Long ago when newspapers came up with the news that some villains in Pakistan's ISI had with the full backing of the government there come up with something called the 'bleeding India' policy- basically to bleed with constant fighting the superior conventional powers of the Indian Army- a lot many balked at the sheer audacity of the whole thought.
Two days ago as television channels beamed in visuals of the encounter at Sopore in J&K- truck after truck of army commandos armed to the teeth moving into the war theatre- some of that audacity didn’t look that misplaced.
Confirmation came when these very TV channels beamed footage again of soldiers walking off the action zone after the encounter had ended. There was none of the V for victory signs, none of the bravo smiles for the camera, none of the swagger associated with commando units worldwide. All we could see were tired soldiers with faces betraying a mix of disgust- probably at the death of a colleague- and incredulousness that one militant had held more than two Indian Army battalions for fifteen long hours before getting gunned down.
When those villains at the ISI sit down to make a balance sheet of the encounter, they would all be probably laughing. A militant killed, a few hundred bullets expended for them and for the Indian Army- a blow deep inside its heart. Is one of the world's finest conventional fighting forces slowly, bone by bone, blood drop by blood drop getting undone by the guerilla tactics of the enemy?
As the army gets bogged down by the enemy in the northern tip of the country, at the southern tip, India and its intelligence agencies and Pakistan's ISI stand on the threshold of something very very dangerous.
As the rejuvenated Lankan Army fights the fight of its life against the world's finest guerilla force ever- the Tamil Tigers- and decimates it by the passing day, the danger arising out of a Lankan victory moves towards India.
Hundreds of these superbly trained rebel fighters will in all probability hide their weapons, lick their wounds and cross into designated refugee camps in Tamil Nadu- mostly through Rameshwaram- as refugees.
Trained to fight and nothing else, many of them will feel the disgrace of a war lost and the disgust of refugee status in Tamil Nadu cutting right into the bone.Standing in line for food as cops bring down their lathis on calves and legs not in queue, fighting for the extra morsel that years of soldier's diet demands will be too much to take for many of these once-proud Eelam warriors.
Let me try to explain what I’m getting at. Have you ever been one of the lakhs who stand in serpentine queues to get the blessings of Lalbaugcha Raja every year? Have you in that case seen those twits who roam around with the organisers' badges on their chests and whistles in their mouths minding the queue?
Have you ever felt the arrogance- or menace depending on how you see it- with which these chaps- most in their teens or early twenties- go about the work? They hustle poor people standing in the queue, crowd those who answer back and push and shove on the strength of those badges, whistles and of course the numbers.
The fighters from the LTTE have been doing this for almost two decades now, in an area several times the size of Mumbai and to people far more combative. They developed the skill of menace so well that it soon gave rise to kangaroo courts, police forces, naval suicide bombers, armour-plated submarines and planes and pilots that guide WWII vintage warplanes and glide over Colombo and bomb its installations.
Back in the camps of Tamil Nadu, several of them will not be the ones with the badges and the whistles; they will be in the lines of the frightened and the needy. That feeling is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. And the ISI is a good detonator of bombs we've seen.
Tamil Nadu has had an underground Free Tamil movement for years now. Some of its major parties have in the past advocated independence from India. Its hatred for all things north Indian, Hindi especially, has toned down largely in the past two decades but fringe hardcore elements exist.
In the past few days Tamil Nadu has once again erupted politically and socially in support of the Eelam cause. Be it its chief minister Karunanidhi who has given the Centre an ultimatum or be it rabid LTTE sympathizers like Vaiko, Nedumaran and Ramadoss. Youth in several of the interior districts have been holding protest rallies and a lad has burnt himself to death in protest, his funeral attracting massive crowds and a statement from LLTE supremo Prabhakaran himself calling this chap a martyr.
It is this cocktail that the ISI can exploit. If the training is a problem in most insurgency movements, here they get several hundred fresh from a bitter battle- their hearts burning with the fire of revenge- and almost legendary in their training as guerillas.
The Lankans would only be too happy to see these chaps escape and cross over into India and bring their brand of madness into India.
