Welcome back....we missed you

I really couldn’t believe what I was reading. Sardesai tweeted about government opening up the FDI in retail. This was waiting to happen. But so fast, was a bit difficult to digest. With one blow GoI did the inevitable.

Welcome K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Carrefour to the Mystic land. We are going to be bombarded with the imageries of happy Indian family driving in their small cars and walk out with loads of shopping bags. Here is the desi version of American dream. Handsome young couple with cute, sweet, cherubic daughter driving the medium segment car, eating ‘healthy food’, buying flats with swimming pools, taking life insurance, watching flat screen TV and driving on weekends to some hill station. The Desi dream is about to grow more colourful from now on.

The post liberalization generation tend to label the bureaucratic, static, red tape laden regime as ‘Socialism’. Well then that was what the writers and thinkers told them. Today the pre-90s is treated with shame. A history India prefer to cremate quietly. Ironically the final salute to ‘Nehruvian socialism’ will be presided by the heirs of Nehru’ legacy.

I browsed through a few Indian economic dailies. Everyone were giving a high five and patting each other on the milestone. Some of the words: ’Government has atlast shook the shackles to do a much needed reform’. The advantages are going to be more foreign investments, jobs and economic development. Minister Sharma went on to add 10M jobs in 3 years. Hopefully the Americans and Europeans are going to migrate to India in search for jobs. I remember a sequence from a movie- ‘The government seizes land from the farmer and builds an IT park over it. The jobless farmer is given the job of sweeper over his own land’. Clever idea right- one job generated.

The system has degenerated to such a level that, the focus is to cater to the pleasures of elite. But then its and effluent we will have to live with.

My friend’s family have been traders for ages. Today they struggle to stay in competition with bigwigs. He used to moan how unfair it was. But being an ordinary consumer, I would have preffered the retailers who can afford to price their wares less. The merchants do steeply charge and had the power to artificially create inflation. I told him, ‘How do you expect to stay above competition?’. But shutting individual, small scale traders out of competition can usher in a monopolized era in coming years.

The Indian elite may have conveniently forgotten the UK riots by now. Over feeding a goose on consumerism can ultimately kill it. Realisation that purchasing power is no longer decided by merit but by other external factors can question the very basic ethos of the capitalistic and liberalized society. A system feeding on itself is ultimately unsustainable.

Lastly there was a time when a few ordinary people burnt the foreign goods and decided to wear the swadesi ones. Are we discrediting their sacrifice?

Book Review- Manja Veyil Maranangal (Malayalam)

The last week I didn’t watch a single movie. I was too engrossed in a wonderful book. I haven’t been engrossed in a book in recent past with this intensity. I finished it in 6 days and flunked an exam on the way. The way I procured the book itself was sheer marketing ingenuity of the counter clerk.

The author, Benyamin, is young prolific Malayalam settled in sands of Arabia. As he indicates in the book, the exile brings best out of a writer. Benyamin had already shot to fame with his best selling work, Adujeevitham. It went on to be adopted as academic piece in Kerala University. And now he has proved that it was not just flash in a pan.

The plot revolves around the life of a young, reckless, day dreaming, wanna be writer. He stumbles upon a murder and sacrifices everything, even his family legacy to solve it. The plot is set in two timelines and places. The story is told through the eyes of protagonist and the writer(narrator). The manner in which the author stitches together the two timelines with relative ease is sheer genius.

And also I found it so endearing the way the writer takes us for a ride through Diego Garcia. The narrative doesn’t look forced. Most of the writers fail when they try to draw the picture about the environment. When I browsed through the first few pages I thought this was going to be another one of those mediocre crime thrillers. Soon I realized how the unsuccessful young protagonist draws the author and his friends into the plot. And the readers too along with it. The way he meets up with his childhood mates all in quick succession do cast an apprehension in the mood of the plot. But then the clouds clear. The author’s and protagonists life intertwines so much so that in the same way the protagonist loses everything in the quest, the author loses his friend’s circle.

There are a maze of emotions throughout- love, hate, friendship. They conflict with each other through the two narrations. There are also a wide variety of social issues- multi ethnicity, terrorism, black s, religion. The author doesn’t stray away from the main plot. For an average Malayali reader Benyamin is a whiff of fresh air. There are even a lot of neo imageries ,like Orkut, Facebook , to tell the story. This is a jump over generation gap. May be Mallus have procured a Chetan Bhagath (in terms of popularity) with a lots of quality

A tiny adventure III

It was well past midnight. His fantasies were fulfiled. He kissed a woman- the first time. Now he can walk around with head held high, for he just tasted the forbidden fruit.

