Facebook latest abuse: What colour's your bra??

Almost a week back, I witnessed quite an interesting flood of status messages from my female friends at facebook. I think most of you who use facebook must be knowing this. The status messages consisted of just one word, a colour. There was black, there was white, golden, red, and many others. I was a bit confused what exactly that was. I even asked one of them as to what that is but no reply came. The next day I saw an article in The Times Of India about it telling that all this followed a series of mails asking women and girls for writing the colour of their bra in order to spread awareness about breast carcinoma. The mail asked to write down just one word, the colour, and nothing else.
In a way, I was shocked reading the news in the daily. I don't know what kind of an organisation this was that initiated this move. I learned about it being an american NGO or something but does it really matter. There has been so many fruitful programmes on raising the awareness of this deadly disease, breast cancer. Can a campaign like this really do some good in this regard?
I don't really understand what kind of awareness could these colours raise but it certainly managed to give me much insight into female undergarments. I didn't know that a golden bra also comes in the market. There were many other colours too that I didn't know about. Certainly, it did arose some awarenesss for me (and many others like me). Some of us were even commenting on such colours. Some comments read like 'wow!', 'hot!', 'ooooohhhhhhhh!' and many others depicting the lusty expressions of the mankind. Was the campaign meant for comments like that. Isn't it a disgusting way of promoting something that is too important an issue?
The limit was crossed when some staus messages started coming saying 'nothing.' Such messages were flooded with highest number of comments showing in all respect what regards we boys have for that part of a female's body. I won't say that we boys are not guilty of throwing in such comments, we really are. But are not the girls guilty as much? What exactly do they want to propagate about the cancer by telling their bra's colour. I would have certainly felt a lot embarrassed if I had seen a status message like that one from my sister.
For me, the colour of undergarments in no way provoke any idea inside me for the disease. What could it do at the most was make me a little horny and nothing else. I don't want to be a 'moral police' here neither I want to act like one. I am not saying that it in any way is violating the element of decency in the society. Everybody has a right to express themselves, that they can do in any way of their likings. Maybe, this is what they were doing. Not all the girls on facebook were busy writing in such status messages. There were many who avoided it.
My only point lies in that what kind of an expression was it to tell the colour of your bra to the public. It didn't provoke anybody to form a fan club or community on facebook to fight against breast cancer. What it did provoke was a fan club named "I Really Dont Care What Color Your Bra Is." Now is it not evident enough of what kind of an idea it provoked in people's mind. Everybody has an idea of their own to do something. It lies only on the conscience of the followers to look into the matter, think over it and when it seems followable, then do follow it. May be one day I will see somebody posting a half-nude picture of herself on facebook and saying this is to raise the awareness about breast cancer and for that matter, I would certainly hope nobody raises her voice for cervical or vaginal cancer. We won't be able to tolerate that.
I want to put again my point very clearly that I am not against a move meant to raise awareness about any disease. Being a medical student, I have seen people dying of such diseases; diseases from which people could have been saved with early diagnosis and prompt treatment. I would welcome anything that in reality raises some awareness for this disease. I only hope that people don't indulge in something that is meaningless, disgraceful or in anyway hurting to somebody (like the brothers and fathers who must have felt emabarrassed with such messages). Hopeful for some meaningful use of facebook next time!!!

{NOTE: The link to the TOI article shows only a part of the published article. I couldn't find the full article on web. One can see the bottom of front page of TOI, 8th Jan. isssue.}

गुरु-शिष्य: बदलते रिश्ते!

बहुत पहले की बात है. पापा के साथ किन्हीं के घर गया था. मालूम नहीं था कौन थे वो. अभी भी अच्छी तरह से नहीं याद. पापा ने बताया था उनके कोई शिक्षक थे. कोई ४० साल पुराने. सुनकर बड़ा अजीब लगा था. ४० साल पुराने शिक्षक के साथ सम्बन्ध आज भी बने हुए थे. शिक्षक और शिष्यों के बीच रहने वाले सम्बन्ध के बारे में कई बार पापा बता चुके थे. किस्सा सुनाया करते थे कुछ शिक्षकों का जिनके सड़क से गुजरने वक़्त उनके शिष्य साइकिल से उतरकर किनारे खड़े हो जाया करते थे.

अक्सर सुनता आया हूँ किस तरह पुराने दिनों में शिक्षकों को सम्मान मिला करता था. आज मै भी कॉलेज का विद्यार्थी हूँ. कुछ सालो में शायद खुद भी शिक्षक बन जाऊँगा. जब उन सारे कहानियों के बारे में सोचता हूँ तो यही लगता है कि क्या वो सारी बाते सच में कहानियों तक ही सीमित रह गयी हैं. आज के समय में हम अपने शिक्षकों को वो सम्मान तो बिल्कुल ही नहीं दे रहे और ये आशा रखना कि हमारे शिक्षक बनने पर हमें वो सम्मान मिलेगा, ये बेमानी ही होगी.

