Nadal is a great champion!

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Many of you who are aware of my die hard fan-dom for Federer, might wonder about the title of this post. But really, I needed to make this point clear.

I do not dislike Nadal. Far from it. In fact, I believe strongly that Nadal is a fantastic tennis player, and an amazing human being. He is a great champion too.

When I have gone out and defended Federer, it is not about Federer vs Nadal, but about Federer alone. Whether he should retire, whether he is falling from grace, whether his best days are behind him, whether he deserves to be on the circuit or not, these and such questions have come from different people, about Federer. And I have had my strong pro-Federer sentiments in all of these discussions.

But that is at no time, to say that I do not think much of Nadal.

Indeed, Nadal is an outstanding player, and his achievements so far, are a great testimony of his talents. Also I have read few things about his childhood, about his conservative upbringing, and his excellent value system. And that makes me feel very good about Nadal, the person as well.

If Nadal were to get injured tomorrow and not play any more tennis in life, he would have still reserved his place among the champions of the game. He has done enough to be placed with the many great champions of the game, like Becker, Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, etc.

But to be considered in the stratospheric space that is currently occupied by very few, viz. Federer, Samparas, Rod Laver and those grandest of them all, Nadal has a way to go. And God willing, at the rate he is going, he will join this select space too. But he is not quite there just yet.

And it is not about statistics alone. It is the impact left on the sport. The length of time for which the player has dominated the sport. And things of that kind.

So Nadal will probably get in to that select group. And I will be one of the first to applaud that position. Meanwhile let us enjoy his game, and his personality. Not being a tennis brat, and dominating the game, he can be a great influence on young and budding players.

Cheers to Nadal!

Follow up post: what finally happened to my Lenovo Netbook

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Uncategorized
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I had ranted about the hard time that I had with Lenovo, when my Netbook had some problems, and it was impossible to get service from Lenovo.

I was extremely upset and I had gone and shared these emotions across multiple social media platforms. Besides this blog post, I had posted on my Facebook page, tweeted extensively about it, and also tweeted to many specific Lenovo accounts, both from India as well as outside India. And what happened after that?

I had a whole host of responses to the Facebook update and my tweets. From friends and others who saw the tweets. And ALL of them, bar none, either sympathized and encouraged me to go to consumer court or thereabouts, or added their own sorry tales, working with Lenovo.

I figured that the brand selection had been wrong!!

There were other responses to the Facebook update. Two of my Facebook friends had good connections inside Lenovo, and offered to put up my case to the higher levels at Lenovo. And which they did.

Soon enough, on the one side, I got an email that my case was being attended to, on priority, and I also got a phone call from Bangalore. A person calling from the company asked me to give them one more chance to repair the machine.

I had been quite clear that I did not want more experimentation on my netbook, and I had demanded that the machine be replaced or I be given a full refund.

This person from Bangalore said that he had understood the details of the matter, and he needed someone to get only about 15 minutes with the machine, and it will be fixed. I agreed to give them one last chance to work on the PC, under the condition that should it now not be settled, than I only want a replacement or refund. He stuck his neck out and agreed to my condition.

Sure enough, the person came by next day, and sure enough, he fixed the Netbook, in a matter of a few minutes too!! And he needed no CD or DVD that the other person was frantically looking for and failing to get!

So the Lenovo Netbook is back in working condition. On email, the company asked me to now write a good feedback!! That was of course, high expectations! I was on the verge of going to consumer redressal forums, and if they saved me a trip there, it certainly did not merit a ‘good feedback’ now! And I told her in so many words!

Having said that, although my machine is back in working condition, lot of questions remain unanswered:

1. If not for the intervention of my friends, would I have got the service that I ultimately got?

2. Are customers of Lenovo products expected to have such connections? And if they don’t, they can kiss good service goodbye??

3. Does Lenovo have pathetic service representatives or what? What were they struggling for so long, for a CD, which ultimately was not required at all?

4. Is restarting a simple netbook PC, where I was okay to let the disk be formatted again if required, such a big deal??

5. What they finally understood, from a remote location of Bangalore, that the machine could be fixed in a matter of 15 minutes, why could someone NOT understand this, even with a PC in their hands here in Mumbai??

