art enriches the emotion generated on first screening. Cinema is always created out of conviction rather than any compulsion. Cinema is on continuous search and endeavor for new philosophy of life.

Do not compare past especially parallel cinema movement with today's cinema. A lot of water has flown under the bridge and a whole generation of young thinkers are now veteran ones. Degeneration and resurrection is part of change. The cycle of cosmos and chaos will go on indefinitely. The change is inevitable. When some one is changing without attaching it self with inherent quality of change, it is termed as fashion in degraded sense. It is a temporary change and will perish after few days. Art is inside-out while fashion is outside-in.

Thinking pattern of viewers and readers may vary drastically with each other on blog land. But one point is sure that they ridicule the system where untalented but influential star-children are promoted to the top of the ranks and talent is given no importance. The growth of star children lies in our prehistoric mentality of faith in rule of dynasty succession. Thousand years of slavery has made them mere followers of the west (not Europe but America). We need original (flawed or semi polished or anything) works from India. There is enough plagiarism on the name of creative adaptation.

You would be surprised but I have go in support of the 'Piracy'. The big claims of ultra-big filmmakers fighting against piracy go out of the window when the same people blatantly copy Hollywood films and call them their own creation. Hard hitting example-- Mahesh Bhatt. We pirate the scripts, dialogues and even camera shots so what's the big deal? After all it is a "Intellectual Piracy". These people should be given replica of Oscars or 'Golden Bear' in the name of most originally copied material. In that case, isn't it better to see your own movie been watched by millions, even if that's on pirated CDs? The torrent and rapidshare are doing fair share of jobs otherwise we would have been unknown of these maestro's upliftments and inspirational movies.

People like Anurag Kashyap outrage and provoke people by implicitly asking what the limits of art are? Encourage rebellious person like him. Fight against social order to save the society and future potential. Rise of AK is similar to Martin Scorsese. They are questioning the conformist and norms of society. All troubled and skeptical characters are protagonist in there movies. Dark and Underground movies has prepared the soil for the plant of 'Rebel Wave of Cinema' in India. Hope it bloom and a new contribution to world form India come into the picture.

Underdog Nillionaire

Underdog Nillionaire: What a amazing inventory name by me !!!
I will be the hero of this novel & movie if ever created (finance koi aur kar de) only by me. Heroine will be sensuous and no vulgar scene (by Indian standard) will be introduced in it. Leave alone the future dreams, I am portraying as Underdog Nillionaire in the real life. No money of my own in the pocket and working as a technical support team in IT company justify nillionaire and underdog term to full extent.

My motto: If impossible is nothing, then i am doing impossible. (good for T-Shirts quotes)

When people are dieing for creative work like software development in IT industry,I am happy with my job in network security. May be great ambition is lacking in me, but I know my inherent potential and limit in each field of work and life. I think my work in CSC is quite safe and stable with slow growth. KT(Knowledge Transfer) sessions are going on from previous 5 days. 1 week in job (not real work yet) has been completed in the company.Details will be following in next post. I cannot complete my creative writing without mentioning cinema. From the heading,you can easily guess the name of movie.

Slumdog Phenomenon : Many people are loving it. Few people are hating the projection of image of India in foreign nations. I will also give my highly regarded opinion about this movie.---If 'City of Joy' movie is real Calcutta then slumdog millionaire is real India...

Slumdog Millionaire is not an Indian film as the Indian media seemed to project, rather it’s a British film with an Indian context. And so instead of proclaiming this as our conquest on the global stage, we should lament why anyone from our own industry could n’t achieve this feat. Danny Boyle has treated real problems of India with masala story in a vibrant way; He has made what he really wanted but the truth /reality is not depicted. Movie is tour-de-force but runs too fast without having any depth. It reminds me of Salim Javed movies of 1970's with lot of twist and colorful songs. Only melodrama part is missing,the rest of all is here. How many will watch it again for the story? I will watch it only for music,cinematography and acting of young jamal.

Remember Gandhi by British director Richard Attenborough with Ben Kingsley; It was movie of an Indian but what was achieved from it in bollywood except Oscar to dress designer Bhanu Athaiya. Same is with Rahman's association with Danny Boyle. Geniuses of AR Rahman is recognized now abroad because he is original(by international standard also).I liked Slumdog millionaire, but it is nowhere in the class of Salaam Bombay! or Dharavi, which dealt with a similar theme (problems if not theme).For the real face of slums of Mumbai, please go through this well researched article by Neeta.

For concerned people about society and cinema : Smile Pinki is the Oscar nominee in best documentary on short subject category.Put your genuine effort in bringing such stories in mainstream media.

College versus Education

Never let your college interfere with your education.
This altered statement of Mark Twain is self-realized guideline in mine learning throughout past years.

I am giving you a little disoriented but true thought of my mind on this jolly topic. My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects. There is only one Education, and it has only one goal: the freedom of the mind. I felt that more you give attention to the academics ,greater will be the intellectual property loss. Academics in India (Partialy IITs &IIMs) is like Wahhabi Islam. You have to submit to teacher with blind faith(closure of mind) and complete loss of scientific temper. Most of the teachers do not change with time and makes education boring. They ensure that more emphasis on written work than learning concepts. They bring same yellow pages of notes to dictate lectures over years.

Student feel academics as:''The sad mechanic exercise, Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.'

The age of innovative thinking and curiosity is dumped down in classes. Securing threshold attendance has became primary objective of the student community. The learning curve will follow a negative slope reaching nearly to zero. From the word "go" in college life, the motto of most student is just to pass and get the degree of freedom.Commitment for studies become zero in coming years. Loss of passion and self motivation for improvement is major disease prevailing in most of the colleges. Its not loss of reason or logic but loss of enthusiasm that bring pessimism inside you. An anger is agglomerated inside student against unjust and inefficient system. A sincere and logical student behaves as irrational in mob or group due to this frustration.The lament of teachers on lack of discipline is correct but no other way is possible. You cannot expect reformation of religion from the priestly class. Similarly, the administrators do not want to evolve with changing times.

So what are the choices remaining for the students in this passive environment?

Student politics damage more career of the student than college property destruction in universities. All of the student submit to the will of management in professional courses.But this is not the way to have inefficient people upper edge to you. I personally stands against the system. No system is perfect, we can not make it perfect also. We have to try for excellence with limited resources.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education.... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~G.K. Chesterton

Both the student administration have to cooperate with each other with. Questioning on authority should not be taken in negative percepts by administration. Transparency in both economic & administrative decisions should be there with involvement of alumni, students and teachers, not just few self proclaimed youth leaders. If neither of us stand up against minor unfairness, nor we will have enough courage to stand against bigger crimes.

India vs U.S. education system: Sabeer Bhatia view here---

The Indian system of education is “knowledge-based”, while in the U.S. it is “inquiry-based”. The former encourages rote memorization, whereas in the latter students are encouraged to ask questions. In a fast-changing world, where knowledge is becoming obsolete every few months, it is more important to have “thinking” individuals who ask questions and create new products/ processes than individuals with a lot of knowledge. The other aspect of U.S. education is that educational institutions attract the best and brightest from all over the world. So, you get a very competitive environment, which brings out the best in one. The mantra of “meritocracy” extends beyond education. As a result, you have great companies where merit and ability are more important than seniority. Institutions in India tend to value experience and seniority over intellectual ability and creativity.

Bottomline: The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. ~Bill Beattie

Previous brilliant articles by author about teacher and student relationship--Young Minds & Teachers and Movies for Teachers. For more quotes about education, read this;

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)...

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...