Singapore life...

Just goes to show that people don't always follow rules in Singapore....

Chak De

Saw this movie a few days ago. Came back extremely impressed at the progress Indian film-makers have made. In the 1980s-1990s, all they churned out were the "masala" movies where lissome lasses gyrated around trees and hunks pranced around in shiny white shoes and green slacks.

Now I see that the movies have become a lot more meaningful. Of course there have been the usual clutch of movies which are very similar to the genre I outlined above but there has been a steady stream of movies which are eminently watch-able. The movies I have seen in the past few weeks are: Chak De, Shoot-out at Lokhandwala, Honey-moon Travels. I forget the others and the list is not really very long as I am no longer in a place where I can watch new Hindi movies everyday. You can argue that in Singapore only the REALLY good Hindi movies will get screened. That apart, the list of movies that I have mentioned...well all of them turned out to be really watch-able. They all had meaningful story-lines which were right out of the ordinary and you could not guess what was coming next.

Take Chak-De for instance. The topics this movie touches upon are all very real and have been adeptly handled. This movie reminded me of Swadesh. But in a different and more pleasant way. In Swadesh, the director was simply preaching. He took a lot of topics. Laboriously preached on them. Checked thoroughly to make sure he had not left anything out and then signed off the movie with an ending which was equally idealistic and equally implausible. Here the director touched upon other topics (sorry state of affairs of our sports associations, the way every Muslim in our country has to prove his patriotism every step of the way, the way women are still viewed as house-hold help). He though did not preach but made a story-line which was watch-able, entertaining and inspiring. He also threw in major points about how to lead and motivate a team.

Swadesh is still a victory for Indian cinema as it went off the beaten track (though it went over-board doing it), but Chak-De is a coup-de-grace.

India turned 60 a few days ago. A commentator on rediff said that it has been remarkable achievement that we have stayed a united and strong country for all these years. If you look at it the odds against us are many. We don't have a common religion, a common language, script, culture...anything for that matter. You go from North India to South India and you would feel a culture shock which is not very different from what I felt coming from Bangalore to Singapore. Indeed you ask a Chinese what being Chinese means and you get a one line answer: It means speaking Chinese. You ask that same question to an Indian and you get a book: The Discovery of India. There is no direct answer.

The divisive pulls are many. Among the factors which has kept Indians together is Indian (or rather Hindi) cinema.

The entire interview in rediff is given here: I quote the relevant passage here:

"One of the greatest compliments to Hindi films mentioned in my book is that Manipuri insurgents banned the screening of Hindi films in Manipur because it would integrate them more with the other Indians. This is an extraordinary tribute to the uniting influence of the Hindi film"

Its definitely an achievement that one of our strongest media is slowly coming out of the clouds and starting to look at the major problems and handicaps which stymie us as a nation. The first step in solving a problem is appreciating that the problem exists. If through movies we realize the problems we face, I am sure we would find a way to solve them

Amen!!!!!

P.S.: Don't worry guys, I am not transforming into a political analyst. But thinking on these lines is definitely a change. I will be back to pub-reviewing very soon.

I wish there were more hours in a day....

Yesterday, I woke up at 11. Then I went for a trek in the Macritchie Reservoir (I am not sure I got the spelling right). It was not too much of a trek really. More like a walk across the jungle. Still after almost four months of living in a concrete jungle with nothing else in sight except high-rises, roads, cars and buses, its nice to get out in the open and look at monitor lizards....

Came back at about six and then set off directly to go pub-hopping in the Clark Quay area. First we went to this pub called the Crazy Elephant. It was a nice place with moderately priced beer and "comfortable" music. What I liked most about that pub were the two wide screen television monitors on which they displayed the weirdest and the most obscene set of jokes that I have ever come across. 

The beer there was nice but the pub was too full of loud-mouthed Australians for my liking and two of my buddies did not like the pubs version of a "Chivas Regal Jug". It was a big jug full of water, ice-cubes with traces of Chivas Regal Whiskey in it. So after a round of drinks we decided to go pub-hopping. 

We did not do much of hopping. Just hopped right across the Quay to this place called Brewerkz. That outfit brews its own beer. The music is again "comfortable" (Boo! Hoo!!!) but the service is nice, and they have a set of really wide screen television screens but this time they were displaying the EPL matches live. 

We drank beer and scotch and cheered for Chelsea as they tried every dirty tactic in the book to keep Portsmouth at bay. A school buddy of mine dropped in to say hi but since he had two women in tow, he decided he was better off without this pack of rambunctious  and lecherous IIT-ians. So five minutes of hugging and back-slapping and he was off.

Just after half-time we all left. I got home at half-past one in the morning after having a really fun and active day. Fell straight into bed.

I wish all days were like this. I wish I could work like a dog, party like an animal and sleep like a log. The only problem is that The Maker has given me only twenty-four hours in a day to do it all in......

More James Clavell....

I have been reading this book called Whirlwind by this author. In this one (for a change) he writes about the uprising in Iran which ousted the moderate Pahlavi dynasty and installed Ayatollah Khomeini as the ruler.

He paints a very scary picture of a country in the grip of Mullahs rousing an illiterate populace into violence with the temptation of martyrdom and heaven a martyr goes to after that.

That got me thinking...

Pakistan is right next door. Its also in the grip of Mullahs. There are thousands of unemployed youths willing to take up arms and become martyrs eventually. Can something like what happened in 1979 in Iran happen there? Possible.

But how does it affect us you might ask? 

The Iran-Iraq war lasted for 8 years. In the eight years Iran lost an estimated 500, 000 people while Iraq lost some 375, 000 people. Both the countries fought because of only Shia-Sunni differences. And both the countries were not even nuclear weapons states....