What If?

Some thought-provoking What ifs..

What if...

Mahatma Gandhi came back and saw what he had fought for?

There were no IITs and IIMs?

The Arms Race had not progressed beyond Bows and Arrows?

The Kapoors had not entered Bollywood?

Kamal Haasan did not have a moustache?

We did not have a regular supply of jokers in real life?

Manoj Kumar could act?

the ghost of Kishore Kumar entered the likes of Arijit Singh?

Women were powering politics across the world?

Hamlet was Canadian (Trudu or not Trudu?)

McDonald's and Coke had not been invented?

Talented Folks I Know

This is triggered by a short film starring Divya Sharmaa, a former student at KIAMS. As usual, this is a short list (the long list would take too long) of some others (friends and relatives included)-

Padmapriya, actress who has won a National Award.

Abhinav Kamal, film-maker. Has won a Cannes Award.

Mir Ali (Osmania, IIMB)-lyricist of films such as Dor.

Bugzy, Pradyumna, Harshad Lunavat, Vivek Anant, Anuja,..photographers.

Parul Kashyap..blogger.

Harimohan, Pavan Tarawade, Sreeram, Devapriya Roy..published authors.

Arvind Joshi- Salsa dancer and trainer.

Shweta Sinha, Poonam Bhatia, Sheetal Garg, Anumeha Saxena, Shraddha Nigdikar, TK Chatterjee, Parth Gokhale, Milind Deshpande..singers.

Geeta Choudhary- humourist in real life. Indira, photographer, and artist.

Suhita Thatte- actress.

Jayant Dharmadhikari- writer of scripts, producer of Ankahee.

Dash (IIMB), Gowri, Meenu Mynam, Soumya Marla..writers.

Sanjana, Jasmine, Shrunga, Ayushi, Avik, Philip, Urvaksh,..Shreya, Ram..actors in a play or two at Indore.

Harish Chaudhary, Shweta Kushal,..directors of a play or two.

Rajan of India (IIMB), Thomas (a colleague at VJIM)- fun guys who coined interesting names for people.

Of course, talents extend in many directions..there will be a long list another day. For instance, cooking.. I am ready to taste and certify..

Race 3- Half a Review

There is a race. Till half time, could not figure out between whom and whom..so, there is definitely suspense..about the title.

There is a wannabe director who was once a choreographer- wish he had stuck to his original profession. Film direction koi bachhon ka khel nahin hai!

There are terrible lyrics, dialogue and script. Not sure if anyone was actually paid to write any of these. Does not look like it-to me.

Even the choreography is bad. So I take back statement no. 2 above.

Anil Kapoor tries hard and may be the only good thing in it..relatively speaking.

..as you may have guessed by now, I saw the first half of the film, and yes, am crying about the gem of a second half that I missed out on...but given the wooden acting by everyone, maybe a furniture shop could have been opened instead of making the film.

Books That Need to be Written-Updated

There are many unwritten books, and many writers looking for fresh ideas. I thought I will make life easier- these are ideas for books.

1. If all the countries in the world give up nuclear arms..

2. School Shootouts in the U.S.- an Encyclopaedia

3. Advise Gone Wrong- an even Bigger Encyclopaedia.

4. Election Bakwaas- the Biggest Global Compendium

5. How to be an Intelligent TV Anchor

6. Why Bank Robberies are Passe

7. Celebrity Suicides..Who's Next?

8. Daya, Kuchh Gadbad Hai..why CID Beats Sherlock.

9. How to Improve Your Quanti Fundas-and get into Quantico.

10. Why Cauvery Waters are VERY Important- an Election Guide.

Gems

Every once in a while, you come across gems. This one's picked up and cited from a book called Videocracy by Kevin Allocca.

"Partway into the national Miss Teen USA beauty pageant, ..the contestant from South Carolina was asked, "Recent polls  have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a World Map. Why do you think this is?" "

The young lady's reply  "would change the course of her life. And not in a good way." 

She replied "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps." 

"And, I believe that our education, like such as, in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like, such as, and, I believe they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children."

A gem. Not sure if she won or lost.

Thailand Memories

We went to Thailand a few years ago. Some memories.

 Noong Nooch garden-very well maintained.

 Bells and whistles

 and temples

Some lovely architecture and seafood!

Locations

A great (business)man once said that in Retailing, three things are important- Location, location and location. I would say the same for film shoots, dates, and much more...

