Economic Times Education Summit

 I participated as a speaker on a couple of panels. Overall, it was a nice attempt to bring together thought leaders from government regulators, academic leaders and industry participants. IBM and Google were two major industry partners, apart from many others. 

I talked about the need to leverage alumni connects, and the need for autonomy, or freedom from excessive regulation of the unnecessary kind in our country. Higher education needs to be free to experiment and innovate with programs, curricula, pedagogy and more. The UGC chairman hinted that these would happen, with the NEP and a new outlook. He also talked about how industry and academia need to support each other. 

Pics from the event. My colleagues Sudhir Pradhan, and Anju Jadon also participated.

Above- One of the panels in which I was a speaker.

Below- another Round Table at the event, moderated by Devina Lason of ET. 

This (below) was the Round Table topic, with industry and academia participating.

Sudhir Pradhan, and Anju Jadon- above.

An ad for the event, on the ET page.

Jai Gangaajal - Film Review

I probably wouldn't buy a ticket and see it. It's actually a well-scripted movie with a taut screenplay, barring a couple of flaws-but then it's a Hindi film. But I just don't dig the violent movies with a politician-policeman nexus anymore. The reason may be that I have seen too many of them with the same theme.

The best in the genre that I recollect is Ardh Satya. A policeman played by Om Puri is the protagonist in that one. Out here, the only novelty in the theme is Priyanka Chopra playing the lead as a do-gooder honest cop in a sea of corruption. Her performance is good, and that of the guy who plays W Pandey too.

Not bad if you have nothing better to do, or you haven't seen any of these kinds of films with a Bihar/U.P. setting before. The plot is pretty stale. The violence is unavaiodable given the plot, but it's not to my taste.

Bajirao Mastani- Film Review

It's a sort of Mughal-e-Azam in reverse. In terms of the religions of the hero and heroine. Here, Bajirao is a brahmin warrior and Prime minister of the ruling king (Shahu Maharaj), and Mastani is a lady warrior besotted with him from Bundelkhand, who follows him to Pune and is content being his second, mostly unaccepted (by society) wife.

But what makes this story come alive is some great acting by Ranveer Singh. I never thought of him as a great actor, but I have revised my opinion. Given a good script, he can act, and how! Deepika is very good, too, as Mastani, and Priyanka is adequate in hers as the first wife Kashibai.

The high points for me were the choreography of the song Malhari-very energetic, and different-and the visuals (the sets are opulent). The story itself is gripping, though a couple of songs less would have made the pace even better. But I am not complaining. A dose of history (tweaked, as per the disclaimer) that I enjoyed.

Barfi- Sweet Little Film

Barfi makes you want to fall in love of the sort that teenagers fall into. An innocent kind of love. Of course, it's filmy because it does not tackle all the realities of life, but it tackles some. And with a cast that is two-thirds handicapped. Out of the three major players, only Ileana is normal with all her faculties intact. Priyanka has a major issue, and Barfi the lead is deaf and dumb.

But the film is magical in that it makes you forget the handicaps of the characters and takes you on a roller-coaster through their loves, life and various other things like entanglements with the sympathetic cop. But mostly, it's about lost love in Ileana's case, and real love (as per the movie's definition) between Barfi and Priyanka. A comic sense pervades the film throughout, making it breezy mostly.

The supporting cast is good, the camerawork is brilliant, and the Darjeeling locales, captivating. Songs are hummable too. I think this one is a winner! I saw Ileana long after the Telugu film Pokiri, and liked her here.

Agneepath- Review

It is difficult to believe- the script, I mean, if you bring logic into it. That an entire village is moronic enough not to figure out there is a motive behind framing the honest school-teacher. Anyway, if you keep logic aside for a moment, it's a reasonably taut film, mostly due to the larger than life, Gabbar Singh-like character created for Sanjay Dutt.

The characters are very well-etched, strong and believable. Om Puri, Priyanka, Sachin Khedekar (I think)and the lovely young kid sister of Hrithik, add to the storyline with good performances. Even Priyanka's mom and the dai who helps deliver the kid (she happens to be a relative of mine, incidentally) do well in their short roles.

Unbiased from not having watched the Bachchan version, I think it qualifies as a good movie of its type. Whether you like the type (revenge, a la Deewar, with Rishi Kapoor playing one of the dons), is what you need to figure out. Hrithik looks passionate, somewhat like Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar, but underplays his part, convincingly. The last bit of the fight is a bit over-the-top generally, but I guess, meant for the masses.

Chikni Chameli- Katrina seems to have discovered the 'body language' that the 70s extras used so effectively. The Ganesh song is very energetic and nicely picturised.