Why Madras cafe is a milestone in the Indian cinema

            

                 It’s been one week since I watched Madras cafe  a masterpiece from John Abraham Production. I was eager to write about the movie but respecting the production house’s decision i.e. not to promote the movie unnecessarily I kept aloof from the subject. Production house along with director Shojit Sircar earlier decided that the movie will be only for the selected multiplex crowd. The major part was that they kept their promise. Madras café was milestone because of its great cinematography, awesome camerawork and artistic originality which kept Audience on the toes. However, I like the movie for some other reason.

               First one was its subject line which was based on Srilankan war and deadly Terrorist group LTTE (Liberation of Tamil tiger’s elum). It was definitely not the first movie on terrorist but this time situation was different since India was not a victim but rather culprit. I am saying this because intervention of India in Srilanka was first of its kind of aggression after Bangladesh liberation war of 1971-72. In Lankan war India had used different tactics like that of supporting opposition party against LTTE similar as USA used in different Middle East war for which they had to pay the price. 

               Second thing which I like about the movie is its non controversial nature. The subject of Sri-Lanka war is generally extremely controversial. Production house took care to give balance view output to all, like that to the Tamil people, Sinhalese and also supporter of congress party in India since India lost its cyber man cum Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Team of the movie kept the name of the characters different from original one to avoid the controversy. This was done before movie actually released not after the movie was released, strategy production house follows generally to remain in controversy.

              Indian audience was bored because of copy of Hollywood movies and recent unhealthy trend of remakes of South-Indian cinema. It’s sometime OK that these remakes make much money so trend should be encouraged but it certainly worsen the nature of Indian cinema. After the success of Vicky donor and Madras cafe John Abraham showed that he has sense for great cinema and we can expect the great to come from the actor. Another important thing which followed the subject line was that movie does not contain a single song in between which was the real need of such sensitive movie.

             Showing of North block of the parliament and it’s secretariat level meeting in the movie catch my attention. The policy making and decision taking scenario was first time shown in any movie which brought the movie closer to Hollywood. Meanwhile in a small budget Shoojit directed great masterpiece which is certainly a must watch and of-course like production house said it’s for the selected audience.

                                                                                                        

A critical case of a kiss from Kashmir

                                  

                 The one place which has amazed me from my childhood is nothing but the Kashmir. There is certainly a reason for that and it always comes from the one question. The question is critically simple, as why do Kashmir’s people hate so much to Indian army and New Delhi? The search for the answer has always led me to some astonishing discoveries. Few of them are certainly not known to this part of World. Finding the reasons to this, world’s most dangerous place is certainly a difficult task, as reason’s have to find being a neutral and as an ardent nationalist it becomes difficult task.

            If someone is active on some of the English news channel pages on social network, which have some kind of connectivity with the valley, the person  will see a group of people always engaging themselves in commenting against Indian army. These groups are definitely not illiterate; they are the young people who represented modern Kashmir. Most of them have someone of their family got killed through the hands of Indian army. Some of them are engineers, doctors and modern professionals who represent a new Kashmir. However, it’s not always compulsory that they are downtrodden by Indian army only; there are many factors which have influenced them towards the typical hate against India. One of the reasons is misunderstanding and second most important is not to know the actual history of the place.

            First of all, separatist Kashmir mindset believes that Kashmir was their property when India got freedom. They probably think that India might have pressurized Hari-singh; then king of Kashmir. At that time people of Pakistan, mostly Muslims wanted Kashmir to be an integral part of Pakistan. Fearing that Harisingh might accede Kashmir in India, they sent the army. Hari-Singh requested India to intervene but India put a condition that it will help only if he will join India. So again to reduce loss of life he accepted Kashmir to be a part of India. So morally India forcefully included Kashmir in India. The second thing which Pakistan’s separatist have problem is with the forceful separation of East Pakistan from mainland Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh. Pakistan thinks that it is only because of India that the East Pakistan separated from them.

             As far as Kashmir is concern whatever India did was morally right since both India and Pakistan were trying to include many states as they could in their own country. Politically, India used its tactics to include Kashmir in India.

    

            Here we have to look at the situations and circumstances which were present there in the East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan were sufferer and they wanted autonomy from West Pakistan this is because the population of West Pakistan was much less compared to East Pakistan. So the east Pakistan never liked their country to be ruled by a country which has a less population.

