Kahani Review Part 2

In the part 2 of movie reviews, I will concentrate on the following.

1.     What is the social impact that the movie has tried to make ?

2.     If there are some improvement points.

1.     Social Impact

1.1  Women Characters : The movie boasts of strong women characters but the case in not so. The character of Arjun Rampal’s wife was especially troublesome. Even after knowing about his another marriage, she remains apologetic is disturbing and sets a wrong example. The central plan was also executed by the character of Arjun Rampal himself. This waters down everything that I had expected of the so called strong character of Vidya Balan. Although her character remains strong uptill the last 5 minutes, but the take home feeling is that she just executed the plan made by someone else.

1.2  Taking up Social Causes : The movie takes up a very important yet neglected social evil of ‘in family sexual exploitation’. It happens everywhere. The issue is taken up fairly well. However the problem is that no solution is proposed. Running away with the girl and shooting the culprit is not the correct thing as per me.

Overall the movie scores low on social impact. The impact is limited to realization and highlighting of a social evil.

2.     Improvement Points

2.1  Movies are a powerful medium to bring about social change. They impact the subconscious mind and indirectly the decision making. If I were the story writer, I would have given more power to the women characters.

2.2  The indifference of the small girl’s grandmother to the sexual exploitation of her grand children is unrealistic.

2.3  The over attachment of Vidya with the small girl is also unrealistic as per my understanding.

3.     Social Impact Rating 0.5/5

Dangal Review - Part 1 - For viewers who have not seen the movie

It is incredible to see how an expected storyline was so beautifully crafted by the screenplay and writing team. I had expected the story line to be something like this –

• Ø There would be a failed wrestler,
• Ø  He would train his daughters and
• Ø The family would eventually win.

Unsurprisingly this is exactly what happened, yet I could see tears rolling down my cheeks whenever the girl misbehaved and whenever the helpless father was defeated (once even by his daughter). The audience in our theater thoroughly enjoyed though, there was roaring applause after every point scored, massive clapping and whistling after every match won.

The movie opens up in a government office where Mahavir Phogat (Aamir Khan) is working. He then makes a grand statement by defeating state level champion both in fight and in wits (What we call Baatbaazi in hindi and urdu) and with turn of events the movie ends with the girl winning CWG gold. Father Phogat infact won the much deserved standing ovation towards the end of the movie.

Authenticity

The movie is very spontaneous. As some critics have argued, it never tries to manipulate you. The movie does not fell prey to any 'isms'. Even while making a strong push towards feminism, it has not a single dialogue attributed to it. The deeply patriarchal society is shown without becoming an apologist or a critic. Things are shown as they are and left to the audience to reflect and decide.

I want to say a lot more on this in the second part of review that will be released on second sunday at 10 PM. I hope everybody would have watched the movie by then. PS - Kahani Review Part 2 will be released this sunday.

Screenplay

The characters are so real. I think I have lived with almost all of them. Aamir khan, the always stern and serious father, Sakshi Tanwar -caring and low profile mother, a random helping cousin, an arrogant coach and a sister who is also a guide. These things comprise a typical Indian family. The movie scores high on importance of indian family values also.

Technicals :

• 1. Costume Design – Fabulous  – Especially the description of local Haryanavi women and men..
• 2. Cinematography and Direction – Nitesh Tiwari is Awesome as always.
• 3. Sceenplay is superb. Not a single frame is without purpose. Not a single dialogue is without reason.

Go and watch this movie to pay your respect to Mahaveer Phugat and for the charm of Fatima Sana Sheikh. (I know most of you had secret crush on her from childhood days).

Who Should Go :

Everybody should watch this movie. It is definitely in the league of best movies that Bollywood has made so far (Eg. Sholay, Border etc)

My Ratings for the movie 4.5/5

Kahani 2 Review – Part 1 (For readers who have not seen the movie)

The movie starts with a very powerful walk-through into the life of any other single mother, working middle class Bengali woman. The first 30 minutes are so power packed, audience would definitely feel a chill with every twist. Vidya Balan, is awesome both in acting and dialogue delivery. The audience gets carried away with her at times. She has done the role so well that you would forget her gorgeous diva avtar. The carelessly unkempt hair, rough saree and dirty by lanes everything feels so real.

Movie is written extremely well. It has everything that a perfect suspense thriller normally offers. A strong character, good choice of twists and a big suspense reserved for the end. The final twist was, however, not as awesome as that of Kahani. But let us not tie the burden of outperforming a superhit movie Kahani on Kahani 2.

