Friday, December 3, 2010

The goodness triumphs again - TOI Indore Plus October, 2010

Discover your style quotient - TOI Indore Plus October, 2010

City on the development path

A few of my articles published in the past month with Times of India's Indore Plus.

Monday, October 11, 2010

IT'S BIG BOSS ALL THE WAY!


Imagine yourself in a wild run through murderous jungles, leading a deadly gang of 14 dacoits, hiding from the eyes continuously chasing you and you’re still moving on. I guess you are already gritting your teeth!

And now switch to another gang of 14, not dacoits but our own celebrities in a jungle of conversations and unexpected state of affairs, only the jungle is more beautiful, posh and urbane!

Seema Parihar, the new contestant for BIG BOSS Season 4, must have been going through the same transformation as several murders and trials later (she is still under trial for certain cases though) she walks on the red carpet of the house of Big Boss.

To add to the sparks and flashes of the starry house, we had 13 other known faces, some for their talent and praise and others for being the bad boys of bolly and telly-world both…well, the Big-Boss never skips this balancing act in his ‘adda’.

But one thing is good for sure. Like the previous ones, this time too, the cynosure of all eyes is the host, none other than the Bollywood hunk Salman Khan, who opened the season by welcoming all the fourteen guests or ‘housemates’ as they would call it.

But would the contestants this time, combining actors, advocate, thieves and dacoits, be able to sustain the audience’s attention like the previous seasons did? Or this time it is going to be a li’l different with a different combination of participants or lesser known faces?

We did a small survey to find out what Indorians thought about it.

“Why not? People have always liked the show. Earlier too the participants were a combination of good and bad. And that is how it must be. We would be too bored if there are all good people in the house. I think this time too the show would rock as always.” Opined 36 year old Shilpa Mehta, Insurance agent by profession and a TV buff too.

Well, that taken but what is it this time that would keep the ball rolling for the audience?

“It’s the format itself. Reality TV has become so popular in India that people hardly prefer watching other formats. It is a blend of emotions, drama, and suspense. You get served everything in one plate and that too LIVE! As for Big Boss, it’s something like the feeling I get when I go out with my colleagues on a business trip. You are living, though temporarily, with strangers day and night accommodating their good and bad habits and behavior under one roof. So it’s a real-life situation to which you connect better.” Says 29 year old Sanskar Sharma, Director, Indore Indira Institute of Management Studies.

So it’s not only women but men too who are ardent followers of the show. But let’s find out what do the most loyal telly-watchers, the housewives think about it.

“Though I don’t follow the show hard and fast, but it’s the fact that the whole family watches it together, gives more pleasure to me.” Confesses Mrs. Meenakshi Gaud, homemaker. Sweet that was!


But some replies were not so sweet:

"It's weird how these kinds of shows turn dacoits and hooligans into celebrities. I mean how could they deserve to get so much of publicity and attention as participants of a National TV game show? And to top it all, they make big bucks in the process! What impact would this have on the younger members of the society?" Regrets Siddharth Kumar, Director- Marketing, 9 n 10 Productions.

“As for the TRPs, every show, every format has had its ups and downs. There’s always a saturation point with the audience. And though this show has clicked well all this while with the people, it might take quite some time to reach that level of saturation, maybe another 2-3 seasons. After all, people like to live into the real world but they even like to fantasise.” Concludes Dr. R. A. Sharma, businessman.

Well, let’s see how soon the saturation point arrives, but till then it’s just Big Boss all the way!




Friday, April 16, 2010


9 n 10 goes webby!!! Digitus invites all!!!!

http://www.9n10.com

Monday, March 15, 2010

There's a monkey in each one of us..Boman Irani



It was a jam-packed conference hall with various eminent personalities of Madhya Pradesh; prestigious educationists, social-workers, industrialists and film critics, all waiting impatiently to see, listen to and relish the celebrity radiations so close to them. The radiations of the the fair-haired boy of the filmy set, the face of versatility in the new era of cinema with a message - our very own Virus from 3 Idiots. And we never thought viruses can be so sweet, did we?

Be it Rancho, the rebel, always questioning things and believing that learning is more than just the usual mode of education or be it the hilarious welcome speech delivered by Chatur, the film 3 IDIOTS with the genius combination of Rajkumar Hirani , Aamir Khan and the team has for sure woven magic on screen. And with his lisp act getting all the right nuances, Boman Irani who played Viru Sahasrabuddhe, the dedicated but strict professor in the film, added just the right mixes of spice unfailingly.