6. Does Lenovo service believe only in kicking the customer around, giving excuses, losing time, no matter if the customer does not get the use of his PC in the meantime?!

Overall, I was certainly NOT satisfied with the level of service that I got from Lenovo. I have a working machine now, but just that. I am going to pray that it does not give my any more trouble as this kind of run around is not my idea of fun at all!

And at the end, I would NOT recommend anyone to purchase a Lenovo product. Period!

Why You Should Never Buy A Lenovo Product Ever!!

Posted: September 6, 2010 in Uncategorized
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This is wisdom in hindsight for me, but I would like this to be a warning to anyone who ever considers purchasing a Lenovo product. DON’T. Unless you want to get stressed out, want to throw away good money, want to be frustrated with an incapable and insensitive service team.. you get the idea, don’t you?

I had purchased a Lenovo Netbook in January, 2010. As a regular traveler, this light weight personal computer was my perfect productivity companion, and I depended on it totally, to run my business, from wherever in the world I was.

It had some niggling issues from the beginning.

Most times when I restarted the machine, the specific keys with “function-digit” connect, would go to the numeric mode, without so much as a warning. I would not know why the keys will not work. After a few hours of challenge, I found the answer in some user posts online, and figured this out.

It still beats me though, as to why they would set the machine into the num lock mode, for those letter-digit shared keys, every time I boot up??

The second problem that was faced was that in the sleep mode, the computer would get EXTREMELY HOT. So much so that I needed to keep a kind of insulator between my lap and this machine, else I would get burns!

And the third strange thing that used to happen was that the machine would not work on board a flight?! The hard disk would not be detected in air?! I tried to find answers for this online but never got them. Once I’d land on ground, usually, the machine would restart fine. I could not replicate the problem on ground, and found it very very strange.

Managing with these woes somehow, I continued using this machine. Till I got into a worse problem. This time around, the hard disk detection failed to happen, even on the ground. And this happened at a time, when I was a speaker at a conference, and was totally stuck, on account of being unable to use the PC.

Coming back to office, I was able to access the PC in safe mode, and get some of my data backed up.

After that, it has been ONE LONG SAGA trying to get the machine repaired by Lenovo. It is close to ONE MONTH now, and I remain without this computer.

We sent the PC to their service center. They sent us back. Said that someone will come to the office and repair. Got a case number and all that: Case # 4270053609.

Someone did come in a few days. Tried to fix. Could not do so. Said he needs to come with another Engineer.

Came again, still could not fix. Now said that he needs some CD / optical drive. Took like 15 days, and could not find the CD. Called us to ask if we had it. Nothing had come with the package. So no, we did not have it.

Finally got good news that they found the CD. But it still took 4-5 days for person to come to our office.

Oh, tough luck now.. CD did not work. And they did not have anything else.

Now we are given the internal saga. That they are only a service representative, and this will have to be escalated to Lenovo directly. Ok, do I care what they need to do internally?? And I always thought I was talking to Lenovo anyway!!

Whatever that escalation was, was clearly a slow escalation (so much for ‘escalation’)! Nothing moved for another few days. Now I am told they have found something in Bangalore and it has to be sent to Mumbai. And I am sure they are using snail-mail for the same.

Waiting.. waiting.. more waiting.. :((

Meanwhile IN THE WARRANTY PERIOD, I am without the computer for nearly a month now. On account of expecting the machine to start working soon, I have not gone and purchased a new PC (why should I spend more, when I have already spent on this one? And if I do spend, will Lenovo reimburse??). And due to which reason, on my commutes, and during my travel, I am not able to use my time to work on the computer. And my productivity has suffered tremendously.

Total and complete frustration!

My losses are much higher. But can I expect a refund of the money paid, and then let them take the computer and dump it away if they like.. I will take my business elsewhere. And if they cannot do so, maybe they can give me a fresh new piece, and then I will pray and hope that it just works!

What do you think??

** Update on 6th Sept, 2010 at 10-30 pm **

I had shared my agony as described above, on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Many have confirmed their own impressions on Lenovo to have pathetic service levels.

I also wrote to Lenovo HQ with specific mentions to the Chairman, CEO and Global Services in charge. No response.