 

             They wanted autonomy as this was going to ease the administration and other important processes. Further, there was a difference of language as East Pakistan favored Bengali over Urdu. Another reason was the export, as some 80% of the total export of whole Pakistan came from east Pakistan in the form of jute and tea. 

 

             So the due to these reasons the freedom waves started to blow from Bangladesh. The common people got the support of Awami league which was in opposition at that time. The Awami league won the election held 1970. However, Yahya khan and Pakistan’s Muslim league never approved it.

              At that time there was wide spread violation of human rights through the hands Yahya khan and his successors. Yahya khan and his successor Tikka khan led the massive destruction of human life which saw the death of some 2000000 to 3000000 people. So India had to interfere and Mrs. Indira Gandhi send the force of some 400000 Indian soldiers and in just 13 days. Bangladesh was formed out from East Pakistan with the help of Awami league and their leader Mujibur rahman called as Mujib became the main leader.

              Many Pakistan’s scholars believed that there was clear cut mistake of Pakistan which violated the human rights. This violation is even compared with a million deaths of Jews which happened during the world war two.

              Looking at Kashmir in 2013, the situation looks far more different. The Pakistan controlled military group Lashkar-E - Taeba and other 40 to 50 militant groups has nothing to do with freedom of Kashmir they just wanted to remain in news with arrogance of Jihadist mindset. The groups supported by Pakistan involve themselves in cross border insertion of Jihadist in India throughout the year.

              From last decade or so Kashmir was silent even after silent establishment of Armed forces special powers act [AFSPA]  which enabled Indian army to arrest any person in Kashmir without any warrant. This law also allows army to carry out search operation on civilians and to kill suspected civilian without having any accountability.

              AFSPA is the third reason after first reason of separation of Kashmir from British in 1947 and separation of Bengal from Pakistan which prompts hate against India. There is certainly some harsh human rights violation from Indian side in Kashmir  Indian army has killed thousands of suspected militants who were supported by Pakistan’s army.

The Pink Panthers : Worlds Most Technically Sound Thieves

                         

                 It's definitely not the movie. It's definitely not a joke. The guys from Serbia can not be taken easily. With over 1300 million dollars of a theft nearly in a decade, covering all the sections of the globe including Dubai, Cannes,  Tokyo, Belgium, United states, London and Munich they have certainly brought glamour to the profession.
             So called as the 'Pink Panther' adopted from the movie but based on a true story of a gang which the ring worth millions in a cream, the guys have became heroes, the immortals from the last decade. 
             Their style of theft is not less smarter than the three parts of ocean's series and part of Italian Job. The gang consists of nearly 150 to 200 members hired from all parts of the world, containing most members from Serbia. There is a reason for their Serbian background. Initially the gang was a result of Balkan war and a kind of of economic downfall that happened during this period. 
             It is believed that the gang is highly disciplined and does immense amount of research before any robbery. Their planning is astonishing and style of work is exceptionally creative and impeccable. The man nicknamed as Draggan M is supposed to be the head of the gang. He was involved in the theft of Ski resort at the France, in just few minutes he stole diamonds worth a few millions. He was captured next day when one man recognized him buying a ticket and sentenced to jail. However Draggan M escaped from the court in 2003. He was again arrested in 2008 and again sentenced in Cannes. 
             Recently on 26 July 2013 one man from a gang looted the jewelry store of Cannes and in just 60 seconds walked away with 138 million dollar. They are also associated with many daring robberies from across the world. 
             One of the most famous theft was at Brussels when gang came in the police uniform and drove to LX789 flight which was loaded with diamonds from Antwerp[ Belgium ] diamond city of the world. The shift was being taken to Zurich Switzerland.  Within five minutes they with their guns took control of LX789 flight and took away diamonds worth %50 million $. It's consider as most daring theft of the world.
             The gang with heroes has become fantasy and glamour since some coders have joined it. People from all over the world search a contact in order to join the gang. Interpol is working on breaking the gang so is the CIA and FBI. We can just wait for their next glamorous theft before DHOOM 3 releases in India. Rest of that will be a history. 

