Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.
Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna,tincidunt vitae molestie nec,molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,suscipit in posuere in,interdum non magna.
Blocking: is the precise staging of actors in order to facilitate the performance.
Acting skills do come handy when you know where the camera is and have the advantage of being a veteran of a Saas Bahu TV serial. But, when your argument is strong, honest and genuine you do not need theatrics a.k.a. #nautanki to say what you have to, unless its meant to rake up emotions of your audience then it helps in improving your performance. Unfortunately our Indian masses do fall for such drama, the plethora of silly mythologies and Saas Bahu serials is proof enough. Sorry not impressed. Prof. Sugata Bose’s speech was far more sensible devoid of political rhetoric.
Truely Unbelievable. So the woman has just undergone #Chemo and therefore the hair loss. However even after having undergone Chemo her husband still sleeps cosily in his bed while she wakes up early in the morning in their posh apartment with antique furniture and collector radio – just to make their #family breakfast. The husband is perhaps recovering from a hangover from last night? Oh well, thats life!
She not only has to cook breakfast also feed the child standing. He cannot do it, he has importnat things to do…like read the morning newspaper… grin… and… oh yes and be supportive… funny and childlike you know, it always helps.
Thank goodness he dresses up himself but he makes sure he builds her confidence sitting in the drivers seat.
You, you sit besides me my dear. I will not feel like a man if you are in the drivers seat.
At work, she gets pampered, and all the sympathy from her female friends. Its easy to remove bindis and place it on her temple and ‘show’ support. Male colleagues don’t wear bindis so they are need not be around. Duh! Male colleagues placing a Bindi on her? Are you nuts, She is saadi shuda, it will give wrong messages…best to not have male colleagues around her.
Did anybody support her and go bald by shaving off their own head bald?
Of-course not!
Then comes in the subtle #subliminal message – kind of a tag line –
Some people don’t need hair to look beautiful (for the rest there is #MasterCard, Oops sorry for the rest there is Vatika hair oil.
Implying, those people who don’t have hair whether due to Chemo or whatever reason is Okay, but for the rest of us, we have Vatika. Vatika makes hair oil. Vatika sponsored the add. Its new age marketing.
Its a joke in disguise especially on those undergoing Chemo.
A truely strong woman would have perhaps said, “I Don’t need your sympathy. If you really love me, wake up before me, cook the freaking breakfast/lunch/dinner routine, wake up the child and feed her for a change, at least since I have undergone Chemo.”
But no, she had to be #stereotyped as an ‘ideal working woman’, who still has to follow all the ‘norms’, of being a woman. Jai ho new age #advertising and #marketing geniuses, you all deserve an #award.
BTW: Full marks for production design, prop work, Love her #Saari.
What? Don’t I have the right to be shamless and indulge myself?
Listen to this song from Jab Tak Hain Jaan (2012) visually performed by Shahrukh Khan.
It has an uncanny similarity with Rabbi Shergill’s song Bulla Ki Jaana Main Kaun.
India lost some cricket match against some country yesterday. However, the cricket lovers of India have some strange affection to find solace even in loss. Incidentally, Sachin Tendulkar had completed his 50th ton in test cricket. (I may be wrong at this because I dont follow cricket neither do I have any inclination to find out its related records). However, the whole twitteraties and glitteraties starting buzzing with comments like “Sachin is god”, “He is not human…”etc etc. Here are a few gems:
A day before that two dalit women were lynched and killed by a ‘mob’ in Moradabad (perhaps only DNA carried the news).
Now one may argue that both are separate incidents the individuals endorsing or not endorsing any event have their personal freedom to do so. And, I am not denying this. Having said this, my question is: Why should this happen? In other words, why should the lives or rather brutal deaths of two marganilized women by a lynch ‘mob’ not occupy the co called media space? At the same time the loss in a game albeit with some ‘historic’ record of making ‘runs’ while playing cricket becomes cause for celebration?
The answer to the above question is quite simple. I insist it is simple. I have had enough of the rhetorical negation “oh, its complex”. According to me all it does is, it gives an easy excuse for the person saying that “it complex, you don’t know enough” But my question to such rhetorical naysayers is, if you know so much, why don’t you give us the answer/s, instead of giving us rhetoric.
