Inception is one of the wonderful movies I have watched in the recent times. It has the potential to be crowned as the decade’s best movie. In case you have not watched the movie yet, I would advise you not to read the rest of the contents of this blog. Please watch the movie and then read this. The content of this blog post has the potential to spoil all the fun.
It has been a long time since the movie got released. I have watched it twice and many of us would have watched it twice by now. There are still some nagging questions about the movie which are still lingering in my mind, unless someone comes up with a proper logic for the questions. They are
1) Mal (Leonardo’s wife) is just shown as a projection. Or she lives in her mind or whatever. How can a projection take away the character from one level to another?
2) For the characters to go from one dream level to another, they need to be connected to the machine. However Fisher and Saito moved to other levels even when they are not connected to the machine!!
3) How did Saito find Cobb in the final dream level? Where did Saito get some men to work for him? Ideally Saito is not the dreamer. He neither has his own projection nor has the capability to defend an attack on his mind as Fisher did.
4) What was the kick for Cobb and Saito to come out of the limbo? If you assume that Saito shoots Cobb and shoots himself, then there is no need for Cobb to search for Saito. Saito could have killed himself anyway.
I think there could be some logic for these. Guess I may not have noted some of the assumptions in the movie. Do you have the answer for these questions? If so don’t forget to leave your comment.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The power of punctuation
This is one of the shortest blogs i have ever written. Yesterday when i was travelling back home i was shocked when I peeped through the window. I was looking at the name board on top of a roadside shop which read as "Anus Hair Designer". Since I knew the local language as well, I checked out what was written in the local language. Then I realized that the name of the shop should read as "Anu's Hair Designer". Shows how powerful and important punctuation is, isn’t it?
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
In the dog house...
It has been a long time since I updated my blog. I was contemplating different topics to write about in the blog: the telecom mess, failure of UPA II to address the price rise, naxal attack etc. But finally I decided to write about the topic which everyone could comment on. Yes, finally I am writing about cricket.
It had been quite some time since I watched cricket with interest. IPL, I thought, rekindled the interest in cricket across all sections of the society. For the past three years it has been attracting a lot of attention. But this year it has attracted a lot of negative publicity because of the heat it generated in political circles, ahead of the summer season.
When all is said and done, credit has to be given to Lalit Modi for making IPL a success. It is not a child’s play to conduct such a massive tournament, involving international players, in Indian soil with lots of domestic disruptions including the terrorist threats across the subcontinent. In the first year there was the challenge of making IPL a success by giving it a lot of publicity, conducting it in India in spite of the heat (peak summer season) and the disruptions like the bomb blast which ripped apart the pink city etc. Second year the problems were created by the Union government, as it was the election year. The tournament had to be shifted to South Africa in a very short notice. Still it was conducted successfully. The final year brought lot of negative publicity.
No doubt, when so much money is involved, most of the politicians in the country would watch like a hawk to ensure that they get their share. It’s taken for granted, that they should be getting their share, especially when they dole out so many tax sops for the tournament. This time, the infamous Shashi Taroor got involved in the bidding process, by openly supporting one of the bidders by being a mentor, which cost him the job. Modi then brought the ownership issue and then all hell broke loose. The government and BCCI woke up as if they knew anything about all this for three years. There were income tax raids on IPL franchisees, and there were rumors about the ownership and tax payment of various teams including KKR. Though there were raids by income tax department, there has been no action against any of the franchisees, as expected.
I am not sure what went wrong between Modi and Tharoor. But it’s clear that lot of money would have changed hands in the political circles. When the whole system blames one person for all the problems (especially when politicians are a part of the finger pointing exercise) you can be sure that they have identified a scapegoat. Modi has unfortunately been blamed for the entire mess, whereas everyone has a part to play in the whole affair.
At this point it looks like Modi is in the dog house. Let us see how things shape up after Modi’s response. He has submitted a response for 12000 pages. By the time BCCI reads it and takes action against Modi, I think the next IPL would be completed successfully.