In my various tweets, I had included the twitter handle of Lenovo India (@lenovo_in). Not a single response tweet from them. I had also added other Lenovo twitter handles like @LenovoCares (that is a joke, of course!) and others. No response from anyone yet!

A couple of friends with connections in Lenovo, who saw my Facebook post, offered to connect my case to the concerned persons in Lenovo. As a result, on Ms. Poornima Matthan, in charge of communications, wrote back to my friend (I was in cc) saying that they had spotted my blog, and were keen to sort this out at earliest.

But the service center was ill-equipped and incapable, as can be seen from the update I shared with her, at 10-15 pm roughly:

—-

Here’s an update..
– there was NO plan from the service center to sort out my problem today,
– perhaps due to pressure from Lenovo or whatever, they diverted a person who was on another call, all the way from World Trade Center to my office in Govandi
– person reached at 6 pm in the evening
– at the outset, I told him that today was the last day that he had to fix my PC; if not done today, then I do not want any more experiments of repair etc. – only replacement hereafter.
– he worked for an hour or so; found that the CDs he had with him were not the right ones 😦
– said that there was some place in Chembur from where he could get these, and he will come back
– I agreed to allow him to do so
– He went out and returned at 8-45 pm
– I was waiting for him
– He worked on this till 10 pm now
– He could not fix it – said CDs were not correct
– He clarified that these were not original CDs but CDs that were written into, from original CDs
– He also informed that he was to leave the job from this service agency, but he was asked to continue as there was no other service person who could handle these kinds of computers – shows how ill-staffed the agency is

At 10 pm, the service person got me to speak (in all of this one month, for the very first time) to some Ops Manager at his end. The ops manager wanted to send him again tomorrow, and also asked me what the real problem was!!

I refused to have anyone try to repair the piece anymore. I conveyed that Lenovo was INCAPABLE of servicing its machines!! And I don’t want any more experiments at my account.

Also I refused to tell him what the problem was. Does he not have access to logs?? After one month, he is doing me a big favour by asking me what the problem is??

He pleaded and requested for an additional day and one more attempt to repair the piece.

I have not accepted. I will take whatever further actions that I need to, including going to the press, burning the netbook and putting the video on YouTube, or going to consumer court, or anything else.

But I do not have time nor energy, or patience, to have him keep trying to solve the problem, when he clearly is not capable of doing so.

Either give me a replacement machine or full refund or I take suitable further appropriate actions, as I deem fit!!

– Sanjay

——

So this is where matters stand..Lenovo sucks big time, and their service center, Maitreyee is also pathetic!

Meru Cabs: “If it ain’t broke, go break it!!”

Posted: July 7, 2010 in Uncategorized
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They say that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. But Meru obviously thnks differently on this. Read on..

At the outset, many of my friends would know that I have been a huge fan of Meru in the past. I have talked about them in person, on Facebook, on Twitter.. In fact, those days when I was doing the weekly Mumbai-Delhi trips (for almost a year!), Meru was a regular service I’d use. And talk about. In fact, I might have qualified for some serious loyalty points of cab-miles if you please, if they had schemes of that kind, during those days.

Even recently, when they finally started the special Mumbai airport service, with a direct IVR option for the same, I thought it was damn neat.

And then, disaster struck them. Perhaps they got a new Operations in charge, or some other smart aleck, who must have figured that stability may not be enough. And things need to get stirred up.

And so got introduced changes into the system. At the cost of messing things up.

Now for the last 7-8 times that I have dialled for a cab from home, I have never got one.

For the last 2 times that I have landed into Mumbai airport, I have not got a cab.

Okay, so far, nothing wrong in the system. Just that they got busier perhaps?

But let me point out to the system itself.

You call. You wait (yes, they tell you how much you need to wait approximately). Then an operator comes on. He recognizes you, thanks to your phone number (caller id) and previous interactions.

You ask for a cab and give details of when you need it. Chances are that he may convey a regret (“cab not available”) right there and then. Which is okay. You get out and go elsewhere.

But there are times, when he does not know. So why does he answer the call?

Ok, if he does not know, he puts you to an “automated system” which is going to let you know if there is a cab available or not. The operator has just punched in your data, and will now let the automated system do its thing. But as soon as you get to the automated system, it warns you of another longish wait.

And so you wait.

