I have the power

“He-man, and the masters of the universe”, played the very familiar theme, on the television set of the Sharma household. “I have the power”, completed young Arjun, all of 9 years old and 4 feet tall, from the top of the teapoy with his plastic He-man sword raised. After proudly owning umpteen action figures, watching all reruns of the show and enacting the action with his friends, Arjun declared himself as one of the universe. 

Every Sunday, Arjun would wake up early and finish his homework in time to watch his favorite super hero. On one such day, the action on the TV seemed blurred than usual and little Arjun complained to his mother, “Ma our TV has broken down. I cant see He-man clearly”. At first his mom ignored it but soon realized there was nothing wrong with the TV. The next morning, Arjun was in a doctors office reading random alphabets from a mirror. The size of the alphabets kept getting smaller and smaller until Arjun could not read any further. So he did what any eye patient does, he guessed a P for an F and an M for an N. After some more examination of Arjun’s eyes, the doctor concluded that he has Myopia and would need glasses for 20/20 vision going forward. 

At first, Arjun was excited about wearing glasses. He thought that he had a new super power and maybe he could fire off laser beams from his eyes on removing the glasses. But as days and weeks went by he saw that his mom was very upset that he had to wear glasses. She even stopped him from watching He-man. “Watching too much television is the cause of your weak eyes”, she said. Kids in his school would often make fun of him and call him a “Battery”, a common colloquial sneer used by kids in western India, to point out his dependency on glasses for perfect vision. Some would come up to him and ask him what was his power and he would sheepishly reply “Its 2.0”. The teasing in school knew no end. In the following few weeks Arjun lost all his spunk and became a very quiet kid. He was not watching his favorite super hero, He-man, anymore since his mom had restricted his television access. His naughtiness waned, and in school he was often getting bullied. Kids would pass by and yell, “Whats your power, battery?”

One random Sunday morning, in an effort to lift his spirits, Arjun’s mom decided to let him watch He-man. She tried to urge him to come out of bed as a new episode was about to begin. But Arjun did not feel like getting out of bed. His mom turned on the television anyway and the very familiar theme rang, “He-man, and the masters of the universe”. As low as Arjun was feeling, he could not resist the idea of watching his favorite show without having to barter studies with his parents. He slowly walked towards the TV room dragging his feet across the floor, and sat on the sofa. He reluctantly put his glasses on and a blurred He-man became muscular He-man once again. The episode was centered around Orko, the dwarf wizard. Orko was feeling useless and dejected since he messed up in the battle against Skeletor causing the masters to retreat. As a result, he decided to lock himself up in a dungeon. He-man convinces him that every person has a special power and that Orko brings to the team something that no one else can. In the end He-man and his friends manage to defeat the bad guys because of Orko’s help. After the episode, He-man says, “Every person has a special power within themselves and one should never lose their self belief. Helping Orko see that helped us win. See you next time”. First time in months, Arjun had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

Monday morning came, and Arjun was out of the bed in a flash and ready to go to school. He pleaded with his mom, if he could take his He-man sword to school. Seeing her child upbeat for the first time in months, his mom gave in. Arjun reached his class and sat in his seat. As perfect clockwork, a classmate came over and yelled, “Whats your power, battery?”. But this time, Arjun was prepared. He reached out in his backpack, drew out his plastic sword, stood on top of the desk,  and with the sword raised in his hand said in a loud voice, “I have the powerrr.... 2.0”

Half time report

2012 has had a strange start to it as far as movies are concerned. Typically the convention is that very few big banner movies are released in the first half of the year so that they can cash in on the summer box office. With the advent of the IPL it has only helped diminish the few who did release their films during the first half. But this year was different because there were several anticipated big banner films that were released before July and whats more is that they did well in terms of business.

The year started with Abbas-Mustan's Players. An official remake to 'The Italian Job', Players failed to set the box office ringing. It failed to capture the essence of the original and was a scene to scene remake which made it quite an uninteresting watch. The action was uninspiring especially after seeing movies like Don and Ra.one the previous year. Following suit in the remakes brigade was Karan Malhotra's Agneepath. Although some feared that this movie would mar the memories of the old classic, it proved out to be quite the winner. A remolded character sketch of the famous Vijay Deenanath Chauhan only helped the films cause. It made you forget the original and accept it as a new film. Hrithik's performance and the music was the highlight of the movie.

Then came a movie which showed great promise in its promos, Gali Gali Chor hai. But like a bad diwali firework it wiped out even before starting. Akshaye Khanna and Annu Kapoor's valiant effort could not save the poor screenplay. K Jo in a very unlike K Jo fashion came up with another release in the space of 2 weeks, Ek Main aur Ek Tu staring a new jodi of Imran and Kareena. A brisk rom-com which definitely had its moments. The highlight of the movie was Kareena's acting, the super ending and Amit Trivedi's music. Then came the reel to real love story Tere Naal Love ho gaya. Aptly synchronized to release in the month of their wedding, the movie did open to a decent response. But failed to keep momentum due to a mundane script and screenplay.