Iconic locations often used for Hindi film shoots -

Juhu beach road, Queen's Necklace (Marine Drive), Malabar Hill in Mumbai.

Switzerland and Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani for song sequences/dream sequences. Austria in the case of  The Sound of Music- the charming locations added a lot to the film. The Bond films usually have exotic locations, because the story remains more or less the same. A Kannada film, Mungaru Male, had charming locations and songs as its main attractions.

St. Xavier's college for college sequences

Outdoor sets are sometimes constructed and used to great effect as in the Ramgarh village for Sholay, built near Bangalore. Are O Sambha would not be half as effective in any other place.

Similarly, if you are going on a date with someone, the location and ambience can make a lot of difference..try it out (this is not a dating consultancy-figure out the location on your own).

Kaala- Review of Rajni's Latest Film

It's hard for me to be objective when reviewing a Rajni film- I am a die-hard fan..when he is on screen, everything and everyone else almost ceases to exist. Or becomes insignificant. Nana Patekar gives him a fight, but is no match for his screen presence.

The first half of the film is actually a bit leisurely, but establishes all the characters in his household and some villains. Nana comes in fairly late, but the fight really gets dirty with his entry. The second half could have been cut by 15 minutes to make it more impactful, as some scenes like the attacks on the slum, are repetitive.

But on the whole, it's a stylish Rajni film, and tackles a social issue well, though a bit dramatically-I realise that may be an understatement. Huma Qureshi does well in a significant role, and so do a few others.

Restaurants- My Michelin Rated ones

Hilton- at Osmania campus, Hyderabad- Irani chai, biscuits, bun-omelette. At that age and in those golden days, the best of the best. There were several similar joints in Hyderabad at the time. Kohinoor on MG Road in Pune is another one with similar things on offer.

Raj Bhavan in Davangere, Karnataka. We spent many evenings there with family, dining at leisure. It was a garden restaurant, which meant that the kids (small then) could roam around and we could hold a conversation or admire the garden.

Taj Mahal at Abids, Hyderabad. A simple veg. platter (thali) which was tasty, filling and within budget. Kamat's at Koti next to Women's College was another.

Lucknow chat place, the name of which I forget. Great chat and mithai. I think it was in Aliganj. Also, the gilawati/Tunde kababs and biryani in Hazratganj and beyond-the film Dawat-e-ishq rekindled some of those memories.

Alpha restaurant, Garden restaurant in Secunderabad area were among the best for biryanis when I lived there. Paradise, too.

Bharwan da Dhaba, Amritsar. Makke di roti, and Sarson da saag.

MTR and Maiyya's, and lots of darshinis in Bangalore.

Savji restaurants in Nagpur for fiery stuff.

Nanking, an old Chinese restaurant in Secunderabad.

The Bong Adda in Belapur, new Bombay.

and of course, food eaten anywhere in good company, accompanied by nostalgia, laughter...

Friends

This is not about the TV serial, but my friends. Friends are great, for many reasons, and it doesn't matter where they are- next to you, or in another corner of the world, as long as you connect when both are inclined to connect (HMT watches had a slogan once- If you have the inclination, we have THE TIME).

I am energised constantly by my friends-online and offline. It helps to meet sometimes, obviously, but that's not always possible. Where it is, I try, whether it's a work trip or a holiday. Most times, I am able to meet an ex-student, or a friend I haven't met in a while, and share lovely conversations about the good old days. In terms of numbers, many are from IMT Nagpur, my IIM Bangalore batch, Kirloskar Institute, PESIT, IFIM and then, IMT G, IIMK, IIML, VJIM, and of course, IIM Indore (my second longest stint after Kirloskar Institute-I love poha).

Sometimes, we end up playing Golf, but just chats are great too, over a beer or coffee. Sometimes I bug my friends to write cases or give guest lectures (ha, ha, beware!), and some actually oblige. But more often, there's no agenda, it's purely for fun and joy.

Here's to more meetings with friends, or chats online-these happen regularly too. I notice people asking me for advice these days-all that grey hair probably makes them think I know something they don't -wink, wink...

Remembering Anthony Bourdain

He was a chef, a traveller, and a writer- a rare combination of talent. I don't recall how I first got to know him, but I think it was while browsing TV channels on an idle evening. Some cookery shows in the past few years have caught the fancy of a lot of us, and his might have been one of those. But his good looks and personality made his show different, and also the way he introduced local culture, street food etc. to you. It seemed like the next best thing to travelling there.