Only to get the automated response that cab is not available. Not a human across the line. So if you want to discuss some alternate time or adjustments, that is not possible. Will require another call, and more waiting.

Now the more interesting part.

Here is when the original human operator KNOWS of a cab availability. And more or less confirms it with you. Except that it STILL has to get validated with the Big Boss – yes, the “automated system”.

So now, the operator has confirmed that the cab is available, and you are listening to Meru music, while the automated system is ‘doing its thing’. You would expect it to return after the 2 minute wait, to give you maybe a confirmation number or something like that, right?

Surprise! The automated system comes back and lets you know, that the human operator did not know a thing. There are no cabs available.

*Here is when you move close to the wall, and then taking proper aim, you start a slow movement of banging your head to the wall*

So that is the smart, new automated system, that is expected to take Meru to new heights. Except that it is now starting from a new depth, and will have to scale all the way back to the surface first, and then consider going to new heights!

Ahh.. Easy Cabs.. are you any better than this? I am a customer waiting to shift loyalties..

Shukno Lanka: my experience of a Bengali film with no sub-titles

Posted: July 5, 2010 in Uncategorized
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When I read the review of this Mithun starrer, I decided that the Bengali film, Shukno Lanka was worth seeing. In recent times, I have seen a Marathi film and another Bengali film, and have enjoyed them both. So I was quite looking forward to seeing Shukno Lanka. And assuming subtitles to be present in this day and age, I did not even ask when I booked the tickets for Monday night show.

Still in the evening of Monday, I got jittery. What is there are no subtitles? I enquired over Twitter, and while no one could say for sure, at least a couple of them conveyed to me, with reasonable confidence that subtitles will be there.

With that comfort, we walked in to the theatre. Imagine my shock then, when the film started and I realized that there were no subtitles in English. I tweeted out my frustration from the theatre, and wondered how long I will be able to last inside, with a language that I did not understand.

But I gave it a shot. Unlike Marathi, which is kind of close to Gujarati and Hindi, and which hence, I have no problem in understanding, Bengali is not in that league. Most of the spoken language I did not understand. I understood some of it though. But as it turned out, the review that I had read (and hence known the broad concept of the story) and the little Bengali that I could follow, was enough for me to get a good idea of the film.

And I quite enjoyed it.

Though I am sure that most of my friends will not like it. It is a different kind of film.

Shows the modern day Kolkata. Well, as modern as Kolkata can get. The rickety trams are still there, and so are the Ambassador cars. But there are other better cars too. It is not exactly 2010, but perhaps early 2000 or so.

The tongas of Kolkata, Howrah, the people, the trams, all of these are depicted well.

Shown equally well, is the satisfied Bengali middle class couple. Enjoying their 1BHK home, decent meals, the TV soap operas, and the rides in the tonga, to keep the romance alive. The emotions that they display on getting a warm cup of tea in the middle of the night, or when the husband gets to sit in a car, or when he finally makes it to the posters of the new film as a hero, are so real. Here is when you know how a middle class person will get overwhelmed on receiving pleasures beyond his expectations.

The junior artiste who gets a break as a hero, is the character of Mithun, and is sketched out really well. His typical clothes, the demand by neighbourhood kids to have him mouth an Uttam Kumar dialog whenever he passes, his haggling with the tram conductor when he does not have money, and his very servile attitude to the stars and the director, make him a very believable character. Of course, Mithun does an absolutely brilliant job, in the role.

The parallel stories and snippets about the famous director and his strained relationship with his wife, the foreigner lady who comes to rescue the filmmaker and becomes his producer, the current idol of Bengali cinema and his insecurities and greed, are all shown and developed well, as the sub-plots.

The music is also interesting, even though I did not understand the words at all. There was, in most songs, a feeling that will make you dance.

All in all, for anyone interested in a decent story, this simple film will be well worth going for.

And you can especially go to see the middle class life, but where the couple are satisfied and happy.

And you can see it for Mithun. This is a stellar performance for sure. The time that he spent in his early days, with his disco dancing and gunmaster g-9 and all that, seem like such a waste now.

– Sanjay

There are green spaces in Mumbai, believe me!

Posted: June 27, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Living in the heart of the city, we may wonder about green spaces left in Mumbai. We’d believe that everything has been converted to concrete jungles. Well, not so.