Now, going back to media’s exclusion of the brutal death. Its known that the marginalized are not the clients of the mainstream English media channels such as NDTV, CNN IBN, HEADLINE NEWS, NEWSX etc. Their predominant consumer group is english speaking teen to mid 50’s clients, primarily urban Indian upper class and upper caste households. And, having this ‘client oriented’ programming inclination the mainstream media channels tend to cater their programming in a way that may ‘appeal’ to this group.
The most tragic presupposition these channels make is their assumption that covering news of the marginalized, be it killing and rapes related to dalits, or non inclusion of 90 million domestic workers working primarily inside the confines of homes will not be covered by the proposed Bill for ‘The Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010’. This BILL (among other such important things) was suppose to be discussed in the winter secession of Indian Parliament was stalled thanks to the BJP and their supporters, who preferred to stall the working of the Parliament while still maintaining their ‘confidence’ in the UPA government. Interestingly even this aspect did find virtually no mention in the Corporate Indian ‘mainstream’ TV channels.
90 million may be a small figure, after all if the over 210 million dalits of India find virtually no coverage by these channels except they don’t forget to subtly mention somebody’s dalit background while covering contentious political issues. So much for the complexity of the issues and their understanding.
Lastly, Tendulkar’s cricket score may have been a ‘historic’ event but equally historic will remain corporate media’s systematic exclusion of comprehensive coverage of issues related to dalits in Indian society. A truly historic achievement!
I am passionate about Hindi cinema. Well, who is not, the consumption of cinema is a national pass time. While watching the Newslaundry video interview of filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj, I got a sense that he was hoping that Shekhar Kapur’s much ‘talked about’ film Paani sould see the light of day sooner than later. Vishal Bharadwaj was not sure why Shekhar Kapur would not complete his film but ‘talk about it’ since seven years.
While following Shekhar Kapur on twitter I was rather intrigued to see the following tweet on the 28th November 2012:
A few days before directly referring to Paani, Shekhar Kapur twitted about cricket, Indian Parliament, politicians, Kejriwal and his Aam Admi Party, the FDI issue etc. This is apparent from his timeline.
Closely analyze the words of the above tweet and it gives a sense that Shekhar Kapur is passionate about his ‘futuristic’ film Paani as a director but he hopes to find an equally passionate producer. In other words, it gives a sense that he has NOT found a producer YET for Paani. So far so good!
On 29th Shekhar tweeted this:
Again it gives an impression that Shekhar is still on a ‘look out’ for a producer.
On the same day (29th November) he tweets this:
Why is he referring to himself in third person is anybody’s guess. But so far the tweets (mentioned above) give a sense that Shekhar Kapur has not yet found a producer for Paani and the future of this much ‘talked about’ film is bleak. On the 30th November comes the ‘big’ announcement but in the subtlest form.
Here Shekhar disclosed his twitter followers the NEWS that Yash Raj Films shall be producing the film. Finally, the acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth found a producer for his film (that is ‘like his child’) in Aditya Chopra of YRF. As ironical as it sounds, according to Shekhar Kapur he needed a producer as passionate as him to nurture his child. But wait; did YRF decide to produce Paani overnight? Because just
going back two days, Shekhar seems oblivious to any producer being available. May be I am wrong. But then, what is the meaning of the words: “Will Shekhar Kapur ever make this film that he keeps talking about?” There can be three answers to this question.
a. Yes b. No c. May be
Yes, if he finds a producer! But from the tweets it makes us believe that there isn’t one YET. May be he is still hoping to find an equally passionate producer.
No, there is no producer in sight yet and until he finds a producer Paani cannot be made. So, no Panni. Plain and simple.
May be! This is the tricky one. May be yes, may be no. Yes, he may be able to make his film Paani if he finds a producer, perhaps he is in talk with a few but nothing is finalized yet, right? We don’t know this because he has not mentioned about this anywhere.
Nevertheless, the bottom line remains that Shekhar Kapur had not found a producer for Paani even until 7.59AM 29th November 30, 2012 or had he?
Interestingly enough, overnight Shekhar Kapur seems to have ‘found’ YRF who apparently decided to spend $30 million on Paani? Sounds exaggerated? May be it is, but then here is another fact.
On the day Shekhar Kapur decides to let the twitter world know about YRF’s decision to produce Paani the same day Hollywood reporter publishes the same NEWS? So coming back to the moot point, did Shekhar Kapur NOT know two days ago that Aditya Chopra of YRF may produce his film? It is very unlikely. How come Hollywood Reporter published the NEWS the same day? But then, Shekhar Kapur very conveniently got away by baiting his twitter followers by using words such as:
A film needs passion from director, but for a futuristic film as vast as Paani needs producer who is willing 2 give it as much passion (On the 28 th November).