Still a feeling of vacuum was bothering him. A physically challenged friend of his was getting married to a normal girl. What beauty did she find in him?

Even at this hour of his success. He sat deep in thought- totally bowled over by a girl who challenged commodifying and sexualising marriage.

She asked him, 'What are you thinking?' 'Tommorow dear' It's not for the night of victory.

Movie Review - 7aum arivu (Tamil)

It's difficult to judge a Tamil movie by normal standards. Particularly due to their liking of fantasy and super heroism. But according to me the universal yardstick for a cinema is screen play and intent.

I did hear from others that this was a 'watchable' movie. A cousin had come down and wanted to go for any Tamil. Hoping this to be a worthwhile exercise, I booked a ticket.

The movie opened with much grandiose. It travelled back to ages, similar to the lines adopted by Kamal Hassan's Dasavatharam. Surya trotted around in his chiselled body and hair locks. He saved the Chinese from some deadly virus and then Barbarians. Camera moves into the present. The present day Surya dances and prances around in his brunette hair do. Sruti gives him company. I sit in my seat hoping the director will come to his senses. To my horror he climaxed with some of the horrific logic ever discovered.

The only good part of the movie is Surya. Murugadoss hoped he could carry along with good looks and six pack abs as he did in Ghajini. For him half the work of Ghajini were already done by Nolan. Here he had to do something orginal. He comes.up with some of the most laughable logical and genetic explanation, immersed Surya in some blue solution and passed shocks hoping it will awaken his genetic memory. Thankfully Surya's genetic memory wakes up in nick of time to save the world from a Chinese catastrophe.

Shruthi Hassan has probably decided to move into acting from her lackluster stint as Rockstar. She is a genetic engineer this time, hell bent on tracing the Tamil greatness. The one thing I learnt about genetics is copulation of two great actors needn't produce another one.

The constant harping of ancient Tamil greatness, invinciblity and the betrayal is unbearable to watch. Please grow up guys. There is more to history than Boddhi Dharma

Innovation at Roadblocks

I was on weekly train journey heading home. The best part is you get assorted with a wide variety of people everytime. Since lacking anything better to do, I sit observing them and making up stories mentally. This time there was a young couple opposite to me. From the fondness, they looked very recently married. Besides the fresh, new clothes gave them away. They sat together staring into their laptop uncaring of the world around. The girl looked so young and cute almost making it irresistible for the voyeur in me. I started listening to their conversation. They were obviously into their Facebook profiles.

An inevitable part of starting a relationship is sharing your profile passwords. Its almost like handing over the keys to your life. Some even o to the extent of moving into a single profile. Later when the shiny part of marriage is over there is nothing left, but regret and bitterness. Faith and Private space are two integral but conflicting components of marriage.

I was also carrying on with the pretext of reading a story. The young girl falls in love with a much older writer. She asks him ‘How was love in your days?’

‘Then, people used to think using words. Communications where done using words. Now people use imageries. Love can no longer be communicated in words ’

I was working with a group of youngsters. I asked them to present anything they wanted. It needn’t be conforming to any rule. I expected something round breaking. Sadly they presented an assortment of TV sops and popular movie scenes. Its time we accept the fact that our imaginations have become so convoluted and limited. And interestingly I will put Google in the culprit’s box. Answer to any problem is Google and the answer it feeds. In premier institutes assignments are plagiarized thanks to Google. Google is a revolution. But what if the revolution brings down quality of human innovation.

Movie Review- Indian Rupee (Malayalam)

It turned out into a Diwali with no friends to hang out with. I go to ‘Gold Souk’, one of the prominent shopping malls in Kochi. The loneliness gets worse when standing out in a crowd of young pretty girls and handsome guys. I walk onto the multiplex and finds out that the tickets for the Hindi and Tamil flicks have been sold out. The only tickets left are for ‘Indian Rupee’. Amusing is the average Malayalee’s change in priority and tastes.

