Summary Post of the past week

These are the posts I wrote the previous week. I will now post on Monday, although late, as I will be traveling. If I get too late, I will post on Tuesday morning. Have a good week-end!

Lack of courtesy to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw was a great soldier and a patriot but I was disturbed when I received an email forward which said that dignitaries like Pratibha Patil (the commander-in-chief of the armed forces), Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister), Sonia Gandhi (Congress President) and L K Advani (BJP Leader) were absent at the state funeral and failed to pay their last respects to this soldier, India’s first Field Marshall…however politicians readily attend the functions (and parties) of influential people and celebrities…

Bollywood moving away from plagiarism? We all love to bash Bollywood because the industry is in the habit of plagiarizing. In fact the very name ‘Bollywood’ is so insulting that I wonder why those who work in Bollywood don’t feel ashamed that they are working in an industry with a name that implies that it is a Hollywood clone. … But the copying cannot last. It’s not going to last. I think a change is in the offing. Recently, director Rajkumar Gupta…

Crime in big cities - what’s the situation? All of us want to feel safe when we walk on the streets and go to bed at night. We want to be safe from physical harm and we want our property to be safe too. But open the newspaper and there it is - news about violent crime and burglaries and assaults. It makes us insecure as we feel that crime is on the increase…specially in big cities. But is this the reality?… Well, in the developed countries there is a clear trend that overall violent crime is on the decline but violent crime seems to be increasing in India..,

Participating in a reality show? Think again! 16-year-old Shinjini Sengupta suffered a paralytic attack and her parents are blaming the harsh treatment she got at a dance competition (reality show), but the TV show organisers blame pressure from parents…Viewers may enjoy a reality show but the contestants often have to face insults and humiliation…I have always wondered what public humiliation did to the minds of the contestants. A little reading unearthed the fact that there have been many cases of suicides…

Three Tags in One! Vishesh tagged me twice. The first tag is simple - Write 6 words. The other tag, an earlier one, requires me to tell you ten things people here do not know about me but I really don’t know whether people know these things about me or not! Arvind tagged me for the third tag, to write about 5 types of people whom I love to hate or who irritate me the most…

Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic - Movie Review (no spoilers) The most important thing to know about Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic (A little Love, a Little Magic) is that it is a children’s film. It’s got four child characters, and like many children’s films, there is magic and fantasy. There is even a lecture about patriotism, civic sense and world peace! It’s Amisha Patel’s character which doesn’t fit…

Lack of courtesy to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw was a great soldier and a patriot but I was disturbed when I received an email forward which said that there has been a

complete lack of grace and gratitude, civility and courtesy, decency and decorum on the part of the bold-faced names rapaciously grazing the lawns of power in Delhi and elsewhere, for the brain behind India’s only decisive military victory

The email forward went on to give the names of dignitaries like Pratibha Patil (the commander-in-chief of the armed forces), Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister), Sonia Gandhi (Congress President) and L K Advani (BJP Leader) who were absent at the state funeral and failed to pay their last respects to this soldier, India’s first Field Marshall.

I had earlier read about the controversy created when Defence Minister A K Antony and three services chiefs had skipped the state funeral. Athough two service chiefs were in the country (Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor was in Russia) they sent two star officers to attend the funeral. And “no wreaths were placed on Field Marshal Manekshaw’s bier, on President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s behalf” which is the customary in such cases.

And then I read another article which talked about how “when Britain’s first field marshal died, all the dignitaries attended his funeral and he was buried at Westminister Abbey.”

WelI, the email forward that is going around is informing people about the lapse by our leaders. I wanted to find out who had written the article because like all Forwards, it had come without acknowledgment of the source. A little googling and I found that it was part of the article written by Krishna Prasad, former editor of the Vijay Times, on Rediff.com. The whole article had not been forwarded. What was missed out were these facts:

• When Amitabh Bachchan was ill after being socked in the stomach during the shooting of Coolie, Indira Gandhi flew down to Bombay to show her concern.
• When Dhirubhai Ambani died, L K Advani cut short his Gujarat tour to pay his respects to an ‘embodiment of initiative, enterprise and determination’.
• When Pramod Mahajan was shot dead by his brother, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekawat had the time to attend the funeral.

Well, I am sure we can make a far longer list of politicians attending the functions (and parties) of influential people and celebrities. But when it came to Manekshaw, few cared to attend his funeral. Surprising that they didn’t bother to follow protocol.