I remember reading a regular who-dun-it penned by him, though I forget its title (Maybe it was Gone Bamboo). It was not bad at all, for someone who was not a regular in that genre. But he seemed to enjoy trying different things. Apparently he did write columns and articles, starting with The New Yorker, no less.

It is surprising though, that (it seems) he killed himself by hanging. Why, one wonders.

Thinking of Titles

Everything needs a title, and it's tough to think of one..for a film, a TV show, or for a position. In Tamil nadu, and Andhra/Telangana, every star has a title, I am told..the titles could be Superstar, Star of Stars, Never-before-seen-star, or any other bizarre set of words. The announcement when a monarch entered his court, whether it was Akbar in Mughal-e-Azam or Shivaji in his court, included their titles.

Naming something-your child, or the brand your company has conceived-has the same problem-namely, the name. And once you name someone or something, it's branded for a long, long time. Naming films would be an equally difficult job, I am guessing.

Trying to recall names of some popular shows we watched on American TV in the late eighties, the following come to mind- The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Hawaii Five-O, Miami Vice, Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote, ..or those later, such as Friends, Castle, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, etc. one can see a pattern of using the names of places, characters (or real ones, as in Cosby's case), and sometimes, the subject- such as Family Ties starring Michael J. Fox, or Friends.

I personally prefer short titles- Rajni, for instance, or Mahabharat, but Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi was also a favourite TV show when it ran.

Melon ki Aag

This is the story of a Hindi film- a potboiler, if you go by standard definitions.

There are two melons, one rich, one poor. They fall in love. Background song- aha aaye melon ki bela dekho aayee..

But there is a serious problem. Chacha of one of the melons is not happy with the rishta. He therefore kidnaps the other melon, putting a stop to their milan.

The background song- ghadi milan ki aayee, aaja tu chhutti lekar aa ja.. but it's no go.

The first melon now thinks of a plan to flee with the second, as in Happy Bhag Jayegi. But first, he has to find her. So, he puts on his x-ray goggles and asks Alexa for her location. Voila- she's being held in the Flipkart warehouse in his town, among a zillion products.

So the melon dresses up as a delivery boy, and picks her up against a false delivery invoice. On the way, they go to a Domino's and pick up a pepperoni pizza in case they are hungry. And buy a ticket to Mauritius, where they plan to disguise themselves and return to India- no questions asked. 

Is tarah do sitaron ka zameen par hai milan, aaj ki raat. The End.

Completely vegetarian fare, combines the best of current technologies and film ideas. Only some elements are copied.

Parmanu- Film Review

Goes to prove that a good leader can make a difference. I am talking about Atal Behari Vajpayee who had to take a call, and he did. The story is well-known, about India cocking a snook at the Western powers and conducting nuclear tests anyway.

The film does justice to the event, and has the cast perform credibly. The twists keep you interested, and occur at regular intervals. Diana Penty became one of my favourite actresses after I saw her in Happy Bhag Jayegi-she carried the film on her shoulders. Here she has the only female character in the A-team, and does well. John Abraham did well to produce the film, and is good in his part.

A couple of things were hard to digest- for instance, forgetting to look for bugs in the hotel room (or the phone tapping) in such a secret operation. But the later catching of the American spy sort of makes up for that intelligence lapse.

It speaks well of Indian capabilities when put to the test. Boman Irani in particular, is very convincing and has a critical role.

A Class Act

This is about some typical students in a typical class of MBA students. They could be from any place or Pradesh. (Cluster analysis was not used and no students were hurt during writing of this post).

Sugar and Spice: Sweet when it suits them, and hot and spicy when it doesn't.

The Advisors: Full of advice (for you), not knowing it's a vice.

The Budweisers: Well, you get the picture. No advice.

The jargon-throwers: Flame-throwers are passe. They know the latest.

The Mobile Set: They think being on the mobile makes them upwardly-mobile even before the first job.

The Hands-up Fraternity: As if there's a mugger in a dark alley trying to mug them, their hands are always up, for anything and nothing.

The Performance-watchers. Passive audience, as if in a play or a movie. Might applaud a good piece of theatrics, but won't talk.

The Questioning, the hurt, the sleepy, the eager-to-get-out and do more interesting stuff-the look says it all. The worst of all-the Killer Look!