Every1 keeps asking me about star cast of Paani. But d most important person is a producer who is as passionate about d film as I am. Who? (On the 29 th November).
Lets talk about Paani then? Will Shekhar Kapur ever make this film that he keeps talking about? (Again on the 29th November)
Until the 29th November his tweets made an impression that a producer for Paani is a distant future and his ardent ‘followers’ yearning that he finds one soon. Then suddenly on the 30th November we have the announcement of YRF producing it. Strange, but that’s what has happened.
Water scarcity is an issue. This is a known fact. The poorest of the poor living in the slums of Mumbai are the ones to know it best from their lived experience. Perhaps better than you and me who are reading this? Now, do we need Shekhar Kapur to tell us that ‘it is problem’ and perhaps even visually show us his imaginary ‘futuristic’ solution at the cost of Aditya Chopra’s $30 million? This is perhaps the least important question. Because, by the end of the day, no film has been able to come up with a solution. Yes, it may create a certain level of ‘awareness’ amongst a few – especially the urban elites that may watch Paani at the multiplexes. But will it make any difference to ones who can afford bottled water and have access to water tankers?
Will people suddenly give up flush system in their toilets that drain 5 liters of water irrespective if one takes a shit or piss? Will the situation of Paani in India or anywhere in the world be any different after the screening of Paani? I am sure it will cross the 100 crore club, the latest benchmark for a film’s ‘success’ in India. In fact, I am sure it will surpass even 200 crore, but what difference will it make to those kids whose photo was posted by Shekar Kapur in this Paani ‘research pic’?
For the countless poor in the slums, they will be even glad to just see the film, much less make any difference to their lives. Forget seeing the film, they may not have been fortunate enough to even see their own picture on twitter posted as ‘Paani research pic.’
However, by the time the box-office would have stopped counting, the producer, director, cast and crew, media outlets, distributors and multiplex owners would have all had their share of their pie. After all they would give their sweat, blood and their best effort to make the film Paani a success.
For the audience, I just hope that after seeing the film it makes them a little less thirsty.
Imagine a child falls while attempting to reach high up there. Coca-Cola would be in for a huge class action lawsuit coming their way. It is unethical to provide a vending machine that is not accessible at a ‘standard’ height thereby forcing people to use a human ladder or otherwise to reach and make their choice. I hope this is only an advertising campaign and not a reality, because it will certainly hurt somebody – especially children while attempting to reach a certain height just to get 2 for 1.
Also this kind of machine is utterly insensitive towards people with disabilities. At one end special provisions are made to make services accessible to everybody including people with disabilities and on wheelchairs. In this case, we have a vending machine twice the height and people are expected to celebrate its height or inaccessibility?
RGV recently wrote about making a “zero budget” film on his blog. Following is my response to that.
“Zero Budget” is a joke RGV. Well you have become a joke yourself now-a-days.
Tell me this:
Will the editing equipment be available for FREE?
Will the location be available for FREE?
Unless Canon is going to give you the THEREE CAMERAS for FREE, can anybody get those cameras for FREE?
The most important aspect in filmmaking is the story and writing of the story, then comes pre-production which you have conveniently not talked about. Making your film only “seems” to be done in “record time”. You have written about the production schedule without mentioning the pre-production work that you are presently occupied with. And you could have very well be occupied with pre-production for this for the last 2 years.
Also you are not the first one to attempt this. Earlier it was Blair Witch Project and recently Paranormal Activity is ample example. You have probably seen 127 by Danny Boyle. A film like that can very well be made with 5 people and 5 people crew with 2 or 3 cameras almost 1/2 locations.
Here is what I guess and I hope I am wrong.
Your film is perhaps going to be a horror flick, confined to one one or 2 locations nothing nobody has tried before.
I really admire your genuine efforts to come up with genuine gimmicks about your films than coming up with genuine films – that people and audience expect from you.
Sadly you turned out to be a better businessman than a better filmmaker. Make films Sir, leave the “critics” to write about how your film is made in record time, with no budget, no crew, no script, no story, no audience….