(image credits – Internet – Rediff.com)

One more good thing about this movie is that there are no un necessary songs, no dilli dallying on exotic locations. Even the limited romantic scenes are kept very simple and realistic.

The movie gives a solid message against domestic child abuse and how it may easily go un-noticed.

There are however a few short comings that I could find. There are a lot of, lot of coincidences. Almost all strong characters are somehow connected. Although even large number of coincidences could not remove the tinge of realism from this movie.

Few movie critics argued that story line was to some extent predictable, however I did not felt so. This was partly because I did not see the trailer which was allegedly too revealing.

I have refrained from giving away story line or suspense. I will write another section “For readers who have already seen the movie” for more detailing.

Technicals :

1. Editing – Superb work by Namrata Rao
2. Costume Design – Average – Nothing special – Opportunity lost in displaying the character of Vidya Balan.
3. Cinematography – Awesome
4. Direction – Fabulous

Who should go :

People who love non romantic, fast paced thrillers. The movie has some violent scenes also, viewer’s discretion is therefore advised.

Go watch this movie for the charm of Maninin Chadda and acting of Vidya Balan.

My Star Ratings : 3.5/5

A letter to my Younger Self.

There are times when we wish we could go back and correct things (not) done in the past. Obviously no one can, no one could. This life is beyond our control. This life as they say is like sand gripped in our palm. The more tightly we grip it, the more it slips away.  Osho has long back given his famous sermon “Life is for living and not controlling”. I know all these things, and therefore, am conscious of the fact that past cannot be changed but what if despite knowing the fact that we cannot go back and correct things, we may still try to write some advisory to our younger selves.

These are the 5 things that I would like to tell myself 7 years back, when I entered college. These are written in descending order of importance.

5. Do not believe in that senior who says “Studying is not important. 7 pointers get the best placements.” I do not know if such people still exist. There were a lot of them during our time. When you pass out knowing very little and will have to return to Ganeshan and Cengel  time and again, you would understand the folly of this misconception.

4. Make 5 friends with whom, 5 years down the line, you can talk atleast once in a week. A friend made in college life comes out to be your most valued treasure.

3. You have a lot of time. Everything can be done. Learning Music, dance, taking up College responsibility (Fests etc) and still scoring a 9.5 pointer.  You can manage. You will have to manage your  time during your job, and you will enjoy it in college.

2. Sports are as important as studies, extracurricular and a good job. Donot put your health at stake for tomorrow’s exam. You will be writing enough of them. One exam out of more than 100 does not count much.

1. Revoked 

Having said that the four year time is going to be the BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE. Even before you realise, it would be over. Dear self, enjoy it to the fullest – Take part in fashion parade, all the weird quizzes, play basket ball, football and what not.

Regards

Your Older Self.

Here we Start afresh.

I never expect to lose. Even if I am the underdog, I prepare a victory speech.
- H. Jackson brown Jr.

The ‘D’ day

The ‘D’ day  

Morning 8:00 AM

I was having a sound sleep when I heard Abhisheek (our CR) madly kicking my door trying to awake me up. Out of anxiety I was not able to sleep until 4 in the morning. I noticed 29 missed calls from home and other friends who were responsible to wake me up on time.

Morning 8:45 AM

I somehow managed to reach on time, although I had to miss my breakfast for that (however it had become my routine to miss breakfast). After a short powerpoint presentation about the company, and its offered packages, we were handed over a question paper for screening round.

Morning 9:50 AM
 

After the screening round, which was not a hard nut to crack, we were asked to prepare ourselves for Group Discussion round, luckily the topic was of my choice, “Has privatization lead to increased corruption?”. I kept three things in mind while going for it, (added here for final year people and to be final years)

1.      

       Tried to start the conversation. It is a good confidence builder and additionally, it helped me to steer the complete discussion the way I wanted. For example, I wanted to bring in the word “License Raj” in the conversation, so I just mentioned it during the very first sentence I spoke. Once it got into the discussion and 2 or 3 other people also mentioned it, I knew this GD would be a cakewalk. I definitely knew better than other people regarding this.

2.        

      Tried being a good listener, from my body posture the judge must get an idea that I was  receptive of others’ points.

3.      

            Gave a conclusion and included the opinions of others also so that it looked like a group conclusion.

I was confident of getting shortlisted for the interview round.

It was the interview round that was most crucial part of the recruitment process; therefore I will try to reproduce whatever I am able to remember from that 40 minutes interview.