वो समय कुछ और था जब शायद लोग गुरु जी को उनके नाम से पुकारते तक नहीं थे. मास्टर साहब बोल कर ही काम चलाया जाता था. कोई दबाव नहीं था मास्टर साहब बोलने का. बात अंतरात्मा से ही निकलती थी. उसके बाद समय आया जब गुरु जी को नाम से पुकारा जाने लगा. नाम के आगे सर या मैडम लगा दिया जाता था जो सम्मानसूचक हुआ करते थे. अगर मात्रा में देखा जाए तो सम्मान पहले से कमा था मगर फिर भी एक critical value से ऊपर ही था. आज का समय है. हम अपने गुरु जी को न नाम से पुकारते हैं ना ही सर या मैडम जैसे कोई संबोधन का प्रयोग करते हैं. आज के समय में झा जी झउआ बन गए हैं, सिंह जी सिंघवा, मंडल जी मंडलवा और तिवारी जी तिवरिया. जिनके उपनाम ऐसे हैं जिन्हें इस प्रकार से सुशोभित नहीं किया जा सकता उन लोगो के नामो का ही उपयोग कर लिया जाता है. सुधीर सुधिरवा बन जाते हैं और रीता रितिया. कुछ लोगो के नाम ऐसे होते हैं जिसके किसी भाग को ही इस तरह सुशोभित करना मुश्किल ये विचारनीय. बात है वाले गुरुओं के लिए सरवा या मैडमिया ही काफी होता है. ऐसे संबोधन मात्र से पता चल सकता है कि हम आज के समय में कितना सम्मान अपने ग्रोन के लिए रखते हैं.

बदलाव आया है. गुरु-शिष्य संबंधों में गिरावट ही आई है. अगर थोड़ी अतिशयोक्ति कि इजाज़त दी जाये तो ये कहना चाहूँगा कि गुरु-शिष्य सम्बन्ध अब नदारद ही हो चुके हैं. बदलाव सच में आया है जो गिरावट के शक्ल में दिख रहा है. अब बदलाव आया है तो कुछ कारण तो होगा ही. परिवर्तन संसार का नियम है; गीता के इस दर्शन का उपयोग मात्र कर के ही हम इस बदलाव को परिभाषित नहीं कर सकते. कही न कही कुछ अंतर तो हुआ जरूर है. ये शिक्षको के बदलते स्तर से जुड़ा है या विद्यार्थियों कि बदलती सोच से ये विचारणीय बात है.

पहले के समय में जो गुरु जी हुआ करते थे उनके पास ज्ञान का भण्डार हुआ करता था. ऐसा नहीं है कि आज के समय में शिक्षको को ज्ञान की कमी है, मगर उस ज्ञान को बाटने कि क्षमता और योग्यता जितनी पुराने शिक्षको में थी उतनी शायद आज नहीं रह गयी है. विद्यार्थी भी शायद अब पहले से ज्यादा आज़ाद हो गए हैं. Competition के इस युग में शायद उनकी निर्भरता अपने शिक्षको पर से कम गयी है. self-study का बोलबाला बढ़ गया है और इसके फैलने से शिक्षको कि महत्ता में खासी कमी आ गयी है.

सम्मान उनके लिए ही मन में आता है जो कि हमारे लिए कुछ सकारात्मक लेकर आते हैं. मानव स्वभाव है ये. हम उनको ही सम्मान देते हैं जिनसे हमें कुछ फायदा होता है.आज के समय में विद्यार्थियों को शायद शिक्षको से कोई फायदा नहीं मिल रहा. भाग दौड़ के इस युग में सब एक रेस में लगे हुए हैं. आगे निकल जाने की, सब को पछार देने की एक होड़ लगी हुई है. इस होड़ में विद्यार्थी को खुद से ज्यादा किसी पर भरोसा नहीं है. देखा जाए तो ये गलत भी नहीं है. खुद से ज्यादा वैसे भी किसी पर भरोसा नहीं करना चाहिए. अपने तकदीर के निर्धारक हम खुद हैं. इसे निर्धारित करने के लिए हमें किसी की जरूरत नहीं. ये कह कर शायद मैं विद्यार्थियों को justify कर रहा हूँ. शायद मैं यही कह रहा हूँ की दोष किसी का नहीं है, समय की आवश्यकता है ये बदलाव. हो सकता है आज मै एक विद्यार्थी हूँ और इसी हैसियत से ही लिख रहा हूँ. इसलिए विद्यार्थियों के पक्ष में ज्यादा लिखा है. कुछ साल बाद जब खुद एक शिक्षक बनू तो शायद उचित सम्मान न मिल पाने की झुंझलाहट में इसी ब्लॉग पर शिक्षको की और से भी कुछ विचार लिख सकू। खैर अभी के लिए इतने पर ही विचार काफी है।

ये मैं हूँ, एक हिन्दुस्तानी!