(Photo from Rediff.com)

Bollywood moving away from plagiarism?

We all love to bash Bollywood because the industry is in the habit of plagiarizing. In fact the very name ‘Bollywood’ is so insulting that I wonder why those who work in Bollywood don’t feel ashamed that they are working in an industry with a name that implies that it is a Hollywood clone. Could it be that they don’t feel ashamed because there is hope that they might win awards? Recently the music from the film Munnabhai Lage Raho won a national award even though one of the tunes was plagiarized.

But Bollywood wasn’t always Bollywood. If you trace the history of the industry we have had great films - some of them classics. I am naming just a few here. Mehboob Khan’s Andaz (1945), K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955). In the seventies there were popular films like Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975) and films like Anand and Kati Patang. There was no such thing as “Bollywood” then, not as far as I remember.

It all changed in the eighties. We started hearing of various tunes being lifted and also movies. By the nineties stealing had become rampant but even now I like to believe that less than half of the films and music are plagiarized, but that’s just a guess.

How long is this going to go on? I mean, why isn’t Hollywood complaining? Why aren’t they suing? Well, even though Hollywood isn’t suing, I think the copycats producers and directors are getting flak…from bloggers. Today if a film or song is stolen, bloggers write about it and the directors and producers are shamed, well to some extent at least. If they win awards for their copied films, I guess the shame is replaced by chuckles!

But this kind of copying cannot last. It’s not going to last. I feel the Hindi film industry has reached a kind of peak (of copying) and with bloggers increasingly exposing these charlatans, movie producers are thinking of ways to avoid criticism and scandals.

I think a change is in the offing. Recently, director Rajkumar Gupta “struggled” to get the rights of American pop singer Peggy Lee’s song for his film Aamir. They finally paid Rs.800,000, a sum they could barely afford as it was a low-budget film (with a budget of Rs. 20 million). And even then they were not allowed to use the song in their soundtrack. In fact Gupta was so keen to avoid any kind of scandal that when he was told that Aamir had some similarity with the Filipino film Cavite, he contacted the Filipino director and told him the problem and actually asked him whether he should “proceed” with Aamir or “scrap it”!

It’s not just Gupta. Producer-director Ravi Chopra bought the rights of the Joe Pesci film My Cousin Vinny and remade it as Bandaa Yeh Bindaas Hai. And believe it or not, even David Dhawan has had a change of heart. He was criticized for plagiarizing the film Hitch and re-making it as Partner (there were even rumours that Will Smith was going to sue) but Dhawan seems to have decided not to take any more chances. He is getting permission to remake the Hollywood film The Wedding Crashers.

Imtiaz Ali of Jab We Met fame also tried to get the rights for “rock band Katrina & The Waves Walking on Sunshine.” In fact he had gone ahead and used the song for the promos but when the permission did not come through, he dropped the song.

It’s not just their name that producers are worried about. Recently Rakesh Roshan had to pay Rs 2 crore to the music composer Ram Sampath who had filed a case against him for copying a tune in his film Krazzy 4. If Hollywood ever sues and succeeds, the copycats could become bankrupt!

I think the incidents mentioned show some new trends in the Indian film industry. It’s about time this happened because we have so many talented directors and a good number of original films coming out of the Hindi industry today that it would be a shame if a few copycats spoilt their good name.

Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (2007) is just an example. Two more examples are the charming romantic film Parineeta (2005) and Lagaan (2001) which was nominated in the foreign film category of the Oscars. There are also the “new wave” films like Traffic Signal or Life in a Metro, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer and Khosla Ka Ghosla. It all seemed to start when the critically acclaimed Monsoon Wedding (2001, Mira Nair) was a decent hit at the box office, raking up $20m. These small budget films are changing the face of the industry and Aamir is the latest one.

The success of such films has given rise to hope that talent is getting recognized. Hopefully the Indian government will realise that originality and talent needs to be encouraged. They should stop giving any type of award to any film which has plagiarized any thing, be it the story, a scene or two or a song. It may seem a harsh punishment for a director or producer who may not be in the know if a music director has say copied a tune, but without such rules how will plagiarism ever stop?

Related Reading: The different audiences of Bollywood and Hollywood
The top 6 movies of 2007
Hollywood and Bollywood do have a meeting point!
Will Hollywood films make more money that Bollywood films in India?
Bollywood paycheques continue to grow

Crime in big cities - what’s the situation?

