Jai Ho...!

Why the debate? It’s a given that we are definitely way far away from Hollywood…definitely their cinema is much more advanced n classy than ours… Howmuchsoever our very own Aamir keeps trying, it will still take us much more time to win that coveted something christened as ‘Oscar’.

But mahn, watched Slumdog Millionaire just sometime back and cudn’t stop myself write the title of the blog “Jai Ho” coz the words are still echoing in my ears as they will surely do when you will come out of the theaters watching this movie. I truly loved it and it purely touched my Indian heart.

Watching Slumdog was just like eating the delicious “Bombay ki bhelpuri” with a lot of masala which makes u relish its taste till the very last bite. The characters picked have acted so realistically and have been depicted so believably…u start feeling that u r actually watching some Jamaal’s life and that’s what makes this movie truly magical.

An Indian writer, an Indian setting, mostly Indian cast, the ace Indian music director, Indian co-director Loveleen…the complete package is truly a tribute to India from the creative filmmakers of Hollywood. It is definitely the style & portrayal where these Americans steal the show away from us. The screenplay and the depiction of their movies is always so mesmerizing which keeps their movies so much more engaging and mature… Even in this movie, the way Jamaal’s life unfolds with each question of KBC is truly loved by me as an amazing concept.

I wish to sight just one scene from this movie which every Indian will hate but still contemplate a lot about it. This is scene where “a bit of real India” is being compared with “a bit of real America” through an American tourist couple. I personally feel that they got a lill overboard with ths one! Not sharing the scene to avoid spoilers, but all of you who have seen the movie, any comments on this ;)?

There is no point why there is a debate going on about what’s been depicted in this movie. It’s a shame to slam the Slumdog by setting the thought that it depicts only the slums of our lovely country, if u have the balls to either remove this dark truth or depict the better part of our country to the world, then the world…an open stage…is waiting to get entertained, show them that we are much more than this. We have not been able to do that from past 50 years and when one foreigner comes down to depict his thought of entertainment, all we argumentative Indians can do is to slam them…it’s shameful. Guys, this movie uses the slums of our country as the setting coz a guy from slum can’t be shown living his life in a five star, please grow up at least in your thoughts. Fine, slums are a part of ours only whether it’s fractured or burnt, but it’s our body part…isn’t it?

May be Danny Boyle himself has to come down again sometime to shoot another movie which depicts the non-slum part of our country coz we still can’t do that…is that what we want to say…I mean how many times we have told the small kids that the movies are meant for entertainment and not to set debates and arguments…

Khair, chuck the debates…enuf of it…lemme “Jai-Ho” Slumdog Millionaire for the beautiful entertainer to the core which it is,

• Jai Ho…to the truly miraculous love story based on the premise of “Destiny”…being a true believer of destiny…I truly worship the words…“It is written” which sum up this movie for us.• Jai Ho…to India coz it is for our country and the existing slums of Mumbai which made this movie possible. We are a long way to go and for the love of our country it calls for a Jai Ho…

• Jai Ho…to the amazing original score by A R Rahman, I think his music has put in the life in the movie…and that calls for a celebration for India.

• Jai Ho…to the small kids who have played Jamaal and Salim, their innocent yet naughty faces can’t be forgotten for a long time even after watching this movie. Their acting was truly brilliant.

• Jai Ho…to Danny Boyle for making such a true to heart movie depicting India and a part of its Indianness.

• Jai Ho…to Anil Kapoor, Irfaan Khan, Mahesh Manjhrekar, Saurabh Shukla, Frieda Pinto and every Indian who got a chance to act this movie not for their presence but for their true blue acting making all characters appear for real.

• Jai Ho…to Dev Patel who has played the character of Jamaal, the guy’s expressions were flawless and the love in his eyes was so true.

• Jai Ho…especially to the Indianness which keeps us apart and which is also portrayed as a very true subject of the movie which says…”Never say die and always keep trying!” and so shall we.

I am truly waiting and still trying to make my destiny work for me so that even I can say with élan one day that, “It was written!”.

"Masakalli" - Simply Maddening...!

Oh guys...there have been only a few moments when I’ve waited tirelessly everyday in front of my television waiting for a chance to get a glimpse of just a 1 minute 32 seconds trailer and believe me…after a long long time. is dil ne kisi ko firse, dil se chaha hai...;)

Now stop getting ur mind rolling and start reading further...the amazing yet mysteriously simple beauty which I m talking abt is none other than MASAKALLI...Now, don’t tell me u don’t know what I’m talking abt…PUHLEEEEEEEEZ…the latest promo of the movie Dilli-6…Its strong…its simple…its fantastic…it works slowly…its catchy…its rustic…its down to the earth…its melodious…its charismatic…its insane…its brave…its Indian…its rahmanian…O one suitable word for it is that Its Masakalli…catch it asap…u definitely are missing something…Now, if you think I m exaggerating…I have tried to dig the video for you…find it below…

Now you shud be saying…’What an amazing compilation...!’ The beautiful selection of lyrics, the magical music of A R Rahman, the perfect setting, the ever pouting Abhishek and the “definitely making u crazy” Sonam Kapoor who is surely driving at least me crazy...BIGTIME...:)

Not denying that Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a good director (after all ‘Black’ was awesome), but maybe he liked Sonam so much that he purposely made sure that in his 3 hour long movie, the world won’t even have a look at her...maybe that’s why he made the movie Saanwariya completely dark...n Sonam remained Black n Blue...that’s a sad luck for the nation yaar...

