This film, on the life of Mozart, is brilliant.
The film focuses on the rivalry between a court musician in Vienna, and Mozart, an upstart musical genius.
Tom Hulce played Mozart with a rare mixture of audacity and verve. His laughter-at times hysterical- is a nice touch, and gives the character some distinctiveness.
The music, of course, is excellent, and a highlight for even those -like me- who don't understand Western classical music.
Definitely worth a watch.
The explanation lies in Marketing Theory-believe it or not!
Who are you speaking to? The audience, for the duration of your presentation, are to be treated like customers.
Who are they? What is their motivation? What is their level of interest in the subject of your presentation/talk/speech? These are critical questions, not the great wisdom that you are about to spout.
I had once thought that Communication classes- a course in IIM Bangalore during my MBA- were useless, but now find that many speakers are in dire need of training in basics of communication.
I cannot summarise all my learnings, but in general, it helps if you can-
Speak the language that the audience understands
This includes academic presentations at conferences, but not just those..
How many have you formed? Alas, non-living objects can't speak, or else we could have had thousands.
But with humans (not bots, yet- don't know enough of them or about them), we can have some. I have experienced this at all stages of life. One of my first officially recognised ones was with Meghna Sinha, who used to write a blog while she was a student. Later, we met a few times, and bonded over books and coffee, and other beverages.
The others include a few more students of IMT Nagpur, some of Kirloskar Institute, a couple from PES and IFIM B School, and some of IIM Indore. NMIMS too, I guess... faculty included, in most of these.
Anusha Soni of Bhopal who I met during her IIM Indore IPM stint, was one. We bonded over Guavas, Golf and small talk, and she treated me to a lunch in my hometown Pune (I think it was her first salary!) and came home too.
Prachi Jain and gang was a delightful bunch of Ph.D. scholars at IIM Indore, and we have had fun outings in Delhi, Indore and one in Kolkata with a gang member recently.
Abha Kulkarni and Sheetal Garg have been members of an MAS for many years now.
Pallavi and Shafique, naturally, because GB calls us twins- all three!
Shatakshi (the confused genius), who I did not teach at IIM I, and Anushka Mishra who I did not teach at Kirloskar, also.. due to Fb and later, physical meetings.
Natasha Kothari, who I met at a wedding, and Rimjhim, who I met through a music group I am a part of with her Mom!
Of course, there are more, but let me list those in MAS part 2.. to be continued.
We started our Induction for the new batch of students across 8 departments. Largest numbers were in Computer Science and Pharmacy-UG programs, followed by many others including Law, Agriculture, Education, Earth Sciences and so on.. We also had a Moot Court competition conducted by the Law Department. All in all, quite a few interesting things happening all around us.
And I attended a bit of the program at Austin tower, where our Management students came in..
I was invited to be on a panel in a webinar hosted by this company yesterday. It was about AI in Higher Education, and it was a great experience in many ways. We were a mix of teachers, practitioners turned profs., and administrators.
We talked of AI in curriculum, the process of teaching-learning, and the upsides and downsides of AI. It was good to see that Bangalore and Kalburgi/Gulbarga taking the lead in some practices in teaching AI as a part of their curricula, or inviting guests to teach the latest.
Pune, Gurugram, Kolkata, and the South were represented, in an all India panel. I recommended a book, and talked about Flipped Classrooms aided by AI, among other things. Faculty training too..
He's cool, whether he's a Coolie, or a jailer, or anyone else. Saw his latest yesterday. Fireworks all the way, with a dose of emotion, and a twist or two.
He has an unmatched screen presence, in my view. He does not need a heroine, who looks like an extra in his presence-such is his magic on screen! He does not have one, therefore.. only a daughter-like figure who accompanies him for most of the film.
The smuggling operation is led by a villain, who has a past. Played by Nagarjuna Akkineni, Telugu film star with aplomb. Kattappa of Bahubali fame has a decent role as a friend of the hero, who gets killed by a surprise villain, and the story is a kind of revenge quest. Shruti Hasan is Ok in her role as the daughter-figure. Amir Khan gets to play a guest role, not a bad one.
The story is not new or great, but enough to hang his acting and screen time on, and for Rajni fans, nothing else matters, as I said. If you are a fan, go for it. if not, well, it's up to you. Only bad thing? The music.
Bonus- Ticket price in Kolkata is very reasonable!
Daughter no. 1, Prarthana, got engaged on August 16th, 2025 at Pune. To Prathamesh Gadkari, who also lives in Pune's Kothrud area.
Only parents, and a couple of more people were present, as per the wishes of the couple. I was of course, one of the parents..