An open letter to Akhilesh Yadav

    
Respected engineer cum Chief Minister,

                 I am writing this letter not considering you as a Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but as an engineer. There is reason for that as I think you can understand better as an engineer than that of a CM. As a CM, you have forgot to understand the problems and you have certainly became deaf. I remember, a couple of years ago when you became CM, at that time, the situation was critical. Uttar Pradesh was in the hand of caste oriented politicians. I remember, how media ran the stories of your successful macro management in winning that fierce election. People saw IPhone in your hand and believed that you might have followed Steve Jobs. People saw you as the one of youngest CM of Uttar Pradesh and believed that you might bring something new for them. Media again ran documentaries as how you, an engineer from Mysore University would solve the problem of people, as they thought engineers are problem solvers. People even noticed how you would play as a center forward in your collage football team and how it would help in taking football clubs across UP and India to next level.

                However, they were wrong you proved their belief wrong. It was just a second weak after your victory when you included Raja Bhaiya, a notorious gangster from UP in your cabinet. The reason you gave was a shame. You said that Raja Bhaiya would become good jail minister as he has a good knowledge of jails. Of course you must be under pressure as your father Mulayam Singh would have forced to do so. However, at that time you could have shown the courage to oppose your father. What happen after that is known to world. Raja Bhaiya and his goons killed the DSP Zia-Ul-Haq who was doing his duty, which included investigating the murder of village head in Pratapgad Kunda.
                As you promised before election, you gave laptops to the youths of UP. However, you forgot that they don't want laptops but rather jobs so that they can use those laptops effectively. The unemployed youths of UP turned to violence. Series of murder, rapes shocked the UP. This happen because your government gave shelter to these goons. This power definitely increased their confidence forcing them to do more crimes over the UP. The goons became fearless and included themselves in more serious crimes. Land mafia, Sand mafia, and Hawala rackets became more prominent. The 'jungle raj' came back in UP.

               Your ministers demoralized the officers who dared to go against these mafia raj. The answer you gave in suspending Durga Shakti Nagpal an IAS officer who dared to go against sand mafia despite having a new recruit in the service, was shocking. You said that "I have taken action and taking action is important". However, dear Akhilesh Yadav -, you forgot that taking wrong action is coward act and is intolerable. The situation of UP has become too much dangerous people are fearing from goons who are killing innocent people day and night. 

                As a well wisher of UP I would like to urge you to show some courage. A courage to go against your father. A courage to back your officers who are fighting against the criminals. A courage as a environment engineer to finish mafia raj of Uttar Pradesh. I want you to boil your blood as a youngest CM and plan a bigger role on nation's politics. I want you to use your engineering knowledge which you acquired from Sydney and Mysore to  bring change over UP. I want you to become a man not a coward who would not indulged in old politics corruption, mafia, and Muslim based culture . I want you to become an engineer and engineered the process of development.


                                                                           Your sincerely,

                                                                            A well wisher of nation.   





     

A Few Good Men

                      

                      There is always something to learn from war movies. It helps in knowing about two sides of the same person. One of-course is good and other not so good. I always believed that there is no such side as bad, the thing is that the other side is not that much good. War movies have always attracts  towards essential part of a soldier i.e to follow the order irrespective of its consequences. However, what should be criteria for following the order is a question to be asked. Whether seniority should be a criteria to follow order or Junior soldier's own consent and understanding of a situation be a criteria, is a debatable question. The answer lies in Tom Cruise's A Few good men.


                     A Few good men is a movie directed by Rob Reiner with excellent massage. Military has tradition of punishing the soldier off the record, which is called as code red. In India it's called as Blanket Parade in which other soldiers punish a culprit, who has done some mistake at critical time in a mission. This mistake is generally related with forgetting one of the episode of the mission or some minor mistake which soldier often repeats. It does not include disobeying the order of the senior as for that there are punishments such as court marshal. This court marshal is of the type,  where everything follows according to military rule. However, code red is nonjudicial punishment given to the soldier.
                     Code red and similar kind of punishment includes hitting a culprit soldier by a group of soldiers, putting blanket on him It also includes ragging at personal level with the permission of the authority. The military consider it as OK, since there is common thought that it makes improvement in the soldier.


