Month: February 2015

A Scribble in Singapore Diaries: Notes from the ‘Field’

An interesting incident made my week. Here is the anecdote:

Today afternoon, when i went to the Indian food stall at the Arts Canteen here for some veg fare (i rarely eat Indian food during the week); the Uncle across the counter, addressed me as ‘Bhaiya’ and i was rather pleasantly surprised by the Mohd. Rafi song ‘Kisne April Fool Banaya’ from the 1964 Biswajeet starrer ‘April Fool’ played on full volume. Simple moments like these make life joyous. Rafi Saab with his soulful voice even after half a century makes his presence felt from Kanpur to Kent Ridge.

“April fool banaya to unako gussa aaya
To mera kya qasoor zamaane ka qasoor
Jisne dastoor banaya”

‪#‎Singaporestories‬

Badlapur: A Movie Review

This is Sriram Raghavan’s latest movie outing with the last being the so called spy movie ‘Agent Vinod’ starring the Prince and his would be Begum, which I had watched in Singapore three plus years ago. Badlapur, named after a major railway station junction in Maharashtra is a dark murder thriller bordering on a genre begun in Bollywood with the John Abraham starred ‘Zinda’ with again a dark theme. This movie resolves around a mother-son murder revolving  around a bank heist in which the characters of Vinay Thakur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui aka Laik kills in a fit of rage to save himself the tamil speaking wife  and son of the character of Varun Dhawan aka Raghu, the revenge filled and driven protagonist of the film. Varun Dhawan’s character is of a budding ad man whose life gets derailed due the sad murder episode. These emotion filled scene shots are narrated matter of fact by the director and cinematographer. Varun Dhawan character gives up on the conventional justice system to nail the culprits of the murder (tapping on the justice delayed is justice denied rhetoric). Varun’s character appoints a female detective played by a seasoned TV Actress, and how she extracts the initial information trail post the incident is very well narrated in the script. Laik faces a 20 year term for his heinous crime but his partner Harman (Vinay Thakur’s character) escapes with the loot and sets up a flourishing Goan restaurant with a live band and marries a beautiful woman. Varun Dhawan’s character is revenge driven with rage as he retreats to a low key existence in Badlapur town near Nashik as a Warehouse supervisor (one of which looks very similar to the authors experience outside Nashik’s MIDC Satpur’s Industrial nerve). Laik is involved with a commercial sex worker played by Huma Quraishi who ultimately becomes a keep of a politician. Huma’s character is layered and the sexual politics with Varun, Nawaz and Huma is one of the main side plots of the film. The parole politics of the ngo sector and the cancer afflicted Laik and his mother is very interestingly shown on celluloid. Rage and the central focus of revenge via sexual violence  is the underlying tone of the revenge drama. The characters of the film such as Vinay and Nawaz with Huma and Divya Dutta, the single mother prison NGO worker (and her chemistry with Varun’s character)  is a standout feature. The film uses Tamil and Marathi as useful linguistic  contours to paint the film in layers, although stereotypes of a Punjabi Mum versus grieving Tamil In-laws aka ‘Two States’ is perpetuated. The use of graphic violence of of gore and the sexual content make the film bold but disturbing. The violence is the soul of the film. The film’s anti-climax of an ending with Varun’s character killing off Harman and his wife in cold blood to extract revenge is appropriated by the murderous Laik is a very Japanese-Korean esque cinematic treatment. The cinematography was very East Asian inspired as the direction of the film. Pune was the canvas of the film with MG Road as the main backdrop with Marz-o-rin cafe depicted in a couple of important shots with the narrow first floor seating arrangement sipping hot coffee over a serious conversation (where the author has been to a number of times). Laik is shown as enjoying cheesy Bhojpuri cinema after being released on health grounds reeks of stereotyping as the criminal being from the hindi cowbelt. The Marathi Bhajan groups singing praise in the temple in cinematic Badlapur is tasteful.  Nawaz and Huma are standout performers of the film with Varun rendering a credible act, albeit a brave one vis-a-vis his contemporaries. The background score and songs move the narrative forward and the editing is crisp. A film unsuitable for young audiences but a different film with a strong ensemble cast. A film where you would not wish to watch with your parents. Sriram Raghavan does a better job this time with his potential in this film. If one has to watch the film, it has to be for Nawaz and Huma as star performers that they are; lend substance to the soul of the film.