Before entering into the robes of a critic, I would admit that my view might be a bit prejudiced thanks mainly to a masterpiece I was watching from Jean Luc Godard. The section of audience took up the movie with great enthusiasm and appreciation. Judging from the reaction even days after the openin we can safely say the movie is on its way to ring cash registers heavily.

From a personal viewpoint I expected the film to do a bit more technically and creatively. High expectations is a price geniuses have to live with. The movie falls a bit short of the mark taking into consideration that the director was Renjith.

The movie deals with a very relevant contemporary topic facing Kerala population- materialism. People of Kerala has been traditional business men. The onset of Arab Oil and US visas threw open the windows for bigger opportunities. A recent trend saw desperate attempt to park the black money somewhere. Hitherto unexplored, virgin real estate scene was the best place to do so. The after effect was the real estate business slipped out of common man’s hands for cold, greedy sharks. Our hero is a typical uneducated youth with all the trappings of a common hero. Unmarried sister, highly educated lover threatening to get married off and huge, rich dreams and shades of grey. The end of the story is he realizes he has a bit of ‘goodness’ in him and hence unsuited for real estate scene.

The movie also deals on the encroachment of materialism into the finer elements of our society. Relationships, values and education has been corrupted and convoluted. Thankfully Renjith stops short of taking a stand. Its left to the element inside you to judge.

I can help but comment and commend on touching the issue of huge amounts of cash floating in and around the society. The term ‘crore’ became a very common usage now. While we sing patriotism, we don’t mind dangling with black money.

There is powerful performances from everyone. Thilakan is back to his stellar self. Hope destiny provides him with good health and many worthwhile roles (latter difficult to get than the former). Prithvi might have done the best one of his career so far. Strangely I thought rest of the cast performed way beter than him.

The choice of Kozhikkode as the focal point is significant. Traditionally Kozhikkode Is known for good food, great people and culture. The real estate culture is eating into the very ethos of the ancient city. An eye opener for the ones who keep eyes open.

Still too many plots and issues have diluted the flow and focus of the film. Many high profile characters walk in and out. May be the narrative couldn’t hold them all. The pace is too slow in the first half and is not very catchy in second half either. Some of the sequences and even the climax goes unexplained. A few shots look forced.

Footnote: A must watch for the philosophical value. Keep your hopes a bit low on the way to ticket counter

The tiny adventure part II

The story continues.

He was quite surprised, when someone came calling on him at office. He found out that Div turned out to be a pretty looking girl. Rarely do someone come asking for him and that too a girl. He was quite elated. They learnt that they shared the same hometown and were neighbors back home. The coincidence didn’t simply stop when he learnt that her elder brother taught in his school. They did a little bit of pointless, forgettable chit chat before signing off.

Days passed by without any major instance or even bumping into each other. One day they met on the train again. The ‘one day’ took a lot of days to happen. AG had forgotten the name and he needed her friend’s help to recollect it, Needless to say, all the details had to be recollected. To his surprise, he found himself impressing her. She laughed helplessly at his poor jokes and even captured him on the camera. This was new to him, he did discreetly get women on his cam but the reverse never happened.

That day back in the privacy of his room, he stared at himself. ‘May be I am handsome after all’. On some flimsy pretext cell numbers were exchanged. And they did exchange texts quite often. AG made sure that he won’t repeat the past mistakes again. He had this stupid tendency of veering into sexual contents while chatting with women.

All the while AG made sure to examine if this was turning out to be something serious. He was never involved with a forceful girl before. This tensed him to a small extent. One day she addressed him by a term used by Christian women to address their husbands. It scared the shit out of him. He wasn’t ready for any commitment. This led to the first fight.

Subsequently the most important rule was laid down- there are not going to be any rules. He heaved a sigh of relief. Back to the world of casual recklessness. Still things were not the old self. They didn’t chat so often claiming huge bills.

One day he was totally drunk during a dinner. Div phoned him all of a sudden. He picked up a while later, when he thought he was sober enough. ‘Why now of all the time’ he kept thinking.

Later they arranged to meet and she made quite a lot of fun about his drinking. They were having a good time when she said ‘I want to drink’. He suggested a few decent pubs.

‘No, not a bar. Somewhere private’.

Wild thoughts creeped into him. Despite all the warning bells he took the big jump

‘Well I have a suggestion, if you don’t mind’

‘Hmm?’

Taking a deep breath, knowing very well that his life would change for the good or the worse…. He offered his bachelor pad!