March was a mixed bag. It started with yet another rom com, London Paris New York. Although it had decent performances and a decent musical score, it failed to make an impact. The character sketches were far too weak and uninvolved in each other in my opinion. Then came Paan Singh Tomar which was a very captivating film. Irfan Khan delivered a brilliant performance. As it was a true story it had a disturbing attribute to it which is why people shied away from it I guess. The film of the year in my opinion was released on 9th March. Kahaani not only boasted of a wonderful script screenplay and direction but also of a stellar performance by Vidya Balan. It definitely has to be one of the finer thrillers to have come out in recent times. March also saw the release of Saif's magnum opus project Agent Vinod. Although it had its moments of brilliance, director Sriram Raghavan failed to recreate the magic of his previous films. Too many twists in the tale brought its downfall in my opinion.

Housefull 2 aptly released on April Fool's weekend. This was a loud comedy that raked in moolah like no tomorrow. Personally I hated this movie, but it turned out to be quite the audience favorite. April also saw the 'chupa rustam of 2012', Vicky Donor. This small budget John Abraham production had a wonderful script and screenplay by Juhi Chaturvedi and was directed by Shoojit Sircar. Impactful performances by Annu Kapoor and Ayushman Khurana only strengthened the movies cause. The star studded Tezz soon followed in the theatres. It boasted of some slick action but failed to keep the audience hooked on and turned out to be not so profitable.

In the month of May, IPL was at its peak. So very few A grade movies tried their luck at the box office. Karisma Kapoor marked her return with Dangerous Ishq. I have not seen the film to comment on it but from the promos it had a very 90s look and feel to it. Then came one of the most anticipated films of 2012, Ishaqzaade. The look was very fresh with new actors. The film was below par in my opinion. I never felt the connect between the lead characters of the movie. Parineeti's acting was the highlight of the movie for me. RGV was back with a star studded venture, Department. The movie was marred with controversies with Sanjay and Ramu badmouthing each other. The movie had bizarre camera angles to say the least which drove away many a spectators. The only shining spot in this flick was Amitabh Bachhan.

The much anticipated Rowdy Rathore released as soon as the IPL was over. By now the song 'chinta ta chita chita' was a rage. Again personally I did not like this movie at all but it is the biggest earner of the year so far. Another of the LYBAH (Leave your brains at home) comedy. The next to release was Shanghai. Supposedly, this was Dibakar Banerjee's best work. But I beg to differ. I found the movie too predictable. Somehow it dod not work for me. Maybe it was the hype around it. Ferrari ki Sawari released as small film since it had no big stars to boast about. But Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and the screenplay stood tall to give this movie its much deserved success. It stuck to telling a simple tale of a simple man and that it where it won the race in my opinion. The week after that was followed by Teri Meri Kahani and Gangs of Wasseypur. Kunal Kohli's Teri Meri Kahani had nothing new to offer. To add to its misery, bad promos and bad writing prevented this movie from using its starcast's full potential.

All in all this has been a very good year so far, with most of the movies doing good at the box office. There has been something to satiate every cine goer's taste and that has been the brilliance of this year.

My personal top 5 of this year are as follows.
1) Kahaani
2) Agneepath
3) Vicky Donor
4) Ferrari Ki Sawari
5) Ek mai aur ek tu

I walk alone...

Like a cliched dialog from a hindi film, a person comes into this world alone and goes from this world all alone. Then why is living alone through the years of our life considered difficult. Perhaps that is because we are inculcated with the idea that man is a social animal right from our school days. Hence we always feel good when we have people around us to share our joys and sorrows. But we tend to forget that school also taught us another fact that man is the most adaptable animal. We have been used to living in groups and in the company of others. So when you do have to live alone, its a little difficult at first but one gets used to it after some time since we adapt. What some people think to be painful loneliness can infact be solitude bliss in disguise.

Solitude and loneliness are two faces of the same coin, as different as head and tails yet part of the same existence. It is up to each person to convert their loneliness into solitude that you will enjoy. Each person has his/her own hobbies that generally take a back seat when we are in a group. Being alone is the perfect time to take a dig at all those things. For me its an opportunity to learn playing the guitar, or sing (as out of tune it might be) and record my songs or work the hell out in the gym. These are things which generally take a backseat when I am in a group and by doing them it makes me happy as I get some me time.

