There are occasions in life where you would have come across people who would always love to swim against the tide. These people challenge conventional wisdom and throw caution to the wind because of their strong conviction. Any yardstick of success that we associate with others would not be applicable to them. If you had read the novel “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, the character Howard Roark symbolizes this rare genre in mankind. He is a young architect who never compromises his artistic and personal vision and willingly undergoes several tribulations in life before tasting the fruits of success. And once he experiences success, it hardly has any difference on him as his goal in life (to preserve the purity of art) is different from the ones others desire and that goal would never be compromised. There are visionaries in various fields who have been the Howard Roaks in their sphere of influence. This article would be dealing with one such person in the Indian entertainment industry – Kamal Haasan. This article would not be focussing on his film making skills. Instead, it would dwell on the attributes that makes him admirable.

The biggest burden in being Kamal Haasan is that every action performed or every word uttered (both reel and real) by him would be under intense scrutiny. You might ask, so what? Every celebrity experiences these. To understand the enormity of this, consider the other leading heroes in the Tamil or even Indian film industry. The biggest advantage they have when people watch them on screen is the expectation that the audience have from their movies. If these heroes float in the air defying gravity or bash 20 thugs at a time or even launch a rocket propellant mid-air, many film viewing public would consider it acceptable. In a similar vein, in these movies, you need not have characters that relate to the theme of the movie. Hence, you have the freedom to fit in as many comedians you would like or have as many glamorous heroines. The common response that you get from the audience (who love these movies) or the film makers when you question them on these is “This is a Commercial movie”, “Our hero is an action hero”, “These are aspects expected/ must be present in our hero’s movie”, “These movies are meant only to entertain”, “We go to a movie only to forget our worries”.  This article is meant to only compare the differing expectations from the audience and is not meant to take a dig at Commercial cinema. Pure entertainers are also required as an essential alternative and would satiate the preferences of various audience.

Compare this when you go and watch a Kamal Haasan film – more than the appreciation of the various nuances in film making exhibited in the movie, there would be intense scrutiny of every aspect in the movie. Hence, there would be questions like “Why did Kamal place the bag in the railway station when it had no bombs at all (UPO)”, “Why did the Commissioner and the Chief Secretary converse in English in many scenes (UPO)”, “Why were two or three characters not given more space? (Dasavatharam)”, “Why did Kamal show that Tsunami rescued the people in the mosque while it killed Poovaraaghan (a Christian) - Dasavatharam”, “Why did Kamal show the accountant in Devar Magan (Madan Bob) as belonging to a particular caste” (In fact the director of this flick was Bharathan and not Kamal). There might be perfect justification as to why these scenes were enacted this way. But, this goes to show the intense scrutiny that the audience reserve for every action of Kamal – even for his Commercial entertainers.

When people go and watch a Kamal movie, these are the most common expectations

1) Every word spoken and every action on screen should be perfect

2) The movie should be vastly different from any other Indian movie previously seen

3) No scope for any cinematic liberties associated with other heroes

In fact, these expectations have only enhanced Kamal’s film making abilities. Rather than settling for only Commercial potboilers that guarantee success, Kamal has chosen a path less travelled (or rather not travelled) by many. A strong belief in his vision of taking Tamil cinema forward has given him the conviction to deliver a movie without any dialogues (Pushpak/ Pesum Padam), a movie without any songs and having a shorter running duration (Kuruthi Punal), a movie which discusses in depth on the suffering during partition (Hey Ram), a movie where he doesn’t have a name or identity and which has no heroines, songs and deals with terrorism without showing any violence on screen (Unnai Pol Oruvan, credits to Neeraj Pandey-the creator), a movie which has capital punishment as theme (Virumaandi), a movie which stressed on love for human beings and has a good take on Communism (Anbe Sivam) and many more.

A creator delivering one or two movies like this is possible. But, giving them over a sustained period of four decades (if I have to discount the roles played by him as a child) is a tremendous achievement. When Hey Ram wasn’t that successful at the box office, this man had the courage to deliver an Anbe Sivam. When movies as great as these aren’t that successful, he takes the blame on himself (and not blame the film watching public) and strives to deliver an even better movie.

The other aspect that makes him a real world Howard Roark is the impact success has on him. Everyone who is successful take their time to savour their triumph.  But not Kamal. Just days after the stupendous success of Dasavatharam (an all time Tamil cinema highest grosser and one of the highest in Indian cinema), he was working on the script for Marmayogi. Even when it seemed Marmayogi would take some time, he did not relax and delivered a classic Unnai Pol Oruvan. Delivering box office success over a long period is still possible but doing it by taking the road less travelled makes the success even more enjoyable. It is this hunger for success and the drive for perfection that makes him special. The other great aspect is his views and contributions on a variety of societal issues like organ donation and converting his fan clubs as welfare associations. His constancy of purpose and unwavering thoughts is revealed in him confining himself to the field that he is good at –Film Making.

The seeds sown by him are reaping rich dividends as we find a bunch of enthusiastic creative directors making a mark in the Tamil film industry like Ameer, Bala, Mysskin, Selva Raghavan and Sasi Kumar. Just take a sample of the list of successful Tamil movies last year – Ayan, Naadogigal, Aadhavan, Padikaathavan, Peraanmai, Unnai Pol Oruvan, Yaavarum Nalam, Pasangha, Achamundu Achamundu, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Eeram, Pattalam, Renigunta and Kanden Kaadhalai. The heartening aspect in this list is that most movies in this list had an unconventional theme or screenplay and were even made by non-established film makers. Way to go!

The burden in being Kamal is enormous–but nevertheless, it has been enjoyable not only for him but also for Indian Cinema.

Friends,

You can post your feedback on the video in this blog post.

