Omkara, Kissa Kamar-bandh Ka

Omkara was much awaited movie for many people. This was due to many reasons good promos, starcast. Trailers were good and had created curiosity in minds of movie buffs.

After reading 2-3 reviews (which gave thumbs up for movie) I decided to see movie this weekend itself. As tickets at PVR were sold out a day before release, so only option left for me was Urvashi. I decided to go for night show as I had some personal work till 8pm. Seena and Vijaynath agreed to come. Ande dropped out because of fear that someone might kidnap him if he is outside his house after 10 pm :)

As I entered inside the movie hall there was big awaited change, renovated seats. Now for Rs.60 a movie is really worth watching at Urvashi !!!!.

Lets come to actual topic. Omkara is like normal shakepeare drama, in which humarn traits such as jealousy, suspicion, betrayal are exhibited. Kamar-bandh is almost like character in movie, being part of all steamy scenes. It is also major element for creation of suspicion.

Dialogues have some expletives. some of such dialogues

• teri or meri kismat to ghadhe ke ling sae likhi gai hae....
  
• Maine kya teri gottiya pakad rakhi hai kuud madarchod
• sharat ghodon pe lagaate hain kathor...sheron pe nahi!!!

All critics have appreciated movie. Excerpts from some reviews.

- Taran Adarsh (indiafm) : 2 and 1/2 star.

• OMKARA is not everybody's cup of tea, not everyone's idea of entertainment.
• It's not one of those candyfloss films. It's not sunshine cinema either.
• The bloodshed and violent slant is also not something that would hold universal acceptance.
• Ajay as 'Omi' makes a stirring and powerful interpretation of a man haunted by uncertainty about his lover's faithfulness.
• Dialogues are natural to the core, but, again, the expletives in the dialogues make you uncomfortable at times.
• The 'Beedi' track holds mass appeal, while 'Naina Thag Lenge' is rich in lyrical value and has a haunting feel.
• The dialect, the dark and disturbing theme and also the expletives will curtail its prospects of movie to an extent.

- Rajeev Masand (cnn-ibn): 3 star

• Vishal scores big points, is in the imagination department. Who else would have thought of filming a gruesome action scene to a song?
• The star of the show is undoubtedly Saif Ali Khan who just becomes Langda Tyagi. Gone is the actor's boyish charm, gone are his stylish touches. Instead you get a foul-mouthed, spiteful cad who just controls the dynamics of the story.
• Bipasha Basu is brought in to lend oomph and she succeeds in doing just that.
• Vivek Oberoi is saddled with a loosely-written role, seems ill at ease doing little else but standing around while the others steal the limelight.
• Omkara, the kind of entertainment you're not likely to find too often in our local cinemas. This is one time Shakespeare won't turn in his grave.

- Lindsay Pereira (rediff): 4 star

• Does Bhardwaj give Othello life? Yes. He definitely does.
• There are no changes in the play's structure.
• Bipasha Basu plays a nautch girl called Billo Chamanbahar, and does nothing of any interest, largely because she has managed to learn just three dance moves and insists on repeating them.
• what you take away from Omkara is the knowledge that a classic script always has the power to move us, provided it is handled by a director who knows his craft, and actors who understand their job.

I didn't like movie so much, because I had very high expectations after reading thumbs up reviews. Also I had gone for night show, I felt sleepy after 12 midnight :).

Whats your opinion about Omkara. Feel free to post comments.

Hypnotism without Hypnosis ??

Today there was talk on Hypnotism without Hypnosis by magician turned hypnotist Martin Taylor from Britain at State Youth Center(next to RBI). Got to know about this talk in sunday's workshop where Martin was a guest. I didnt really had any expectations about this talk, so called only a few friends Ski, Ande. Only Ande turned up finally.

myself with Martin

Martin started with introdcution to Hypnosis. He gave shock to all by saying there is no such thing called Hypnosis. There is no altered state(taking people to unconcious, sleeping or zombie state) of conciousness when you are hypnotised.

So how hypnotism works ? It works through hypnotist's skill combining 3 factors suggestion, peer pressure, obedience.

• Suggestion: when we are told to feel something, there is a strong subconscious force which makes us really feel it.
  
• Peer pressure: people want to behave the way their friends are behaving; if their friends appear to be under a hypnotist’s power, they will want to act the same way.
  
• Obedience: people will generally do as they are told, especially by someone in authority.

Martin demonstarted many things which fall under umbrella of Hynotism without Hypnosis.

- Holding our hands together: Martin said to audience "hold your hands together. keep it 6 inches away from eyes. hold as if there is glue between your hands. concentrate by looking at your thumbs. feel that fingers are interlock. concentrate ..... ". After one minute when I tried to seperate my hands, I couldn't !!!!!!.

- Martian language: It was amazing. Three people Raghav, Harsha, Nupur were made to believe that they were people from Mars. Raghav was made interpreter between English and Martian language. Then Martin asked some questions to them

Martin to Raghav: "What kind of food u ppl eat at mars"
Raghav to Harsha: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (in martian) // i couldn't belive my ears
Harsha to Raghav: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (in martian)
Raghav to Martin: "Fruits and vegetables"

Some other questions and answers
Q- "what do they like in Mars women", A-"eyes and ears "

Finally these 3 ppl were made to sing national anthem of Mars. It was awesome. Audience stood up to respect their anthem :)

- Piercing body with doctors sterile outlet: A girl by name Deepthi was asked to pierce her hand with outlet. Initially she felt pain. Martin said "ABC" then pain vanished. Then "CBA" pain came back. This was repeated 3-4 times.