From personal experience I know parents always want their children to settle down so that their children do not have to face this big bad world all alone. But what really is being alone? Why would this loneliness be cured by the so called life partner? Does this mean that all those friends we have dont mean anything? Definitely all of our friends have their own lives on a parallel track and we cant expect them to be with us 24 x 7. But they play a huge part in us not being lonely. Also who is to say that living with another person will cure your loneliness. You could be just as lonely then as a person living alone. Infact the second style of loneliness is worse if you ask me. It would be wonderful to share your life, the ups, the downs and the works with another person. But it is of utmost importance that you should want from within to do so and not just because you dont want to stay alone.

Each person in this world is alone. It is you who has to figure out the wordly problems that you face. You might get help from others but in the end you have to dig within yourself to find a solution. It is when you start to find solutions within yourself you will find happiness. If your happiness depends on being around someone then you will probably end up never being happy as you will always miss something or the other. If you find ways to be happy with yourself then I guess you would end up making the people around you happy as well.

Ofcourse by saying all of this I do not mean that we should lock ourselves in a room and never mingle with other people. Prolonged living alone has its own disadvantages as well which we need to keep in mind and avoid doing as much as possible. The most obvious characteristic is that a person can tend to become self centered without a care for the world. Meeting different people and interacting with them teaches us many things and helps us to discover our character. If you are not a people person then you should try to improve your skills by talking to different people, and more importantly trying to be a good listener. 

In the end, being alone is not as bad as often its put out to be. It has its own perks. Every once in a while it is good to spend some alone time and rejuvinate/ rediscover ourselves to go back in this world a happier person.

The Superheroes Phenomenon

If you thought this post was about the superhero movies then read on because its not. This post is about the reel and real, larger than life, 'Super' heroes in hindi cinema.

Heroes who achieve 'super stardom' are worshiped in India and I mean literally. Some even have their own temples and idols. While it does not take much for some of these actors (if you can call them that) to reach out to people in order to make their films work there are some who ought to be lecturers in business schools to demonstrate how to market a product, a job that they do day in and day out, market themselves.

These superstars have been around in every generation in the Indian cinema. The ones in the current generation, with phenomenal star power (as we call it in Bollywood), that come to mind instantly are Rajnikanth, the three khans, Salman, Shahrukh and Aamir, and until very recently Akshay Kumar. Of all the above, as per me, only Aamir is the one who has proved time and again that he has solid acting skills to back up his stardom. I am not saying the others cant act, but according to me their acting skills are not directly proportional to their popularity. Each one has their own fan base who might even fight among themselves to prove that one is greater than the other.

Once Aamir Khan so rightly said about Salman in a game show, "I am only an actor but Salman is a superstar". Salman Khan probably has the craziest loyalists around in the country. It does not matter that only some years back the guy was involved in a hit and run. But if you leave his non filmy life out, even then it does not explain his stardom. Sure, he has the looks. But what is it about him that makes his films, as shitty as they are, break BO records after BO records. One might answer in one word, promotions. But that can be counter argued with the example of his last release, Bodyguard, where he was not even able to promote his film due to illness.

These guys owe their fame to all the loyalists that they have around the country. They some how connect with the public which I have still not been able to decode. The following is a real life incident which I have experienced. I was out to watch a Sallu movie around 7-8 years back. People were queued up outside waiting for the gates to open. One smart ass guy said out loud, 'Salman Khan just cant act'. Moments later, he was slapped across his face by a fan. I should have been alarmed but it was hilarious that the fan took it so personally upon himself to redeem his hero.

Not surprisingly enough, these movies, which may be fun to watch sometimes, rake in hard core money. The loser in this case are the creative small time actors/ directors who make a gem of a movie but lose the Friday battle with a Salman or a Shahrukh who may have shelled out a mediocre film at best. In the recent past many such movies have lost out which is sad. People have not even heard about movies like I am Kalam or Shaitan or Soundtrack but every one knows about Ready or Bodyguard.

The one thing to learn from these guys is how to market yourself. Recently SRK spent money like water to promote his magnum opus Ra.One. To give him his due, it did have state of the art CGI and he did a great effort in bringing hollywood style technology to Indian cinema. Ra One was marketted heavily and that helped create enormous excitement to watch the movie. Although this can have an adverse effect, like raising expectations, but thats a risk for a normal actor/ producer, not for SRK. Aamir is another superstar who is brilliant at marketting his films. He has these ingenious different ways of marketting the movies which hit the right spot of creating awareness and excitement. This atleast kicks off the film strongly which might help even if it is a mediocre film. This is something which other filmmakers should definitely learn.