Thanks & regards,

Karthik

By this time, we all know how good a theme “A Wednesday” was. It had amazing screenplay, dialogues and direction. It is said by a few that Unnai Pol Oruvan (UPO) is the exact replica of “A Wednesday”. Comparisons have been made by many about which version is the better. Before I dissect this further, a word of caution though. The original “A Wednesday” would always retain its significance because it was trying something new. After watching both the movies, I could only observe that UPO though retains the essence- the plot and characterization, there are so many places where there is a huge difference. I have tried to capture areas where great attention has been paid to even minute details.  Enjoy reading the post!

Plot- UPO scores

“A Wednesday” was more biased towards the actions and retributions taken by a particular community. If you had watched it carefully, all the 4 terrorists and even Naseer’s character in the movie belonged to the same community.  Wednesday mitigated this by beautifully making Naseer take action on these terrorists even if they belong to his community. UPO has made the terrorism theme more Universal by pointing out that terrorism does not have religion (U see a Hindu terrorist too).UPO also brings out the aspect of how one needs to be sensible towards terrorism in regions other than ours.

Scene Comparisons

Naseer & Kamal Haasan- Common Man ; Anupam Kher & Mohan Lal- Commissioner

Places where UPO is better than Wednesday

1)      First Scene: Even in the first scene, there is a huge difference. UPO has a more natural feel to it by showing Lal narrating the experience while he takes his dog to a walk. The Hindi version shows him getting a chair to sit in the beach. In the Hindi version, no action was taken on the commissioner Anupam post this incident in the film. Clearly, no commissioner can escape (at least from public) after letting 4 terrorists die. The language used by Anupam to describe Naseer “that bastard just had the guts to walk in our life and blow it apart” is rude”. The words contradict the feeling that Anupam actually has for Naseer.  UPO does not make too many comments at the start and quickly moves into the movie.

2)      Placing Bags: Naseer is shown placing the bags very obviously. He places it right in the middle of a stairway to the train with all people walking around him. Kamal does it more gracefully. Also, he does it in more than one place (bus, train, and mall).

3)      Police Station Scene: In the scene within police station, the toilet is placed inside the police station. Naseer walks past the police carrying the bag inside. Naseer walks past the cop carrying the bag. Also, while he walks inside, there is another cop coming out of the rest room. Naseer makes no effort to hide and place the bag, he just leaves it in area under the sink. UPO makes it more authentic by keeping the rest room outside the complaint room and Kamal makes great effort to place the bag such that it is not visible even when you try seeing it there. Also, we do not find any cop in the rest room when Kamal walks in.

4)      Cop dropping wife scene: In Wednesday, the cop Jai drops his wife at the railway station. This scene had no importance at all to the movie and was just shown to introduce Jai. UPO made it a necessary scene by also making Kamal place his supposedly explosive bag in the same scene. Good work!

5)      Cop and wife dialogues:  Cop Jai’s wife is shown going to her mother’s home, staying for some time and coming back all in a matter of 3 hours. It is highly unlikely especially if you listen to the dialogues of Jai to his wife. That showed that the place was a bit far away. UPO realizes this and made all talks of Sethu (guy playing Jai’s role) to his wife during her travel only. More sensible narration. Also, the discussion of places during the conversation is the actual places you pass by when you travel from Chennai to Madurai. Careful film making indeed!

6)      At police station: Naseer is rude to the police officer within the station. He tells him “What do you mean by how do things get lost”. A common man is expected to talk politely to a cop. Kamal hides his anger in this scene and responds politely to the cop. This is not the place to show the common man’s anger as that would avoid him from executing smoothly the purpose for which he has come to the station.

7)      Actor Complaint part: In the Hindi version, in the scene where the actor complains to the commissioner, the actor is shown walking alone to the Commissioner’s office which is highly unlikely in an actor adoring society like India. It is especially unlikely when you see the character played by the actor, self proclaiming. Also, the actor reacts poorly when the threatening phone call comes and he even hugs the cop. There is also a flashback for the actor. UPO corrects these, besides bringing in a spoof of a popular actor. Also, the commissioner tries to at least show that he is taking some necessary action. The Commissioner explaining the reason for providing more security is well thought too.

8)      Introductory Scene of reporter: Again, this scene is no way related to the movie in the Hindi version. This scene is present in “A Wednesday” just to introduce the reporter. We have the reporter talking to a guy who has survived an electric shock. All this effort to introduce her.

UPO scores high in this scene by making this scene related to the essence of what this movie is about- terrorism.  Also, this scene shows Kamal watching the program and maybe that’s a reason why he chose this reporter over others. Also, in this scene, kamal is showing making his purchases even before his wife reminds (thus showcasing him as a responsible common man!). 3 actions done in the same scene!  The Bush Musharaff parody is a nice comedy.

9)      Cop- Traffic cop dialogue: In UPO, the cop is more assertive with the traffic cop when he demands a bribe from auto wala. Also, after the cop asks the traffic cop to pay the auto wala back, the auto wala’s statement is artificial. “times have changed, new age is here” etc. Seldom do auto walas talk to traffic cops this way as they have to face the brunt later. UPO omits this dialogue.

10)   Dress: The commissioner is in casual wear in his office. Mohan lal sports the police wear lending more authenticity to the role.

11)   Cop Ariff Introductory scene: Ariff’s introductory scene has a cop watching the reporter’s show on TV and that’s when Ariff is introduced. This again reiterates the fact that the reporter and her shows are popular and introduces Ariff at the same time, again oru kallula rendu maangha! The location for Ariff introductory scene is shown as a police station in UPO whereas in Wednesday, it is some isolated place (looking like a large storehouse)

12)   First terrace scene: In the scene where Naseer walks first to the terrace, he’s shown more casual (without being careful), even humming a small note. This is highly unlikely considering the seriousness of the issue and the need to be alert all the time. Kamal has a careful measured walk, absence of humming. Scene where he drops things is casual too. Even, there is a difference in the size of the bag that he carries.