Seeing a pic on my Facebook page earlier today, posted by Dr. Bhavin Jankharia, talking about this place that was beautifully green, and just 35 min from Matunga (as he put it). I put that in my to-do list, but post lunch today, in an impulsive mood, we decided to drive down to this place. Yeah, today itself!

Driving via Powai / Jogeshwari Link Road / Western Express Highway, finally via Film City road, we entered the area of Film City.

Going past several sets of what looked like sets of TV shows, we kept going deeper into the place. Till we reached the BNHS area and got out of the car, and walked around.

And experienced natural surroundings of the kind that you’d find at hill stations. It was absolutely superb.

Remembering Panchamda on his 71st birth anniversary

Posted: June 27, 2010 in Uncategorized
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What can I say about R D Burman that I have not already said before.. ?

So here’s a different approach. For those who haven’t heard enough of him, I want to share a few specific snippets of a few of his songs. So you can appreciate the brilliance of the man.

Remember that most of his work was in the 1970s and 80s, way before the fancy mixing equipment and electronics came into the picture. And during those days, how he created this magic..

1. Heard of the song, “Jaane Jaan, Dhoondta Phir Raha.. ” from Jawani Diwani? Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bhaduri starrer. See how RD starts it off. The effect before Kishore starts singing, and how Asha hums together in the background, keeping pace with Kishore, before coming up with a strong “.. main yaha.. ”

In the same song, you can see Asha’s class, but I would still credit RD for ‘directing’ it that way. The voice modulation, changing over to an almost Usha Uthupesque baritone..

Of course, you should see the full song to really enjoy it all.

2. Then there is ‘Kuch Na Kaho’ from RD’s last film, “1942, A Love Story”. The song was beautiful also because of the awesome picturisation by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. But let’s appreciate the fine parts of the song.

For example, again, the music to set the song up and get it started. Unfortunately, Kishore Kumar was not around, and he would have done far better justice to a song like this.  Now see this piece. The music before the words come. Then, as the words are sung, keep your ears to the background sounds. There is a magic about them. And overall, can you feel the effect like the song was playing somewhere in the hills far away, with a slight echo out there.. giving a feeling of that mountainous regions?!

To repeat, Vidhu Chopra has shot this absolutely brilliantly. One of the best romantic songs ever to be seen on screen. Manisha never looked as good on screen as she did in this film. If only Kishore was there to sing this one!

And here’s the complete song. It is one to die for!!

3. A near narrative of a song is another old favorite of mine, “Jab Andhera Hota Hai” from Raja Rani. Bhupinder and Asha Bhosale enhance the high impact of the song. Starts slow, moves up a notch.. and gets high impact, as Asha belts out, “..jab savera hota hai.. yaaha..”.

The full song with all the 1970s glitz and sound, for those who want to indulge!

4. Another classic, a song that actually recites a poetry. Beautifully executed by Asha Bhosale, conceived by Panchamda, written by Gulzar. Here’s the start..

Again, one excellent romantice piece, from Ijazat, “Mera Kuch Saaman Tumhare Pas Pada Hai..”

Check out this music in the interlude, even as Asha recites, “Pacchad me kuch Patto Ki Girne Ki Aahat..”

Also listen to this part. Amazing music. And then listen to Asha especially the part where she stretches the end so beautifully at “Ek Akeli Chhatri Me Jab Aadhe Aadhe Bheeg Rahe Theeeee”. And again the music just after that. Can you imagine the challenge of putting tough poetry stanzas of this kind, into music? When we hear the finished product, it appears good and nice, but the challenge of composing this one, and recording it, needs to be visualized!

The complete song, with the lyrics to enjoy.

The list can go on, and this can be a long, long post. But the idea was not to be exhaustive, but rather, to give a glimpse of the richness of R D Burban and his work.

We miss you, Panchamda..!!

To conclude, here’s a Panchamda classic, that tells its own story. About how Panchamda captured life in every moment, and left us all with such a rich archive of entertainment content:

Rajneeti: In short, “What Shit, man!”

Posted: June 6, 2010 in Uncategorized
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I could have just said what I say in the title, viz. “What Shit”, and that would suffice to describe my reaction on Rajneeti. But to share with you, why I feel this way, I will dwell on this some more.