And so to subdue the irresistible desire of knowing behind-the-scene stories and engaging in a full-fledged discussion over the film, The Indore Indira Group invited the professor himself amongst us - Mr. Viru Sahasrabuddhe in his original avatar of Mr. Boman Irani, along with the who's who of the city to join the discussion LIVE with him in the college premises on 13th of March, 2010.

Working his way in the hall, the 6 feet tall Boman, brought a joyous smile to everybody's face.. There was an expression of calmness and satisfaction on his face, which i guess is very Parsi.

After a formal introduction of the guest, the session started with the Q n A..

And Boman was very humble and polite in his approach.

Here are a few interesting questions with their even more interesting replies -

The first question came from the CEO of the institute -

" Whilst the film emphasizes the importance of learning as a never-ending process, was it important for the film to end up on a note where the protagonist becomes a rich guy with the girl he loves beside her? If the hero ended up being a school-teacher in a village, wouldn't the film have gone down well with the audience?"

Boman didn't take long to answer that. He seemed to be very clear in his mind about the concept..quite obviously so, being a part of such critically acclaimed sensible cinema..

He said that the message of the film was to motivate the students to work harder with a strong desire to learn, to innovate and discover new possibilities within oneself. it's only when the focus is on learning and not winning that one becomes an achiever. The commercial success would follow automatically..

Q - How was it working with Mr. Amir Khan? We've heard that he's a perfectionist..is that true?
What did you learn from him as an actor and as a human-being?

Nobody is perfect, he said. But improvising is not a bad idea either. He elaborated by narrating an incidence when after the pack-up for the film, he got a call from the crew asking him to come back to the sets for a retake of the scene where Virus beats Rancho with his umbrella inside the hostel room..As Amir was not satisfied with the shot he wanted a retake. Boman came all the way from Banglore, initially taking the whole thing as a prank.

He concluded saying that "the perfect thing about Amir is the fact that he never thinks he's perfect! He's always eager to learn, to improvise and he never escapes from doing so. And that is what i learnt from Amir as an actor and as a human-being".

The audience gave an emphatic applaud.

The Q n A proceeded -

Q - Was it necessary to show the students drinking and peeing in the film?

The giggling heard from amongst the younger crowd as a crescendo rose to a hearty laughter..Boman smiled as he playfully acted out to leave the hall but later came back to the podium to answer the question with an honest, but not without a blend of maturity, reply.

He said that the film had a bigger motive, a greater issue to deal with and so it had to take the support of negativity, only to overcome it later. Raju Rastogi as an emotional character gets himself into a mess and tries to deal with it. He wanted to undo everything. When he fails, he tries to commit suicide. He suffers a lot. And then there's this new Raju Rastogi, the refined one, more aware of himself, more confident. So, if we see the journey of Raju's character, we realise that his misconduct got him into trouble and then he struggled to get out of it. It's all a part of storytelling. You have to show the negative aspect to bring forth the positive one, so to maintain the balance.


The next one was more of a compliment than a query -

"After watching your characters in Munnabhai and 3 idiots, we've kinda started liking the villains too..there's a certain sympathy that has grown somewhere within for the negative characters like these..you've acted so well.."

Boman expressed his gratitude for the compliment but then again playfully asked the people sitting in the audience, whoever liked the villains (or the antagonists as he would call the character in a negative role) to show up to a psychiatrist..

But then he said, we also tend to sympathize with the villains in the end, when he gives up all of his negativity, because there's a Viru Sahasrabuddhe or a Dr. Asthana or a Lucky Singh, (the negative characters played by him) in all of us. And so when we see them on the screen surrendering to positivity, we feel relieved.

He also praised the filmmakers like Rajkumar Hirani, who very skillfully plan the characters adding a reason to every action they undertake be it the laughter of Dr. Asthana in Munnabhai MBBS or the design of the practical conniving person who wants to usurp a mansion like the Lucky Singh of Lage Raho...


Or like the scene where Virus drops the egg in the initial speech in the encounter with the first year batch of students - symbolic of breaking the dreams, the individuality of a human being, even before the start of his physical existence is marked on the calendar. How the path he would want to choose by himself, is pre-decided by others while he is still in his mother's womb..the scene, Boman said, balanced itself out when his own grandchild, kicks while still in his mother's womb, suggesting that he might become a good footballer and not necessarily an engineer or a doctor, breaking the stereotypical culture of the family..