After reading the article in DNA about Yana’s ‘No Panty’ I responded to the writer on his piece with the following comments. His original article is also pasted below for quick reference. My questions are:
1. Whether Yana wants to wear panties or not is her personal choice, even if she may be a Public figure.
2. Larger question is: what moral right does any press photographer have to click any woman’s picture AFTER knowing the fact that her private parts are going to be exposed? Shouldn’t be charged with criminal intent? Would he do such a thing if the ‘celebrity’ was his family member? Better still, if that woman was, say, Carla Sarkozy/Michelle Obama, would those pictures ever leave the venue? In this case Yana has come out as a victim of voyeuristic chauvinistic gaze.
3. Perhaps an article on commodification of women in Indian society would have been more appropriate than focus one woman’s non (panty) issue.
In the Vanities
No one wears panities —-
—Ogden Nash, Theatrical Reflection
In the early 1990s, when the Indian economy was opening up to the world, foreign consumer brands, in the first flush of excitement, came tripping over themselves to sell to “one billion” Indian customers. But after all the low hanging fruit had been plucked, they had to work hard to ferret out ‘niche’ markets that they could sell to: and one of those hitherto-unexplored markets in India, which had remained outside their reach, was the market for intimate women’s apparel.
At that time, a market research agency came out with a well-padded (and, perhaps, underwired) report that claimed – presumably after surveying women in the most remote tribal belts – that nearly 98 per cent of women in India did not wear any kind of undergarments. It then claimed, on the basis of this titillating bit of statistic, that there was clearly a vast and unfulfilled demand for women’s innerwear. Predictably, it had well-established international lingerie brands all out of breast breath and pant(y)ing with excitement at the big market that lay tucked away – out of sight of prurient eyes – beneath the demure vestments that Indian women wore.
Curiosity about what lay beneath the outer layers of women’s clothing had by then become something of a national obsession. In 1993 was released the film Khalyanak, with its suggestive signature hit-song Choli ke peeche kya hai (fair warning: nothing explicit, but probably Not Safe for Workplace). Young men burning with the desire for illumination on this fundamental question queued up to see the movie over and over again – in some cases, up to 30-40 times – but, sadly, obtained no satisfactory answer.
The fact that many Indian women, particularly in rural areas, have a callous disdain for innerwear would, of course, have been stunningly obvious to a generation that grew up watching Zeenat Aman (again, probably NSFW) in Satyam Shivam Sundaram.
But it appears, from evidence that was made pubic public recently, that the trend of women unwilling to be confined in anything so constricting as underwear has reached epidemic proportions in India.
The model Yana Gupta recently had male hormones gushing when she uncrossed her shapely legs at a charity event in Mumbai and flashed the message – as in this Calvin Klein commercial from 1981 starring Brooke Shields – thatbetween her and her micro-mini dress, there’s absolutely nothing.
The sight that the ‘No Panty Girl’ Yana revealed has predictably acquired nearly as much jabber value as this other famous uncrossing of legs, by Sharon Stone in the 1992 film Basic Instinct, did. But it has also drawn the unkind attention of self-appointed moral policemen with a keen eye out for exposed female genitalia: a man in Lucknow who claims to be a social activist (but from all accounts is only a publicity hound) has filed a case against Yana and the eager-beaver photographer on grounds of obscenity.
But it appears that in his eagerness to enforce an imagined moral order, the ‘moral policeman’ has misinterpreted the message inherent in Yana’s sneak peek of her no-panty state. To understand Yana’s message, one has to be familiar with the Hemline Index, a whimsical economic theory propounded in 1926 that, from all accounts, is still valid. It holds that the hemlines on women’s dresses rise when an economy is doing well; and, inversely, when economic times are grim, the skirts get longer. (More on this enthralling subject here.)
In other words, the message that Yana wished to flash to the world – through the shortness of her dress and her disregard for innerwear – is only that the Indian economy is well and truly booming.
Now, picture this: to profit from that booming economy, somewhere deep in a remote corner of India, a lingerie salesman looking to tap into a “vast and unfulfilled demand” for lacy innerwear is probably at this moment trying to hard-sell the joys of the Wonderbra to a puzzled tribal woman…
[UPDATE: At the suggestion of a commentator (see below), I’ve edited out the name of the petitioner who filed the obscenity case against Yana. The suggestion that media outlets should deny him the publicity that he seeks appears to me to be sensible.]