13)   Call Testing:  Naseer is shown receiving a call from his wife and answering it before configuring his devices. Whereas Kamal uses the opportunity to receive a test call from his wife and tests the device setup before actually calling the commissioner. Good! Also, after the call with his wife, it is shown all things are arranged and kept when in fact Naseer had just come. UPO is careful in this aspect too.

14)   Government negotiation: UPO gives more weightage to the role of a Chief Secretary character as an agent between CM and commissioner. Seldom do CMs work at the ground level. If a CM does that (as shown in Wednesday), he is more likely to negotiate too. Of course, for every issue, we cannot have the CM intervening, even at the national level, it is the same as in most security issues, NSA and other higher officials deal with them. Chief Secretary’s role got the importance in UPO that it truly deserves. Also, in UPO, it is shown that the CM is busy as it is election time.

Having the CM’s voice and showing the house (Gopalapuram) makes it appear more genuine in UPO than in Wednesday which even had a man in CM role appear in the screen.

15)   Chief Secretary: The Chief Secretary was a sober guy in Hindi version, in UPO, the interactions between Commissioner and Chief Secretary is one of the highlights of the movie, brings the rifts and difference in perceptions and actions of the 2 facets of Govt very well.

16)   Reporter Prank: Even in minor scenes like the reporter first receiving call from the common man, in UPO, the reporter thinks it is a prank. In Wednesday, she immediately believes the common man.

17)   Commissioner rudeness: In Wednesday, Anupam tells Chief Secretary, “I don’t know but you have to come in 15 mins”, U can never demand a chief secretary. In UPO, Lal requests and gets it done smoothly.

18)   Voice modulation: Kamal shows better voice modulation in asking commissioner not to waste time dialogue scene, Tom & Dicky/ Kuppan SUbban dialogues, sensationalism and when demanding a negotiator.

19)   Terrorist locations: Keeping terrorist in different place (Bangalore) is well thought too.

20)   Diffusing bomb in Police Station: The Common man informs that the bomb is set to go off in police station in a short time. Wednesday shows the communication, fetching such a huge group of diffusing squad, searching in only the planted place and diffusing bomb on their own done in 20 mins. It’s a bit unlikely. UPO did it better by showing only a smaller squad, searching for bomb in all places and the bomb diffuser taking the sensible help of police force. The police force takes the help of common man to diffuse the bomb, thus meeting the purpose without showing ego. This is essential when u have severe time constraint.

21)   Commissioner turns constable: Commissioner Anupam is shown extracting information from the agent himself, again highly unlikely. The Commissioner is co coordinating a major effort, his job is planning and communicating, Here, he is even shown beating the guy to extract info while the guy just gives the info on seeing Arif. Why should he suddenly let out all info on seeing Arif?? What’s the background, this is unclear. UPO handles this scene well. Commissioner calls Arif and he extracts info. This scene brings out Arif’s character too well. Also, the seduction of the guy part is a welcome addition in UPO.

22)   Cop-reporter interaction: After the bomb is diffused, the cop Jai goes off just like that after seeing the reporter. A responsible cop should take effort not to bring it out in the open. UPO shows the cop trying to chase reporter away from the spot. The reporter’s dialogue in UPO in response to commissioner question of who she is “ I am a woman, an Indian and a reporter” captures her character in essence.

23)   Cop fight: Wednesday shows that the two cops are hostile to each other especially Jai to Ariff. One cop remarks to Jai on seeing Ariff “Pyscho is coming”, this part was not needed. On a huge mission, the two cops need to show more partnership. Also, in a lot of scenes, Jai gets irritated seeing actions of Ariff and he shows this frustration in front of the terrorists. UPO cleverly avoids showing the friction.

24)   Commissioner asking which department Ariff  is in now is totally unnecessary. He would know about him better before deploying him.

25)   Hindu terrorist: Making use of Hindu terrorist too and having the dialogue that he is religion, currency agnostic in UPO clearly brings out that terrorism has no boundaries besides avoiding being biased against a particular community.

26)   Naseer shown in Intelligence Report: This is a serious mistake in “A Wednesday”. During the presentation about the terrorists, the cop tells that there is speculation about a strange guy moving around and he is assumed to b a strategist of terrorist groups showing Naseer’s photo in the background. When have Indian intelligence become too smart to decipher things and pass info all within couple of hours, what has naseer done to be spotted by intelligence in such a short time. Also there is a dialogue telling that even his wife does not know what he is doing. Boss, if u r able to spot the wife, u have got the guy too!

27)   Cop during presentation: The cop, himself, telling at the end of the presentation to the commissioner “we are always one step behind the terrorists” is demeaning. UPO scores in this by having a discussion between chief secretary and commissioner and having the chief secretary tell this dialogue, well thought!

28)   Cop in police jeep: Ariff comes in police jeep to catch the arms guy, thus allowing him to escape. UPO avoids this by making Ariff leave the jeep at a distance, walk to the cop and then he runs.

29)   Commissioner Anupam is shown briefing the reporter on the incident when she asks. This was not needed and was correctly skipped in UPO.

30)   Mohan Lal makes the cop to tell the exact words he wants to communicate to media and he does a dry rehearsal. No such scene in Hindi. Also, Lal checks the camera to see if it was captured correctly. Gud attention to details!

31)   Finding location of common man: The scene where Ariff comes to find the location where common man is better captured in UPO.  Kamal is shown being more alert noticing Ariff whereas Naseer misses him. U have to be alert on such a critical mission.

32)   News report: Kamal intently listens to news about terrorists being shifted whereas Naseer is very casual. Definitely, it is serious news to be paying careful attention to!