The last thing India would want is super-trained LTTE fighters mingling with the local Tamil supremacist hotheads and coming up with a movement armed with the kind of violence- for the sake of the Periya Tamizh Naad- that would make Kashmir look like the paradise poets once described it as.
The ISI I’m sure must be waiting.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
the soundsmith who rested midway
Let me start by saying that I don’t listen to a lot of music. And most of my listening is restricted to snatches of them on cellphones owned by colleagues. So it doesn’t make me the most qualified to write about the decline of the phenomenon called AR Rahman in a year when he is almost certain to bring in that much-needed Oscar to an industry which prides itself for being probably the largest and definitely the most varied film industry.
If my qualifications make this blog look a bit like Ramalingam Raju holding fort on corporate ethics, so be it.
The most stunning listening experience for me was when my brother, fresh from a visit to Kerala, passed me a cassette of Roja to play on a very old tape recorder we had. As far as I was concerned, Laxmikant-Pyarelal was the best when it came to the music that would take you over the moon when it was played at rundown saloons in smalltown Jamshedpur. Many of these were cover versions of LP songs played on T-series cassettes sung by Vipin Sachdeva or Sonu Nigam masquerading as Mohammad Rafi. But such was the melody of LP that I’d let the blasphemy pass.
As I listened to that hum behind an assortment of instruments building up into a crescendo to begin ‘Yeh Haseen Vaadiya’, I felt my feet going numb very slowly. Going numb in a fabulously pleasurable way.
Then the thump of Rukmini Rukmini. The softness of ‘Dil Hai Chota Sa’ and probably the first fusion of reggae with the clear shiver of Carnatic and the soft squeak of Minmini’s voice.
By the time the whole thing ended, I knew what I wanted to become. A music composer. Of course the dream was felled by the world of music that demanded that such ambitions be backed by talent rather than just two functional ears to listen to Rahman,
The came Gentleman, where Rahman entered Illaiyaraaja territory with very Indian rhythms. He scored. Thiruda Thiruda was no one’s territory because that was fresh space created by Rahman. If there was a bigger Rahman fan in the country than me, I think he would have gone by the name AR Rahman itself.
The first time u heard his music, it was to use that Bollywood cliché ‘different’. You could bet your last penny you might have never heard that mix of percussion and string and melody. And of course the quality of the sound.
Unfortunately, for me, it is in that sphere that the phenomenon called Rahman actually grew. The quality of the sound. The Rahman that gave the finest quality of sound Indian music has ever heard and blended it with soul fell by the wayside.
Commercialism, and the like of Subhash Ghai and the lure of the wider reach of Bollywood placed benches on the pathbreaking road that Rahman was taking and he promptly sat to rest on laurels. The result- pure mediocrity like Rang de Basanti or Slumdog Millionaire or the recent Dilli 6. Of course Shano Shano from Yuvraaj. And if Masakali is the pick of Dilli 6, I rest my case.
Rahman was not meant for sound that reminded you of the music of rap artistes or boybands like Boyzone or Take That.
He was meant to take Indian music to a new level where sound engineering bordering on perfection married melodies the best of western music could never achieve.
I’m sure Rahman will come up with many more scores. But that one which will take us over the moon like Roja or Thiruda Thiruda is what will get me to be his number one fan again. As I get to hear more of Ilaiyaraaja hits on the Tamil channels late at night, I realise what talent it must have taken to bring down the edifice called Ilaiyaraaja.
If Rahman did that, surely he can take me over the moon once again. He can get my feet going fabulously pleasurably numb again. I will wait for that. Till then I will enjoy PR-driven articles in BT which claim that Rahman has been roped in to do the remix version of some Blackeye Peas number.
I’ll wait. Or maybe I’l leave it to God himself. Remember no one plays it quite like Him, oh-so religious Rahman would surely agree. Jut when Tamil Nadu thought Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja couldn’t be felled, He sent someone called Allah Rakha Rahman.
Maybe as the world goes crazy over the phenomenon called Rahman, He is just thinking it is time for a change in sound.
If my qualifications make this blog look a bit like Ramalingam Raju holding fort on corporate ethics, so be it.