आज बड़े भाई का जन्मदिन है। माँ को लेकर महावीर मंदिर गया था। पटना जंक्शन पर जो भी आये होंगे उन्होंने बहार निकलने के बाद भूके-नंगे भिकडियोँ के अलावा सबसे पहले इस मंदिर को ही देखा होगा। थोड़ा और आगे जायेंगे तो चौराहे पर चाचा नेहरु खडे मिलेंगे। हाथ में सफ़ेद कबूतर लिए हुए। जब से होश संभाला है चाचा को वही खड़ा पाया है। बचपन में सोचता था कि शायद नेहरु जी को कबूतरों से बहुत लगाव था इसलिए उसे लेकर खड़े हैं। बाद में कबूतर उड़ाने का सही मतलब समझ आया। पहले देखने का नजरिया ही नहीं था। २३ साल इस दुनिया में भटका तो थोड़ी बहुत परिपक्वता आई और अब किसी भी चीज को देखता हूँ तो सोचने को मजबूर हो जाता हूँ। थोड़ा अवलोकन और थोड़ा विश्लेषण समय के साथ आदमी सीख ही जाता है। अभी समय और भी है इसलिए सीखने कि प्रक्रिया चलती ही रहेगी।
२ महीने पहले उसी चौराहे को १४ नवम्बर कि तैयारी के लिए काफी सजाया गया था। चाचा को नहलाया धुलाया गया था। शायद चेहरे को पोलिश भी किया गया हो। चाचा चमक रहे थे। जीवंत प्रतीत हो रहे थे। फूल मालाएं पहनाई गयी, बल्ब-रोशनियाँ लगायी गयी थी। आज दो महीने बाद उसी प्रतिमा में वो फूल-मालाएं वैसे ही लटके हुए थे। फर्क इतना था कि वे अब सूख चुके थे। चमकता चेहरा अब धूमिल हो गया था और चिड़ियों के प्रसाद से सुशोभित हो रहा था। ज्यादा बताने कि जरुरत नहीं कि वो प्रसाद क्या है। चाह रहा था कि एक तस्वीर भी लगा सकूँ इस ब्लॉग पर मगर साथ में कैमरा न था। शायद बाद में कभी लगाऊं। वैसे लगाने कि जरुरत भी नहीं है। ये कोई नयी बात नहीं है। विशेषतया पटना की बात हो या नेहरु की मूर्ति के साथ ही ऐसा होता हो, ये भी नहीं है। ये तस्वीर भारत के हर शहर हर गाँव की है। हर महान व्यक्ति के साथ यही सुलूक होता है।
कुछ दिन पहले केन्द्रीय राज्य मत्री श्री शशि थरूर ने नेहरु जी के विदेश नीति पे कुछ टिपण्णी की थी जो हमारे राजनेताओं को पसंद नहीं आई थी। अखबारों ने उस टिप्पणी को काफी तवज्जो दी थी। पहले पन्ने का बड़ा भाग उस खबर को गया था। थरूर जी को इस टिप्पणी के लिए प्रधान मंत्री को स्पष्टीकरण भी देना पड़ा।
ये अलग मामला है कि क्या थरूर सही थे। विस्तार में बाद में कभी। मगर यहाँ ये जरूर कहना चाहता हूँ कि समय के साथ सब बदलता है। आन्तरिक नीतियों को न भी बदला जाये तो कोई बात नहीं मगर विदेश नीतियाँ समय के अनुसार ही चलनी चाहिए क्यूंकि उनके निर्धारक सिर्फ हम नहीं बल्कि "विदेश" भी है जो समय के साथ बदल रहे हैं। बहरहाल...
नेहरु जी कि उसी नीति की द्योतक यह प्रतिमा आज जिस हालत में शहर के बीचो बिच खड़ी है उसे देख कर यही लगता है कि राजनेताओं का वो नेहरु प्रेम कही न कही एक छलावा ही था। अखबारों को थरूर कि टिप्पणी पर टिप्पणी करने का समय आसानी से मिल गया मगर इस प्रतिमा तक किसी की नजर तक नहीं गयी। गयी भी हो तो क्या। इसमें मसाला कहाँ है, विवाद कहाँ है। मसाला नहीं, विवाद नहीं तो TRP नहीं। TRP नहीं तो न्यूज़ नहीं। आज की मीडिया TRP तक ही सीमित रह गयी है। समाज सुधारक का वो काम जो उनके जिम्मे है वो कही दूर रह गया है।
मीडिया को दोषी ठहराना और राजनेताओं के उदासीन रवैये पर ऐतराज जता देना ही क्या हमारा कर्त्तव्य है। क्या हमारी कोई जिम्मेदारी नहीं बनती। मुझको ही ले लीजिये। मैंने उस मूर्ति को देखा, देख कर सोचा। सोचा तो मन उदास हुआ। फिर भी मैं आगे बढ़ा। रुक नहीं सकता था, पीछे कि गाड़ियों के होर्न से कान फटा जा रहा था। घर लौटने कि तरफ आगे बढ़ा तो थोड़ी दूर पर एक ऑटो वाले ने गाड़ी के बिल्कुल करीब से ही अपना ऑटो आगे बढ़ा लिया। नेहरु जी कि शांति नीति के बारे में सोचते हुए कुछ सेकंड ही गुजरे थे, शायद मन में तब भी वही चल रहा था। मगर उस ऑटो वाले कि उस हरकत को देखते ही शांति गयी तेल लेने और दिल में उसके लिए सम्मान के दो चार शब्द (F... words वाले) अपने आप आ गए। आगे बढ़ता गया। गाड़ी का होर्न बजता गया। पैदल और रिक्शों को पिछाड़ता हुआ होर्न कि आवाज में मशगूल हो शांति को भूल ही गया।
ये मैं हूँ। मैं जो अपने आप को हिन्दुस्तानी कहता हूँ। भारत का मतलब नहीं जानता और कहता हूँ कि भारत महान है। सीना चौड़ा करके कहता हूँ I PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN! ये मैं हूँ, एक हिन्दुस्तानी!

