“Ra-One” does not live up to its hype..!

Good or bad ..there were two movies in production last year at the same time with similar plots. People were spreading rumors that one is the copy of other. Both were made with almost equal budgets and equally powerful star cast. But one of them was released first and set a bench mark good movie making in India with all its innovative techniques, approaches, a good story line and many other good things. But the success of this movie became a bottleneck for the other. No one knew what the plot was all about, but the hype around second movie was quite high before its release. At last the movie got released and unfortunately it turned out that it was nowhere near the bench mark set by the first movie.
That is what happened to the latest release Sharukh starrer "Ra.One". It has not been able to break or even match the bench mark set by "Robot".
For all the hype created by Shahrukh's "Ra.One" I watched the movie with my family. Coincidentally even ROBOT was coming up on the same day on SONY TV. That’s all the more reason to compare both of them.
I never get carried away by any reviews on any movie; I just go, watch, feel for myself and then try to see if the director has genuinely tried to deliver a good movie. I watch any movie for the actual movie and not for any stars.
A movie’s success primarily depends on its storyline/plot, narration, screen play, star cast, editing, music, cinematography and then followed by choreography, special effects and sound design..etc.,.
If the primary functions are not doing well in a movie, the enabling functions just become helpless. End result is the movie falls flat on its face. We cannot lift any movie just by doing great in enabling departments.
The storyline of "Ra-One" is quite simple; it is a story of a father and his relation with son, where the father is ready to do anything to impress his son. As per son's wish he will design a computer game where in the bad guy is more powerful and is pitted against a very normal hero. But due to unexpected turn of events, the villain gets into the real life of father, mother and son and tries to kill them. And at the end good wins over evil forces and it is a happy ending.
It is a good imagination..! Not bad all! We could still have got a decent movie had the story been treated with some sensitivity and caution.
As soon as the movie begins , there is a one deliberate sequence involving Sharukh, Priyanka and Sanjay Dutt with some old Bollywood tunes coming up in the background. Till the end I could not relate this anywhere to the main story. It just stands apart. There are many such sequences which do not gel well with the primary story.
The first half revolves around the hero Shekhar Subramaniam, his gaming company, staff, his wife and son and how the bad guy of computer game enters their lives. The characterization of Shekhar as a Tamilian Father settled in UK, his bonding with his MTV class son should have been handled very well. The treatment given to this part is very shoddy. The director would like to say that Shekhar is a traditional Tamilian engineer who respects all family values and a little orthodox and expects his son to be a good guy always. There are many way how this character would have been groomed. We could have borrowed from Sharukhs own character of a NASA Scientist in Swades.
But here hero is eating noodles and curds with hands !!! I don’t think any of our Tamil friends would agree to these kind of scenes. It just does not look authentic. The movies wiki page says they have done close to 3+ years of pre-production work from 2004 to 2007. But unfortunately I don’t see any of that work showing up in the movie. Anubhav Sinha has clearly shown his inexperience here. I personally felt a genuine good Tamil Movie director should have directed this whole sequence.
Now moving onto Shekhar's son Prateik. Why such a girlish like look to Prateik..? My daughter actually asked me whether he is a boy or a girl..? No explanation!
There is one sequence where Prateik calls his father as Coward. In another sequence Shekhar actually confronts the bad guy Ra-one to save his son. Both these sequences needed lot more punch, some good dialogues and action to showcase father-son relationship and their bonding.
Then comes the owner of the gaming company and his staff. I did not understand why the owner has been shown like a comic character when we are making a serious sci-fi movie. Being a technical company head, we never see him as a serious person, when so much has happened in his company and the gaming characters have actually entered the real life of some one, he is simply selling the same software and looks totally unaware of what is happening.
So problem with first half is lack of emotional punch, continuity in story and poor grooming of characters. We see the movie in bits and pieces which distract the viewer.
When Shekhar dies, the G-One the good character of the computer game comes in to rescue and protect the family. This is where the film actually picks up some space and looks quite promising. There are some really good action sequences here which you would enjoy seeing in a bollywood movie.
But again after the interval, the director loses control and struggles to narrate and take the story forward. The whole second half is a simple computer game with only two characters G-One and Ra-One. There are not many characters to support them and make the story interesting. You might feel you are playing one simple computer game sitting in the theatre.
The pre-climax sequence with Mumbai Local Train is one silver line in the movie. It is done very neatly. The two songs Chammak Challo and Dildaara are good. Acting wise there is no challenge for any one here. Whatever opportunities were there in the movie, they have been wasted. Playing the role of Tamilian Gaming Engineer Shekhar would have been good challenge for Sharukh. But as I already mentioned, he does not seem to be comfortable in that role at all. He looks great in super man role and Chammak Challo song.
Overall the movie does not appeal to you as a single piece, it appears as more of series of events packaged together. There is serious lack of research in the movie. Special effects are good, but not great. Songs are good, but Vishal-Shekhar's music looks little loud in the second half. Cinematography by Nicola and Manikandan (of Tamil movie Ravanan fame) is great. Editing by Sanjay and Martin is decent.
At the end, a strict focus on story, screenplay and narration would have made this movie as one of the best in recent times. A little rigor on the characterization of hero, his son, wife and Ra-one character would have helped a lot. At some point, it seems director has tried too hard to deliver a decent movie and failed because of that.
Because of all these, the hard work of technical crew, singer Akon, brief appearance by Rajini sir and Voice over by Amitabh Bachchan seem to have gone in vain.
This does not mean that Sharukh will lose money in this movie. The producer is a smart business man, he has released 3500 prints across the world. Satellite rights have been already sold. Even if the movie runs in all the theatres for decent one /two weeks, the producer will recover his investment and make good profits.
One last thing, there is an attempt in the end to keep the story open and bring up a sequel to Ra-One. But unless a serious attempt is made to do good research and exercise control on the story, screenplay and narration, I don’t think the sequel is worth producing!
I would give TWO out of FIVE for this movie.