India-Pak sport wars: Need to get Real

As Geff Boycott once quipped during the 1999 India-Pak Test Series at the Calcutta test match ; that an India-Pak match is a parallel war theatre with the bat and the ball instead of blowing up nuke bombs (in the aftermath of 1998 Pokhran and Chughai Hills), the psyche although is very unspotsmanlike though. A mix of market liberalism and irrational nationalism makes it the most watched sport game in the history. I enjoyed my military medium pace bowling in school and college but a proxy for the LOC is unfair. Expression of nationalism on the cricket pitch is a gross failure of confidence building measures and people to people contact between our countries separated at the hip in 1947. I played cricket with my mohajir friends from Karachi in Muscat while growing up along with folks from Kerala. It is the love of the pitch that connected us in the mixed teams that we played in. Salaam’s and Hellos flowed along with more colourful lingo. 

Whether we bleed blue or bleed green, there are more important things in life to pander about like poverty eradication and healthcare access in both countries than a made up media manufactured, hype driven, gladiatorial contest at Adelaide where Srinivasan and his cronies make the moolah. We are indeed in what Braudrillard called the ‘Desert of the Real’. Enjoy the game for what it is for;  instead of a metaphor for war.

AAP 2.0 : Urban Activism does work

A few days back prior to the election, AAP was relegated to being an opposition player but after the electoral miracle it has captured the popular imagination of the nation. Kejriwal is the real anti thesis to Modi: Activist, Technocrat and Socialist. Both though great orators and have a down to earth connect with the masses, being original mass leaders. Modiji though with his 10 lakh rupee suit, lost his mojo. The fledgling start-up has received Series A funding from the voters to scale up and be ready for Private Equity funding in Venture Finance parlons. In short, run a total majority government for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The anti corruption, anti VIP culture, pro poor message does indeed sell in the activism driven urban politics of the AAP. Delhi being an urban, and well educated ‘half-state’ is the microcosm of India. As the May 2014 polls for the BJP, February 2015 is a branding communications win too; this AAP victory has certainly had its messaging right. Local for local, community for community customized messaging actually very ala old Congress but very impactful, in hindsight; albeit, with too high promises and too high aspirations. A dangerous stance for governance, but an effective electoral campaign strategy nevertheless that worked. Arvind Kejriwal or AK accepted his mistake in running away from the 49 day stint, and sincerely apologized at every juncture and that connect clicked. But as the author observed during his time in Delhi during the December 2013 poll run up and the 49 day tamasha; AK was very popular with the man on the street as the core constituency was with the common man who eats ‘cholche kulche’ at the corner shop. The common man was not bothered by petty, rent seeking corruption effecting him. As AAP is an activist led entity, their eyes and ears on the ground was always present irrespective of Poll season or not. Mocked, humiliated by the Modi Brigade after the May 2014 Lok Sabha Polls, AAP went into a hibernation mode during which the Modi wave swept the nation winning state election after state election. AAP as per the corporate media was over, a one time fling. But the man on Delhi’s streets was getting impatient with a too much over confident BJP which had swept all seven parliamentary seats. BJP has always been known as the Brahmin, Baniya led Party with Punjabi support in pockets in the after partition areas. The AAP and its NGO movement progenitor India Against Corruption was a reaction against the corruption (read CWG, Coal scam) of the Congress during UPA 2. The Jan Lok Pal movement captured the moral and political imagination of the youth of Delhi. Many educated youth joined the movement as their own contribution to the country, leveraging technology of social media, and conventional communication mediums on print and radio to pass on their message to the potential voter. Catchy jingles by star music composer Vishal Dadlani mobilized the party activists to the ethos of ‘Paanch Saal Kejriwal’ or Five Years in Power for Kejriwal. This time around, the AAP’s activism was sober sans antics and the electoral management was better, Even with its depleted team with defections to the BJP (read Ilmi and Binny) they captured the right segments with a pro poor, pro minority image, leading to a transfer of votes from the Congress to AAP in addition to its own votes from December 2013. This catalyzed as landslide of 66 seats of 70. An unthinkable feat in contemporary Indian Political History for a fledgling political outfit, struggling to survive vis a vis a powerful BJP stopped its tracks. Kiran Bedi as an icon devalued her stature by accepting the BJP offer to join the party just prior to the polls. Kejriwal is a politician, Bedi is not. The veterans of the Delhi BJP did not like her and sabotaged their own campaign. In any case, the BJP has run the Municipal bodies inefficiently over the decades. Kejriwal is a street fighter with a middle class mindset and connects well with the man from the street as well as the international media in English, with Ashutosh and Prof. Yogendra Yadav; AAP has a fantastic media management team with robust research data to back up their arugments. Of course you can ‘Barely Speak’ with Arnab on the News Hour, the Fox News styled News Debate show on primetime Indian TV. Raghav and Aatishi as politicians are wonderful youth icons too. Nerdy and cool, certainly. AK and AAP defeated the supari or contract killer journalists of the corporatized media in the words of Rajdeep Sardesai (as stated in his website and also on scroll.in), himself a victim of the Big Media. The members of the AAP are normal people and that is the most powerful takeaway from the poll. Normal people can win. You don’t have to somebody’s son or daughter to win. At the inauguration ceremony today, AK was composed and collected. He is the man of the moment. His tenor was of a person in for the long haul and with sky high aspirations of the aam junta, he needs more work and less talk to start of the journey as the second term CM of the NCT of Delhi. AK chided the ‘Big Boss’ mindset paparazzi media for their 24×7 news cycle inputs and asked them to be patient for five years. AK is in here for five years for sure with the AAP. Don’t lose your activism AAP, because that is what makes you different. Ultimately Activism is about Politics.