कुछ यूँ ही!

काफी दिनों से ये ब्लॉग बिना किसी हलचल के रुका हुआ था। इन दिनों में कई ऐसे विषय सामने आये जिसपे कुछ लिखने का मन हुआ पर लिख न पाया। फिल्मो में रूचि होने के कारण ही शायद 3 Idiots इन सभी विषयों में सबसे ऊपर था। फिल्म देख कर काफी अच्छा लगा, खैर इसके बारे में बाद में विस्तार से कभी। इसी फिल्म कि कहानी को लेकर हुए विवाद पर भी कुछ लिखना चाहा था पर लिख न पाया। MBBS अंतिम वर्ष कि परीक्षा चल रही है और ये एक बड़ा कारण है कि मैं कुछ लिखने के प्रति ज्यादा समय नहीं दे पाया। मगर जहाँ तक समय देने की बात का सवाल है तो ये तर्क मेरे कुछ न लिखने के लिए कतई सही नही हो सकता क्यूंकि इसी बीच में मैंने अपने इसी ब्लॉग में कई तरह के बदलाव भी किये। हो सकता था कि इन बदलावों में लगाए गए समय को मैं किसी ज्यादा सृजनात्मक कार्य, जैसे ब्लॉग लिखने, में लगा सकता था मगर ब्लॉग लिखना मेरे लिए सिर्फ समय देना ही नहीं बल्कि अपनी सोच को शब्द देना भी है जिसमे दिमाग का काफी इस्तेमाल होता है। परीक्षा के समय पढ़ाई के अलावा दिमाग को कही और लगाना शायद अनुचित होता इसलिए मैंने न ही लिखने का निर्णय किया।
बहरहाल जैसा की मैंने पहले कहा की इन दिनों इस ब्लॉग पर कुछ बदलाव किये गए हैं जिनका ज्यादातर सम्बन्ध इसकी प्रतीति से ही है। ब्लॉग template के अलावा २-३ gadgets जोड़े गए हैं जिनका कोई ख़ास मतलब नहीं है मगर बस यूँ ही। आशा है ये बदलाव पढ़ने वालो को आकर्षित करेंगे।
परीक्षा के बावजूद भी कुछ समय इन्टरनेट के लिए निकल ही जाता था और आजकल इन्टरनेट पर प्राथमिकताओ में सबसे ऊपर twitter रहा। अपना twitter link दे रहा हूँ, अगर चाहें तो उस सफ़र में भी साथी बन सकते हैं। twitter के बारे में सबसे अच्छी जो चीज मुझे लगी वो है काफी कम समय में अपने विचारो को आप व्यक्त कर सकते हैं। मेरे जैसे लोगो के लिए जिन्हें ब्लॉग में ज्यादा समय दे पाना मुश्किल हो जाता है या जो आलस की वजह से कई बार कुछ विषयो पर लिखने की सोचने के बावजूद लिख नहीं पाते उनके लिए twitter का microblogging एक ज्यादा आरामदायक और संतोषजनक सफ़र है। ब्लॉग और tweet में टेस्ट क्रिकेट और २०-२० का ही सम्बन्ध है और टेस्ट क्रिकेट की तरह ही ब्लॉग भी सदा सभी की प्राथमिकताओं में ऊपर ही रहेंगे।
twitter के अलावा इन दिनों मेरा आकर्षण हिंदी ब्लॉग की तरफ भी कुछ बढ़ा। रविश कुमार और मनोज जी के ब्लॉग पढ़ के काफी अच्छा लगा। बिहारी होने के गर्व का एहसास हुआ और हिंदी में कुछ लिखने की प्रेरणा भी मिली। शायद आगे चलकर हिंदी में कुछ ज्यादा लिख सकूँगा और फिल्मों के अलावा भी कई विषयों पर अपने विचार रख पाऊँगा।

My 50th Post...................PAA...

