Slumdog slams it!

A film about India, shot in India, featuring Indians! How I wish this could be India's official entry for the Oscars, but for its British director, Danny Boyle!

Slumdog Millionaire deserves all the hype surrounding it. From it's very first scene, in which the slum kids outrun our very own pot-bellied cops inspite of them having motorcycles, the movie manages to capture the rawness of slum-life. Not only that, throughout it's duration, the movie has some terrific scenes, some funny, some moving and striking!

In a strange way, the movie manages to make slums look smelly yet full of life, especially in the scene in which Jamaal jumps from the toilet into a pit full of shit and runs across drenched in....you know what, just to get Amitabh's autograph. No movie has ever manged to capture India's dark underbelly in such a beautiful manner. Kudos to the screenplay writer for making the film look more realistic than Indian films.

The whole journey of Jamaal from the slums to the show is brilliantly thought-off. The beauty of the movie is that Anil Kapoor asks questions, not the actor but the film answers it. The narrative keeps shifting from the show to his childhood, adulthood et all, answering all the questions along the way!

The direction is brilliant, the music is good, but the real star of the movie is not Anil Kapoor or A R Rahman, the real star is Jamaal, the little kid. His acting is as good as anyone's I have seen in recent times. His spontaenity and enthusiasm just get to you. He is a real find, a slumdog who I think really has the potential to be a star worth not million but billion bucks. An actor so good, I wouldnt surrpised if many producers are ready to jump in the pit full of shit just to get his dates.

Slumdog, the movie is brilliant but it is Jamaal, a real-life slum-kid who makes the movie what it is. Hence, 'Slumdog slams it! 'Full stop

P.S: We will miss the Oscar again!

Is good always ahead of the bad???

We paid with 178 lives to realize the fact that no more can our policemen protect us with Lathi's. Our policemen are still trying to learn how to tap multiple mobile phones, while the terrorists are already using satellite phones. Why does bad always need to spit in our face for us to realize that times are changing. Only when a plane crashed into a building did we realise that important buildings need to protected from air attacks. Only when they came by sea, did we start taking coastal security seriously. Suddenly we are guarding the sea, as well the airspace. But bad, meaning the terrorists will next find another ingenious way to hurt us.

All of the above makes me think, is bad always ahead of the good? What is victory after losing hundreds of lives and orphaning thousands of families. We are trying to equip our police with AK-47's while next time the terrorists will come with better machine guns. Is good always ahead of the bad? May be, good does not weaponise itself until bad strikes, If thats true, lets anticipate the bad, lets prepare for it . Let's be good, but lets think like BAD. Lets guess where all are we weak, which can be the probable targets. Lets not just be the good, lets be the best! Is good always ahead of the bad??? Hopefully, not again, never again!

Noise gives rise to one Voice!

Its been more than a month since the horrific attacks. For once, from a varied mass of rich, poor, corrupt, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh individuals, a WE has emerged. A WE, which was made possible only because the attack created panic, chaos, pandemonium -basically a lot of noise from which a VOICE has emerged. Its funny but for something good to happen, a LOT of bad is always neccesary. This voice is the voice of the stupid, scared and angry comman man. May be this time, we can change India. But after 30 odd days, we should ask ourselves, is the noise lessening, is the voice fading? I hope not, but it really is.

NO VOTE. NO DIFFERENCE!

Last few days I have seen a flurry of emails, communities and SMS'es which talk about using 49-0, an option through which we can cast a ' No-vote'. These emails state that if a certain percentage of people dont vote, the election will be cancelled. This is completly untrue, please read 3rd Dec's DNA main supplement, page no 8. It clearly states that a person can cast a No-Vote, but in no circumstances will the election ever be cancelled. So, this option basically doesnt make any sense. It would be great if all of you spread this messgae around that those emails, SMS'es are false.

Assuming that they were true, what would we really achieve by getting a election cancelled. Here is a list of things, which we can achieve by casting a No-Vote

1) Wastage of public money for getting one election cancelled and arranging for another one.
2) Stressing out our security forces as their duty hours double during elections.
3) Endangering our security as the police would be more busy with the elections.

We as commoners only matter to a politician when he knows that we, I and YOU are going to vote. When he knows that I and YOU are goign to vote, our problems become his problems, our grievances become his, our issues become his, at least for the time being. But the moment politicians know that YOU are not going to vote, YOU dont matter to them anymore. Hence, your problems arent their problems, your issues arent their issues anymore and hence OUR security isnt their CONCERN anymore. Hence, NO VOTE. NO DIFFERENCE.