There were two members in the panel, one was a lady member from HR and the other was head, Maintenance department of their Haridwar plant (Electrical Engineer).

Evening 5 : 45PM
 

I entered the room with my certificate file and two copies of CV’s (one for each member).

Member 1 (Head, Maintenance department, from now on M1)

Member 2 (Company’s HR from now on M2) ;

AA = Adish Aggarwal

M1 (Looking at my CV): So Mr Aggarwal, you are from Nahan.

AA: Yes sir

(He tried to remember something by the name Nahan.)

AA: Sir, it lies on Dehradun Chandigarh National Highway, and you being currently stationed at Haridwar plant must have crossed it.

M1: oh, so how do you go to Nahan.

AA: Sir I follow Chandigarh route.

M1: So there is no direct route to Nahan from here? (Well, I wanted to tell that the one from Chandigarh is also direct, but he wanted an all himachal route I guessed)

AA: No Sir, the one present is one way and dangerous. Moreover there is no direct bus service available for the all himachal route.

M1: (looking at my CV), so you like listening to soft music.

AA: Yes sir, Jagjit Singh and Md. Rafi are my favorite.

(I just prayed to God that they must not ask me to sing, because I am an awful singer. Thankfully they did’nt)

M1: Tell us something more about yourself ?

AA: Sir, I belong to a business family blah blah blah (I tried not to repeat the things already written in my C.V)

M2: you have mentioned that you also write blogs?

AA: Yes mam, occasionally.

M2: Tell me your favorite entry.

AA: Mam, it was the last one, regarding Education System In India, it was entitled: “The Great Indian Education System: from Gurukuls to IITs”. In it I tried to enlist the major differences between our traditional system and the current one. (Since she seemed interested in knowing further, I continued)…
In gurukuls, we had the concept of continuous learning and testing, the pupils during their formative years used to reside with their teachers and as and when the teacher or guru found it right to promote a child, he would do so. However now this is being replaced by a 3 hour examination system, that is insufficient to judge a person.

M1: In the same manner don’t you think it is impossible to judge a candidate in 10 minutes of interview time?

AA: Yes Sir to an extent you are correct, but there is no better alternative left to that.

M2: So in tune of your argument in your blog, should we resort back to the old system?

AA: No mam it is not possible, because it is impossible to change the whole system. Moreover we would
not find that high level of morality and understanding in today’s teachers.

M1: (cutting my sentence) What are your favorite subjects?

 Heat Transfer and Manufacturing process sir.

M1 : OK, so can you draw Iron - Iron Carbide Phase diagram?

Yes Sir, (I made the Fe-C phase diagram, and started explaining). These are two isothermal lines, one dictates Heat treatment process and other one Casting process.

M1 : Please explain in detail?

Sir, when we have to go for casting we have to increase the temperature above this isothermal line only above this the metal liquefies and when we have to go for heat treatment, we have to see to it that Austenite phase is formed and only after austenite phase is reached, we can go for cooling and requisite properties can be obtained. Blah blah blah…….

M1: Why do we need Heat Treatment?

Sir, primary aim is to alter the properties of any substance according to our needs and it has an added advantage that it relieves the workpiece of the stresses that might develop during machining.

M1 : Any Example?

Suppose we made a product on shop floor, only to discover that some of its dimensions are improper and would need further machining, we in that condition must go for annealing which would soften the metal, machine it and then again go for quenching to harden it. In addition to it……

M1: Ok , good.

AA : Thanks sir

M1: Do you know about Induction hardening?

AA: Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M1: What quality distinguishes you from others?

AA : Sir undoubtedly, my honesty.

M1: Laughingly, can you compare honesty?

AA: yes sir, it is a relative term?

M1: What relative term? Can you say he is 40% honest and 60% dishonest?

AA: No sir, but we can always say, he is more honest than him.

M1: But either a person is honest or dishonest there is nothing called a middle path….

AA: Yes Sir I think you are right.

(Then there were various questions related to my projects, a majority of which I answered satisfactorily except this one.)

M1: Since you mentioned, you used pumps in one of your projects, can you tell me how to connect pumps in series?

AA: Sorry sir, we have not read pumps.

M1: But I am asking about pumps and you have used them, just try?

(I kept quite because I had no idea about Pumps.)

M2: If a worker comes to you with a broken tool (in order to test your knowledge) and ask for a remedy, you being his boss what would you do?

AA: Mam, initially I will try to figure out whether it is actually a problem or he is just befooling. I would try my level best to help him…….