The most stunning listening experience for me was when my brother, fresh from a visit to Kerala, passed me a cassette of Roja to play on a very old tape recorder we had. As far as I was concerned, Laxmikant-Pyarelal was the best when it came to the music that would take you over the moon when it was played at rundown saloons in smalltown Jamshedpur. Many of these were cover versions of LP songs played on T-series cassettes sung by Vipin Sachdeva or Sonu Nigam masquerading as Mohammad Rafi. But such was the melody of LP that I’d let the blasphemy pass.
As I listened to that hum behind an assortment of instruments building up into a crescendo to begin ‘Yeh Haseen Vaadiya’, I felt my feet going numb very slowly. Going numb in a fabulously pleasurable way.
Then the thump of Rukmini Rukmini. The softness of ‘Dil Hai Chota Sa’ and probably the first fusion of reggae with the clear shiver of Carnatic and the soft squeak of Minmini’s voice.
By the time the whole thing ended, I knew what I wanted to become. A music composer. Of course the dream was felled by the world of music that demanded that such ambitions be backed by talent rather than just two functional ears to listen to Rahman,
The came Gentleman, where Rahman entered Illaiyaraaja territory with very Indian rhythms. He scored. Thiruda Thiruda was no one’s territory because that was fresh space created by Rahman. If there was a bigger Rahman fan in the country than me, I think he would have gone by the name AR Rahman itself.
The first time u heard his music, it was to use that Bollywood cliché ‘different’. You could bet your last penny you might have never heard that mix of percussion and string and melody. And of course the quality of the sound.
Unfortunately, for me, it is in that sphere that the phenomenon called Rahman actually grew. The quality of the sound. The Rahman that gave the finest quality of sound Indian music has ever heard and blended it with soul fell by the wayside.
Commercialism, and the like of Subhash Ghai and the lure of the wider reach of Bollywood placed benches on the pathbreaking road that Rahman was taking and he promptly sat to rest on laurels. The result- pure mediocrity like Rang de Basanti or Slumdog Millionaire or the recent Dilli 6. Of course Shano Shano from Yuvraaj. And if Masakali is the pick of Dilli 6, I rest my case.
Rahman was not meant for sound that reminded you of the music of rap artistes or boybands like Boyzone or Take That.
He was meant to take Indian music to a new level where sound engineering bordering on perfection married melodies the best of western music could never achieve.
I’m sure Rahman will come up with many more scores. But that one which will take us over the moon like Roja or Thiruda Thiruda is what will get me to be his number one fan again. As I get to hear more of Ilaiyaraaja hits on the Tamil channels late at night, I realise what talent it must have taken to bring down the edifice called Ilaiyaraaja.
If Rahman did that, surely he can take me over the moon once again. He can get my feet going fabulously pleasurably numb again. I will wait for that. Till then I will enjoy PR-driven articles in BT which claim that Rahman has been roped in to do the remix version of some Blackeye Peas number.
I’ll wait. Or maybe I’l leave it to God himself. Remember no one plays it quite like Him, oh-so religious Rahman would surely agree. Jut when Tamil Nadu thought Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja couldn’t be felled, He sent someone called Allah Rakha Rahman.
Maybe as the world goes crazy over the phenomenon called Rahman, He is just thinking it is time for a change in sound.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
some day, some time surely
Rahul Gandhi says Narendra Modi should be Prime Minister
Mayawati asks Nobel Prize committee to give Gandhi his due
Advani might join Muslim National Front
Sonia Gandhi keeps options open as she meets RSS leaders
Jayalalitha could give LTTE’s Prabhakaran Lok Sabha ticket
Thackeray lambasts Hindutvawadis for forcing Muslims to become Jehadis
Mehbooba Mufti to become BJP national general-secretary
Communist Party allows grand alliance with the Shiv Sena
Raj Thackeray celebrates Chatt Puja, calls Marathis incompetent
Mayawati asks Nobel Prize committee to give Gandhi his due
Advani might join Muslim National Front
Sonia Gandhi keeps options open as she meets RSS leaders
Jayalalitha could give LTTE’s Prabhakaran Lok Sabha ticket
Thackeray lambasts Hindutvawadis for forcing Muslims to become Jehadis
Mehbooba Mufti to become BJP national general-secretary
Communist Party allows grand alliance with the Shiv Sena
Raj Thackeray celebrates Chatt Puja, calls Marathis incompetent
No war? Blame the BJP
While the blogs and the mood on the street might be all for India going to war with Pakistan for what some of its ‘non-state’ actors did to Mumbai on November 26, the real reason why India isn’t going to war is –let me offer you this studied guess- the BJP.