FORCE does matter!

Sometimes there may not be anything great in a story and end is predictable. But it is because of the sheer magic touch that director gives to the narration, packages the sequences and takes audience along with him, that movies do make an impact.
You would have seen what happened in Dabaang! It was just the refreshing touch given to a good old story of two brothers.

This is one such movie where the director comes up with an innovative narration, gets the right set of people on board, keeps the narration pacy and delivers on end product. Force is one of the recent best bollywood action thriller films by John Abraham, directed by Nishikanth Kamat.

It is the story of a top cop Yashovardhan (John Abraham) and his team fighting against the drug mafia spread across the country. How the drug mafia runs, how NCB handles them, what are the limitations of system and how honest officers and their personal lives suffer in the hands of anti social elements. This forms the core of the story.

But this simple story is been narrated well with a backdrop of fresh romance between hero and heroine in the first half. Some of the sequences between John and Genelia are brilliant for their sheer simplicity and realism. You will never get to see a single scene between the two which is 'extra'.

The characterization of heroine Maya (Genelia) by director is really good. After a long time I saw a heroine's character not being dumb in an action movie dominated by hero and his actions. Genelia is quite lovely and lively! Don't miss that !

First half goes very fast with encounters between cops and criminals, good action sequences and a romantic track. The entry given to both the hero and villain are simply superb!

John is very comfortable in his role and has truly delivered a power packed performance as macho top cop. But it is the villain whom you simply can't ignore! The negative character Vishnu played by new comer Vidyut Jamwal is very strong and very well groomed. Vidyut comes up with an equally powerful performance against John. Some of his action sequences are so real and believable! I heard he is a model turned martial fighter turned actor who won the audition for this role among the stiff competition from 500+ people. Vidyut is quite promising in his role. Hats off to director for giving equal weightage to both these two characters!

But the icing on the cake is equally impressive star cast and their performances. Everyone has given their best. Coming to other technical aspects, the picturesque locales captured by Cinematographer Ayananka Bose, melodious music by Harris Jayaraj (Don’t know whether he has copied them from his own Tamil movie Khaka Khaka), the crisp and pacy editing by Aarif Shaikh, great Sound Design by Sanjay Mourya & Allwin Rego and last not the least the paisa vasool action by Allan Amin form the core and support the director in his narration in a big way. Overall it is a great team work under a great director who never loses control.

Having said that, there are few grey areas which could have been handled in a little better way. The drug mafia details, how the criminals exactly operate and what different channels they use, would have been narrated in some more depth (like how Manirathnam handles a particular domain.). In this movie it is handled at a peripheral level with more focus given to John and his crew. Also, there is a mention of limitation of the system in handling the whole mafia. This is also treated as a secondary topic.

There is a concept in Hollywood called 'frenemy' where enemy sometimes appreciates his enemy for his intelligence and skills. Many Hollywood movies are based on this concept and come up with more intelligent and innovative action sequences. May be director could have adopted that kind of concept here.

