Raees is SRK’s comeback vehicle as Salman’s Wanted in 2009, or Rajni Saar’s Kabali. The film is surely a cinematic upgrade to Rahul Dholakia’s films on 2002 carnage. The portrayal of the prohibition in Amdavad, is as filmy as it can be. But the film is more about the communal politics of Naroda Patiya, the train burnings and the marginalisation of the minorities in Gujarat. The prohibition is a metaphor for the facade it is. The home delivery of alcohol is very real. Ask the business traveler to Vadodara. 
SRK calls himself very apolitical in an interview to film critic Rajeev Masand, but this is as backhanded Political it can be, and cinema is as aesthetically political with a small ‘p’. 
Nawaz adds the meat that SRK need to add to the korma that he is shown cooking in the movie. Atul Kulkarni has a presence as always, albeit in a short part. The music is mediocre by Ram Sampath, and is not reflective of the period which this film is depicting. 
The Urdu and the Gujarati is not authentic, it is too mainstream Bombay for my liking. The illustration of real estate as a vehicle for vote bank building is shown with the change of zoning regulations. The ULCRA law politics is evident. Ultimately, the entrepreneurial air of the state is applauded in the punchline. A film where there is concerted effort to depoliticise it in the communication, but is all about it in the subtext and the nuance loudly blaring in the megaphone of the silver screen. 
#changethinker #moviereviews #raees

Just to burst the Burj Khalifa Indian Flag Bubble, Pakistan’s flag was projected on its National Day last year. Nothing else, the nationalist exuberance really gets to me on Social Media. The armies of the gulf including the Trucial States were trained by the Pakistani Army since the 1950’s. Foreign Policy needs to be evaluated within a wider historical context.

India as a republic in 1950 was an audacious step for a country which had its two arms severed off and had been independent for three years and only one fifth of its population literate with the princelings still holding on to their privy purses and zamindaris. It was unprecedented democratic experiment at its time with Ambedkar Saheb rightly critical of the underlying feudalism and casteist structures once one has stretched its structurally democratic veneer. Communities have been relegated to the margins as the tropes of participatory democracy in the five year celebration called the election, where illicit funding, dynasty, corporate media and elitist intellectual elites obscures the discourse. The power resides in corporate money and the political classes, and policy is curated in Lutyens rather than Jantar Mantar. The people’s democracy is really a caste based, corporate centered system where few oasis of driven excellence drive the system. India is held together by centrifugal forces of survival and status quo where transparency is only demanded of citizens rather than the power classes. The Republic as nomenclature is hijacked by a media channel, rather than a sacred democratic sentiment. May the real democracy stays relevant in terms of public service delivery to Bastar, Kohima, Viruthanagar, Anantnag and Gadchiroli. Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Jai Hind.

The Language Day in the south Asian context is a pivotal, watershed event which changed post colonial politics for ever. The blood spilled and lives lost by the language activist martyrs set the wagon rolling towards the eventual self determination of the Bengali people in 1971, after a genocide perpetrated by the Pakistani Army. The events of Language Day were a consciousness shifting moment for Language centred identity building across the post colonial and non aligned world.

As an Indian Bengali, growing up in the Persian Gulf, the Bengali Language was an anchor in a world of plural identities and the memory of the Language Day played a monumental role in emphatically placing the Bengali Language at the heart of the tapestry of identities in a post globalisation era. As the world is heading back to a time where national borders matter again, language is a crucial shared cultural resource for a wider humanity. I pay my heartfelt respect to the martyrdoms of the Language movement in Bangladesh

Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2017, had a high-powered panel on titled ‘The Theater of Demonetisation’ as a creative act; as a work of creation. Polyglot Sanjeev Sanyal called the demonetization event as a leap into the dark. The theory has little to say, other than that there will be pain. The empirical perspective calls it unprecedented, without any faint clue. The Singapore example was stated again, the shock treatment was a signal to change behavior; ‘shock the system in to a new space’. While Social Scientist Shiv Vishwanathan explores a different metaphor- that of a B grade Bollywood movie, which is badly scripted. It is a failure of story telling, the good professor quipped.

The collapse of organised retail in shopping malls, to e-commerce and digitalisation of finance should not be equated to online learning and the awaited deprioritization of physical university education in the fourth industrial revolution. A section can move to MOOCs, but cannot totally substitute physical seminar style classes. They are a complimentary asset, not the main journey of structured learning. The platformization of education is not that disruptive. These need the empathy of a teacher and the physicality of space.

Spoke to a very experienced environmental impact assessment expert who said, it is better to spend tax payer money on Environmental Management Plan implementation than on the clearance process. This is according to me a serious indictment of the environmental governance process where there is no follow up on the measures written in the report.

Leadership journeys are learning journeys, glad to have crest fallen and have learnt from them. Every experience is precious. Failures are powerful as they have a significant cost associated to it; financially, socially and personally. The personal cost of failure is terrible, as it transforms oneself, makes one deeply appreciate the opportunities one has received and not captured. Gratitude. Amen.

Solutions needs a discussions of the power structures in the market that enterprises operate; the inherent biases, the cash castes and market entry barriers such as regulatory structures, and cultural politics of entrepreneurial land. Critique is just a trailer. In my work with the civil society in Singapore and India; vested agendas hinder progress more than good intentions. Solution builders are ego neutral, and focus on impact. Solutions have to be Market centric to be long lasting. Activists do not understand the language of the market. Language is an analytical framework itself.

The question i ask activists/social sector professionals usually- What is the alternative to operate in a neoliberal set up. Move beyond the critique although the critique is the starting point of developing solutions and critique is data.