Shamitabh: A Movie Review

This is my first Bollywood movie watching experience (and movie review in a while) after 16 odd months in Singapore; the last being the slapstick comedy ‘Besharam’ on holiday. This time around is an art house-ish film called ‘Shamitabh’ starring the legendary Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and the Southern star Dhanush better known for his ‘Kolveri di’ viral hit in wider India. The film is a satirical, spoof like take on the antics of Bollywood with a quip that why don’t Maharashtrians get a major break in Bollywood and the dual protagonist says that is the way it is in here, an artificial entry barrier. Danish aka Dhanush in the film is mute, but a obsessive film fan since he was a boy breathing cinema (there is a song track in the film conveying that thought process and persona). Amitabh Bachchan aka Amitabh Sinha on screen is a fail actor turned alcoholic who lives in the graveyard who calls it the house in ‘Mumbai with a garden’ at 500 rupees per month.  Mr. Bachchan in real life was turned down by the All India Radio early on in his career due his iconic baritone and there are dialogues in the film eulogising his trademark baritone in his later years . His weakness became his greatest strength.

There are instances in the film where the award ceremony corruption has been mocked and the inevitable casting couch. Akshara Hassan as the enthusiastic Assistant Director does everything to give mute Danish a break in Bollywood. They stumble across a medical technology in Finland that gives the mute an artificial voice if they can find a voice. Amitabh Bachchan is the voice who shadows Dhanush’s character and gives his acting life. So Shamitabh is born, with Amitabh Bachchan’s voice and Dhanush’s fire in the belly to be an actor. His desire is more than his talent he says in the film and the author of this post whole heartedly agrees with the ethos. Amitabh Bchachan’s drunk/injured mirror scene from the 1970’s film ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’ is subtly recreated. 

The tension between the voice and the mute actor’s acting explodes with both parting ways and badly faltering as independent entities. Ego tussles are emotively covered in this cinematic landscape. Love is depicted sensitively between Danish and his mother in rural Maharashtra as with Danish and his Assistant Director confidant which is romantic, but more platonic.

The ending of the film is the best as it is disability is sensitively portrayed  when Shamitabh wish to confess to the world that they are two talents working as one person. They meet an accident in which Danish dies and takes up Amitabh’s so called reserved place in the grave where he usually spends his time. Amitabh who is proud of his vocal chords loses his ‘voice’. The irony is well understood. Never be vain about ones talents as it can be snatched away in a matter of seconds.

Akshara Hassan (quite a find i must say) is fresh and holds her ground in capturing screen space while scolding Danish and Amitabh on managing egos. Music is strategically used as a device to convey the story and the southern master Illiyaraja is spot on. The cinematography is documentary-esque in its technical treatment.

Balki, the Director is an Amitabh Fan Boy and he makes no bones about that. It is a sensitive but enjoyable watch in the era of mega commercial hits without any acting prowess.  Amitabh, Dhanush and Akshara make the film an intellectual and entertaining watch. Dhanush is a powerhouse of an acting talent. We should see more of him in Bollywood fare.

Finally, the film is a dedication to the Valets and support staff of the acting superstars who make their life easier. They deserve the dignity. Thats a beautiful message. Kudos, Balki and Mr. Bachchan.