It had been quite some time since I watched cricket with interest. IPL, I thought, rekindled the interest in cricket across all sections of the society. For the past three years it has been attracting a lot of attention. But this year it has attracted a lot of negative publicity because of the heat it generated in political circles, ahead of the summer season.
When all is said and done, credit has to be given to Lalit Modi for making IPL a success. It is not a child’s play to conduct such a massive tournament, involving international players, in Indian soil with lots of domestic disruptions including the terrorist threats across the subcontinent. In the first year there was the challenge of making IPL a success by giving it a lot of publicity, conducting it in India in spite of the heat (peak summer season) and the disruptions like the bomb blast which ripped apart the pink city etc. Second year the problems were created by the Union government, as it was the election year. The tournament had to be shifted to South Africa in a very short notice. Still it was conducted successfully. The final year brought lot of negative publicity.
No doubt, when so much money is involved, most of the politicians in the country would watch like a hawk to ensure that they get their share. It’s taken for granted, that they should be getting their share, especially when they dole out so many tax sops for the tournament. This time, the infamous Shashi Taroor got involved in the bidding process, by openly supporting one of the bidders by being a mentor, which cost him the job. Modi then brought the ownership issue and then all hell broke loose. The government and BCCI woke up as if they knew anything about all this for three years. There were income tax raids on IPL franchisees, and there were rumors about the ownership and tax payment of various teams including KKR. Though there were raids by income tax department, there has been no action against any of the franchisees, as expected.
I am not sure what went wrong between Modi and Tharoor. But it’s clear that lot of money would have changed hands in the political circles. When the whole system blames one person for all the problems (especially when politicians are a part of the finger pointing exercise) you can be sure that they have identified a scapegoat. Modi has unfortunately been blamed for the entire mess, whereas everyone has a part to play in the whole affair.
At this point it looks like Modi is in the dog house. Let us see how things shape up after Modi’s response. He has submitted a response for 12000 pages. By the time BCCI reads it and takes action against Modi, I think the next IPL would be completed successfully.
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Hindu, which is against hindus
A newspaper is a printed periodical whose purpose is to deliver news and other information in an up-to-date, factual manner. Though the news section only brings the facts, the facts can be interpreted in the editorial columns of newspapers.
Newspapers are supposed to provide views which are unbiased. Most of the newspapers in India try to balance their views. When it comes to religious views I believe most of the newspapers are secular. However there is one publication “The Hindu”, which has the habit of providing news and views which does not support the secular principles.
“The Hindu” claims to be secular in outlook. However, I find the articles are totally biased. Today when I read the article about MF Husain being given the citizenship of Qatar on the front page I was surprised. I wanted to check whether the same importance for this is given in other national papers. A quick check revealed none of them cared about this news item. However in Hindu, there were many articles about this apart from the front page article. The articles described this event as a national shame. I was wondering what is there in it to be considered as a national shame. There were many articles which carried views of various artists and film personalities toeing the line of “The Hindu”.
M F Husain is just an artist who derives pleasure in painting nude pictures of hindu goddess. Some people wonder how painting nude pictures of hindu god can be considered artistic. Lets not delve into that topic. Let us assume that it’s artistic. I am not sure why he does not try to paint Mother Mary in such a way? Why does he not try painting the picture of Prophet (leave alone nude pictures of him). I would have accepted that he has artistic tendencies if he had been impartial to any religion. However he has not done that. Had he painted the picture of prophet he would have been killed by the same country which has granted citizenship now.
I used to admire “The Hindu” for the quality of their English. However, the articles fail to impress me. I am sure if they continue to publish pseudo secular views; sooner or later the publication would have to find out a place in some other country where it can start it operations, just like the person whom they support.
Newspapers are supposed to provide views which are unbiased. Most of the newspapers in India try to balance their views. When it comes to religious views I believe most of the newspapers are secular. However there is one publication “The Hindu”, which has the habit of providing news and views which does not support the secular principles.