Another compliment came from a biology teacher who wanted to thank him as a representative of the film fraternity for the support it gives to the people to make a greater impact, like the film did for the school and college teachers...She said that teachers at schools and colleges have a hard time counseling the students and letting them discover their hidden self..These days, she said, it is important to counsel the parents too, who forcibly drag the children on the pathways of the dreams that they themselves could not fulfill..

Boman made a disagreement to her statement and re-instilled the confidence in the teachers for the teachers, he said, have a much greater impact on students than cinema and it's wrong to underestimate their potential.

It was a nice one and a half hour session with the man enlightening us with not only the film nuances but with the description of his struggle-full life and the success that followed in his own pleasing style.

The in-between lighter moments where he was asking everyone to loosen up the neckties, made the mahaul light and entertaining...

I loved the one-liner he concluded the session with -

"There's monkey in each one of us.."


Monday, March 8, 2010

I am all cheery as i come out of the reverie of the happenings three years back..i was shooting for my debut documentary, Adrashya Nari. It was 8th of March, 2007, Woman's Day (though i feel dates are just a reason, an excuse to celebrate the very existence of this world, which belongs to men and women equally..) and i was out in the field to document the facts on the theme essentially for women - Their empowerment through education.

It later occurred to me that the shooting date coincided with the date of celebration for women the world over. And somehow i was self-assured about the task i am involved in. My second self, my alter-ego justified my involvement in the project as necessary and i proceeded.

A lot of appreciation and criticism later, (btw, the docu Adrashya Nari / Invisible Woman, wins yet another title - Silver Lei Award in the International Honolulu Film Festival organised recently under the Short Film category), when i am confronted with the basic question i started my project with, I feel like saying so much. Well, the basic question of how important is education for a woman? Can it really dissolve the social evils persisting in the country and the world over if we get all our women educated? The answer is a simple "No" and so seems very complicated.

The incidence of a ruthless murder of a woman by her mother-in-law and husband, occurred a few months back in the city. The culprits and the victim involved were all well-educated, belonging to well-to-do families. The incidence made headlines and was duly forgotten. Did education resolve the issue? Or did it stop any such incidences from occurring again? It could well have been possible if the woman who had to abandon her life to satisfy the cruelties of others would have voiced her protest against it, just at the time when it started.

So, it's also the matter of a strong value system or value education that a woman should possess, which she can pass on to her future generations. Not that our male members are incapable of doing it but it's always the lady of the house who can actually make or break our homes. Look around to find one as an example. It's never a bad idea to begin the change we always want to see around, at our own home! Charity does begin at home. Always.

Primary education in itself is as essential. There should always be something to fall back on in case destiny turns its back on the so-called lady-luck. Finances are as necessary for a woman as it is for a man. And now it's time she understands that.

And money apart, it's the 2D view that illitrate get of their lives. Education works on the dimensions. It opens the windows of the mind showing up the bare realities in their most virgin forms. You f*** it or you leave it, it's entirely your choice. But at least you know what is out there. And the decision you make of the choices would often be driven by the value system you'd acquired over the years.

Well I think Peter Brougham would agree:

Education make a people easy to lead,
but difficult to drive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A small video i made for my cuz Tushar's wedding..

Friday, February 12, 2010






So it was my cuz's wedding..Tushar who is my Mamaji's son, is also a good friend, a confidant, an agony aunt and my darling brother..he was tying the knot with Amita, affectedly shy and modest but a decent damsel now a part of our family..:)..



The wedding was in Malegaon, a small city in Nasik district, Maharashtra, appx. 350 kms from Indore..but due to the better conditions of the roads, all thanks to the State Road Transport Corporation and the wonderful highway from Dhulia to Malegaon, the journey was not very tiring..

The two day stay was an amazing time. More so, as Nani was meeting Sanskar for the first time, for she couldn't attend our wedding due to her ill-health..She was pleased to see him and adding to her ecstasy, my mother, father and grand-ma (in-laws)were also present to attend Tushar's wedding..hats-off to my grandma-in-law who in spite of her bad health and her old age made it to the wedding, traveling for 8 hours continuously just to give the newly weds her blessings and best wishes..Tushar and Amita couldn't get more lucky and blessed..the best gift i could give them from my side.."Bai" (grandma-in-law) herself..

I introduced everyone to Sanskar, though everyone except Nani had met him earlier, but this meeting was rather informal..it was important for him and the other family ppl to get to know each other for it would help them develop a stronger bond of togetherness and also to make the next family get-togethers more enjoyable..

i was very happy to see Sanskar enjoy himself and fondly helping Tushar fix the "Safa" and the tie..