That’s right. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the real reason why India is in no mood to go smashing the face of the next Pakistani they see.
Just think about it. The economy is not doing well. The Congress lost in Madhya Pradesh, it scraped through in Rajasthan, lost big in Chattisgarh and won Delhi but that just has a small row of seats in Parliament.
Its minister’s are not getting any younger- think Pranab and Arjun ‘walking stick’ Singh- and its star campaigners are the likes of Rahul Gandhi whose idea of a good man to man talk with Britain’s Miliband is to show him the stark poverty Amethi is caught up in despite he and his father having represented the constituency for almost three decades now between them. And about P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, election rallies are not exactly Economic Times Award ceremonies.
A war- a short quick armed surgery- with Pakistan over the terror camps could see the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the hot seat faster than you can say Sonia.
So why don’t they want to go for it?
The BJP of course.
Because even if the Congress does worse than what it already has, even if Rahul Gandhi is caught on tape making fun of the Mumbai attacks and even if Digvijay Singh says November 26 was done by Hindu right-wingers to give Muslims a bad name, there is no flying duck of a chance that they would lose the next election as long as the main opposition party responds to the name of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Just when the BJP had silenced Murli Manohar Joshi in submission to accept Advani as PM, the nation’s oldest political fossil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat throws his hat in the ring saying ‘why can’t I be PM. I’m young enough’.
In Delhi, its intra-party feuds cost the BJP a shot at governance despite Sheila Dikshit’s two-term lackluster performance and despite the odds of incumbency stacked against the old lady.
In Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh walking out on the party and giving his muscles to Mulayam Singh, the party is all but over in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar the chaps in the party don’t like Sushil Kumar Modi anymore, and the government of Nitish Kumar has promised more delivered less. Lalu- fresh from all his kudos in the railways- is rearing to be back.
In Rajasthan, its game over. In Punjab ditto.
In Madhya Pradesh the party might get a few seats but not good enough to be at least ten miles of the seat of governance in Parliament.
In Karnataka, the trouble over the Marathis in Belgaum has begun. That fire is going to screw the saffron alliance in Maharashtra as well. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu the party doesn’t count anyway.
So why should the Congress be afraid of it anymore. Probably Lalu did go to some good astrologer when he grandly remarked that Advani’s horoscope does not show any scope for being PM.
So the two best economic brains in the country- Manmohan and Chidambaram- might have decided a war is way too costly to win an election already in the bag. The army’s top brass might have agreed. So they have just decided to let loose Paranabda on the country’s television channels and his job has been earmarked as giving one sound byte a day on the issue which should end with ‘bhee bhill take streectest of akshan aghaynst Phakeestaan’. Gilani back in Pakistan is laughing his guts out because he has come to love Pranabda on TV.
The public is happy because war isn’t funny anyway. Rahul Gandhi is already practicing how to look less goofy when he takes oath for Prime Ministership.
The only man who isn’t thrilled one bit is LK Advani. But can you blame him?
That’s right. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the real reason why India is in no mood to go smashing the face of the next Pakistani they see.
Just think about it. The economy is not doing well. The Congress lost in Madhya Pradesh, it scraped through in Rajasthan, lost big in Chattisgarh and won Delhi but that just has a small row of seats in Parliament.
Its minister’s are not getting any younger- think Pranab and Arjun ‘walking stick’ Singh- and its star campaigners are the likes of Rahul Gandhi whose idea of a good man to man talk with Britain’s Miliband is to show him the stark poverty Amethi is caught up in despite he and his father having represented the constituency for almost three decades now between them. And about P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, election rallies are not exactly Economic Times Award ceremonies.
A war- a short quick armed surgery- with Pakistan over the terror camps could see the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the hot seat faster than you can say Sonia.
So why don’t they want to go for it?
The BJP of course.
