The outrage and the country.

The latest thing to have caught the mood of the nation after the corruption protests is the heinous crime on the 16th of December. The lawlessness of this country was once again displayed for the world to see.The fact that it took one week for the prime minister of this country to speak up on the issue while the president of the united states made a public statement on the very day of connecticut shootings requires another post.For now it is about this incident.The crime was dastardly ,make no mistake about that but what intrigued me was the outrage that followed it.

What beats me in the outrage is that people react only when a such a crime is committed in the tier 1 city and that too in a "decent" area.Does any one know Thangjam Nanao Singh?.Not many.No one cares for the brutal cases that occur in the hinterlands of this country or in city slums.No vigils are held for them ,no one raises a voice for them.In short, no one gives a damn.

Moreover the knee-jerk reaction is what surprises me the most..Does any one remember the  Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes case?Not many.The outrage,the facebook groups squared up to zilch.This has become a sort of a cycle.,an incident in a metro, outrage, rally,provocative emotional images and graphics(at times with background score) on news channels, candlelight vigils,facebook likes groups,change the dp......new t20 match of India....sehwag scores a ton....whatever happened to the incident.

This is seriously sad. 

I don't have a problem with death penalty or castration or whatever you wanna do with the culprits but the problem in this country are not laws but their implementation ,the required amount of police personnel,their training to deal with such incidents,the patriarchal mindset of the society .

The offender does not feel free because of lack of laws but because he knows that the girl will herself not speak up,even if she does the social and parental pressure will push her down,if she does manage to reach the police station the insensitive police would not cooperate and if the culprit is influential,might simply refuse to make an fir. Supposing she beats all odds ,the pathetic judicial system makes sure the remaining glimmer of justice is quashed.

Call me a cynic but this " 'like'-this-to-bring-a-change","click-here-for-revolution","change-dp-to-to-change-the-nation" kind  of armchair slacktivism makes me squirm.A similar kind of "activism" was shown during the corruption protests when many went to the jantar mantar to get a pic with Indian flag to make a dp because it was the new "in-thing".Teaching your maid's kid a new word every day can bring more change than this.A false sense of altruism is all one gets most of the times.This comic by Garbage Bin shows the hypocrisy.

Not that there is no hope for this country ,the repeated protests and anger in this country do indicate there is a silver lining for this country after all.But this system needs massive changes.This rape incident and the lokpal issue point to  the larger need of police,judicial,electoral and  administrative reforms.There have been countless committees for them but it is only when people get on the streets for them when the politicians would bother with them. Till then the politicians are happy making more committiees and the people are happy creating a new page to like.

The Wasseypur saga (Spoilers Galore)

When i first heard about GOW i was very excited about it as AK had come as a revelation to me  recently when i had watched Gulaal and i was blown off by it.I thought that AK's  take on small town gangs would be interesting.So in a way i was already biased in its favor before watching it.I travelled 40 km to see the movie so that i could enjoy the movie in its full flow and magnificence.And it didn't disappoint.

It has AK written all over it and it is fitting that he be compared with QT .

Strangely Humour is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about GOW.It is really odd that a crime film with so much amount of gore and violence and abuses should invoke humor as a first word but i could not stop laughing during the film.AK's humor is not your regular slipping on a banana peel slapstick it is wacky, it is black, observational, situational almost to the point of being cruel but stops short of it.I don't know if there are words to describe his humor.

GOW is full of such examples two of my favorites are the operation in the dark scene in the first part where the fearsome sardar becomes unreasonably caring for his son who barely has an  injury.Another is the one where ramadhir asks his son which "cinema" he went to see the day before and JP sheepishly tells DDLJ.The look of disappointment on Ramadhir's face,the guilt and embarrassment on JP's face are all priceless.AK manages to takes such funny situations out of daily lives and portray them on screen, which is brilliant..The one where Durga puts a loaded gun her sons bag and asks him not to get into a fight with a straight face is another gem.One other  priceless scene that comes to mind is the one with Abhay Deol and the Aunty with a bus Ticket in Dev D, that scene had me in splitts for a long time.

The music plays a great role in setting the mood of the film and it has been dealt with carefully.AK has done a great job here with the an innovative soundtrack by Sneha Khanwalkar, Piyush Mishra, and the background score by GV Prakash.Barring the song Moora which i believe is pretty uplifting and leaves a impression, but doesn't work well in the film as a sort of strength giving track for Faizal Khan, all the songs help in taking the story forward. 

The way the woman characters were given a backseat along with Asghar and Farhan could have been done away with.The way Nagma Khatoon's character was shaped up in the first part, much more was expected then a one time riling up of her son, also the character of Mohsina doesn't have a major say in the scheme of things other than singing a song and a few hilarious scenes.

Death becomes commonplace in the city and is almost trivialized by the sad songs sung by Yashpal Sharma of which he keeps track by counting the beats on his fingers. In spite of this, the climatic death along with the epilogue does leave you a bit poignant.Also it leaves the space open for a Wasseypur series if not soon then may be 10 to 20 years later but the saga can be continued and may be till then the real life inspiartions would give more fodder  for the story.