In the end Martin said "Hypnotism has much to offer then entertainment. It can be used in field of sports to avoid nervousness, nail biting etc .."

Presentation of Martin was nice with some non veg jokes :). It was Martin's first talk in India. Actually his first talk was supposed to be Mumbai on 17th, but was cancelled due to obvious reason - serial blasts.

So whats required to be a Hypnotist. Hypnotist's skill is most important factor to achive Hypnotism

• one should have a commanding personality.
• authencity in talk and walk to hypnotise.
• charisma, charm and authority.
• one should build a relationship with audience and induce faith in them.
• should make audience trust him.
  

To conclude I didn't had any major expectations from this talk, but returned with a lot of thing that I can apply in life.

Yeh He Corporate World !!!!

Madhur Bhandarkar whose movie about Mumbai's party animals 'Page 3' had bagged National Award. There was one joke what would be title of next movie of Madhur Bhandarkar - in Hindi it would be 'Page 4' or in Urdu 'Page 2' :). So this Page 4 or Page 2 is about Corporate world.

The movie Corporate projects on silver screen many incidences which actually takes place inside Ivory Towers of Corporate World.

• Nexus between politicians and indutrialists for stuffs such as Disinvestment.
• One company supported by state government and other by central government.
• Profit prioritized over Ethics.
• Man of principles resigning bcz his MD doesn't agree his idea.
• Offer from executive to executive of rival company.
• Executive unable to control his harmones and hence losing out business secrets to rival company, inturn his job.
• Compromise between rival industrialists and rival political parties for retaining white man's investments (FDI).
• Usage of NGOs funded by corporates to file PILs, for protests.
  

Film breaks new ground in deparment of subject(plot). But the way of execution and presentation is same as 'Page 3'. One similarity which can be mentioned in Page 3 there were drivers discussing about their Boss (Party animals). In Corporate its the job of office peons and bodyguards.

Some unforgettbale dialogues of office peons which I can recall
- " yeh pehle public limited thi ab private limited he." remarks abt a female employee.
- " use dekho har che mahine secretary badaltha he, kyonki apun ke desh me bewiya nahi badal sakte. "

Songs and item numbers are not good. Item girl (cum call girl) doesn't even deserve first look :)
Bipasha Basu's performance is good. Her character is very different from her previous movies No Entry, Jism etc. Kay Kay Menon is effective as usual. Rajat Kapoor is impressive in his role as MD of Sehgal Group of Industries. Sameer Dattani (Dhayan in Kannada Film Industry) and Minissha Lamba hardly have any role.

I feel its not right to continue with futher discussion about full story line. Its already done by various crictics of our Bollywood. Lets review their reviews.

- Taran Adarsh (indiafm) : 3 star : His review cant be said neither generous nor harsh. But I was suprised to see 3 star from him in spite of 'indiafm' being overseas media partner for this movie. For this reason may be flaw of movie was not mentioned.

- Rajeev Masand (cnn-ibn) : 2 star : As usual Rajeev Masand is harsh. One can see response to his review in ibnlive.com, he reviews as if he is the Speilberg :). But he has pointed out basic flaw in moral of the movie. Nishigandha Dasgupta (Bipasha) mentioned as innocent . But actually as per Rajeev "She's not paying the price for her ambition, she's paying the price for being deceitful."

- Sukanya Verma ( rediff) : 3 star: She has mentioned about proposed romantic track between Minissha Lamba and Sameer Dattani, which never takes off beyond an invitation for coffee.

Overall a good movie, must watch for everyone in industry. Techically movie is not so good, so not paisa vasool at multiplexes.

So moral of the movie : Guys control your harmones otherwise you may lose your job. Gals you may have to pay the price for being deceitful.

Feel free to post comments.....

Two years as Software Engineers

I never thought one day I would be writing a post related this topic. Now its exactly 2 years after we became so called Engineering graduates of VTU. Immediately we started working as Software Engineers in top IT/Telecom firms in Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore. Yesterday there was a dicussion among our classmates (in chain of emails) about achievements in 2 years. Its seems most of them are not completely satisfied with things they have done over 2 years. Everyone has one reason to be unhappy.

• Some are frustated for not getting onsite opportunities in spite of working in good product development team.
• Some are calling themselves ' jack of all, master of none'
• Domain is very important in long term, salary is secondary is opinion of one person.
• One person said 'Drawing Room Status' is important. How outside world looks towards is important, so onsite opportinities and salary matters.

Looking at all these reactions one of my friend said 'We should enjoy over life to the fullest'. One should live for the moment. I feel 'live for the moment' means changing goals, ethics on day to day basis. I dont think this is right way of living.

I believe in order to be happy, satisfied one has follow this famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi ...

" Live as if u were die to tomorrow. Learn as if u were to live forever."

Its really difficult to follow both aspects of above quote. Balancing between Living and Learning is really a challenging.

So learning is also important in life. Now its season of ppl going to United States for higher studies (Fall 2006). Many of my friends who are 2 years experienced Software Engineers have got their Visa approved and are flying to US next month. Some are planning to settle there, some are planning to stay there for 5 years and a few have decided to come back to India immediately after MS.

Looking at this rest of us are getting motivated and are planning to write GRE, TOEFL and are hoping that they will make it US for Fall 2007. Some are planning to write CAT this year, irrespective of whether they are really interested in management or not. Some are in conflict i.e their head saying something and heart is saying something else ....

Its nice to see people are giving importance to learning. Equations have changed over 2 years from the time we finished our engineering to present.

So Congratulations to all my batchmates for completing 2 years in software industry. All the best to people who will be starting new innings in their life.

Please feel free to post comments.