I was really looking forward to Rajneeti. God knows, I have let it be known via Facebook and Twitter. The promos had impressed me. And there is a lot of potential in a political drama. But the film disappointed sorely!

Two great epics that a lot of filmmakers have drawn inspiration from, are the Mahabharat and Godfather. Prakash Jha takes inspiration from both. Which is fine by itself. Except that Prakash Jha forgot that he was making a political drama, and not a gangster film. Turned out that he made it more of a Godfather, than a Chanakya-esque political play.

And that is my biggest problem with the film. The excessive and random violence, which just seems unbelievable. Can you really win an election by gunning away all the top political leaders of your opposition? Like, what’s going on?!

** SPOILER ALERT: If you are planning to see the film, and want to be surprised, you should not read further! **

So here are my thoughts on the film. First the good parts – yes, there are few:

The initial was decent. There clearly seemed like there was potential here, and that the film will turn out to be an interesting dramatic screenplay. Most performances are decent, especially Arjun Ramphal, Ranbir and Nana Patekar. The sets are decent, and give you a feel of the political landscape.

Yeah, guess that’s about it. From here on, its all downhill.

And so here are the rants – what I found strange or incomprehensible, or purely unbelievable:

1. A fundamental inconsistency in the characters:

a. Ranbir – he is the Al Pacino from Godfather, like a reluctant entrant into the dirty world of politics. But what is the person that is his character?? He is supposed to be clean, sincere, educated, a man of the world, a person with genuine feelings. That he can be smart to do political manipulations is fine, but can he be ruthless to go on a killing spree, or to trade his close relationships for political gain. And who again, still feels for his unborn child or his American girlfriend. If there are shades to his character, why and how he shifts from one to the other shade, is not powerfully shown. I mean, if he is clean, but there is a frustration that drives him to violence, the development of that frustration, his internal agony, a despair that drives him to be so different, is not apparent at all. Its more like a comfortable Jekyl and Hyde existence, it would appear!

b. The mother: one who at one time, rebeled against her politician father, and joined up with a revolutionary leftist, but meekly accepts a political marriage. And also allows herself to be a pawn in the political battle, while planning a wedding with Katrina, for her son. One who’s spent 30 years doing donations at a temple, for her first son, whom she lost, but who, after locating him 30 years later, in her first meeting with the son, makes him a political proposal. What is her real character??

c. Nana Patekar feels for the son of his sister, whom he locates, and does not kill him. Cries for him, in fact. But who at the end, comfortably encourages Ranbir to finish him off. So what was the real Nana?

d. Katrina, proud, confident, independent girl. But easily agrees to a wedding of manipulation, without any serious resistance?

What are the real people like? Such swings in the character map. Does not show consistency at all.

2. So what was the problem that Prakash Jha and Nana Patekar had? I think Nana has a very interesting role, a combination of a Bheeshma and Chanakya. If anyone should have a grouse, it should be Ajay Devgan! His character has not been given a chance to develop and he just hangs around, sort of. Likewise, Manoj Bajpai who could have been a strong Duryodhan, is made to look like a comedian, almost. Not sure if its the ensemble cast that has prevented Prakash Jha from developing better characters for everyone. But Manoj’s was a real let down. Katrina’s like a fly on the wall. So much for it being a momentous role for her career. No big deal at all.

3. So you are trying to show reality in politics, Mr. Jha! At high places, at levels of CM, we do not have a reality of random killings. Perhaps in Bihar, smaller level of politicians could be getting bumped off, every now and then. But do we have Godfather like mass killings? No, we don’t.

4. If at all, crucial CM-level candidates are killed, and more than one, I would believe that Emergency would be imposed in the state. You can’t just shoot out opposition leaders, and election still goes on fine, and you can come out winner. That is a little unbelievable.

5. Why the annihilation finally? When you have already lost lives at your own end (and hence you know how vulnerable you are), and with some efforts, you have secured the political victory, why would you still go after opp leaders / your cousins, to finish them off?? Its not a gangster film, with only the “last one standing”?! It is not a Mafia film?! But Prakash Jha makes it look like one.

6. And what about pregnancies?? At the rate at which single night stands convert to pregnancies, right through the film, one would wonder about the fertility levels! Also hasn’t anyone heard of birth control methods??

