Uttaran- Could The Story Be Any Slower....

The show has become staple diet for many Indian housholds as it falls in a timeband (10:pm-10:30 pm) between 3 reality shows-Bigg Boss, Perfect Bride & Pati, Patni aur Woh. At my place, since i follow the reality shows, I have become a default viewer of it.

The Serial began with a lot of promise, covering struggles and aspirations of poor girl-Iccha but after taking a "time-leap", the story has lost the plot and hence we have the serial makers/writers dragging the story

The Story in a nut shell- 2 girls-Tapasya & Ichcha are friends from child hood. Tapsya -a rich girl, spoilt by her Nani and Ichcha, the servants daughter, who Tapsya's Rich dad treats as a daughter . This is resented by Tapo (i.e. Tapasya), whose mind is constantly poisoned by her grandmother(nani). An alliance (Veer) from a rich family comes for Tapo, but she refuses as she has a "boyfriend". So Tapo's dad fixes the alliance for Hich-ki (i.e. Ichcha). Love blossoms between Iccha and Veer. Tapo starts getting jealous and on the marriage day, nearly slashes her wrists in front of Hichki. Seeing the pain she is causing to her friend, Hichki decides to allow Tapo take her place and sacrifice her love for Veer.

The slowness of the serial can be judged by the fact that the marriage of Tapo/Hichki and Veer realizing and confronting Tapos' dad about the "betrayal", took 6 episodes (and counting, as in the 6th episode, at the end, you have Hichki walking down the steps to confront Veer and u see her walking each step from different angles, adding to the viewers agony).

On so many counts the show is damn sensless-

1. Hich-ki sacrifices her love for a Depressed girl-who wanted to commit suicide. I am not sure, I would want to see my loved one marrying a psycho, but hey thats me....

2. Veer comes to confront Tapo's dad and for 15 mins, he keeps ranting about the "Dhoka" and he keeps repeating how he has got married to another woman. Yes, he does not say he is married to Tapo...

3. Clear height difference between the 2 is not noticed by anyone at the wedding alter....

4. Hate both their nicknames, especially in 1 of the marriage episode where both these girls are crying and saying the names.

The show however tells me one thing about my Mom (a true follower of the show) and that is She has a lot of Patience!!!!

For All The Die-Hard Veggies Who Love Chocolate

Illustration- www.weareyoung.co.uk

The Above piece of info seems to be true. It seems after cocoa beans are harvested they need to be fermented. This means that they are put in an earthen pit near where they are harvested and covered with leaves. In the hot sun they ferment (rot) and then can be shoveled out as mature cocoa beans. Of course during this process lots of insects are present. Doesn't mean it is bad for you....

Wanted :Saw The Movie & Still I Am Alive....

I have never been a great fan of Salman Khan nor have i liked his films (except for one- Andaaz Apna Apna that too because it had Aamir and the story was an exceptional one. More about AAA in my next post....).

So after listening to reviews of Salman's new movie- Wanted-Dead or Alive, i had to catch the same. After finding a friend (Joshua Karthik) who had not watched the film, me and my partner in crime set out in search of a theatre which was running the film 5 weeks after it's release.

On our way to one of the multiplexes to check whether they were airing the movie, we saw a theatre in Kurla, which had a larger than life Poster of the movie. The theatre turned out to be the "infamous" Kamran, Kalpana and Kings. The smallest of the 3 screens, Kings was the one which was airing the film and as luck would have it, we were just in time for the show. Considering the ticket prices (30&40 Rs.) we took the more expensive ones, thinking the seats would be "better", if not the best.

Hugging our laptops(we had gone to see the movie after work), we entered the theatre. The first thing that hit us was the weird smell (later on we realised it was smell of paan stains & tobacco that had adorned the cinema house walls). We nearly stumbled to our seats, as the place was dark and the floors were made of wooden planks, unevenly joined together. Needless to say we were surrounded by the rickshaw drivers, vegetable vendors and labourers who had come to see their "Sallu bhai".

We were seated in one of the front rows, as we were the "priviledged" ones who could afford a Rs. 40 ticket and watch the screen from a close distance as the print was clearly an old one with audio problems. But seeing Salman's cool "i-give-a -damn" attitude and the action sequences all was forgotten.

Yes the film does have its' moments (especially action ones), but repetitive (over-the-top) dialogues, a 90s-style villain, and dance sequences having no continuity with the script makes the movie an average film. But i guess, Salman's fans will have nothing to hear of it. For them he is a "Demi-God", who can do no wrong. I believe he achieved this Demi-god status after his film-Tere Naam, where-in he portrays a person, jilted in Love (clearly mirroring his real life and the lives of millions of youth in India).

Anyways the movie-Wanted is strictly for Salman's fans, who are thrilled by his Cool "Bad Boy" image. (Was this how people used to feel about James Dean, I will never know...). For me the experience and not the movie, was immensly enjoyable

Last heard, Salman's fans eagerly await the release of Most Wanted- a sequel, which is being planned. I guess we can wait & see if his acting improves by then....

Ad Placement

I am a big fan of ad placement in an environment where the context is a perfect match to the creative....Simplicity of ideas just bowl me over.

Absolute fantastic placement!!!! I will keep my eyes open for other such examples

We Are The Same Everywhere...

In his blog, Seth Godin, has pointed out the following 12 points/traits that are commonly seen in Cable news shows in the US-

1. Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
2. Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
3. Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
4. Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
5. Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
6. Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
7. Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
8. Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
9. Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
10. Confusing opinion with the truth.
11. Revising facts to fit a point of view.
12. Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.

Indian readers going thru the above points will have a sense of Deja-vu. All these traits are currently seen in our Hindi News channels....Makes me wonder, whether we are the same everywhere. At least, the journalists and reporters working in these channels do share the same traits.....

Wake Up Anil...

Today I have decided to become a better person and try and get myself rid of the AP Syndrome...

While pulling my friend's leg, she said, " You always make me feel that I am not good at anything." Ouch!!!!

Cross my heart, I never meant to hurt anyone. The only thing i can say is that This was my wake up call....

Thankfully, I have not lost her friendship because of my foolishness !!!!

Rote Learning is Not The Right Way...

I just wonder how i passed all my exams.
Illustration- www.weareyoung.co.uk

Interesting Thought on Love...

My First Steps Towards Learning Italian

Grazie Elaine !!!! For the book. Just the push i needed to learn a new language...