But, thanks to our RBD director, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, who finally made Anil's daughter visible...n visible…come what may…but she has bowled over everyone (at least me) in her very very simple still super super sexy look in this beautiful number...

The first time I had seen this trailer, it had taken me by a huge surprise and from then on, I hav been searching on channels to have its dose again...Well, there are some things which words might not be able to capture and even if you make an attempt for words to capture the same, you definitely come out as a failure…words try to capture, they might do an injustice…well the case over here is a ditto :)…Simply Maddening…!!! N another thing...it works...n works very slowly...but when it does...u can't let it run away from u...:)

Oh btw, I’m running out of time here…and no points for guessing what’s next on my agenda…obviously another dose…hmmmmmm?

The Satyam(?) Saga and Me: :) & :(

A lot of hullabaloo happened over the Satyam fiasco last week, many lives have been affected due to the entire crap that happened. I wish to share my story associated with Satyam(?).

As mentioned in the title there are two parts to this story: A Happy part :)…and a Sad part :(. Since, I don’t have the option like the movie stars do have in asking people, “Which one should I start with, the SAD part or the HAPPY one”? I will start with the HAPPY part; after all, it’s my first blog of the year 2009, isn’t it!

The Satyam Saga and Me: The Happy Part :)

It was the Day 0, Slot 2 of our placements, back on 19th December’07. The campus was all charged up, after all the Day Zero of placements in IMT Ghaziabad brings with it a war of emotions. Those few days of placements are marked with joy, celebration, tears, hatred, jealousy, fight, gloom and what not; in fact, you name the emotion and you can find loads of it exhibited.

Oh btw!...don’t lemme digress from the topic and rather hit straight out that the first day when I sat for my placements, I had two offers in my kitty :), but the number two always comes with a dilemma, when you have to make a choice out of them. Khair, the offers I had were from Perot Systems and from Satyam (Can U Imagine?).

Back then, both were very pretty identical offers on various standards, hence the choosing part was helluva tough. Naturally, I had to consult several people to guide me on my decision. The first person definitely was my Chairman Placements who surely shares deep respect from my side. I remember his words, “Chose Satyam…aankhen band karke”!

I was just thinking that today, after the mad Satyam burst, if I would have chosen Satyam offer that day, aaj meri aankhen band hi ho chuki hoti. But my thanks to everyone, who had asked me to join Perot Systems, oh yeah, all of you deserve a treat from me...;)

The Satyam Saga and Me: The Sad Part :(

Well, as you might have read in my previous post, I have started dribbling in the stock market, was pretty satisfied with the kind of investment decisions I had made till Jan 5th. I was making a slow and steady rise in my portfolio. But the storm pounded upon me right at 12 noon on the 6th of January.

I had received a call from a close person asking me to sell my Satyam stocks coz I was earning a small profit, but sheeeeeeet, I just said, “Let’s wait!” and went straight into a meeting. What was profit at 10:30 AM the same morning had converted into a big…mind you…BIG loss. :( :( :(

Down by definitely a few thousands, I was reeling with just one satisfactory story on my part, that Thank God, I had not joined Satyam back then. Well, a lesson for life…stock markets is a ZERO SUM game, U win some and one fine day, you lose all of it!...Hehe better stay away from them ;)

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Now, this is just my story and I can relate to it. But, can you imagine how many similar stories might be floating into the fathoms of the world. All because of just ONE BAD APPLE, just one person full of greed!

There are some 53000 employees in Satyam, out of them many are my friends who had accepted the Satyam offer that day. I definitely can imagine the grief and uncertainties through which they might be going at the moment. Studies say that there is one person associated with every three employees in an IT company. With a company of such a stature going burst, it is gonna effect the peaceful lives of so many effected ones. The entire ecosystem will be badly affected.

I wish to call this a heinous crime, how can someone go so much insane out of greed. Someone who is the CEO of the fourth largest IT company of the country, who is a celebrated public figure, who shares respect in the eyes of the world, who is a self made man. How can he not foresee what affect his greed can create in so many lives? It’s shameful Mr. Ramalinga Raju…may be you’ll get bail in few days, but I wish the corporate world learns from the nuances of the effect such an act has on the ecosystem from the Satyam example so that at least that hinders the future in not seeing such a ghastly act again.

I appreciate whatever government is doing to get the situation in control and I wish Satyam gets back to normalcy with the power of its associates, their talent and their ongoing hope. I am with them, after all being part of the affected, I wish all our hopes bring something positive in the end.


Wish to end this with a celebrated beautiful line from the movie Spiderman which I love, “With big powers, comes big responsibilities”!