Guru

I have returned to blogging after a long break. I saw the acclaimed movie "Guru" with the high profile, recently engaged couple: Abhisheik and Ashwariya. I had high expectations from the movie reading the great reviews, it being a Mani Ratnam movie, and more importantly it being based loosely on Dhirubhai Ambani's life. I was fairly impressed by the movie.

There were some flashes of brilliance in the movie that are typical of a Mani Ratnam movie. In a very non-bollywoodesque scene the protagonist is shown very eager to marry his friend's sister for her dowry. There is a very natural touch to the scene which makes you chuckle. Abhishiek's interactions with Mithun after things turn dour between them are also interesting. The sweeping background score makes it even more enjoyable. But sadly the second half loses steam. It does not contain as much punch as the first half. Abhishiek has truly performed at new level altogether.

Given that the Bachans are so close the Ambani family, Abhishiek grew up around Dhirubhai. That probably enables him to play with the role with such elan.

San Jose = New India

Me and friend have been considering rechristening San Jose to New India. The number of Indians in the bay area is staggering. I was there recently for a conference I really felt I was in India by the sheer number of Indians I saw there. There is multiplex that exclusively plays Indian movies. So for a change I had the option of actually picking which movie I wanted to watch. We ended up picking Don. We got something to eat at a fast food India place nearby. Someone from the town I grew up was there and came up to me and asked me if I was "Neha". We trying to compute that from all the places in the world what was the probability of this happening in San Jose. The conclusion was "Quite High". We also a had a single data point to prove it, so it was decided to be statistically sound for this problem domain. The service was very typical of something you would find in India. No the US sweet and sugary customer service. My friend was asked twice to show her receipt when her order didn't show up. Embarssingly we found it more amusing than insulting. All things said and done, the food was really good, and after Utah it felt like being back home. On the next day I had the best Mysore masala dosa ever. It felt like dosa from a really good South Indian restaurant located in South India and not on El Camino Road in San Jose.

Pointing vs. Sharad Pawar

When I saw this video I was confused. Earlier Ponting seems to be having a sort of "banter moment" with Pawar saying "come on mate hand me the trophy". I am willing to give Ponting the benefit out doubt that he was pushing Pawar away as part of joke. Pawar is the president of the Board of Cricket Control in India, and cabinet minister in the current government. A lot of Indian viewers were shocked at this incident. A lot of that outrage has to do with a cultural background of respect and deference to other people older in age and in better social positions.

Ponting has offered to apologize to any Indian official offended by his actions. He should be specific and target his apology to Pawar. He did not mention it was part of a joke or trick being played on Pawar. So maybe he just got carried away in the moment. It is the first time the Aussie's have won the ICC Championship Trophy.

CS Enrollment going down

CS Enrollment is going down. Right now at BYU there are 450 undergraduates in the Computer Science vs. 1000 a few years ago. This represents a nationwide trend in the US. So what is causing students to stay away from CS? The most common answer people talk about is the scare of out sourcing. But everybody I know is getting a job before getting out of college. This includes people with bachelors, masters and PhDs which makes it even more perplexing.

Shahid Kapur in a Pepsi Ad

Here is a old pepsi advertisement that came out just after Kuch Kuch hota hai became a blockbuster. Now here is the interesting part, the dorky guy whose "dil maange more" after the movie is over, is none other than Shahid Kapur. I just happened to come across it on youtube and could not stop laughing when I saw Shahid. For people unfamaliar with Shahid Kapur, he is a mainstream actor now and looks kinda like this -- Pic of Shahid Kapur .

Mehndi Pictures

When I was in India I got Mehndi put. I had a blast. It was amazing. I am sad I didn't take pictures of how nice the color had turned out. It took two women (professionals) about 35-40 minutes to do each hand (Front and back).