33)   Commissioner about reporter: In Wednesday, Anupam tells to CM that the terrorist is monitoring him through Naina. It is so easy to ask Naina to stop televising this besides the fact that Naina is actually helping the cops indirectly. This dialogue was carefully avoided in UPO.

34)   Even in scene where credit card lady calls, Anupam allows her to talk too much before interrupting. When u r in a time critical task, this is the least u expect. Mohan lal stops her abruptly.

35)   Location – Airbase: The choice of location for the final shoot out is better in UPO. An old airport (CHozhavaram) has less chance of intervention than a newly laid Juhu Airbase. Also, because of this aspect, u can see security in Juhu airbase, if u have this many security, how cud the common man rig that?  Having the old deserted location avoided all this in UPO.

36)   Facial Expression: Kamal scores in his facial reaction, especially using eyes. Naseer shows no reaction in face or eyes most times. When commissioner asks for warranty, bringing pressure cooker example was good in UPO. Kamal also scores in the way he tells this dialogue “Do u have any other choice?” when commissioner asks him how cud he trust him.

37)   More modern: When the cop tells commissioner that this is a unique way of routing calls. UPO avoids this as these incidents happen post 26/11 and everyone is aware of the same technology used there too. Careful attention to details.

38)   Sketch of common man: In “A Wednesday”, the artist tries manually to create sketch of the common man. In a time critical task, u don’t need this. Use of computer solved the purpose in UPO.

39)   Armory room dialogue: In the scene where Commissioner talks to the 2 cops in Armory room, UPO is good. The scene where the paper flies and Ariff catches is a welcome addition and Lal makes a good comment about the senses to be sharper like the reflexes.

40)   Making Ariff suspicious: Commissioner calls Jai after he walks a long distance and tells him to take care of  Ariff, thus clearly making Ariff suspicious. UPO does this better by having the commissioner tell the cop this as soon as they come out of the room.

41)   Hacker role: Having the IIT drop out in UPO lent more credibility to the hacker role. In Hindi, the hacker showed scant respect to Commissioner whereas in UPO, the guy is cool, yet he gives the needed respect.

42)   Vehicle Choice: The choice of the vehicle to escort the terrorists is done better in UPO. Also, in Wednesday all terrorists are only handcuffed. They could possibly launch an attack. In UPO, their hands are tied to the vehicle and thus limiting their movement.

43)   Reporter sees escort vehicle: Wednesday shows the reporter seeing the vehicle carrying the terrorists pass by. This was uncalled for in an extremely secret mission. UPO avoids this intentionally by making the reporter come to the rear side of the old airport.

44)   In “A Wednesday”, when Ariff pushes the terrorists to stand on same side, the other cop stares at Ariff, not at all needed especially when he’s doing the right thing.

45)   Call to terrorists: Naseer is pleading to Commissioner to connect to Ariff and terrorists. Kamal demands the Commissioner. A terrorist is expected to demand, especially when he does not want to let go of his upper hand.

46)   Acting: The scene where Kamal presents a short laugh (to himself, wondering how members of same community behave differently) when he hears the name of the cop as Ariff Khan is more sensible compared to the hearty laugh that Naseer gives. Why does Naseer show this reaction when the movie is all about avoiding community based references. Besides the laugh gives ANupam a clue that he belongs to a particular community.  Kamal’s reaction in this scene is very good. The way Kamal wipes his tears with a gun conveys in essence the movie plot. There might be a need for wiping tears with guns in the current state, height of symbolism!

47)   Variation in Hindu terrorist: The Hindu terrorist presents a character that is different from the others. When all others tell fakr hai, he avoids so bringing out the variation and the fears that he has for his life clearly bringing out the variation in his character.

48)   Cop Alignment: In the scene where terrorists are handcuffed and taken, Wednesday has one cop in front and one behind, there was no need for the cop to be in front. UPO shows the cops having better control over the terrorists.

49)   Bomb- Choice of place: Planting a bomb in the jeep is better than having one in the bench.

50)   Lives of cops: In UPO, kamal tells the cops to clearly stay away thus warning them not be caught in the explosion indirectly. In Hindi, the cops walk along with the terrorists to the bench. Even a miscommunication could have had the lives of the cops too.

51)   Alert Cop: In UPO, the cop Ariff (Ganesh) realizes that a trick could be played and hence he nabs one of the terrorist while he lets go of the others. In Wednesday, he allows them to go and then nabs.

52)   Variation in terrorists: In UPO, when one of terrorists is caught, the others try to escape thus revealing that terrorists too are human beings who are afraid of their lives. In Hindi, they do not show much urgency to escape as they do not have a jeep. Not a flaw indeed.

53)   Parts of Ending scene dialogues: Voter id, invisible man dialogue addition in UPO was better. “Terrorism is instant, y shudnt justice be so” is a good one

54)   Religion based: The way Mohan lal tries to find out if he’s Hindu or Muslim repeatedly is done better in UPO.

55)   Region specific reaction: UPO brought out how when a terrorist incident in a part of India, other part is negligent; kamal tries to rebuke the common man who doesn’t even bother to vote, thus showing himself to be a different common man.

56)   Making good use of facts: UPO relates the causes better, the way kamal asks that letting go of terrorists in Kandahar creates 26/11 and other incidents. Gud use of recent incidents. The factual reference to Meenambakkam and Sriperumbudur relate well to the audience. When Kamal talks abt these incidents and after some time tells “Marathi oru desiya vyaathi”, even we feel ashamed that we have forgotten these.

57)   Terrorist Instigation- Best Bakery case is a good illustration of Ahmadullah became a terrorist. In Wednesday, he tells a story of him tied to mango tree, no strong reason. In UPO, also he tells modi than paaru, thus making indirect reference to Narendra Modi.Indirect reference to Lal Krishna is also intelligent dialogue delivery.  Good use of actual incidents like this and Best Bakery Case.