“The Hindu” claims to be secular in outlook. However, I find the articles are totally biased. Today when I read the article about MF Husain being given the citizenship of Qatar on the front page I was surprised. I wanted to check whether the same importance for this is given in other national papers. A quick check revealed none of them cared about this news item. However in Hindu, there were many articles about this apart from the front page article. The articles described this event as a national shame. I was wondering what is there in it to be considered as a national shame. There were many articles which carried views of various artists and film personalities toeing the line of “The Hindu”.
M F Husain is just an artist who derives pleasure in painting nude pictures of hindu goddess. Some people wonder how painting nude pictures of hindu god can be considered artistic. Lets not delve into that topic. Let us assume that it’s artistic. I am not sure why he does not try to paint Mother Mary in such a way? Why does he not try painting the picture of Prophet (leave alone nude pictures of him). I would have accepted that he has artistic tendencies if he had been impartial to any religion. However he has not done that. Had he painted the picture of prophet he would have been killed by the same country which has granted citizenship now.
I used to admire “The Hindu” for the quality of their English. However, the articles fail to impress me. I am sure if they continue to publish pseudo secular views; sooner or later the publication would have to find out a place in some other country where it can start it operations, just like the person whom they support.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
MNIK review
Last week started with huge expectations for the SRK fans and the movie goers. MNIK generated more publicity, thanks to shiv sena, who managed to help SRK indirectly by providing the much needed publicity.
I have not watched an SRK movie on the very first day. On watching the trailers of the movie I thought the movie would have some substance. The ratings provided by Times and other websites for the movie, fired us with enthusiasm. So we booked the tickets for the first day.
When you have huge expectations even an average performance could look dud. MNIK is not an exception. Right from the beginning I could not connect to the film. SRK has tried to act really well, as a person suffering from Asperger's syndrome. But there seems to be no connection to the character, the plot and the disease.
Karan Johar seems to be a confused man. He has taken a very heavy topic i.e muslim’s being treated as a terrorist in US. However, there seems to be no strong scenes to portray that they are treated badly. Most of the incidents portrayed in the film were silly. Seems he expected Kajol to create the magic which DDLJ had cast on the audience. But there is no such magic.
In fact there are a lot of irrelevant scenes in the movie, such as SRK shouting that he is not a terrorist during the visit of US president, helping kid in Georgia, Sam (Kajol’s kid) dying in the movie etc. No one was able to connect to the scenes or appreciate its relevance in the film.
When I heard that there was controversy over releasing the film in Mumbai, I thought SRK would not need or use such publicity. But after watching the movie, I guess shiv sena has a great role to play in providing publicity for that movie, without which it could have run out of theatres by now.
I have not watched an SRK movie on the very first day. On watching the trailers of the movie I thought the movie would have some substance. The ratings provided by Times and other websites for the movie, fired us with enthusiasm. So we booked the tickets for the first day.
When you have huge expectations even an average performance could look dud. MNIK is not an exception. Right from the beginning I could not connect to the film. SRK has tried to act really well, as a person suffering from Asperger's syndrome. But there seems to be no connection to the character, the plot and the disease.
Karan Johar seems to be a confused man. He has taken a very heavy topic i.e muslim’s being treated as a terrorist in US. However, there seems to be no strong scenes to portray that they are treated badly. Most of the incidents portrayed in the film were silly. Seems he expected Kajol to create the magic which DDLJ had cast on the audience. But there is no such magic.
In fact there are a lot of irrelevant scenes in the movie, such as SRK shouting that he is not a terrorist during the visit of US president, helping kid in Georgia, Sam (Kajol’s kid) dying in the movie etc. No one was able to connect to the scenes or appreciate its relevance in the film.
When I heard that there was controversy over releasing the film in Mumbai, I thought SRK would not need or use such publicity. But after watching the movie, I guess shiv sena has a great role to play in providing publicity for that movie, without which it could have run out of theatres by now.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
For a Noble Cause
The day began with a lot of excitement and anxiety. When I entered office one of my colleagues was inviting everyone to participate in the Blood donation camp run by St. Johns medical college hospital in our office. I was in double mind, since I had never donated blood in my life. I was not sure whether to participate in the camp or not. My heart said that it’s a noble cause and its worth going there. However, bad memories of fainting during a blood test in my school days and the reluctance of some of our colleagues to donate blood restrained me from participating in the camp.