All of us want to feel safe when we walk on the streets and go to bed at night. We want to be safe from physical harm and we want our property to be safe too. But open the newspaper and there it is - news about violent crime and burglaries and assaults. It makes us insecure as we feel that crime is on the increase…specially in big cities. But is this the reality?

Crime decreasing all over the developed world
Well, in the developed countries there is a clear trend that overall violent crime is on the decline. For example, in America violent crime is decreasing. And it’s decreasing in Canada and in the European Union as well. And not just in western Europe but also the Balkans (south-eastern Europe). It’s a similar story in Japan.

Violent Crime increasing in India
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics say that murder, rioting, kidnapping and robbery have all increased from 1953 to 2006. It is violent crime which is of utmost concern to citizens and the murder rate is considered a good barometer of the overall crime situation in any country (other crimes often go unreported or or the police fudge figures and not just in India) as violent crimes, particularly homicide, is usually accurately reported. The murder rate in India is going up and up.

Big cities have less crime!
Talking about developed countries, the decline in crime is mostly being seen in urban centres. The quality and quantity of policing is said to be a cause. For example in Canada, large urban centers like Toronto are “among the safest communities in the country.”

In America, in large cities like New York (population 8.2m) murder rates have dropped as much as 20 percent (2007 figures) and in Los Angeles (population 3.6m) they’ve dropped by 19 percent! In fact even in slightly smaller cities (populations more than 1m) murder rates dropped, though not so dramatically – by 9.8 percent. As high profile cities are better policed, this is thought to play a part.

But, crime is also falling even in very small places (in the U.S) like in place with a population of less than 10,000! Murder rates here have dropped significantly and this could perhaps be because in a small places people are happier (small communities). However there seems to be no explanation for this.

It’s the medium sized cities which are showing a rise in crime. These cities are often growing cities with a huge influx of newcomers…but this could hold true for a few cities, not all. Each city has a different character and history and it’s impossible to generalise. In fact even experts haven’t found satisfactory answers to the increase and decrease in crime trends. There is often a large variation in pattern across regions. In the United States for example, north eastern America is showing the greatest decline in crime and with some big cities in other parts (Atlanta, New Orleans) actually showing an increase. Such wide variations are natural in a large country like the United States. Crime in New Orleans increased after hurricane Katrina.

What about crime patterns in India?
Again, large variations across regions. But I was curious to know whether in India too there is some sort of decline in violent crime in big cities. Unfortunately I could not get any report which could give me trends of a few years and I suspect (India does not have a national database of crime and criminals) that no such figures have been collated. What I do know however is that the police and the national media put the spotlight on urban crimes. This could have perhaps led to a decrease in crime in big cities over the past few years…because if even an assault in a posh building is reported widely, it is likely that criminals will target more vulnerable areas.

A small percentage of the population is a victim of most violent crime?
There is infact research in the United Kingdom which shows that “just 1 percent of the population suffers 59 percent of all violent crime; that just 2 percent of the population suffers 41 percent of all property crime. This happens because when crimes are committed in poorer areas, the police will investigate with less vigour and also because the victims, not being powerful or influential (and often uneducated) may not even file a report! I am sure a similar thing happens in India. This is about actual crime, not just reported crime.

Causes of decrease in violent crime in developed countries
No one has really been able to pinpoint the exact reasons for the steady decline in the violent crime in developed countries over the past few years. Sure, better policing is one reason, but other reasons like political stability, a weakening of the links between business, politics and organized crime and an ageing population are all considered important.

On the other hand a political-criminal nexus, political instability, large numbers of young males in the population (young males are most likely to be involved in crime) all contribute to an increased crime rate. In fact one of the reasons for China’s increasing crime rate is said to be the high proportion of males in the population. Well, India is in the same boat as we have a skewed sex ratio.

In any case, the subject of why crime increases or decreases is very complex and varies greatly within one country. It depends on the region’s socio-economic, historical and cultural influences. What we do know however is that urbanisation does not play as great a part as we think. Political disturbances (we have that in India in plenty) and a criminal-political nexus are far important influencing factors.

Not that we in big cities actually believe we are safer. In India, as well as abroad people aren’t feeling any safer. This could perhaps be because the media sensationalizes urban crime. In the United Kingdom, where violent crime has decreased significantly, a British Crime Survey showed that the “sustained falls in crime have still to be reflected in the public’s perceptions of crime.”