Shocked to find Chaiya Chaiya in "The Inside Man"

I rented the DVD for the Inside Man a couple of days ago. It had all the trappings of a movie I generally like. The plot line is about bank heist starring Clive Owens and Denzel Washington. A good thriller is always welcome with the recent of dearth of good movies Hollywood is churning out. More on that subject later. Clive Owens is one of most under-rated actors around. He really gets into the skin of the character he is playing. His British accent adds to his charm ofcourse. As soon as the movie started playing starting with the globe of the Universal Studios thing, I hear in Sapna Awasti's voice "Jin ki sar ho ishq ki chawan, pav ke neeche janat hogi", the evergreen Chaiya Chaiya song, an A.R.Rahman blockbuster from the movie Dil-se. The original soundtrack keeps playing as the credits roll. A remixed version of the song plays during the end credits of the movie too. Somehow to me (I am a prejudiced audience because I hear and see the song in a different context) did not gel with the setting of the movie. I almost expected Shah rukh Khan and Maliaka Arora to jump out from somewhere and starting dancing. Instead I was subjected to some scenes from Manhanttan. Inside Man is a good movie if you have nothing to do or you are a graduate student.

Globalization in a flat world

Before I come to my interesting tibit here is a little background on the subject: "Vegetarian Food on International Flights". On International flights we have to order special meals when we book our ticket because a vegetarian meal is not an accepted standard option on International flights. So we can order stuff like Asian Vegetarian or Western Vegetarian. Plus we have to specify we are ok with dairy products otherwise we get no desert and some excuse for butter with the bread. On some airlines if you request a vegetarian meal they will give you the lowest common denominator that is dairy-free, low-calorie, sugar-free in addition to being vegetarian. No prizes for guessing how bad such a meal tastes.

The last two trips I have gone to India I have flow Northwest-KLM. Last year on KLM instead of bringing us our "special meal" during mealtime the stewardess came and asked, "Would you like chicken or vegetarian curry?". Note this is on a flight going from Detriot to Amsterdam and not some direct flight in and out of India. A guy sitting a couple rows behind us was quite appalled at his given choices. He asked the stewardess whatever happened to the traditional choices of beef or chicken. A similar thing happened this year too. Again the standard choices were chicken or vegetarian curry. The option for the sides were a crossiant or aloo parantha (its a kind of stuffed Indian bread). The guy sitting behind was curious why there was a standard vegetarian option. The stewardess explained since they were getting so many requests for special meals, a.k.a vegetarian meals, it was getting hard for the airlines to keep track of them and manage them. It was more cost effective for them to have the vegetarian meal as a standard option.

This makes you think that globalization in a flat world is very multi-directional. If there are American food chains in India there is Indian food on an flight operated by an American airline flying from the US to a city in Europe.

Excited about Omkara

The next movie I am really excited about watching is Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of the Shakespeare's Othello called Omkara. After watching Maqbool, I was convinced Bhardwaj does a great job with the adaptations. Irfan Khan and Tabu with Pankaj Kapur made a stellar star cast to bring the deception and treachary of Macbeth right to hindi cinema. Next comes Omakara which is set under the polictical backdrop of UP which seems so appropriate for Othello. Ajay Devgan is Othello, Kareena Kapoor is Desdemona, Saif Ali Khan is Iago, Konkona Sen Sharma is Emilia, Vivek Oberoi is Cassio and Bipasha Basu is the courtesan. It will be interesting to see how Saif does as a schemeing manipulator. This sounds totally different than what he has done so far. This character allows more shades of gray. The only part of the star cast that bothers me is Vivek Oberoi as Cassio. After Company he has not proven himself in a really good role, so there is a question mark on his casting. Though he might bring a certain level of guilability and naiveness to the character of Cassio. The trailer looks really good. I am waiting for its soundtrack to come out. Ajay Devgan has a great intensity in him as an actor which translates well to roles that command authority.

Mumbai the rudest city?