Finally after lunch when the HR lady came to my desk to check whether I have donated blood, I decided to give it a shot. Thankfully there were two colleagues of mine volunteered at the same time. I expressed my apprehensions to them. Since they had donated blood in the past, they informed me that it would not have any major effects on our body. Their encouragement helped me take a decision.
My mind was still filled with anxiety though I had taken the decision. The customary checks on the weight, blood group etc was over and I was interviewed by the doctor with the usual questions that they ask before donating the blood. There were ten beds in the hall and many of them were giving blood at that time. When the doctor was interviewing me I saw them collecting blood from the donors. It was almost the size of 500 ml milk packet. I was wondering whether there would be enough blood left in my body when they take 500 ml of blood. I had an urge to run back to my cubicle, but I restrained myself from doing so, realizing how bad publicity it would be if others come to know of it. When my turn came up a colleague of mine who had given blood had a black out. Looking at him my anxiety increased.
Finally I was in the bed thinking of what would be my status when I complete the activity. I was thinking whether god would have a list of people who have died by donating blood, and how the entrance of heaven and hell would be. But at last when the doctor came to me and told that the process is complete, I felt relieved. Finally I really felt good, because my blood could save a life in this planet. We would not get this opportunity on a daily basis. My suggestion to anyone who has not donated blood is to utilize these opportunities. To be frank, I never had any issues after donating blood. I was feeling a bit tired, which made me eat a lot of food during the day. Try it out at least once. It is worth the effort.
Finally when I was lying in the bed relieved that nothing bad has happened, one of the lady doctors came to me and encouraged me by saying that I had only given a small portion of the blood, which made me think about the sufferings that the other gender would undergo in the normal course of their life. Needless to mention, that this event increased my respect for the other gender.
Finally after lunch when the HR lady came to my desk to check whether I have donated blood, I decided to give it a shot. Thankfully there were two colleagues of mine volunteered at the same time. I expressed my apprehensions to them. Since they had donated blood in the past, they informed me that it would not have any major effects on our body. Their encouragement helped me take a decision.
My mind was still filled with anxiety though I had taken the decision. The customary checks on the weight, blood group etc was over and I was interviewed by the doctor with the usual questions that they ask before donating the blood. There were ten beds in the hall and many of them were giving blood at that time. When the doctor was interviewing me I saw them collecting blood from the donors. It was almost the size of 500 ml milk packet. I was wondering whether there would be enough blood left in my body when they take 500 ml of blood. I had an urge to run back to my cubicle, but I restrained myself from doing so, realizing how bad publicity it would be if others come to know of it. When my turn came up a colleague of mine who had given blood had a black out. Looking at him my anxiety increased.
Finally I was in the bed thinking of what would be my status when I complete the activity. I was thinking whether god would have a list of people who have died by donating blood, and how the entrance of heaven and hell would be. But at last when the doctor came to me and told that the process is complete, I felt relieved. Finally I really felt good, because my blood could save a life in this planet. We would not get this opportunity on a daily basis. My suggestion to anyone who has not donated blood is to utilize these opportunities. To be frank, I never had any issues after donating blood. I was feeling a bit tired, which made me eat a lot of food during the day. Try it out at least once. It is worth the effort.
Finally when I was lying in the bed relieved that nothing bad has happened, one of the lady doctors came to me and encouraged me by saying that I had only given a small portion of the blood, which made me think about the sufferings that the other gender would undergo in the normal course of their life. Needless to mention, that this event increased my respect for the other gender.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Greatest Blunders in Indian history
On the morning of Janurary 26 (60th republic day) I happened to read an article about the achievements of China. The article mentioned that China has made huge progress in construction, engineering, power generation, airport development, railways, space technology etc. There are high speed trains between Shanghai and Beijing which runs at the speed of 300 kms per hour, whereas our trains struggle to maintain an average speed of 100 kmph. Looking at the advancements that China has made, I realized that it would take 30 more years for us to come up to that level.