58)   Reason for Common man’s action: The reason y Naseer is doing this is weaker in Hindi. Naseer tells he sees a person whose name he doesn’t even know in the train daily and since suddenly he went missing along with others, he felt bad. UPO brought out a better story of a pregnant lady (who is close) being molested in open. Though I should say that, this movie is not having a personal vendetta. This movie is about the response of common man to even incidents that occur to others. SO no weird flashbacks showing incidents in personal life are shown in both the versions thankfully.

59)   Shooting Ariff: The other cop shoots Ariff just when the media vehicle is coming, they can easily see that Arif is shot. UPO does this scene from a distance.

60)   The last scene is done better in UPO. Mohan Lal comes to kamal’s place. The way kamal drops the vegetable, picks it and explains that he’s forced to do bcos of price rise shows that after all he is just a common man. This also conveys to Lal that he’s after all a common man and that might be even a reason that he lets him off. Lal gives a great reaction here. Kamal’s reaction when he speaks to his wife over phone telling he might be a friend is good. Anupam was more rigid.

Scenes where  Wednesday is better than UPO

1)      In Hindi, there is a dialogue “please call intelligence for verification purpose”-this showed that intelligence wont have serious doubt about y this information is asked

2)      Call tracing was better shown in Wednesday.

3)      Ready to diffuse bomb: Anupam asks the cop Jai whether he’s ready to diffuse the bomb, is he married etc. Anupam did well in this scene and he gives a look to Chief secretary after this showing how they r ready to sacrifice their lives. The stare at Chief Secretary cud have been there in UPO too.

4)      Reporter asking if she can smoke to the commissioner is uncalled for in UPO.

5)      Presentation: The presentation about the terrorists is much better in Wednesday. It explains what they did in various part s of India. The selection of terrorists seemed better in Hindi probably since we have not seen much of Tamil terrorists.

6)      Chase scene where Ariff catches arms guy better than UPO. Also, having the arms guy caught by police was better than having him in ICU and getting him discharged to general ward.

7)      The scene where the cop Ariff puts his thread inside, thus hiding his community and the way the terrorist laughs at this is good. UPO I suppose avoided this to not bring out community aspect in accordance with its theme.

8)      Some dialogues in Ending scene by Naseer- some dialogues were too good, The way Naseer tells that my wife is afraid when I go out, she calls me every 2 hrs to see if I am fine, we are resilient by force and not by choice, common man was taking care of household, shud I wait for something to happen to my family member to take action were very good.

UPO has omitted some of these intentionally bcos Chennai is considered safer and that’s y Kamal wasn’t able to say a dialogue that my wife calls me every 2 hrs to see if I am fine.

Other Aspects:

UPO showed light fading as the day progresses. Great view of Chennai captured in Red Camera. Better choice of the construction building and other locations.

Acting:

Mohan Lal clearly scores over Anupam Kher (with all respects to Anupam’s good work). Mohan Lal brings out the cool, clearly thinking at his feet aspect of this role better.

Kamal and Naseer- both had done exceedingly well. In a role where u are seated in the same place and doing a similar action (calling and warning), all that matters is ur voice modulation and expressions and that’s where Kamal comes as a clear winner. The veteran excels even in the role of a common man.

Lakshmi as Chief Secretary and Ganesh Venkatraman as the cop are another highlights of the movie. They clearly are miles ahead of their counterparts in Hindi.  Lakshmi has enacted the role to perfection, bringing about frequent changes in emotion. Ganesh Venkatraman as the cop Ariff exhibits a controlled temper, whereas in the original, it seemed as if Ariff was only a hot headed guy. Anuja Iyer was good too in the small role of a reporter, though the Hindi reporter looked more appealing. The Sethu cop, hacker role etc was good in both the versions. Background score in Wednesday seemed a touch better.

Definitely, UPO scores over Wednesday, in most of the film making aspects as clearly evident from our analysis. A remake has its own advantages and provides opportunity for correcting the flaws in the original. If you have creative minds like Kamal and Chakri, you are more likely to add fresh appealing content too and present the film in the best possible manner. While UPO deserves all the credits it truly deserves, take ur time to salute the original “A Wednesday” for its daring attempt to make a film with No songs, crass comedy, fights, heroine, larger than life characters and not sticking to the conventional duration of films.

Films like these are sure to stay!

It has been long since I penned my last blog. There are a variety of topics that have drawn my attraction in the previous few months. To start with, I am elucidating my thoughts on a few of these.

 1) Customer Service – A serious misnomer

I guess most of you who are reading this post would have faced some issue or the other with their mobile phone billing, credit card, bank charges etc. If u had not faced any of these, please share your address, we would like to visit the utopian land u r in.

Having experienced interactions with customer service representatives (CSRs) in India  in all possible areas you could think of, I was wondering how different the experience would be in US.  I was thinking if there would be a need at all for calling them for any complaints.  It did not take me long to experience my first interaction with a Customer service representative (CSR) within the first week of landing in US. My first surprise came when I saw my hotel bill. I was surprised to see a transaction stating that I had called to a number in India. I was sure that I had not called that number. The tough part in this was there was no way that I could prove that the call was not made. After repeated efforts in convincing them, finally, they reimbursed half the charge. Too much effort for a small sum indeed!!

The worst was to follow. My friend had taken a mobile connection that was specific to his city Atlanta. When he moved to a different city (Dallas), the CSRs asked him to visit a store in Dallas and pay a nominal charge for making an account transfer.  He had paid his bill already in Atlanta as instructed by CSRs. When he moved to Dallas, he was asked to pay the bill again. He could not avoid paying the bill again as that might lead to impairment in his credit history, besides incurring other charges in switching his connection.  When he tried contacting customer service representatives for the refund, they told that they would look into the issue. But, there was hardly any response. After this, when he called them again, he constantly got the message that all CSR’s are busy and he should call at a later point of time. He received this message for more than a month and all modes of communication to the company elicited no response.