Because even if the Congress does worse than what it already has, even if Rahul Gandhi is caught on tape making fun of the Mumbai attacks and even if Digvijay Singh says November 26 was done by Hindu right-wingers to give Muslims a bad name, there is no flying duck of a chance that they would lose the next election as long as the main opposition party responds to the name of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Just when the BJP had silenced Murli Manohar Joshi in submission to accept Advani as PM, the nation’s oldest political fossil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat throws his hat in the ring saying ‘why can’t I be PM. I’m young enough’.
In Delhi, its intra-party feuds cost the BJP a shot at governance despite Sheila Dikshit’s two-term lackluster performance and despite the odds of incumbency stacked against the old lady.
In Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh walking out on the party and giving his muscles to Mulayam Singh, the party is all but over in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar the chaps in the party don’t like Sushil Kumar Modi anymore, and the government of Nitish Kumar has promised more delivered less. Lalu- fresh from all his kudos in the railways- is rearing to be back.
In Rajasthan, its game over. In Punjab ditto.
In Madhya Pradesh the party might get a few seats but not good enough to be at least ten miles of the seat of governance in Parliament.
In Karnataka, the trouble over the Marathis in Belgaum has begun. That fire is going to screw the saffron alliance in Maharashtra as well. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu the party doesn’t count anyway.
So why should the Congress be afraid of it anymore. Probably Lalu did go to some good astrologer when he grandly remarked that Advani’s horoscope does not show any scope for being PM.
So the two best economic brains in the country- Manmohan and Chidambaram- might have decided a war is way too costly to win an election already in the bag. The army’s top brass might have agreed. So they have just decided to let loose Paranabda on the country’s television channels and his job has been earmarked as giving one sound byte a day on the issue which should end with ‘bhee bhill take streectest of akshan aghaynst Phakeestaan’. Gilani back in Pakistan is laughing his guts out because he has come to love Pranabda on TV.
The public is happy because war isn’t funny anyway. Rahul Gandhi is already practicing how to look less goofy when he takes oath for Prime Ministership.
The only man who isn’t thrilled one bit is LK Advani. But can you blame him?
No war? Blame the BJP
While the blogs and the mood on the street might be all for India going to war with Pakistan for what some of its ‘non-state’ actors did to Mumbai on November 26, the real reason why India isn’t going to war is –let me offer you this studied guess- the BJP.
That’s right. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the real reason why India is in no mood to go smashing the face of the next Pakistani they see.
Just think about it. The economy is not doing well. The Congress lost in Madhya Pradesh, it scraped through in Rajasthan, lost big in Chattisgarh and won Delhi but that just has a small row of seats in Parliament.
Its minister’s are not getting any younger- think Pranab and Arjun ‘walking stick’ Singh- and its star campaigners are the likes of Rahul Gandhi whose idea of a good man to man talk with Britain’s Miliband is to show him the stark poverty Amethi is caught up in despite he and his father having represented the constituency for almost three decades now between them. And about P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, election rallies are not exactly Economic Times Award ceremonies.
A war- a short quick armed surgery- with Pakistan over the terror camps could see the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the hot seat faster than you can say Sonia.
So why don’t they want to go for it?
The BJP of course.
Because even if the Congress does worse than what it already has, even if Rahul Gandhi is caught on tape making fun of the Mumbai attacks and even if Digvijay Singh says November 26 was done by Hindu right-wingers to give Muslims a bad name, there is no flying duck of a chance that they would lose the next election as long as the main opposition party responds to the name of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Just when the BJP had silenced Murli Manohar Joshi in submission to accept Advani as PM, the nation’s oldest political fossil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat throws his hat in the ring saying ‘why can’t I be PM. I’m young enough’.
In Delhi, its intra-party feuds cost the BJP a shot at governance despite Sheila Dikshit’s two-term lackluster performance and despite the odds of incumbency stacked against the old lady.
In Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh walking out on the party and giving his muscles to Mulayam Singh, the party is all but over in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar the chaps in the party don’t like Sushil Kumar Modi anymore, and the government of Nitish Kumar has promised more delivered less. Lalu- fresh from all his kudos in the railways- is rearing to be back.
In Rajasthan, its game over. In Punjab ditto.