                      The whole situation is beautifully explained in the movie with Tom Cruise starring as a lawyer who has responsibility to save two soldier who executed code red on a soldier named William Santiago. The conduct of code become severe when Santiago got dead. These two soldier thinks that they have done nothing wrong in giving code red to Santiago as they simply followed the order. So Tom and his team files case and search for real culprit who gave the real order. Their fight happens with a arrogant colonel who is
powerful and is misleading the trial starred by Jack  Nicholson. Curiosity and suspense is equally maintained in the movie till last. Conversation between Tom and colonel who framed the two soldier on the charges of murder triggers the fight. Egos, ethics and human nature is equally described in the movie. Movie holds nerves to the most of the time. Dialogues with eye contacts between Tom and Colonel are great. So it simply becomes a must watch if you missed it when it actually got released in 1992. Don't forget that you cant handle the truth.

IPL the game of bookies

                 
                         In India, watching cricket match is a second profession after the first profession of earning money to watch cricket. An average Indian spends one year of his life watching cricket. There is nothing wrong in that because It gives us a subject to interact at tea stalls, local street ground, lobby of cinema theaters and many other places. Indian Premier League ( IPL ) a T-20 format of the game gave opportunities to many players from India and from worldwide to earn the money. Starting in the year 2008 the league got huge amount of success in a small interval of time. 

                        The league gave us star players whose name we never  heard of. It gave  players a kind of ex-poser which they truly deserved. However, there is other side for the league. A huge network which works day and night to convert black money into white money. Wherever huge amount of money is involved, it attracts heavyweights from all corners of the society including Mafias and bookies. 

                         In India betting is legally banned. The casinos are banned across all the states. So the network of bookies did not have any game or thing to bet on. It was Mahalakshmi Racecourse where bookies had a chance and the horse-betting really took place a tipping point during the nineties. Then came betting for Indian national team where bookies did their business. As the technology became more advanced, the chances of fixing match became rare except for the cases of Mohammad Ajharuddin and Ajay Jadeja who were caught for match fixing.

                         Recent controversy in IPL where Shanthakumar Sreesanth  a  player of Rajasthan Royals was involved shocked the nation. Police investigation showed that how he signaled the bookies by  keeping towel in his pant. Why Sreesanth and other low profile people were caught is an interesting question.

                         Bookies always fish a weak player. The involvement of other teams has not come in aimelight. I am sure from the history of  Sreesanth that he will take the name of other players and will create controversy. I think Sreesanth is a mere victim of the game. The involvement of franchise can not be ruled out.

                         What concerned me was suspicious death of investigation officer Bardish Dutt and his girlfriend at Gurgaon where they were shot dead. Police have given hint that bookies were working on the instruction of oversea Mafia. If this was a case then media attention should shift on the investigation of his death.  

                        Twitter and Facebook pages have flooded with curses directing at Sreesanth and IPL. The haters and critics of game are demanding to ban the league. Some twits also showed anger towards the politician as when cricketer commits mistake they are banned then why not politicians?

                         What we need to do is to have some patience let the culprit be given strongest possible punishment. Banning IPL is not a solution and it will never going to happen. We need to  strengthen the vigilance so that this kind of incidences never happen. The most important would be to enjoy rest of IPL as a game not as a game of life. 

Shootout at wadala , the last crime movie to watch

                        If you don't like The godfather, Once upon a time in Mumbai and the hurt locker, then do not read further.

             Balaji motion pictures films has always behaved as a modernist. This time it was Sanjay Gupta the director of the movie who set the milestone.The story which was called as a sequel to shootout at lokhandwala is actually a gang war happened earlier in the Mumbai. So let me brief what was the real story before going to actual review.

              Earlier in Mumbai there were two main gangs one was the Dawood gang of Dawood Ibrahim and Pathan gang led by karim lala. These two gangs were continuously fighting and robbing. They used to terrorize the whole city of Mumbai. The fight was becoming a never ending battle.

              Mumbai was vibrating every day and common people were frightened for various shootout incidences. So in order to reduce the crime rate in the city, Haji mastan, a self proclaimed Robin Hood of Mumbai brought out a treaty between these two gangs. 
              After the treaty, the two gangs agreed that they will never interfere in each others work. However, it never really happened because of a man called as Manya surve.