This incident and many more incidents that we have experienced earlier convey clearly that the main entity in all service related industries –“the existing customer” is treated badly while importance is given only to acquire new customers. While certain problems like billing errors might not be deliberate, the key problem here is the lack of knowledge about policies & process among some Customer Service representatives. Though problems like this could happen in any country that we visit, we could at least be happy over the fact that the Customer Service representatives are more cordial and customers have a larger say in India.

2) Kanchivaram –  Are National Awards a reflection of public opinion?

The news of Kanchivaram bagging the national award for best film beating Chak De India and Taare Zameen Par in the process did not come as a surprise to me. While Chak De and TZP were indeed very well made and well received at the box office too, Kanchivaram did not have a very favourable reception in the theatres. The film though received accolades at  several major film festivals. There are no second thoughts on the quality of film making evident in Kanchivaram. The movie coming from the stables of Priyadarshan, who is known for making masala commercial movies, is another surprise indeed.

A deeper analysis into why Kanchivaram did not make merry at the box office raises another question – Do national award-winning movies always fail at the box office? If this is the case, there is something seriously wrong with our audience or with the national awards selection panel.

A look at the past winners would give us a better picture. The national awards were instituted in 1954 and in these 55 years, the best film award was dominated by these languages – Bengali (20), Hindi (14), and Malayalam (9). The discussion on why these languages corned more glory- especially Bengali and Malayalam is another topic that is open to debate. If we take a look at the recent past, some of these movies have also been commercial winners like Kaalpurush, Mondo Meyer Upakhyan, Unishe April, Page 3. But, most of the winners were not blockbusters and some of them received a lukewarm response in the box-office.

If we analyze it the other way round, some of the most successful movies commerically have not won the National Award. A DDLJ or Nayagan (only Indian movie in TIME magazine Top 100 movies) or even Lagaan have not won the national award.  I guess 99% of people (including this blogger)would not have watched the movie “Marupakkam” in theatre, the national award-winning movie in 1991.

The other aspect to think about is the theme of the movies. Most award winners highlight a social issue or the other, for instance, this year’s winner “Kanchivaram” brings out the struggles that a silk weaver faces. Hence, movies that highlight social issues have a better chance of winning the national award.

Possible Reasons for poor box office reception

So, if these award winners deserve the plaudits for highlighting social issues, why are these movies not that successful? I think it is unfair to put the blame entirely on the film watching public. A part of the blame should fall on the film crew. Most of these movies are poorly marketed. The reason could be the wafer thin budgets with which these movies are made. An unconventional theme might not attract significant financiers or producers. Hence, even the person who would be interested in financing the movie might not be ready to invest a huge chest of funds. So, most of these movies end up being shown in second grade theatres. Even the producers of these movies would be glad to just break even. People get to know about these movies only when they do not get tickets to other movies or when a national award is announced. Coming to the other aspect, people would like to watch movies that entertain and free them (supposedly) from the worries of their  day to day life. Thus, they might not extend patronage to a movie that is serious and depicts real life issues without having the necessary commercial ingredients (fights, songs, romance).

If this is the case, what is the way to promote good cinema?

There could be a central corpus fund set up by the Government that could finance a part of the funding of movies that harp on social issues. There should be a central committee who would decide whether to fund a movie or not based on the theme narrated by the film unit. The central committee could ensure that the initial film making expenses are borne by the film crew. Only after watching the movie and if they feel that the movie has achieved its stated purpose, they could choose to fund a part of the movie expenses. This fund could be used to market and distribute the movie and if the movie is successful, a part of the returns could be returned back to the corpus fund, which could be used to promote more such movies.

Such an approach would help all associated stakeholders. Promoters of good cinema would be encouraged. The Government would also achieve their purpose of spreading social awareness through the film media, besides encouraging good film making. The film watching public would also be able to watch quality movies. The makers of these movie should also carry the onus to present the movie interestingly without diluting the essence of the theme. This would create enthusiasm among the public to watch these movies in theatres.

Let us hope that better movies like Kanchivaram are given the respect they deserve!

           It has been really painful to witness death of family members of a couple of my dear friends in the recent past. The lamentation and the grief that the families went through were shocking to say the least.

But more than the grief that these families experienced, I was shocked to see the behavior of some people after the news was conveyed to them. Many people enquired about the address of the affected person and conveyed that they wanted to visit and would join with me to convey their condolences the same day. But, when we finally started to the friend’s home, we found that most of them had dropped out. Considering the fact that some people really get disturbed on seeing the family in grief and are advised medically to not attend these events and giving the benefit of doubt to some others who are really busy and are unable to attend, still it is shocking to find that many people who expressed willingness to attend dropped off. But when I asked some of these persons the reasons, their answers were “ the place is very far from my house”, ”I shall try to combine this with another relatives place that I would be visiting in a few days”, “ I did not feel the need to go to”.

It is really shocking to see that human life and values have gone this cheap in this mechanized world. I have witnessed in a lot of these bereavements, the comfort the family of the deceased obtain when they have a shoulder to cry upon. I do not expect these people to change their ways and empathize with the affected, but at least they could avoid lame reasons for not sharing the sorrow of the affected.

            In a country where cricket is considered a religion, it is essential for my post to include one on the game, especially considering the recent exploits by the Indian cricket team. The Indian cricket team played admirably to beat the Aussies and continued its good run by thrashing the English team. There have been eulogies all over terming the Indian cricket team as world champions. Let us analyze whether we truly deserve these accolades.