Chacha obviously was very busy, doing favors for everyone, least interested in taking care of himself and as always keeping everyone happy..This time paa too made his presence felt by giving his laptop a much-needed break for some time..he seemed to have enjoyed too..


i personally enjoyed the custom called, "Totiya", where one of the sisters is dressed as a groom and one of the Bahus in the family is decorated as the bride..The diyas or the lamps are rotated for conducting pheras symbolically..It is a kinda traditional AGP (All Girls Party), where all the females of the family join in, including the old ones and they crack all kinds of jokes, some decent, some not so decent, just to have fun..:)..

i became the Dulha as i was the only sister of the groom present at the time of the function, and also got special attention throughout the wedding..
i enjoyed the custom like anything, as all of us were rolling in the aisles hearing the funny commentaries coming from everywhere..especially from the old ones..:)..

after the custom, it was mandatory for everyone to take their husband's name but the task was to be done indirectly through "ukhanas"...Ukhanas are like Doha or couplets, where a wife takes her husband's name without directly saying it..
Here are some of the funniest "ukhanas", which one of my mother's buas orated and received a lot of claps, surprising glares and roars of laughter...

"plate main rakhein hai badam aur pishte
humare unka naam tum baar-baar kyu poochate.."

"Ajanta-ellora are the structures of art..
-------- is the diamond of my heart.."

It was quite funny and entertaining how bua got up and excitedly said the two of the ukahanas..she was the star of the evening..:)


we obviously missed Sonia and Abhinav..all of us..every single person couldn't help but notice their absence..but never mind..we're sending them the snaps, the videos and every little detail of the wedding, so they could feel a part of the extravaganza..

Saturday, January 30, 2010

RANN MOVIE REVIEW

Another typical RGV flick minus the impact..though the concept has made rounds in the form of debates in news channels, the print media and the internet, it was kind of new to be made into a full-fledged movie..we've had the glimpses of true reporting being tarnished by the ever-existing and never ending flaws in the systems in Page 3 as well..

In many scenes it seemed as if the rough edits have been rendered into the final movie as they were either unnecessarily prolonged or casually acted..particularly the character of Jay..t was overdone..it somehow spoiled the seriousness of the situations..

it has been a long time since we saw singer and actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, after perhaps she was in the news for her divorce with Shekhar Kapoor..she was quite okay in the film..not a very happening 'comeback' though, if at all it was a comeback!

Amitabh was Amitabh..as usual entertaining and methodical!

Ritesh Deshmukh played more of a silent hero role, with not much dialogues in his part of the script..and sometimes the silence was pretty boring..

The end speech seemed again a bit too prolonged; Jay committing suicide seemed a bit weird as if to make us realise that it's Purab who's the pratogonist and not Jay..

and what was the red mark over Paresh Rawal's forehead? was it 'kum-kum' or some scar due to some accident or some skin disease?

anywa..it was a nice weekend outing, going for the movy with friends and family..:)

Monday, January 11, 2010

She needs to feel SPECIAL...

When a girl leaves her house after marriage and settles down with her new family, she suddenly thrusts herself into womanhood by only a thin transition of rituals and ceremonies of the society..From the comfort of her own home she is now burdened with the responsibility of looking after herself and her new relatives and the kids as is expected out of her, only for the fact that she's a woman..A working woman has even bigger challenges..She still performs well, all her chores..

During the course of time she's been at her mother's home, the care and the comfort can never recur later in her life cuz of societal obligations but the only thing she looks forward to is resigning in her man's arms after he's back home, some kind words from him which will make her feel comfortable in her small space that she now calls her home and the reminder that she's being taken care of..maybe asking her about her day at work or about any trouble she's encountering at home or in office or sometimes just holding her hand while talking to others would help her somewhat..

Sometimes when you love a person you need to be vocal about it..cuz as any relationship grows, things start becoming more obvious..but this obviousness still needs to be conveyed especially if it's a woman you're sharing your space with..after the newness of any relationship expires between a couple, and there seems to be no bigger excitement left, some small words and actions play magical and add a little freshness, if not much, to an otherwise boring routine..and yes, sometimes ACTIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT than words..nobody, man or woman, can help but get irritated if you're actions tell something else about you than your words..

She counts on you and she's the only person you can count on more than anybody else, a fact she keeps reminding, a promise she keeps fulfilling and a responsibility you seem to ignore..

(PS : this note was a piece of advice i had given to one of my frenz as his wife suddenly started ignoring him..the reason she behaved that way now appears to be clear..he seemed to have taken an advice from a satisfied buddy..:)..)