Its been again a long time since my last post. Was genuinely busy with studies for my final MBBS exams. Anyways, I was going through my blog one day when I noticed I had already posted 49 posts and next one was to be my 50th one. Here it comes, my 50th post in a time of 20 months (of course, not a good speed but is OK with me presently). This is about the new release I recently saw............PAA..
Paa, the latest release in bollywood is a much promoted and and as much praised movie. Having seen promos of the movie so many times on the TV with a large-headed, wrinkled, old-looking, young boy dancing his favourite monkey dance with everybody else had created much interest inside me as to what and how the movie is actually like. It was already known to us that this boy was suffering from an extremely rare genetic disorder of premature accelerated aging called Progeria. This was sufficient in itself for anybody to make an idea that the film was going to focus on the gloomy life of such a challenged child (maybe something like Taare Zameen Par did for dyslexia) but let me clear at this very opportunity that the movie was nothing like that. What I had thought of it to be like, it wasn't. Anyways...
The movie is directed by ad-maker R Balki, who comes with this straight after Cheeni-Kum. The two movies are not similar in any way yet they have some similarities, the biggest one being the witty humour of the two movies. Paa stars Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Arundhati Nag, Paresh Rawal and introduces Amitabh Bachchan (as given in opening credits). The movie starts with the name AB Corp Ltd, a quite surprising name to see indeed. Already knowing Abhishek and Amitabh are in the movie and the name of ABCL being associated with it, one very innocently think why Jaya and Aishwarya are not in it and in comes Mrs. Jaya Bachchan with her ever smiling, ever fresh face reading out the opening credits; of course a fresh idea of sorts but fails to create much magic for someone like me and for many others it was like why really.
The movie is about a child (Amitabh) who is witty, is intelligent, lives with his unwed mother (Vidya Balan), and in the end brings his separated (well before his birth) parents (Abhishek and Vidya) together. The same age-old saga in the form of both of them pursuing their studies at the Cambridge when they come together, have an affair, she becomes pregnant, he refuses to marry for his upcoming career and she decides to give birth to the child. They both are separated for 14 long years when he somehow meets his son. These two don't know about their relationship, become friends and ultimately the ailing child brings his parents together in form of his last wish. Well, this is all about the plot of the movie; nothing special, nothing new in it.
Anything else in the movie from this looked merely as a fill up to complete the timeline specified for a normal family drama in bollywood and was nothing but crap or shit! Abhishek plays a new-age politician/MP who is made to make one think of someone like Rahul Gandhi with a bright vision of future India, who move from house to house and meets common people, sits with them, talks to them and works to cure all their problems. For a film that is based on politics, his is a great protagonist role but I wonder what a character like him is doing in this very film. I think this part of his character that is a politician's, was stretched too far fo comfort. Moreover, he was too good to be a politician in India. He looked more like Mr. India or Superman, the messiah of sufferers or something like that. Some parts of the film like Abhishek's fight against the mediaperson was completely wasteful and indigestible.
The character of Auro, the progeriac child (Amitabh) with his great sense of humour, his innocence, childish yet mature activities was the real entertainer. It won the hearts of many and man! what did Big B do with this character. Despite being his fan, I had not expected this sort of performance from him. For me, this very performance was at the top with his performances in films like Sholay, Deewar or Zanjeer. With this, I think, he adds one more dimension to his already multi-dimensional career. One of the most illustrious careers in world cinema, I think, gets completed with this very role. In fact, it was this character and his performance that made me complete the movie otherwise I would have gone out of the theatre much before the end.
Vidya Balan as Auro's mom has looked beautiful and so has she performed. The best part for me was her look, where she looked gorgeous as the lover at Cambridge, she was mature too as Auro's mom. I have been an admirer of her acting right from Parineeta and this time too she fulfills well my expectations. Arundhati Nag as Vidya's mom is being praised for good work in some reviews that I went through. For me she was not impressive at all. I was completely disappointed in her. Paresh Rawal as Abhishek's father reminded me of his own role in Cheeni-Kum. The bechara baap!!!
Music by Illayaraja was OK, sometimes touching your heart sometimes not so, reminding many a times of Cheeni-Kum again. The direction was good. With screenplay I had serious problems. I have already mentioned some parts feeling like fill-ups, I was wondering why exactly there was so much of politics in that. The media-sequence was really bad both concept-wise and presentation-wise. It looked more like Ram Gopal Vemra films (that too the forgettable ones).
All in all, apart from Auro and Amitabh there is nothing in this movie to look for. Can watch it only for Amitabh's performance!!!

Recently Watched: from Bollywood

This time of the year has been very hectic for the last three years for me. I have been busy these days preparing for my final MBBS exam and hopefully these will be the last of those. Well, alongwith the exhaustive studies these days, as usual, movies haven't quite dried up for me. Every such time, frequency of my watching movies are quite high and this time it is simply at the top level in my lifetime till date. Movies almost at a rate of 1.5 movies for past 20 days or so are in no way infrequent. The variety of movies is also quite staggering that includes both Hindi and English movies, both first-timers and revised, of varied jenres and well of completely different moods. This post will be about some of the Hindi ones.

Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani: There is no particular reason to start with this very film. Anyways, this is a kiddish comedy directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi who holds the credit of seriously serious films like Damini, Ghayal, Ghatak, Lajja etc and for him to direct this comedy was a bit strange. Having said this, one is compelled to remeber Andaaz Apna Apna by him too and what a comedy that was. There was something common in between 'Andaaz...' and 'Ajab...'. The kind of comedy in both these films are quite similar, you go, you watch, don' think much, and just enjoy. Being somewhat kiddish no doubt, it was completely different from the kind of comedy being served to us these days by films like No Entry or Partner or Golmaal (of course the Ajay Devgan version) and Golmaal Returns. Today, mostly what we are getting in the name of comedy is a bunch of non-veg jokes with sexuality at its central theme. At such a time, APKGK brings us a refreshing, clean, with-the-family, cartoonish comedy which, as far as I am concerned, I enjoyed completely. So, not highly recommended but easily tolerable.

Ardh Satya: It is quite strange for even me to follow APKGK with this Govind Nihalani directed 1983 masterpiece starring Om Puri and Smita Patil. The two films are literally antonyms to each other in each and every respect. Where APKGK is a sheer comedy, this one is a damn serious movie. Being a well decorated film from India's golden era of parallel cinema, this has to be special. Its about the internal conflicts of the protangonist both as a police officer and as a human being. I won't deny the fact that there were some parts of the movie that I was not able to understand completely, yet overall, I could make out of it that this has to be one highly recommended movie for everybody. The story, the direction, the dialogues, the performances everything is just perfect. One special mention to Om Puri's performance, HATS OFF to you sir!!!

Sarfarosh: After already having watched it so many times, I still went up for it and was as overwhelmed as I was 10 yrs back when I first watched it. Personally speaking, this movie is something special for me. It gave me my superstar in form of Aamir Khan. I watched it, I liked it, I became his fan and I still am.

Black and White: Just a random selection, was on my too-watch list for quite some time. A strange movie, only this is what I have to say about it, a strange movie! Never expected Subhash Ghai to direct such a film. I knew that this film was his production but after watching it completely I rechecked for the director and found it to be Mr. Ghai himself. Well, this is about a suicidal terrorist attack. So many movies have been made on this topic now and this one is not different except it has no "दूध मांगोगे खीर देंगे कश्मीर मांगोगे चिर देंगे" kind of offensive dialogues against Pakistan and it has no "कोई माँ की कोख से आतंकवादी बन कर नही पैदा होता" kind of cliched concept. All in all, a good one!!!

Shaurya: Where having Rahul Bose in the lead role is enough for anybody to expect a high class performance, if you are given alongwith him Kaykay Menon and a serious version of Javed Jafffey, it had to be fantastic performance-wise. Again, recommended!!!

Haasil: I thought not to write about it yet I am doing this because this needs one special mention. I have not felt a more drastic transition of my feelings for a movie from more than very good to extremely bad as I felt with this one. After such a promising half an hour of student politics, it suddenly changes into a dirty game of love and lust and even good performances from Ashutosh Rana, Irrfaan or Jimmy Shergill couldn't save this one.

Alongwith these movies there were several others that I watched but I don't really feel like writing this time. Maybe some other time, I might be writing but here a passing mention of their names:
Sorry Bhai, Bawarchi, Jashnn, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Mithya, Wanted, No Entry, Bandit Queen etc.

Disclaimer: I have not written about these movies doesn't mean that I didn't like them. Some of them, I really liked and others were just useless.

"The Death of Indian Democracy"