In Madhya Pradesh the party might get a few seats but not good enough to be at least ten miles of the seat of governance in Parliament.
In Karnataka, the trouble over the Marathis in Belgaum has begun. That fire is going to screw the saffron alliance in Maharashtra as well. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu the party doesn’t count anyway.
So why should the Congress be afraid of it anymore. Probably Lalu did go to some good astrologer when he grandly remarked that Advani’s horoscope does not show any scope for being PM.
So the two best economic brains in the country- Manmohan and Chidambaram- might have decided a war is way too costly to win an election already in the bag. The army’s top brass might have agreed. So they have just decided to let loose Paranabda on the country’s television channels and his job has been earmarked as giving one sound byte a day on the issue which should end with ‘bhee bhill take streectest of akshan aghaynst Phakeestaan’. Gilani back in Pakistan is laughing his guts out because he has come to love Pranabda on TV.
The public is happy because war isn’t funny anyway. Rahul Gandhi is already practicing how to look less goofy when he takes oath for Prime Ministership.
The only man who isn’t thrilled one bit is LK Advani. But can you blame him?
That’s right. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the real reason why India is in no mood to go smashing the face of the next Pakistani they see.
Just think about it. The economy is not doing well. The Congress lost in Madhya Pradesh, it scraped through in Rajasthan, lost big in Chattisgarh and won Delhi but that just has a small row of seats in Parliament.
Its minister’s are not getting any younger- think Pranab and Arjun ‘walking stick’ Singh- and its star campaigners are the likes of Rahul Gandhi whose idea of a good man to man talk with Britain’s Miliband is to show him the stark poverty Amethi is caught up in despite he and his father having represented the constituency for almost three decades now between them. And about P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, election rallies are not exactly Economic Times Award ceremonies.
A war- a short quick armed surgery- with Pakistan over the terror camps could see the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the hot seat faster than you can say Sonia.
So why don’t they want to go for it?
The BJP of course.
Because even if the Congress does worse than what it already has, even if Rahul Gandhi is caught on tape making fun of the Mumbai attacks and even if Digvijay Singh says November 26 was done by Hindu right-wingers to give Muslims a bad name, there is no flying duck of a chance that they would lose the next election as long as the main opposition party responds to the name of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Just when the BJP had silenced Murli Manohar Joshi in submission to accept Advani as PM, the nation’s oldest political fossil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat throws his hat in the ring saying ‘why can’t I be PM. I’m young enough’.
In Delhi, its intra-party feuds cost the BJP a shot at governance despite Sheila Dikshit’s two-term lackluster performance and despite the odds of incumbency stacked against the old lady.
In Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh walking out on the party and giving his muscles to Mulayam Singh, the party is all but over in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar the chaps in the party don’t like Sushil Kumar Modi anymore, and the government of Nitish Kumar has promised more delivered less. Lalu- fresh from all his kudos in the railways- is rearing to be back.
In Rajasthan, its game over. In Punjab ditto.
In Madhya Pradesh the party might get a few seats but not good enough to be at least ten miles of the seat of governance in Parliament.
In Karnataka, the trouble over the Marathis in Belgaum has begun. That fire is going to screw the saffron alliance in Maharashtra as well. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu the party doesn’t count anyway.
So why should the Congress be afraid of it anymore. Probably Lalu did go to some good astrologer when he grandly remarked that Advani’s horoscope does not show any scope for being PM.
So the two best economic brains in the country- Manmohan and Chidambaram- might have decided a war is way too costly to win an election already in the bag. The army’s top brass might have agreed. So they have just decided to let loose Paranabda on the country’s television channels and his job has been earmarked as giving one sound byte a day on the issue which should end with ‘bhee bhill take streectest of akshan aghaynst Phakeestaan’. Gilani back in Pakistan is laughing his guts out because he has come to love Pranabda on TV.
The public is happy because war isn’t funny anyway. Rahul Gandhi is already practicing how to look less goofy when he takes oath for Prime Ministership.
The only man who isn’t thrilled one bit is LK Advani. But can you blame him?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
stereotype sound
I haven’t watched Slumdog Millionaire but I do think there is a grain of truth in what Amitabh Bachchan is saying. Just look at any issue of the National Geographic that has covered anything related to India and chances are you will see the same old Maharaja-Elephants-Turbans-Sadhus-Fakirs-Snakecharmer-Banaras Ghats routine.