Interestingly, the writer Venkatesh Vembu often responds to even silly comments and feedback on his blog. Although my comments were posted on his DNA blog, perhaps he was at loss of words to respond to my comments.
After reading this line written by RGV’s friend Satyendra “…and when published it will alter the very direction of Western Civilization” the first thing that comes to my mind is, empty vessels make most noise and birds of a feather flock together (RGV and his friends). Will all due respect to Satyendra, I would be just glad if it alters even his own self forget Western Civilization.
I am not trying to under-estimate Satyandra however, if I am on going to write such ‘direction changing’ books, I would wait for it to first complete, get published, be accepted as a ‘landmark’ and then one may perhaps won’t even have to make such tall claims.
Its like Julian Assange saying “I am going to change the direction of Journalism world over” 2 years before registering wilileaks domain name. He would only end of being the butt of all jokes, until he does it. Only time will tell if Satyendra’s claim will be a damp squib like RGV’s Classic book that I don’t even remember the title of, neither do I know what language it was published in.
For all those who want to know and interact with Satyendra here are his current details.
He is working in the Dept. of Applied Mechanics at Gitam University in Vizag. His email id is satyensunk@yahoo.com. To my question on what he is upto, his answer in his own words..
“I am working on two books..one is titled ‘Seventeen Degrees North’ (the tale of an Indian beach) which is about the exploration of a 33 km sector of the vizag coastline which will constitute not only of a scientific analysis of it but in addition it will also contain a multitude of philosophic, psychologic and literary musings with regard to it. The second book that I am writing is titled ‘De Profoundis’ which will analyse both philosophically and psychologically all the emotions of man such as Greed, Love, Lust, Joy, Death, Hate, Revenge, Work, Reserve, Friendship etc and when published it will alter the very direction of Western Civilization”
After the stalled Winter 2010 secession of Parliament. After significant issues, bills, debates and discussions not finding ANY space between the so called JPC or PAC argument , the BJP is now on a national “anti-corruption rallies” mode. While they did nothing (or could not do anything) against Karnataka CM after allegations of his involvement in land allotment scams, the BJP now perhaps want to get their feet wet to find out how much public support they have in the present situation. The rally in my view is their SPEEDOMETER, to gauge how their strategies have faired. Their strategies have paid off. Unfortunately, not as an effective opposition party but only as a political party who intends to gain momentum towards the power corridors. They could have easily gathered momentum and passed a NO CONFIDENCE motion against the present UPA government, ‘strangely’ the BJP did no do so. While maintaing their CONFIDENCE in the ‘corrupt’ government over the 2-G specturm allocation issue they now are going to rally around the nation to consolidate vote. Nice move. Here is how even a cursory glance of their strategy worked out. It all begins after allegation of 2-G spectrum comes under the radar.
1st : stall parliament, leading to:
2nd: important issues/debates/discussions/bills not being taken up, leading to:
3rd: not just financial loss from stalled parliament but also policy loss which is far greater loss than Financial loss.
4th: Bashing of the Congress over ‘so many scams’ helps sensitize voters against Congress, leading general public to imagine “the present Congress lead govt. is most corrupt”- another feather in the cap for the BJP.
5th: Generally people end up discussing fundamentally less-important issues, i.e. issues that are important but not as important as to affect millions. Keys issues such as education for all, employment for all, affordable housing for all, healthcare for all are virually never discussed leading to more actual decay in society.
6th: for the BJP, all of the above becomes another feather in the cap, if questioned, they will rhetorically say, “the Congress was in power. It is during their regime this has happened. It is because of their incompetence.”
My only answer to this flimsy rhetoric is: agreed that the Congress is most incompetent of all political parties, they have failed each and every Indian in all possible ways, however, if they are so bad, it makes the BJP even worse, because being the LEADING OPPOSITION party the BJP were not even able to do their job of being an APT checkpoint for the government. And, if the BJP handles their power as opposition with such incompetence it only confirms that they would perhaps be even worse if in control at the Centre. If they cannot perform their duty as efficiently in OPPOSITION they are more than likely to out perform themselves if they become the ruling political partly. By being complacent in their role as an effective opposition party the BJP has outperformed themselves, worst than the present Congress lead UPA government. If the BJP could not LEAD from the back, as on opposition, can they ever LEAD from the FRONT? In order to be effective in POWER one has to be equally – actually better – in OPPOSITION, its no rocket Science!