Recently, the results of the assembly elections of three states are announced and as was being speculated, Congress won the elections at all the three places. Where in Arunachal and Haryana, Congress won with its head high after performing well in the last term, in Maharashtra, the victory for Congress didn't come due to their performance at the helm rather it came besides its performance which in no way was up to the mark.
Congress was up there in the government in Maharashtra for the last two consecutive terms amounting to a total of 10 yrs. There was a complete list of failures for the govt which were going against them and included the suicides of farmers, the meagre situation of electricity, the hiking prices, the terrorist attacks, and above all a double anti-incumbency. Despite all these factors and many more others, Congress led alliance managed to get the majority seats in the elections and are again forming a government for the next five years.
Watching the performance of the government the result of the elections must be bewildering but when seeking the answer to this bewilderment comes into the mind one question, whether it is Congress' victory or BJP's loss. Now, this is a very important question to be answered in the context of democracy in India. A government that has failed on all the posts for 10 consecutive years, if manages to be in power again is a serious question in itself to the democracy.
In a democracy, the government is, no doubt, important but the more important aspect is the opposition. Being people's rule, Democracy is not only about government being formed by people's representatives, but it also has to have a machinery that makes the government answerable to the public and this machinery is what we call the Opposition. In the path of constructiveness, criticism is the best guide. This makes opposition as responsible as and some times even more than the government itself.
In Maharashtra, if the 10 yrs of Congress governance have been bad the opposition is even worse. Except for protesting against the north indians, the opposition (paticularly Shiv Sena) have never been seen bothered about the policies of the government. If this was the scene in Shiv Sena, the other pillar of the opposition in Maharashtra, the BJP have been in a phase that is probably the worst in its lifetime. The internal conflicts that came so superficially in the party after the General Elections debacle has started to show its consequences. Losing Rajasthan, getting only 4 seats in Haryana and now failing to grab the golden chance of anti-incumbency in Maharashtra have all exposed the real status of BJP as a national party. Going with this speed, maybe I am exaggerating somewhat, in the next decade we are only going to see BJP as a party restricted to states like Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh only.
The most disheartening thing about results of this election has been the response of BJP to this loss. They have hit a new low for their standards here in being bad losers. Having lost such an opportunity, BJP is still not ready to admit to its failure. An important top national leader of the party Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, after the loss, is found on a national news channel saying that this EVM, the electronic voting machine, has become electronic victory machine. I don't know what he really meant by saying this. If he was raising the question of some technical faults then why not his party has got any benefits anywhere; are these faults predujicially engineered in favour of the Congress, I don't really understand. If this was not what he meant then it must be a question on the Election Commission itself and then it is even worse a situation.
The failure of the opposition to cash in on a golden opportunity like this and then not admitting to its failure is nothing but its failure in imparting its duty to the motto of Democracy. If this remains the scene in the country all the times, it really is nothing but The Death of Indian Democracy.

Inside Man

As far as my taste of movies are concerned, I am a big fan of suspense thrillers and have seen most of the films in bollywood of that genre and some of them from hollywood also (mostly the murder mysteries and the famous 50s 0r 60s black noirs). This film, Inside Man, is again a suspense thriller directed by Spike Lee but this time its about a bank robbery i.e. a perfect bank robbery.
There are times after watching such movies when I am left spellbound but watching this movie for the first time some 10-11 months back I was not only spellbound but was completely shocked. Since then I am thinking of writing something on this but everytime before starting I watch it once again and something interesting happens to me regarding my view on this film. This change of my views is so drastic that presently I am holding a view that is completely contrary to what I had when I first watched it. Well if that happens to everybody I simply don't know but this is a very regular affair with me. Very recently, I watched 'Perfect Stranger' and wrote a full blog of praise on that and now when I think of that movie, my opinion is a lot different than what was written by me.
Anyways, coming to Inside Man, I have already said about my experience when I first watched it. I was so overwhelmed by the movie that I right away watched it again. I was completely shocked right from the start of the movie. The movie started off with the audio of famous hindi song 'Chhaiya Chhaiya' in the opening credits. I was so shocked that I stopped and checked whether I was watching the right movie or not and found out that it really started with that and then provoked me to browse and search for details of this song on internet and found out that in an international poll conducted by BBC about most popular songs of the world it was 9th in the list.
Coming back to the movie again, the opening scene with Clive Owen introducing his character Dalton Russell was a terrific scene. What followed was some 2 hours of terrific screenplay and a suspense that was enough for raising goosebumps on several occasions. It looked to me a completely different movie with something really great in it. In very short, this was how I felt about the movie at the first sight.
Nevertheless, as I went on watching it again and again, my opinion kept changing. Now, when I think of it, it only looks to me as yet another Hollywood movie with NYPD and some private agent engaged in denying a holocaust; something like Volcano or Men In Black or Mission Impossible or the ever famous in India, Spiderman to name a few. Well in these cases there is somebody fighting against some paranormal power in order to save the city as well as his own pride. Inside Man also seems to be one such thing with one difference that here there is no paranormal power to fight with but again you have a paranormal plan of a bank robbery to deal with. You again have a hostage situation, NYPD officially entitled to deal with it but a private detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is there whose job is at stake and has to crack this case in order to revive his career as well as marry his girlfriend and above all you have the extraordinary robbery going on.
These are only small points that I could recollect about this movie. All in all, for a first timer it is quite an entertainer as a suspense thriller. Clive Owen and Denzel Washington are good at their job. Jodie Foster' character is a waste and others have very little to do with this. Full points to the story and screenplay and direction is also above par.
For somebody who doesn't believe in putting much thought into movies, it is a great experience but somebody like me who thinks what was good or bad about the movie this is just another hollywood flick.

Wake Up Sid!!!