I think finally, what caused my ultimate adverse reaction were two things:

1. The end was really bad. And that is what remains with you, as you walk out, and ponder about what just happened.

2. Like in case of Kites, it is an expectation thing. In Kites, I went with low expectations (as by that time, people had run the film down), and was reasonably satisfied with what I saw. Here I expected a lot. Reviews were good. So really thought this would be one good film to watch. And it turned out to be drab!

In fact, looking at the violence that prevalied, I almost expected at the end, that when Ranbir’s being taken to the airport, driven by Ajay Devgan’s father, he’ll blow him up too. In keeping with the rest of the random violence!!!

Hrithik Roshan’s latest, Kites: Hey, it’s not bad, in fact, I liked it!!

Posted: May 23, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Can somebody help me here? I was never good at history. Are more wars fought over a “woman” than over any other issue? Yes, other issues on which wars could be fought are water, oil, territory, religion, etc. But more lives have been lost in wars and fights over women, I’d believe, than over anything else.

That being a fact, the basic storyline of Kites, the latest from Filmkraft, is not off the mark.

Normally I would have seen a big release of this kind on the Friday or the Saturday, of the release week. But as we had tickets to a fund raiser program, we were scheduled to see it on the morning of Sunday. And that unfortunately, was enough time, for a whole lot of reviews to come out. The “official” ones in media, and the many unofficial ones on Twitter and Facebook. And where I was already a little skeptical about someone like Anurag Basu (who has earlier directed films of a completely different genre, like Murder, Gangster, Life in a Metro, etc.) being able to pull off a cross-over international feel project like this, these early reviews had convinced me that this was going to be a disaster.

With low expectations I went and saw the film. And right through the first half, I was waiting to see the film drop off into randomness or boredom, as people had made me believe it would. But that never happened.

The film kept me engrossed right through.

The theme was simple enough. War fought over a girl. Which includes, as you’d imagine, romance, revenge, violence, etc. That part is simple and straight forward.

But what makes this a good film overall:

– the flow is smooth; going back and forth into flashbacks and now, is handled well

– the screen looks good all through. The sets, the locales in Vegas, Mexico etc. are good to see. The camera work is splendid. The colors are captured well.

– Barbara, though not exactly stunning, fits the role of the Latina beauty well. She emotes well, has a nice smile, and shows good chemistry with Hrithik.

– the length of the film is just right. There is no temptation to make it a typically longdrawn Bollywood style saga. At the current length of a little over 2 hours, it is taut enough to keep you interested.

A few questions remain, though:

– Anurag’s muse from his earlier films, Kangana Ranaut, could have been given some more space. I believe she’s one of the most underrated actresses on Indian screen. I loved her work in Fashion and in Life in a Metro. She’s wasted here.

– One miss: when Hrithik is unloading one car after another, in a moving truck carrying those vehicles, does the driver of the truck not realize anything afoot? Does the load not appear to get lesser suddenly? Don’t they have anything like a rear view mirror?? There’s mayhem going on behind them, with one car rolling off after another. And he drives merrily away??!

– And where does Kabir Bedi disappear at the end? Does he too not come fuming after these guys? Anurag does remeber to bring in Kangana for a fleeting moment at the end. Why not Kabir too?

But these few factors apart, I think its a good film. And the one big reason – obviously – for this is called “Hrithik Roshan”.

So I believe Hrithik can’t sing?! Or can he?

Because it appears that he can pretty much do EVERYTHING ELSE.

He looks good, he’s an amazing actor, and he dances like no one else can, on Indian screen at this time. He can certainly carry the entire film on his broad shoulders.

Kites is a good attempt to make an Indian film with very little India in it. Its good a good Hollywood-esque feel to it.

So why did the critics run it down so much? I really don’t know. Maybe it was a fundamental expectation mismatch. This is not Hrithik’s best. It is not the best to come from the Rakesh Roshan stable. But it is good. Worth a watch.

That said, would request Rakesh Roshan to return to directing Hrithik, for their home productions. PLEASE!!

To be compassionate or candid? What do you opt for?

Posted: May 1, 2010 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
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This post is inspired and in fact, in response to Dr. Bhavin Jankaria’s article in the Mumbai Mirror today.

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