Thoughts

Here are a few of my thoughts on the terrorist attack which rattled Mumbai....

You cant fight AK-56 rifles with lathi’s. Empower the police.

Terrorists are trained to kill, so they kill.
Politicians are there to protect us, but they don’t. So, who is the bigger enemy?

Just 10 terrorists killed 183 people and injured 294. Should we say more?

350 commandos protect Mayawati. 150 commandos protect Sonia Gandhi. Who protects us?????

We love our soldiers, but we want to see them alive.

Take my salary but PLEASE buy bullet-proof jackets for our police and save them.

We know who they are, where they came from, who financed them…..what are we waiting for? A nuclear attack??

We saved the parliament, we saved the Taj. Enough of saving, lets talk about prevention not cure.

Strength: Soldiers
Weakness: Politicians
Opportunity: Ourselves
Threat: Terrorism, everywhere!

There are many thougts, many emotions, but just not enough words to express my gratitude to all those bravehearts who risked their lives to save the lives of people they didnt even know. Brave Commandos, I dont think my words can do any justice to your courage. But to do my own small thing, I SALUTE YOU!!

The Dark Knight

The number of blasts and attacks in India over the last few moths make me bleieve that we are living in some under-developed South-African country where bomb-blasts and mass-murders are a daily reality. I just cant resist myself from comparing the current situation in our country to the one that was shown in the batman movie, The Dark Knight.

In the movie as the mafia mounts a war against the city, everyone expects someone to answer the mafia in its own language-violence. But, there is one man, who tries to hit the mafia through making tougher laws. He is the fair knight, the one who tries to fight violence through laws. That is fine, I think the Indian law book might be one of the biggest books in the world. But today, we need someone like the Batman, a dark knight who kills the killers. One who answers to them in their own language, who gives an eye for an eye, one who does tit for tat and does boom boom even before the mafia can start its work.

May be we need a dedicated hit squad to tackle this menace. A dedicated group of officers, whose only job is to track such elements and kill them at the first possible oppurtunity. Give them the best weapons, the best training and a license to kill ala James Bond. Today, I so wish that superheroes were for real then I guess our beloved Taj Mahal Hotel woudnt have to be raped left, right and centre by these terrorist. We could have saved the Oberoi and Nariman House and all its residents from the ordeal that they went through. I wish a man would come in his batmobile, blast through the window like superman, thrash the terrorists with the power of He-Man and then finish the them with the ferocity of Joker. I know, the human rights guys wouldnt like this, but what would you do with human rights when the most basic right of innocent humans, the right to live is being snatched away by mindless terrorists. have a look at this......

Jaipur Blast: 80 dead. 100 plus injured.
Guwahati Blast: 67 dead. 50 plus injured.
New Delhi Blast: 30 dead. 100 plus injured

It's been more than 25 hours, my beloved city is still in fear, we have lost many bravehearts, more than 127 are dead and more than 300 are injured, hundreds of families have been orphaned. I am waiting for Mumbai's Dark Knight or rather Dark Knight's!!!!!!

Helplessness!

Watching the terrorist operation last night on my TV screen, there were only 2 emotions I could feel. One being so strong that I just wish that I could begin this blog with the choiciest of expletives begining with m, b,c and everything else. When the terrorists continued to hold the whole city to ransom, all I could think of was helplessness. The sheer thought that even 38, 000 policemen could not make you feel secure was nerve-wrecking.

I was watching the TV till 2 o clock in the night, there was a lot to see in the middle of the screen, but there was a small column to the right of the screen, from which I just couldnt take my eyes. The column showed the number of people who had died in the attacks and every few seconds, like it happens in a typical Hollywood movie, the figure kept mounting......57, 63, 70, 100, 120 as i write this and who knows how much by the time it gets over. We have seen numerous blasts in the last few years but just one scene where policemen were walking on the road with pistols in their hand is something which no one would ever dreamt of even in their worst nightmare.

We dont know how many fathers, mothers, daughters, sons and friends might have died in these attacks and may be even if we do come to know, we wouldnt be able to do much for their families. As one place after another was targeted, as a citizen of Mumbai, who loves to eat at Juhu beach, loves to hang-out at Bandra, admires the beauty of South Mumbai, all I could feel was helplessness!