The last year or so has seen us winning the T20 world cup, the one day series in Australia, the recent test series against Australia and now the one day series against England. If you find the common factor in most of these triumphs, it has been the strong opening batting of Sehwag and Gambhir, the lethal opening spells from Ishant and Zaheer, captaincy from Dhoni (not to forget his batting) and occasional exploits from almost every member of the squad.

But, regardless of all this, I feel that the Indian bench strength has not yet been thoroughly tested and even the top performers of the last year have not faced challenging tours abroad in testing conditions, especially in say, New Zealand or South Africa. The retirement of Ganguly and the likely exit of the other members of the Fab 4 is likely to pose severe challenges to youngsters, who would be expected to fill in the shoes of these maestros. Where are the bowlers to step in, when we have an injury or a slump in form to either Zaheer or Ishant? Please do not tell that we have RP (consistently inconsistent), Munaf (poor attitude, he would be No 11 in a team of Number 11s) or SreeSanth (sits out more matches than he plays and whenever he plays, he is more renowned for his histrionics. I wonder how he appears correctly whenever we win a major tournament). How the Indian batting fares when the openers get out early and when say, Dhoni gets injured, would determine whether we are truly a team of world beaters. Dhoni’s batting in test matches abroad leaves a lot to be desired, though I should say, I am a fan of his composure and approach to the game.

Australia was pronounced as world champions after consistently winning test and one day matches all over the world. We are yet to win a test series against many countries on their home turf. But, recent performances indicate that we are progressing on the right track. It is time for us to introspect and give the youngsters a fair run and opportunity to excel rather than meaninglessly allowing Sachin to play his 419^th one day international and hampering the chance for a youngster, in a series already won by India against England. It is time for us to plan pro actively like a world champion before becoming one.

I am sharing some thoughts on various topics, which have been drawing my attention, in recent times. Please feel free to share your comments.

 One of the topics that find a mention in every communication media and informal chats everywhere is the recession in the global economy and its impacts in India. Though I am neither a Paul Krugman nor an Amartya Sen to comment on this topic, the very talk of recession being applied in the Indian context, when in fact the economy is growing at a healthy rate of 7-8%, is indeed a pessimistic view. Let us reserve the discussion about whether the numbers captured are accurate to a later post. Though the percentage growth in net profits has fallen, the growth by value of India Inc is higher over the previous year.

There is no doubt that the Indian economy is closely coupled to the events happening across the globe (mainly the US) and the repercussions in India are already seen in the decreased industrial productivity numbers and the decline in net profit growth rate over the previous year. But, the fact that the Indian banks are relatively free of risk based assets, compared to their global peers, is indeed heartening. Also, the RBI has been taking measures to increase the liquidity of banks and hence the loans given to industry. These steps could drive the interest rates lower, spur companies to invest for expansion in order to meet anticipated increased demand. But, the real dampener is that it takes time for the interest rate cuts to be reflected in the loans that Corporate take. So, many Corporate already facing a liquidity crunch could resort to job cuts and increase short term profits. This move could be counter productive and result in slackened demand, which could amplify the slowdown in growth. So, the Indian Corporate should look at various options to stimulate growth rather than taking the easier route of job cuts as a first measure.

It has been really long since I penned my last blog, thanks to ICL and IPL. I wanted this blog to be different when compared with my previous posts and hence instead of concentrating on a specific topic, I would like to bring out my thoughts on topics that have influenced me over the past few months.

1)      Food Crisis at Its peak: These are torrid times for chief economists and policy makers the world over. The ruling UPA would not have imagined a worse situation, hardly a year to go before the general elections. The government has been taking measures to tide over the food crisis by banning exports of rice, reducing import duty on items etc. The question that I would like to ask here is “If the farmers are not assured of a good return on their produce by way of exports, how would they be motivated to continue growing these primary crops instead of moving to alternate crops?” The Government could do a couple of things in this regard

•  Eliminate the effect of too many middle men and ensure that farmers get the motivation to grow the primary crops; Ensuring that the farmers get the Minimum Support Price as promised would be a right step in this regard.
• Rather than banning exports of crops, it makes sense to ensure that hoarding of food items and essentials are prevented. A good way of estimating this is by monitoring the Public Distribution System (PDS) and preventing leakages.

2)      Banks Bail Out, Advantage India:

While the whole world was blasting India for its laid back financial policies during the 90s and the early part of 2000’s, post the sub prime crisis, it seems that all is well with India. Though India has also been affected by the crisis, albeit in a smaller scale, it sounds interesting when we find that the policies prevalent in India are now being followed by these foreign banks and Organizations. In India, we find a practice of the Central Bank with the assistance of other financial institutions rescuing ailing banks. This policy was widely criticized by these supposed foreign Central Banks. Now, life has come a full circle when we find that the US FED and Bank of England playing a vital part in rescuing struggling banks. Conservative India and its policies, at least in Banking Sector, serve as a helping hand for the struggling West

3)      Corporate Social  (Ir) Responsibility:

I cannot think of many Organizations in the Indian context who feel that have a Responsibility to the society. It feels sad to see that in this modern India, companies are eager to get that extra dime of nickel to their profits by not caring about the choice of their employees’ workplace, its accessibility, whether the place is free of health hazards etc. We witness several instances of offices of Corporate close to dumping yards which puts employees’ health at risk. It is a high time that these issues are regulated than a mere blind focus on regulating only the companies’ financials

4)      Enter- T 20; Exit- Test Cricket/ 50 Overs format?