Although the two films individually have their own place but the best way to see GOW is as one movie which surpasses the individual films.

Not just another show

One of the things that i dislike is the use of  someones emotions for one's benefit especially the emotion of sorrow.The awkward silences, polite talks, solitary tears  all just make me cringe and i just  loathe these kind of methods.

So when on the sunday morning i switched on the tv  like millions others ,one can imagine the disappointment when i saw aamir calling assorted ladies and hearing their sad stories.I thought  aamir too had fallen prey for the tears-for-trp business even though he did it in a more subtle manner and  gracefully showed the tears and horror of the audiences but still it looked stage managed and it probably was.But as the show went by, it appeared to become bigger than just use-and-throw of the emotions of people for trps.The research,the  travel, the experts , the intent ,  the decision to participate himself to lead the way forward to the solution and most importantly the effort to encourage people against the female foeticide cause  made the show more than  a exploitation-of-the-emotions show.

But herein lies the catch; in making his show different from others aamir has taken a really major decision by himself participating in causes , he must understand that just doing celeb lip service to a cause will bring major flak and criticism to him.He has made it more than just trps and as he intended it to be; it  is not just another show not only for the audiences but also for himself he can not get himself away from it just by shooting for it.It will or at least should take a significant portion of his time.

The major criticism for the show is that aamir has no magic wand and that there are activists who have been leading the cause for decades and that aamir is being listened because he is a star and that his efforts are only giving pr to the cms and they will do nothing more. But i think  aamir himself made it clear on the show that  it is the people who have to change and no amount of regulations can help unless people change, secondly this should not be one up manship that he is a one day wonder and that others have worked for decades, the "activists" should look at it as another helping hand.It must be understood that what he brings to the table is attention to the cause and that the battle would still be long but more people will join in.Lastly it is too early too comment on the show ;how the show fares will largely depend on how aamir takes the issues forward in the future; it is too early to be cynical about it or question his intentions;he has a long way to go but at least he is the only who has made the step in the right direction .It is not just another show ;not for the viewers and if aamir is not acting it certainly should not be for him..........

UP elections

So the dance of Indian democracy has once again put the pollsters to shame.No one knew that the sp goondas will be so much coloured this holi and that that mayawati will have to face a washout, the position of the national parties were pretty much known.So for my first post i would like to do one of my favourite things i.e. dissecting the political parties.
CONGRESS-----The "party of the prince" fell flat on their face.While the party never really claimed that this was the prince's fight but it was pretty much clear that they were treating it as the "coming of age" ceremony before the battle of 2014.The mentor of the prince tried every trick in the book to woo the muslims ,the sal'man' of the party too tried to sacrifice himself on the alter of CEC to help the prince but could not even save the election for her own wife.The prince himself continued his policy of "eat -with -the -poor- to- woo- them" but even they could see through his superficiality, the poor may be illiterate but they are certainly not dumb.And even though the prince tried to be courageous and had good photo op with his sister waiting while he took the blame gallantly,the sycophants had a field day defending him.
But in my opinion this was a good wake up call for congress and they can still rectify their decline and still make some gain for the 2014.While i don't like the dynasty of congress or of any other party but given the present options i will still put my bet on rahul g for 2014 provided he brings some change in the party.
BJP------The party with 55 pm candidates also failed to make any mark in the elections.The party never really looked in the fray and made only cosmetic changes at the last time to bring uma bharti and khushwaha(even though that hurt them more than helping them).The party never had any leadership in the state and they couldn't have credited anyone nor can they blame anyone for the failure.It reflects on the party which has so much infighting going on that they are not able to take the advantage of such a pathetically abysmal central government.Also the fading of their  hindutva politics was again proved by their loss in their bastion of ayodhya.
So if bjp has any intention to swap the benches in the parliament they better get out of the 90s politics of raths and mandirs and  start working around a leader on the development front and go full on against this terribly shaky government.
BSP--------The party which considers that the basic human need is pride and not roti ,kapda,makan and so spent crores on the murtis and parks and that too of herself instead of welfare schemes,the party which made a very serious attempt to create a cult around their leader, was thrown out of power with a very convincing mandate.The bsp has a lot to think over ,the top down working style, the corruption ,the arrogance all have contributed to their decline.But the greatest silver lining for bsp in all this gloom  ironically is their very adversary;it looks the state has no choice but a goonda and a goondi and as is proved by the post poll violence ,the sp hasn't really changed much so the bsp don't  have to do much but wait for sp  to self destruct.
SP------The greatest miracle is really for the sp ,the party which didn't do much but was generously helped by the pathetic bsp government.Everyones talking about akhilesh but i don't think he should get as much credit as he is getting and by the looks of it he doesn't look to be a very smart chap; i may be wrong but he doesn't impress at first sight.
The real challenge for sp would be to deliver on the development front and control their goondas.

So their you  go ........ this is MY view on the elections .
Do remember to comment on it if you happen to read it.
:)
MJ