Here hero and villain are always after each other. Had it been the Hollywood way, the director would have got some more head space to introduce even more adrenaline pumping action and a different ending for the movie.(On the lines of Fast & Furious-five where you would see edge of the seat action till the last minute.)
Remember this is not a plain vanilla NRI love story. You many not watch it with your family. This is a truly for action lovers.

But that does not disappoint you at all. Do watch it purely for John's beef cake physique and actions, an impressive debut of Vidyut, bubbly Gelenia and a complete 10/10 performance by all the supporting cast and technical crew.
I have a suggestion for this director, make it a franchise and come up with a sequel soon! :)

Just Dance...!

Opportunity... Determination to prove..exposure to different forms, sheer talent , pure form of dance, fight hard..win at any cost...if you ask me.. all these vocabulary , words were quite unheard in India at least about 10 years ago. Life has changed so much in India in last one decade. The revolution of media, the impact modern reform policies, the awareness in Indian youth..everything has an impact.

I feel many times people born in 1980 or after are really lucky ones for having landed in India just in time! At the same time, I also feel bad that I should arrived 10 years late into this world!

So there is clear cut difference in the way this youth thinks, plans and executes his/her strategy..and achieves success. Obviously they are called "Gen Y", the true face of today's youth.

There are umpteen examples happening today in India which we can quote. But today I would like to take the example of Dance as one such revolution where Gen Y is really making lots of news.

Traditionally many forms of dance have existed in India and abroad for many many years. But the many talented youth of this country, did not get that required exposure, training and awareness though there was a huge potential to perform. I am watching all these dance reality shows regularly for last 2-3 years. I feel some of them have been really good in terms providing a great plat form for upcoming artists of India to perform on a big stage, to provide right coaching, to correct their flaws and lift their confidence.

Some of the good dance reality shows I have seen are Dance India Dance , DID Little Masters, DID -2 etc.., I myself am not an artist and my knowledge also was quite minimal on dance and its various formats. But today, I feel I have fair amount of knowledge in that area. When someone says “locking and popping” or “contemporary” or “lyrical” I know what kind of dance to expect. I can difference between stunts and dance, classical and modern types. If someone is dancing on the floor I can confidently say whether he\she is a good dancer or not.

I liked the dance numbers choreographed by Terrance Lewis, Remo D'Souza and Geeta Kapoor, Sandip Soparrkar, Marzi Pestonji, Rajeev Surti and of course Shiamak Davar!

Shiamak and his troupe are an ultimate team..they are one of the best I have ever watched. His knowledge and expertise on dance, technicality involved and more than that his attitude and humbleness towards people and his achievements in last 25 years are simply amazing! He is one person whom I respect a lot. (Sachin, A R Rahman are some of the other people in my list.)

I feel somehow ZEE TV which presented these shows has a better handle in managing these kind of shows. Their reality shows have right mix of Rich Content, Learnings for participants, Good coaching from Gurus, Entertainment Quotient and Value for your time. Other channels did not have this for some time. I watched coupe of other dance shows on SONY and STAR TV etc.. but I felt they were copied from some other shows in USA kind of countries and lacked in depth and providing that desi touch. But now after 3 years…this year I can say.. all of them are catching up with ZEE and may be even overtaking them.

STAR TV did it this year by signing Bollywood dancing sensation super star Hrithik Roshan as its host for their upcoming reality show “JUST DANCE !“. That was a kind of Master Stroke from STAR. Also they have roped in Farah Khan and Vaibhavi Merchant as mentors for this dance show which is icing on the cake.

I have seen all their auditions so far. I can confidently say the quality of dance and artists is really really high. The bar has visibly gone up. It was very difficult task for choreographers Farah Khan and Vaibhavi Merchant to select among all the talented guys and gals. And now the 51 contestants from across the world have been selected for final audition to dance in front of Hrithik in MUMBAI.

It is going to be a tough test for even Hrithik to choose among these best talents.

Dance has been always a pleasure to watch for me.. it helps you relax.. it heals your mind..and you really feel good. You feel good when whole world watches Indians performing in these shows. I feel amazed we have such a huge pool of talent hidden in India!

Please watch the show “JUST DANCE” on every Saturday and Sunday at 9PM IST. It is truly PAISA VASOOL ! J

Meeting my teacher - Ms.Sevanta Kadam after 30 years!

It was one of the wonderful and memorable occasions for me when I met one of my school teachers recently!

I met my teacher Ms. Sevanta Kadam after a long gap of 30 Years!

I had been to my native place Yamakanmardi (Dist.Belgaum) last month and planned it well and could meet her there. It was not only nostalgic but also rejuvenating to see her, meet and seek blessings again after such a long gap. I couldn't have asked for more.