Reader's Digest did a survey of 35 cities worldwide to measure the level of civility in each of the city. Mumbai had the distinction of being at the rock bottom of the table. Now coming back to survey, the article on Mumbai is the rudest city states the three basic criteria used for judging the rudeness/civility of the cites. Here is the actual article

• holding the door open for someone right behind you;
  
• helping a passer-by pick up a dropped newspaper or pile of documents;
  
• thanking shoppers after their retail experience.
  
  

After reading the list I wasn't surprized at all Mumbai was at the rock bottom. Another interesting observation to make most of the Asian countries surveyed are towards the lower end of the spectrum. Here is why the survey is a totally unfair comparison. They are judging cities across the world based on the definition of the etiquite in the western culture. Holding open a door for someone right behind you is a very western defintion of etiquite. None of the major Asian cultures subscribe to this idea as a notion of civility. Some people who have been exposed to a western education will prescribe to the notion others won't.

Thanking shoppers after their retail experience is a different kind of problem. There is a totally different dimension to this problem. Here is the key difference in the retail markets of the US vs India. In the US retail items are marked anywhere between 100-500 percentage profit range depending on the item. Selling one item is considered a succesful sale. However, in India the retail markup is not very high. The profit margins can range from 10-30 percent. To make the same money has the US counterparts, the salespeople have to sell 10 times more. In the process the sweet smile on the face, the sing-a-song "may I help you", "thank you for shopping with us", "are you finding everything all right" goes away. The focus on schmoozzing each client is not possible when you are trying to maximize the sale and not the experience of shopping

For this to have been a more credible survey, it would have been nice if they had distingushed between the western and eastern idea of etiquitte.

Music Review for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (KANK)

Love them or hate them but you certainly can't ignore Karan Johar movies. So the music of KANK is finally out and whats the verdict? It is very Shankar-Ehsan-Loy-esque. Their trademark signature is all over the album. I don't mean that in a bad way. Even in A.R. Rahman compositions his signature is printed boldly on each of the songs. Since they last composed Kal Ho Na Ho for Karan Johar who produced the movie, there are definitely some parallels. But given that Kal Ho Na Ho was a fun album I was glad of the certain parallels. The soundtrack other than the title song is not something that grips you instantly; however, it definitely grows on you as listen to it again and again. Sonu Nigam renders the two romantic numbers in the movie with Alka Yagnik. They are the melanchony, romantic numbers which are easy on the ears. Both Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik bring a lot of emotion, passion and depth to these songs. It might have been interesting to have Shreya Ghosal croon atleast one these numbers. Here is a bigger thing that baffles me. Why is suddenly Sonu the king of "only" slow romantic numbers? He is as good at the fun happening songs as he is at the slow numbers. Case in point Fanaa and now KANK. Sonu is doing the slow numbers while Shaan is having the fun. Mix it up a little bit. Both Sonu and Shaan are extremely talented singers. The music directors need to bring out each of the different facets in these two melodious singers.

Among the fast numbers in KANK, "where's the party tonight" by Shaan and Vasundhara Das is a lot of fun. I can already see this playing at all the clubs in B'bay for days similar to Kajra re and Its the time to disco. It has a great beat to it. You can't help but swing to it. The "Farewell Trance" is very techno based and enjoyable. I personally haven't come to care for the two versions of "Mitwa". In my opnion they seem to bring the album down a little bit. I might change my mind in a few days or after seeing the picturization. The last number "Rock n Roll Soniye" is very cliched. Nothing really new to it, a very predominatly wedding themed. It would be no surprize if it is picturized on a wedding. I have a sneaky suspision thatit will be picturized on Amitabh given the way Shanker Mahadevan has gone all out singing this song.

Overall I would its a good album. Give a litte time before you decide to like it or hate.

Anybody else tired of Himmesh Reshmiya?