It isn’t the fault of the NGC I’m sure because it has been an organisation which has done stellar work over the years. It is just that what sells best to choosy audiences are stereotypes and if it comes to India, then its best to leave the body and the brain of an India as a stuttering-but-progressing nation and go for the underbelly of an India as a problematic nation.
Think for yourself. If you go to watch a movie about Africa and the director gives you one of those sleek New York kind romances shot in Addis Ababa or Khartoum and completely gives a miss to lions, the Serengeti, the tribal dances, the occult and forests, would you enjoy it?
You’d come back with a smirk saying how the director completely missed infusing the ‘feel’ of Africa into the movie.
I think we are angry with Bachchan simply because we still do not want to acknowledge the fact that the India we see in Karan Johar’s movies and upmarket television business news channels still languishes somewhere at the bottom of the world’s consciousness. What the world’s wants is the underbelly and if Mira Nair walked away with applause for her Salaam Bombay, then you really can’t fault Danny Boyle for driving his creative car on the same pot-holed road, can you?
I know the Bongs might be very upset with the state’s foster son Bachchan taking a dig at the Bhadralok’s original genius Ray but then truth has always had that quality of being very hurtful when it comes garbed in iconoclastic clothes.
The happiest man of course in all this Slumdog Millionaire talk would be none other than AR Rahman. It had to take a genius to take down Illaiyaraaja and Rahman did it. Roja for the first time brought a sound to the film music that was second to none in the world music scene.
He followed it up with flashes of brilliance film after film and in the process pushed musical boundaries to the extent that he demolished for once and for all the north-south film divide that neither RD Burman or Illaiyaraaja could quite jump. Of course there is the case of Ravi Bombay or Salil Chaudhary but the two are surely not in the icon class of a Buman or Illaiyaraaja.
But what have you? When Rahman comes up with his most ‘inspired’ music with the electronic sound substituting for soul, the white man stands up and hands him a Golden Globe. He won’t complain. Bachcan for once is and let the fight continue.
It isn’t the fault of the NGC I’m sure because it has been an organisation which has done stellar work over the years. It is just that what sells best to choosy audiences are stereotypes and if it comes to India, then its best to leave the body and the brain of an India as a stuttering-but-progressing nation and go for the underbelly of an India as a problematic nation.
Think for yourself. If you go to watch a movie about Africa and the director gives you one of those sleek New York kind romances shot in Addis Ababa or Khartoum and completely gives a miss to lions, the Serengeti, the tribal dances, the occult and forests, would you enjoy it?
You’d come back with a smirk saying how the director completely missed infusing the ‘feel’ of Africa into the movie.
I think we are angry with Bachchan simply because we still do not want to acknowledge the fact that the India we see in Karan Johar’s movies and upmarket television business news channels still languishes somewhere at the bottom of the world’s consciousness. What the world’s wants is the underbelly and if Mira Nair walked away with applause for her Salaam Bombay, then you really can’t fault Danny Boyle for driving his creative car on the same pot-holed road, can you?
I know the Bongs might be very upset with the state’s foster son Bachchan taking a dig at the Bhadralok’s original genius Ray but then truth has always had that quality of being very hurtful when it comes garbed in iconoclastic clothes.
The happiest man of course in all this Slumdog Millionaire talk would be none other than AR Rahman. It had to take a genius to take down Illaiyaraaja and Rahman did it. Roja for the first time brought a sound to the film music that was second to none in the world music scene.
He followed it up with flashes of brilliance film after film and in the process pushed musical boundaries to the extent that he demolished for once and for all the north-south film divide that neither RD Burman or Illaiyaraaja could quite jump. Of course there is the case of Ravi Bombay or Salil Chaudhary but the two are surely not in the icon class of a Buman or Illaiyaraaja.
But what have you? When Rahman comes up with his most ‘inspired’ music with the electronic sound substituting for soul, the white man stands up and hands him a Golden Globe. He won’t complain. Bachcan for once is and let the fight continue.
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