She was quite updated about my where abouts through my family members there, but she took some time to recognize me and matching the face of this stout Arun uncle with that of that lean young school boy Arun whom she taught for 3 years in a row.

We used to have only one teacher per class as I was studying in Govt. Kannada Boys School. She taught us for three years in V, VI and VIIth standards. I was one of her pet most students in the class. I always used to remember her whenever there is Teachers Day. But due to some or other reasons, I was not able to contact her.

She worked for Govt.Kannada Boys School for a long time in her life and towards last few years ofshe got promoted as Head Mistress of service Govt.. Kannada Girls School.

My teacher got retired in 2001 , i.e. 10 years ago! But as you can see here, I was amazed to see that she is still so active in life, goes around places on her own and does all her work on her own.

These teachers are wonderful people who built the basic foundation and primary blocks of our life and career. They are so self less always.

I am happy that I met her ! It was some strange feeling of fulfillment away from all this mechanical and machine life...!

This time I have got her phone number also. Will not lose touch again! J

Thought of sharing this with you all.

CONGRATULATIONS Team India ..!

“No champion, no victor and no victory comes without staying focused and staying the course.”

CONGRATULATIONS Team India !

You have really made all of us feel proud of being INDIANS !

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU..!

We LOVE YOU ALL..!

Best of Luck!!!

Life is a pre-paid mobile !

Life is a pre-paid mobile !

I experienced this fact many times in my life. I keep getting this analogy in my mind again and again. Many people might argue that I am a pessimist. But this fact cannot be ruled out just like that. Every one's life is a like a prepaid mobile with some fixed currency. It is a beautiful mobile with full of SMSs, calls.. incoming calls..outgoing calls only as long as this currency lasts. But interesting part of this fact is that, we will never know how much GOD has loaded in our mobile nor how much is available balance!

We only think that we have been loaded with infinite currency and we spend it senselessly. The very feeling of infinite currency does not allow us to think straight. We do many wrong things..we expect unrealistic things from others.. we yell at each other.. we get angry.. we stop talking to each other, we don’t care for relations.. we just take people for granted. We might even forget to think even other person has ONLY some fixed currency.

All in all, our view on life or perspective on life is not just real. We just take our life for granted. That diminishes our thinking in some or other way. What could have been a careful usage of currency, turns out to be a lavish spending.

Currency here refers to our life time and its beautiful moments and days. At times, apart from spending our own currency, we may end up spending currency of others too.

The no. of days in our life is finite and beautiful moments even more limited. I keep telling all the people I know about this. I still remember when I was working for Syntel, I used to tell all my team mates (Suyash, Muniesh, Priya, Swati, Avanish, Shriveni, Rajesh and many others..) that I am going to complete 10000 days in my life on so and so date! They used to laugh at me saying "stupid fellow, he even calculates how many days he has been alive"!.

Knowingly or unknowingly I used to do such calculations. But today when I look back, I feel this perspective is so true..! We only have so many days and moments in life. Life is so uncertain! A very well performing Senior Project Manager, happy family man may die suddenly die in an accident tomorrow. A top most executive or a top most company , a fitness freak might collapse at the entrance of his gym on a fine morning...an honest govt official might get kidnapped or even killed the next day. We just don’t know what is there in store.

My sincere request to my friends, colleagues, family and all those people whom I know is that, please do not waste your currency, do not spoil a beautiful today for unnecessary reasons. Every day , every is precious for everyone. Live every day and every moment to the fullest and make it more beautiful for you and for others. One fine day when I am in last days, I should be proud and satisfied that I have lived my life correctly to the best possible extent, spent my currency sensibly, I did not waste any of my currency or that of others.

To be little more realistic, even with the best possible equations today, with the best possible health and social conditions, I think I can live up to another 6000 to 7000 days at the most. That way if you see, I guess I have already completed more than 70% of journey. What remains is just only about 28 to 30 % journey. Yaane, only so much currency is available now in my mobile..! I want to ensure that I give my best and this remaining currency is spent sensibly, to give my best to life always, make it more meaningful for me and every co-passenger of my life.

This view of mine may seem to be very negative and pessimistic to others. But this is what keeps me going. I will never take life for granted. Life is very precious for me. I have only so many moments in life. This realization and enlightenment helps me always to give my best in anything I do .I feel satisfied with that. I have tried to apply this realistic view in my life wherever possible . It has worked also.