             Manya Surve was from Marathi community and he was actually a bachelor of arts graduate who got 78% marks in his graduation. He was simple and straightforward. However,  his brother's involvement in many crimes forced him to join criminal world.

             One day when goons came searching for Manya's brother a fight erupted and Manya came to save his brother. In that incidence Manya's brother killed one of the goons who was being held by Manya.
              
             So the authority picked up Manya and his brother and put them at Yerwada jail in Pune. Manya somehow got escaped from the jail but his brother was killed over a old rivalry. 
 
              When Manya freed himself from the jail he tried to form a gang with his old friends. Somehow he got six men who could follow his order. Initially they worked out on small crimes. Later borrowing the skills from 'James Hadley's chase' a novel which he used to read in the graduation, he started looting the banks.
               
             Manya got in contact with the gang of Karim lala who was arch rival of Dawood. One day Manya Surve and Karim Lala's gang member Aamirzada killed Dawood's brother Sabir Ibrahim. This murder was a milestone in the Mumbai gang war politics. The angry Dawood decided to take the revenge of this incidence. Reckoned as cunning wolf, Dawood tipped and gave money to the Mumbai police. 

             Dawood has always been a great negotiator and businessman. In spite of having a dreadful career he became a successful businessman. So it was easy for Dawood to tip the Mumbai Police. This was actually done by Dawood's friend named as Waradarajan Mudaliar, a south Indian gang leader.

              At that time Bagvan dada was an inspector at the Mumbai Police headquarter. He got information that Manya has came to meet his girlfriend. So he led a team at wadala college to kill Manya surve. After initial shootout Manya tried to surrender but the cops shot him down. Even after receiving bullets he was not dead. Cops deliberately made sure that ambulance would come late. When the ambulance actually came they deliberately drove it through longer root. That journey was a last journey for Manya, he got dead on his way to hospital. 

              So this was a story of the Mumbai Gang-war in which Manya Surve was involved. It just portrays the character of a common man as how in those days common man was unwillingly dragged into the Mumbai crime world.

              Movie Review- The movie shootout at wadala is a classic tale which portrays Manya Surve as a Robin Hood. The movie has heavyweight actors like Anil Kapoor, John Abrahum, Mahesh Majrekar. The dialogs of Anil kapoor set up the movie. He has always been the performer. The movie sets him up like it did for him in Virasat. John  gave full value to his acting skills and to the role of Manya surve.
  
             You may under-estimated sonu sood but he  gave a good performance for the role of Dawood. The camerawork was perfect except for some dull shots like when kangna and John talks for the first time you can predict it's a studio. The role of Tushar Kapoor seems to be deliberately added with no actual use. The songs in the movie are good but story gets stopped by it. 

               Sunny Leonne's entry can dry your throat. I think India is the only country specially Bhatt camp and Balaji motin pictures, who can give role to her. They showed rational and modern approach. So called as American star she entertained really well. Overall movie can be watchable, it's a good movie to watch in typical Indian style.

Sanjay Datt effect

           

            Many a time I imagine that law is just for poorer people. Is that true? yes, it is. If someone is a culprit and a celebrity then we see that the law does not work for him. Now a days, politicians do go to the jail. This is because there is pressure from opposite parties and the CBI. We saw it in a case of karunanidhi's daughter and also with Madhu koda and heavyweight like Gopal Kanda. However, actors are larger than life image of their own personality. They are close to us. Many a time we think that they can't do bad work. This is because we see them as a god. In some cases as a god and in other as a Godfather. So we don't want to get them punished.
            Sanjay Datt is one of those actors. He did a crime of hiding weapons in his apartment when Mumbai attack was taking place. 
            So whenever actors commit mistakes there is trend to support them. The whole media goes in support, whole friends of actors go in support and even the judicial system goes to support.
            What about people who lost their life because of these actors. What about people who fought the battle to get justice for there dear ones? What about law which gets biased in case of celebrities?
           I remember the time and the historical event when Nanasaheb was got killed in front of his uncle. I remember the time of the next day when Ramshastri the chief justice of Peshva dynasty told bravely that "whenever there is biased in law for richer and stronger people there will be the end". History after that is well known to us. Peshwa dynasty collapsed and got maligned. They were not able to live to the expectations of Shivaji Maharaj's great l era. There was a end.