T-20 has captured our imagination to the hilt. The question that arises throughout the cricket fraternity is the impact of T-20 on the other existing formats. I strongly feel that 50- Over cricket stands to lose as Test Cricket would always retain its charm. Test cricket is a purists’ delight and has its own target audience. Infact, the advent of T-20 would fasten scoring in test cricket. But, T-20, in addition to adding new audience is eating into the traditional audience of 50-overs cricket. After the power play overs, a 50- over game crawls to a snail’s pace and the momentum picks up only during the slog overs. The cricket administrators, though take all the kudos for the success of T-20, it is no wonder that T-20 would result in lessened interest in the 50- over format. As Cricket aims to globalize and venture into unchartered territories, T-20 could be the format to attract the global audience, who are so used to watching matches of a shorter duration in other Sports.

As it happens with all Ajith movies, the film “Billa 2007” has received a great opening. The tickets for the first few days were booked in a few hours. There has been heightened expectation from the movie, this being the remake of Rajni Kanth’s earlier flick. I happened to watch the movie on its second day of release. This review is a neutral perspective of the movie. I have not attempted to reveal the story line.

First the positives of the movie: The first thing that draws you towards Billa is its racy entertaining screenplay. The director has deviated himself from unrelated comedies, sentimental scenes etc. In fact, except for Prabu, there isn’t much dialogues delivered by the lead cast. The film proceeds at almost the same pace throughout which by itself is a commendable job. There are not much logical loopholes, atleast on a comparative basis with other Tamil films. The acting has been awesome, atleast from Ajith and Prabu. The other noticeable aspect of the movie is that it does not try to deviate from its original. In that sense, it has been a tribute to the original. Only the locations and some subtle changes to reflect the modern times like the use of a pen drive in place of a diary. The car chase scene has been superbly picturised. The suspense element has been well maintained, which would be great for the scanty numbers who might have missed out on the original Billa. Credits are due to Nirav Shah, the cinematographer of Dhoom-2 fame. Yuvan’s re- recording is praiseworthy, though he can focus more on delivering quality numbers(songs) than just making up the numbers.

Now, coming to the dampeners. Except for Prabu ,Ajith and to an extent Rahman, the other characters are not strongly carved out. Even Nayanthara’s character is not strong enough and her character doesnt do anything significant in the movie. There are some logical flaws like the underworld gang bothered more about retrieving a pen drive and not worrying about whether its contents had been already copied.  The 2 item numbers are needless when u have 2 glamorous heroines adorned in skimpy costumes all the way through. Nayanthara looks more glamorous and appealing than Namita. When Ajith shoots a dozen people before a coke can drops to the floor, there are numerous instances where people miss shooting him in point range. Afterall, he is the Billa. Also, it is hard to believe that the duplicate Billa replicates all mannerisms, gait and voice of the original Billa when you do not have video footages for the same. Seeing photos of Billa and then acting like Billa doesn’t sound logical 

Overall,it has to be said that Ajith, Nirav Shah and Vishnu Vardhan have combined to give a thorough entertainer. The film is worth a try for its cinematography, packaging and for Ajith’s wonderful on screen presence.  

A lot has been said about the triumph of the Indian cricket team in the T20 championship. The team played admirably in the most abbreviated version of the game and brought in an entirely new set of viewers to the game. It was not surprising to find that a ten second slot for the India- Pakistan final was sold for around 6-7 lakhs. The hype surrounding all the victory had not even died when the Australian team imposed their authority in the longer version (50 overs) of the game. The margin of defeat was substantial in most of the games. With the series delivered on a platter to the Aussies, it was left to the last match of the tour- the much awaited one-off T-20 match.  Though the Indians had won the world championship, the momentum was with Aussies after the one day series triumph. But, this was a day in which India showed that their T-20 triumph was not a fluke. The Indians showed an infectious enthusiasm in the field, batted and bowled with purpose and were deserved winnersWas this the same Indian team that was crushed by the Aussies some days back?

What was the difference in this team over the one- day team?  Bang came the answer- youth, exuberance, fearlessness, aggression. These qualities were given the chance to expose themselves in the abridged T-20 format.  Are these qualities the facet of only this T-20 cricket team?  Are they not the qualities of modern day India ?   When I seemed to think about this, I noticed a striking similarity in the qualities exhibited by this breed of players with our economy as a whole.

1)     With a consistent growth story reflected by all economic indicators, a booming sensex, surplus inflows of capital, an increase in gross domestic savings, there has been a buzz in the global economy about India similar to the buzz about the T-20 Indian cricket team

2)     The T-20 team looked like one daring to conquer the world and was aggressive in intent. The Indian economy too looks to be a prominent player in the global arena (if not one already). The Indian economy has been in recent times been able to show an excellent growth even without foreign inflows.

3)     The T-2o team played as a team with not much focus on individual glory. The Indian economy growth story, though started off with IT, has expanded to all sectors. The recent boom in the indices was contributed by sectors like power, engineering, metals and capital goods. Thus we are seeing a growth contributed by many sectors similar to the team effort shown by team India in T-20

4)     Will this Indian T-2o team keep winning like it has been doing now? No.  Similarly, the Indian economy cannot grow at this sustained pace and will drop down a bit. But what has been gladdening is the purpose and intent shown at this point of time.

5)     What would ensure in future the success of this T-20 team (in other formats or even in T-20) and success of the Indian economy would be whether it has strong fundamentals. This T-20 team might be given a hard lesson or two when it lands up in Australia. But if the Indian cricket administrators show a long term perspective by setting up state cricket academies which replicate the effort put by National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, we could see the emergence of a future talent pool which is not only talented but also has been trained using the latest techniques and is equipped mentally too.    Similarly, in our economy, inflation could raise its ugly head, Industrial figures (like IIP) might fall and there would be some market corrections which are bound to happen. But, if the policies by our Government emphasize thrust on strong fundamentals and a patience towards administering policies in areas like capital account convertibility, dealing with FII’s , an inclusive growth where the weaker sections of the society are not left behind, the Indian growth story would remain intact