It made me think about our achievements in the past 63 years. Well, there is nothing much to talk about in terms of achievement. Hence I thought it would be better to write about the greatest blunders committed, which might be the root cause of our current status.
1) Nehru as Prime Minister: This can be considered to be one of the greatest blunders. I am not sure what made Gandhi choose Nehru over Patel. The policies of Nehru are being criticized by their own party men today. He neither had the vision nor was he a shrewd politician. He messed up the Kashmir issue, did not handle the relationship with China properly, his policies on NAM was total crap etc. We were not clear whether to align with erstwhile USSR or US. The first few years after a country’s independence is very vital for its development. Nehru ensured that we would not develop for the next 100 years by making terrible mistakes.
2) War with Pakistan: Most of us feel proud that we won the wars against Pakistan. Though the result of the war was favorable to us we did not get any benefit out of that. Ideally we should have used the opportunity to make Pakistan dance to our tunes. Alas! We did not!! Where in the world you can find a country which won the war and agreed to give away a part of its territory to the enemy. Ideally Pakistan should have been thrown out of Kashmir and shown its way out. We should have made them agree to the fact that Kashmir is a part of India and they would not mess up with us henceforth. We did neither. Instead we gave a part of Kashmir to them and agreed on the Line of control as the border. Had we resolved the Kashmir issue in 1970’s we could have easily concentrated on our development instead of fighting terrorism.
It is an irony that every one of us wants India to develop rapidly; however our political system is so corrupt that it would take decades to even come up to the level of present day China. While China was able to host Olympics and prove to the world that they are a major economic force, India is struggling to complete the infrastructure projects before commencement of common wealth games. Though I am not a great fan of communist principles, I am sure china would not have achieved so much in this short span had it been a democracy.
It made me think about our achievements in the past 63 years. Well, there is nothing much to talk about in terms of achievement. Hence I thought it would be better to write about the greatest blunders committed, which might be the root cause of our current status.
1) Nehru as Prime Minister: This can be considered to be one of the greatest blunders. I am not sure what made Gandhi choose Nehru over Patel. The policies of Nehru are being criticized by their own party men today. He neither had the vision nor was he a shrewd politician. He messed up the Kashmir issue, did not handle the relationship with China properly, his policies on NAM was total crap etc. We were not clear whether to align with erstwhile USSR or US. The first few years after a country’s independence is very vital for its development. Nehru ensured that we would not develop for the next 100 years by making terrible mistakes.
2) War with Pakistan: Most of us feel proud that we won the wars against Pakistan. Though the result of the war was favorable to us we did not get any benefit out of that. Ideally we should have used the opportunity to make Pakistan dance to our tunes. Alas! We did not!! Where in the world you can find a country which won the war and agreed to give away a part of its territory to the enemy. Ideally Pakistan should have been thrown out of Kashmir and shown its way out. We should have made them agree to the fact that Kashmir is a part of India and they would not mess up with us henceforth. We did neither. Instead we gave a part of Kashmir to them and agreed on the Line of control as the border. Had we resolved the Kashmir issue in 1970’s we could have easily concentrated on our development instead of fighting terrorism.
It is an irony that every one of us wants India to develop rapidly; however our political system is so corrupt that it would take decades to even come up to the level of present day China. While China was able to host Olympics and prove to the world that they are a major economic force, India is struggling to complete the infrastructure projects before commencement of common wealth games. Though I am not a great fan of communist principles, I am sure china would not have achieved so much in this short span had it been a democracy.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Exceptional exception
Two movies that got released during December 2009 are the greatest hits ever: 3 Idiots (in Bollywood) and Avatar (in Hollywood).
If a movie has to be accepted by the majority of the audience, the script has to be extraordinary. The story line cannot be different these days. Only the script can make a difference.