I was listening to a new movie score, "Ahista Ahista" which is composed by Himmesh Reshmiya. If I hear one more song in the nasal voice of his, I will be read to scream, or not listen to any of his crap ever again. So he got a great break with Aashiq Bana Banaya Apne. The novelty paid off, and it was a chartbuster. But he can't keep repeating himself again and again. I know there are a lot of Himmesh bashers out there. So I don't want this post to turn into lets hate Himmesh. He definitely has talent ; but he seriously needs to stop singing. I am sure the producers won't mind shelling out some extra bucks to get a proper playback singer. So I started listening to the track 5 minutes before I started writing this post. Now another 5 minutes later I am ready to turn it off.

Now music directors singing in their movies is nothing new. Everybody from A.R. Rahman to Anu Malik does it. Shankar Mahadeven is even good at it. But they do it rather to mix it up a litte bit. Anu Malik just does it for fun in totally whacked out numbers like "Ek Garam Chai ke pyali ho". A.R Rahman is a more serious singer. He has done varied numbers like the title song of Dil Se, Chale Chalo in Lagaan, and Yeh jo desh hai mera in Swades. He does not sound a clone of himself in every other song he croons.

Himmesh Reshmiya's current stratergy might pay off in the short run but if he wants to be taken seriously by his peers and the public he needs to diversify and not sing himself.

Excerpt from a Jagit Singh Ghazal

"Dhafna Kar do hume ke saas mile, navaz kuch der se thami si hai" ---> loosely translated in computer science terms means "Terminate my process of life so that I can breath because my life seems to have reached a halting state" ---> translated normally would result in "bury my body so that I am able to take a breathe, life in general is fleeting these days". Now that I have butchered the beautiful poetry totally and irrevocably I will get to the contradiction in the first sentence "Bury me so that I can live". It is quite captivating. We sleep walk most of our life. How many occassions have really fully lived life? Well thats my existential thought of the day.

Dan Brown as a writer

An article about scholars attacking the Da Vinci Code got me thinking about Dan Brown. At best, Dan Brown is a very average mystrey thriller writer even with the huge success of the The Da Vinci code. There are articles and blog posts all over that find errors in Brown's research so google around and you will find enough posts. I am no expert on his books; however, I have read them all on airplanes and airports during the long trip to India. I just think Dan Brown is a very average writer. THe first 150 pages of Angels and Demons reads like a good book but detoriates very fast into a third-grade mystery thriller. Everything (the mole, the near death experiences, the bad guy) is very predictable. If you have read even two books by Dan Brown its is very easy to pick the pattern. Parts of the book are generally promising with taut writing and griping sequences. But he can neither sustain the momentum or keep up the quality of writing.

Now the bulk of the critisicm comes mostly for what Dan Brown claims are "facts" in the book. The article linked above mentions "If you were writing it as a nonfiction book," Gibson asked, "how would it have been different?"
"I don't think it would have," replied Brown. . I was completely shocked by this statement. The statement opened only two possibilites; one, he is starting to believe his own ficitious stories or two, he wants other people to believe them.

Due to the quality of the writing, the book in my opinion is average. A good way to pass your time on an airport or airplane. I do think that the movie will be much better. From the clips I have seen Tom Hanks and Ron Howard will add a lot more credibility to Robert Langdon's character than Dan Brown could get do. Why? Because Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are the masters of their craft unlike Dan Brown.

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner

For viewers of the Colbert Report, this will come as a special treat. Now I will give due where it is due. Stephen Colbert's humor is vitrolic. It takes a lot of gumption to invite him to speak at the White house correspondents Dinner. Now the question remained could he deliver the same sharp punches with the President sitting a few feet away? The answer is "oh yes!" he did. It was a no holds barred talk. He made fun of everything from the energy crisis, low approval ratings, crisis mismanagement, the war in Iraq, and President. The video can be viewed: Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents dinner . Most of the jokes are pretty direct and mean too. Just keep that in mind, if you have never seen The Colbert Report. To the President's credit he was very sporting to the whole thing.