M2: But he is trying to escape from work by testing you, as I said?

AA : Mam, I would try to make him understand that he would ruin his performance report by doing such activity ……

M2: But will he listen to you?

AA : Mam, I have taken up various responsibilities, which involved handling my juniors and seniors during my college span and I am confident in handling people, I think I can handle the situation.

M2: What would be your preferred area of research?

AA: Mam if given a chance I would like to work on gearless bikes. I would specifically try to reduce cost and increase efficiency of the same, which at present is very less.

M1: What are your future plans MBA, M.Tech ………

AA: Sir they change every now and then. I wish to first stabilize myself in any reputed organization like yours.

Then there were some questions regarding Finance Team and  SOME (Society of Mechanical Engineers) of which I was the finance secretary and joint secretary respectively. They were general questions and were answered comfortably.

M1: Tell me your greatest weakness?

AA: Sir I have some level of stage fright.

M1 : OK, so what have you done to overcome it?

AA: Sir, we celebrate Hindi Diwas every 14^th September, I recited a poem during the last Hindi Diwas celebration. Although I fumbled in between but I was successful in completing it.

M1: That’s good, you must always try to improvise. OK, Mr Aggarwal we are done with the interview, would you like to ask anything?

AA: Sir I would like to know the prospects of foreign postings?

M1: Well, it depends upon the requirements abroad and your personal caliber. It is too early to ask this question. Anything else…..

AA : No Sir.

M1 : OK, it was nice meeting you, you may go now.

I wished thanks to both the members and left the room.

Late Night 2:00 AM

The interviews stretched upto 2:00 AM late night and the results were declared just about an hour after that. All the interviewees were asked to assemble in the auditorium.

M1: It was a tough task short listing these students, we wish to take more but we have our number constraints……………………
Following 5 students will become a part of Hero Motocorp family from now on, I would be speaking alphabetically

1.        Adish Aggarwal - Mine was thefirst name ...

I lost a beat, and was not able to hear other names declared and could know them only afterwards from my friends sitting beside me.

Having completed about two years in Hero Motocorp now, I could still feel a gush of fervor while I remember the sequence of events that day.

 Seth.

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India

To

The Prime Minister of India
With due Love and Respect


Sir, as we inch closer to August 15, with our country turning 64, let me as an honest citizen, dare to put forth to my government some recommendations.

Though I am in no authority to do so, I am still presuming that it is a people’s government. I advocate an increased funding and regulation for higher education, especially in the engineering and technology sections.

There are thousands of private Engineering colleges forced on Indian youth today, and most of them are owned by the powerful elite. This powerful elite in the process of bending laws to meet their suitability turn out more as a money churning institution rather than a centre for learning. It is for this reason that most of the HR managers globally take Indian Engineers as nothing better than supervisors (any diploma holder can also do the needful). I am not talking about fine engineers from IITs or NITs here. With more than 11 lakh students giving the All India Engineering Entrance Exam, consisting of a few thousand seats, one cannot blame an individual for a bad rank based on his performance in a 3 hour objective exam. I don’t think everybody has a fair chance in this fierce competition. Therefore sir, everybody turning out towards private Engineering Colleges is not a looser. There is enough talent in those students as well. But given the infrastructure, frustratingly ill qualified faculty and equally frustrating high fees, their talents go wasted. They end up being engineers only by name, jobless or a job of like 6000/- rupees or so.

Whereas on the other hand there is an intense demand for Engineers both in the domestic and international market. The problem Sir, is not unemployment but unemploybility. There is no dearth of employment opportunities but there is a dearth of employable engineers. Just a little done from your side sir, can help millions.

I am one of the greatest admirers of the loan interest subsidy scheme of your government but Sir please also ensure that these shopkeepers turn so called deans follow some minimum quality standards, and this minimum should be decided in the most judicious manner possible. An Iron Hand is needed for this purpose. These people are well capable of getting away with weak and feeble laws. It is good to have private public partnership, but something that is most important is public welfare.

One more thing sir, Ayurveda- the ancient Indian Medicine Science deserves our special attention. This particular style of medicine is so special not only because it has no side effects but also because it has stood all tests of time. Although there has been practically no investment in the R&D facility of it and still the measures directed by Charak are still used, it is serving as an excellent alternative to the current Allopathic form of treatment which is backed by tremendous funding.

These two moves will not only improve self confidence of Indians but also enhance the confidence of others in India.

This will also strengthen India’s role as a world Leader.

Jai Hind.
Adish Aggarwal (A concerned Citizen)