I was not impressed with Chetan Bhagat’s book Five point someone. In fact I was half way through the book when I watched 3 idiots. Any script which involves taking you back to the college days is bound to be a hit unless the script is really bad. On top of that, if it is presented in a comical way, there can be no doubts about its success. In 3 idiots, the way in which the director has handled the heavy scenes are really good. For ex, though the scene involving Raju’s mom crying about the family situation is a bit irritating, the resulting scene is really hilarious. Similarly when the scene in which Rancho brings Raju back to normalcy is also good.
Apart from the normal stuff for which the film can be appreciated, I liked it because it questioned the conventional way of learning. I could never accept the conventional way of learning. Attending classes and mugging the stuff taught there takes us nowhere. There was no fun in learning in my school life, except for a few classes taught by teachers who taught with so much of enthusiasm. One should appreciate the director for providing such unconventional thoughts in a way that is acceptable to majority of the audience.
I was skeptical about the success of Avatar since I heard that it was based on science fiction. There are innumerable numbers of movies in Hollywood based on science fiction; movies where aliens attack our world, insects attacking human races etc etc. These doomsday theories and movies involving aliens used to irritate me a lot. Except for the technical excellence there was no other positive aspect in those films. Hence I had never watched SF movies in theaters.
But I liked Avatar because of three reasons. First, technically it is really brilliant. Almost all the scenes are based on imagination and there was no major mistake that I could find out. Second, handling emotional scenes involving aliens and for a change showing human beings as villains is refreshing. (In fact we are the villains in our own planet, leave alone other planets). Last but not the least; I liked it because it really had a theme which is closest to my heart. Destroying nature, especially trees, for human development is atrocious. And I could not accept the fact that humans destroyed the beautiful environment in alien land. Even though its fiction, the success of the movie lies in making us feel for destroying the nature. The film conveys that through nature we are all connected, and if nature is destroyed it is as good as destroying ourselves. Since the movie was exceptional, I thought having made an exception to the rule of not watching a fiction movie was worth it.
If a movie has to be accepted by the majority of the audience, the script has to be extraordinary. The story line cannot be different these days. Only the script can make a difference.
I was not impressed with Chetan Bhagat’s book Five point someone. In fact I was half way through the book when I watched 3 idiots. Any script which involves taking you back to the college days is bound to be a hit unless the script is really bad. On top of that, if it is presented in a comical way, there can be no doubts about its success. In 3 idiots, the way in which the director has handled the heavy scenes are really good. For ex, though the scene involving Raju’s mom crying about the family situation is a bit irritating, the resulting scene is really hilarious. Similarly when the scene in which Rancho brings Raju back to normalcy is also good.
Apart from the normal stuff for which the film can be appreciated, I liked it because it questioned the conventional way of learning. I could never accept the conventional way of learning. Attending classes and mugging the stuff taught there takes us nowhere. There was no fun in learning in my school life, except for a few classes taught by teachers who taught with so much of enthusiasm. One should appreciate the director for providing such unconventional thoughts in a way that is acceptable to majority of the audience.
I was skeptical about the success of Avatar since I heard that it was based on science fiction. There are innumerable numbers of movies in Hollywood based on science fiction; movies where aliens attack our world, insects attacking human races etc etc. These doomsday theories and movies involving aliens used to irritate me a lot. Except for the technical excellence there was no other positive aspect in those films. Hence I had never watched SF movies in theaters.
But I liked Avatar because of three reasons. First, technically it is really brilliant. Almost all the scenes are based on imagination and there was no major mistake that I could find out. Second, handling emotional scenes involving aliens and for a change showing human beings as villains is refreshing. (In fact we are the villains in our own planet, leave alone other planets). Last but not the least; I liked it because it really had a theme which is closest to my heart. Destroying nature, especially trees, for human development is atrocious. And I could not accept the fact that humans destroyed the beautiful environment in alien land. Even though its fiction, the success of the movie lies in making us feel for destroying the nature. The film conveys that through nature we are all connected, and if nature is destroyed it is as good as destroying ourselves. Since the movie was exceptional, I thought having made an exception to the rule of not watching a fiction movie was worth it.
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