Finally, as spiderman's uncle used to say, "With great power comes greater responsibility", these superstars should use their powers responsibly. They should realize that they can generate massive mass hysteria among their fans. They should avoid misuse of people's trusts. Maybe even help small time film makers by promoting their films (something which Salman already does). But more than ever they should not promote their bad habits publicly which their fans will try to emulate. As far as I am concerned I am still trying to find answers to this mystery of mass popularity.

Swatantrya

As I logged into my Facebook account, I saw my wall flooded with Independence day messages. So it got me thinking. Its the 64^th year of independence for India. What have we achieved in these 64 years? The dictionary defines independence as “not subject to control by others; not requiring or relying on something else “. Put in context to a country, Independence is a condition of a country in which its residents exercise self government and sovereignty over its territory. Our constitution gives some fundamental rights to every Indian citizen. For those, like me, who never paid attention in their history/civics lectures in school, here is what the fundamental rights in independent India look like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Rights_in_India .So what is independence for an average Indian?

If I am to look back on my personal experiences, for almost all of my childhood Independence day meant a holiday from school. Waking up to the sound of patriotic songs playing in the neighborhood, I used to go to the morning flag hoisting parade in school, come home and eat 'jalebis' which were made specially for Independence day in my home town. So all independence day was to enjoy an off day in the middle of the year eating 5 pounds of 'jalebis'. The current era is not too different. The most patriotic feelings are evoked out of many Indians including myself only on 15^th August, 26^th January and during an India v Pakistan cricket game. Do the soldiers fighting on the borders care if its 15^th August or 31^st December before defending their nation? Then why should we only celebrate our patriotic expressions on one particular day and on the next day act as if nothing happened.

I guess one of the reasons could be that almost all of the fundamental rights mentioned above does not apply to the common man in India. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are glorified and superficial rights in India. The moment a person crosses a certain line where the rich and the powerful could be affected they are made to shut up or ridiculed. The recent Anna Hazare episode just goes to show that if a man shows guts to stand up to something he believes in, he will just be bullied to shut up. If a common man decides to stand up against unjust laws there are the so called moral police who resort to hooliganism. Hell when IBN lokmat did a news piece about Bal Thakray, their office was vandalized. So how is the average Indian supposed to speak his mind and make it count without the fear of being beaten up by hooligans? The retort to such acts by these people is that its their freedom of speech and expression. Really? Does 'Satyameva Jayate' mean nothing anymore? Why cant a person say the truth and not be harassed for speaking his/her mind? Is it still called freedom if a person does not live life just so that he does not come in the lime light of the 'gundas'? I guess its just easier to accept the faults and live with it creating a facade of how great our country is. This has probably caused so much pent up frustration and anger in people that they just find reasons to take a day off from all this mess and just feel good about their country for one day but return to reality the very next day.

All this corruption and money among the powerful people ruling India has made them even more dangerous and powerful. Is this the India that the freedom fighters envisioned? Definitely not. It is in this time that every Indian needs to unite and fight off such politicians. But we do exactly the opposite. We play right into such politicians' hands and fight among ourselves. United we stand, divided we fall. 70 years ago the British did it, now the ruling politicians do it. Nothing much has changed has it? Even someone as famous as a filmmaker in this country has to go through hell before he gets the nod for releasing his film peacefully. Why does one have to get the approval of the politicians or a certain sect of people so that riots are not broken out? If a Prakash Jha releases a movie which has a controversial subject, the movie is banned in 3 states. The people from the rest of the states are terrified to go watch the movie considering that the theaters might be vandalized by gundas. Its his expression over the matter, why should it be banned even before being seen if the censor board has passed the film?

Don't get me wrong, I love my country and I am as proud to be an Indian. There are several good parts to being an Indian. Our culture and varied heritage is probably unmatched, but I guess its not always beneficial seeing only the good parts. If one is to improve oneself they should accept their bad points and look to improve themselves. Unfortunately in the past decade there is a lot of negative happening in our country than positive. Corruption, terrorism and cultural divide are termites eating up mother India. As difficult as it sounds we need to come together and stand united. We need to fight the everyday devils as the 'jawans' fight off enemies on the border every single day. We need to be the soldiers on the inside and celebrate our independence every single day by fighting for it in our own way. The people who rule the country are elected by us. Vote in elections and make it count. We should keep ourselves updated to the track record of a party rather than just voting for the heck of it. The real freedom that we need is freedom from terrorism. One should be aware of your surroundings. Notify the police of suspicious activities immediately. Above all deny bribes to people who ask for it and report about the bribery. An attitude of “What do I care?” should be done away with. Our country's matter is our matter. Cleaning the house starts by cleaning your room. Its not about just eating 'jalebis' anymore. Its easier said than done but we have to start somewhere.

This was not to hurt anyone's sentiments. Its just something that was bothering me. A happy Independence day to everyone and wishing the future generations live in a real shining India. Vande Mataram !!