These days in bollywood, its becoming a fashion now for established producers to give break to new directors, the new age ones with serious talents and for these new age directors it again has become a fashion to bring to us a movie based upon the life of 21st generation youth, about their aimlessness in life, about their kinda weird approach to relations and towards themselves.
Now, since this is becoming a fashion it is getting somewhat stereotyped in bollywood for such movies. You have a handsome young guy in his cotton printed t-shirts and jeans, spending hours and hours in front of his Apple laptops and loves to feel the breeze over his face from the window and roof pan of his Honda CR-V and when asked about what he does, his reply is "I spend my papa's money." Now, to go with this son-of-a-rich-man, there has to be some rich man as his father to take care of the bills of his credit cards and who has, obviously, yet another story of starting his career with a ten rupees note in his pocket. Then, as he is worried about his son, the relationship between them is not a perfect one and hence as a link between the father and the son there has to be a cute sweet mom who wants to be her son's friend by speaking her tooti-footi Hinglish. To go with all of these there must be one chhotu to pull the curtains off in the morning when the sun rays starts disturbing that guy in his sleep; some friends at the college to pass his time off and make use of his credit card and above all one lady who is career oriented, has her ambitions in life and changes that guy, makes a man out of that boy.
Well, this story must have been looking like the first half of Lakshya but wait, this is Wake Up Sid, first-timer Ayan Mukherji directed new release from Karan Johar. This is the story about this stereotypical character Sid, Siddharth Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) who says "who cares about tomorrow" and why should he if he has credit cards in the pocket whose bills are being paid without problems by his father. This wikipedia article gives the synopsis of the plot.
Even if the movie is a stereotyped bollywood new age film, it is fresh and doesn't bore you. The acting from everybody is simply perfect. Ranbeer is improving with every film and Konkana, with every film it seems that she has given her best but in the next one she simply outperforms herself and thats what she has done here too. It seems that if sometime she does underperform in some film then it would be the top breaking news on AAJ TAK. Anyways, Supriya Pathak, the Konkona of early 80s, looked too cute and sweet as the mom. Anupam Kher as the father is brilliant, of course, it is also obvious for him. The debutant director Ayan Mukheji's work is highly appreciable and for Karan Johar, I think its better to get out of Shahrukh's shade. I think he was ruining himself with Shahrukh Khan and his style of even more stereotyped bollywood dramas.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is refreshing and youthful. All the songs are beautiful and the one 'Iktara' composed by guest composer Amit Trivedi, the emotional atyachar fame, is the best for me. And then, once again, another of the 'stereotypes' of today's bollywood, you have some old numbers playing every once and often in the film and no prizes in guessing, yes, Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Ye is again there but this time with this there are some others also that includes Hemant Kumar's ever-beautiful 'Na Tum Hame Jano.'
All in all, a good movie that worths watching............................................

Perfect Stranger

Perfect Stranger is a 2007 murder mystery starring Halle Barry and Bruce Willis. Going into the film, I had no idea what it is all about except that it had Halle Barry. Being frank enough, I was searching for some erotic scenes on Youtube and Berry was just a random choice from a whole bunch of Hollywood actress. I got to find some scenes involving her though not so erotic ones. From a not-so-large list of scenes I finally randomly selected Perfect Stranger and thats how I got to find this movie.
'Perfect Stranger' is about a secret and about how far one can go to keep a secret a secret. It is a suspense thriller with Halle as Rowena Price, an undercover journalist busy in getting interesting news involving secrets of some of the most influential people of the society. Dejected by the rejection of one of her such stories due to the infulence of that 'influential people', she leaves her job and incidentally meets her childhood friend Grace Clayton (Nicki Aycox) who hands her another interesting story about advertisement tycoon Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) whom she is dating with. After a few days, Grace is found brutally poisoned with belladona and then Rowena with her associate Miles (Giovanni Ribisi), a professional technobrat, starts her operation against Harrison Hill in order to collect the evidences related to Grace's murder and to prove that Hill is the offender. And with it, starts the whole series of physical and internet chat room disguises and leads to a highly convoluted storyline with a shockingly surprising ending that is worth kept secret at this place. I would certainly like everybody to watch it and experience the suspense themselves.
Well for me, the movie was a real good experience. I, being a fan of suspense thrillers, liked it very much. The acting by different actors is awesome and for me Ribisi as Miles, the hacker has done the best job with his role. The background score keeps very well alive the essence of a thriller. With the story line, there have been several reviews at different places like NY times, Metacritic, Rotten tomatoes etc. describing it as too convoluted to be good. Well, I was completely surprised by the story itself in the first place as I watched the movie but this comment in the reviews and the generally negative reviews were even more surprising for me. For me, it was just as much convoluted as a murder mystery should be.
Well, whike watching, I was being reminded of Basic Instinct sometimes but was only because these both are murder mysteries. Where Perfect Stranger is more about the mystery and secret, Basic Instinct looked more about sex and perversions much like the thrillers we have here in bollywood especially in recent years with either Imraan Hashmi or Mallika Sherawat or even sometimes both of these. Anyways, Perfect Sranger was undoubtedly better than both Basic Instinct and its bollywood counterparts.
I don't really understand what actually caused such a negative review about the movie but in my opinion this movie worths watching.......................