I don’t know whether I was able to successfully convey and pass on this perspective on life to all of you. But that’s what I believe in always. Coincidentally my mobile connection is also a prepaid connection ! J

Recently I watched one beautiful Hindi movie "Dasvidaaniya", I felt this movie is very close to my thoughts and has been able to convey the message correctly. This is not a lolly-polly , NRI hero and India Heroin kind of movie. It is a very simple, real yet beautiful little movie. The central character of the movie has been essayed extremely well by Vinay Pathak. In the first half at place, you might find it little boring, but it picks up pace in the second half.

It made me really sit back and think and introspect about my own life. It could be due to the fact that I watched it all alone. Watching this movie all alone has been one of the memorable experiences recently for me.

I am not a great book reader, but I believe some movies like this one convey the theme more effectively what many books could not convey in hundreds of pages. If you find time, please watch this movie. It is worth giving a try.

For more details on the movie, please check the following URLs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasvidaniya

http://dasvidaniya.in/

Thanks for your time and patience in reading this blog!

SMS Etiquettes we must follow.

I went through some of the SMSs sent by some young IT professionals. I made some observations on the same that the SMSs sent by them are not exactly in line with what the corporate world expects.

We need to aware of some of the SMS Etiquettes while writing to anyone.
I am sharing some of the best practices to be followed while writing any SMS.

I sincerely hope this list will help our young IT professionals to a great extent in their careers and personal lives.


SMS Etiquettes we must follow.

1. Please note the casual tone used in the SMS always diminishes the strength and meaning of the message. Never forget this point.
2. Common courtesy rules always apply. You need to respect every one and their profession whenever you are mentioning some ones name in SMS.
3. Please be very aware of your tone in the message. It is extremely difficult to discern tone in text messages, just as in e-mail. What seems to you to be a completely innocuous message may be grossly misinterpreted by the recipient, causing certain discomfort if not irreparable harm.
4. Using SMS Slangs in your messages is good only with your friends and within close circle and NOT for official communication.
6. Don't expect everyone to know the lingo of the SMS.
7. But you must discontinue this habit as soon as you enter professional colleges. None of the institutions and corporate organizations encourage or respect such language.
8. You need to be very clear and formal with your superiors, colleagues, customers and people with whom you are talking for the first time in your messages.
9. Whenever you are writing to any of your elders, please address them properly, respect their age and be very clear in messages.
10. Use words like ‘Please ‘, ‘Kindly’ wherever necessary. Your SMS should reflect the way you interact with them outside.
11. Words like ‘Hey’ , 'gotta', 'donno', 'kinda'..or ” Ok..? “ can easily cause more damage to your reputation and relation with any person.
12. You need NOT be ‘cool’ with anyone. You need to be decent, clear, formal and pass the message in most effective way without causing any offense to others.
13. Remember composing an SMS while you're in a face-to-face conversation with someone is just about as rude as taking a voice call.
14. Don't get upset if you don't get a reply. Before you text someone and get frustrated at the lack of a response, be sure that they're familiar with how to use the service, and that their carrier will accept messages from yours.
15. Be conscientious of others' schedules. Don't assume that because you are awake, working, not busy, or sober that the person you're texting is as well. Many a pleasant slumber have been interrupted by recurring "beep-beep...beep-beeps" of messages.
16. Remember that SMS is informal. SMS should NOT be used for formal invitations or to dump your girlfriend or boyfriend! 
17. Don't SMS while you're driving. Talking on the phone is bad enough. You won't know what hit you - or what you hit - if you are pounding out a message on your keyboard.
18. Remember that SMS can always be traced.
19. If it's immediate, make a voice call. If you can't get through and your text message is ignored, there's probably a good reason. There are still some times when people don't even have a thumb free to respond.
20. Remember that your phone does have an off button. There are very, very few things in the world that absolutely cannot wait.
21. There is no agreed-upon maximum number of text messages you can send to someone in a certain period without becoming a pest or a source of dread.
22. How often you can safely text someone depends on how close you are with that person, the importance of the information you are conveying, and the timing of the texts.
23. A good rule of thumb is to consider how many times you would be comfortable calling the same person in a day.
24. Think of each text conversation as a phone call and ask yourself whether you are imposing on the other person.
25. Reconsider that texted marriage proposal. When it comes to texting, the medium truly is the message.
26. It is almost never appropriate to conduct important conversations about relationships, major life events, or critical work issues via text message, where the conversation invariably comes off as flippant.
27. Pick up the phone, or use e-mail to engage in a more thoughtful discussion. Never break up with someone via text. Ever!