Related Reading: Violent Crime in the world
Conviction rates of the world
Social Trust varies from country to country and is connected to crime and corruption
Shortage of police in India
Mob violence in India on the increase
Too many policemen on VIP duty in India
Rich countries are the least corrupt!

Participating in a reality show? Think again!

16-year-old Shinjini Sengupta suffered a paralytic attack and her parents are blaming the harsh treatment she got at a dance competition (reality show), but the TV show organisers blame pressure from parents. The doctors say reasons could be psychiatric, neurological, biological or viral..and tests are going on.

But whether or not the drubbing Shinjini received at the show played a role in her illness, it is a fact that such shows can have an adverse impact on vulnerable people. Some can take the public humiliation and some can’t.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of reality shows:
1) Song and dance shows/competitions like American Idol, Indian Idol or Biggest Loser Jeetega (weight loss show). Here the contestants are exposed to harsh and even cruel taunting words from judges. If they are voted out by the public it can be a double blow.

2) TV shows where a dozen or so people are put together in an unnatural environment (Survivor, Big Brother, Big Boss) without anything to read or any entertainment, thus forcing the contestants to interact with each other. Mostly it is the viewers who vote each contestant out. The artificial environment and tough competition gives rise to a lot of tension inside the house. Rude, petty behavior, back-biting and emotional outbursts are not just allowed but encouraged by the producers of the show as it makes the show more interesting to viewers.

But there are reality shows and reality shows and some that fall inbetween – like Splitsvilla on MTV, where a gang of girls compete to get the attention of two guys who have the power to vote them out. The girls go to extreme lengths to attract the attention of the boys, literally “begging for attention.”

Why these shows are popular
In India, Reality TV has caught on, and with rising TRP’s for such shows we seem to be seeing new formats every season. Various reasons have been put forward as to why people find these shows entertaining and voyeurism is often touted as a major reason, although there have been contrary opinions (Dan Brown)

Well, I do think it’s more than just voyeurism. People enjoy watching ruthless competition from the safety of their homes. It’s an outlet for their aggression and our animal instinct! There are many more reasons like the drama and emotion which is what bored viewers want.

What about the mental well-being of the contestants?
The viewers may rejoice but the contestants face insults and humiliation. In real life we face our humiliations silently, in the privacy of our minds and in our homes.

I have always wondered what public humiliation did to the minds of the contestants. A little reading unearthed the fact that there have been many cases of suicides of contestants during or after participation in such shows.

• Way back in 1997, 34 year old Sinisa Savija threw himself in front of a running train. He had just finished participating in a reality TV show Expedition: Robinson which was filmed on a Malaysian island. He happened to be the first contestant to be voted off the island, and his widow has said this public humiliation was too much for him to take.
• In 2005, a 23 year old participant (Najai Turpin) from The Contender an NBC reality TV show (boxing competition) committed suicide after filming was over and before the show was aired.
• That same year Melanie Bell (a television producer) who was participating in an “experimental reality show” called Vegas Elvis (which has members of a film crew as contestants) killed herself.
• Another case was that of 17 year old Carina Stephenson who killed herself after participating in a reality series called The Colony. The series involved spending four hard months in the Australian bush, alongwith other contestants.
• And there is the sad story of Deleese Williams who participated in a reality show Extreme Makeover which picked up “ugly” people and promised to transform them. In the show everyone was encouraged to point of the physical flaws of the participants, and family members too had to say what they felt. After the show (the transformation never took place) Deleese came back, severed her relationship with her family and a few months later committed suicide.
• Last year 35-year-old Cheryl Kosewicz died in an “apparent suicide” after being eliminated from the CBS reality show Pirate Master.
• There was also the attempted suicide of 22 year old Sisi last year, an X Factor finalist, after she was voted out of the show.
• And a recent case is that of 26 year old contestant (Nathan Clutter) killing himself after being eliminated on a Fox Reality show called Paradise Hotel 2.

I haven’t come across any study which compares suicides of reality show participants and suicides in general society. But the fact that depression and suicide happen after suffering defeat in such shows raises suspicions that some factor in the show could be the aggravating factor. Something that tilts the balance. Sure, people commit suicide after failing in real life too and factors that drive people to commit suicide are ultimately pressure from family and/or society, but when a television show meant to entertain people is implicated, it’s alarming.

Why are vulnerable people selected?
One wonders if there is any sort of proper selection process for contestants. For example Melanie Bell had a history of depression but she was still allowed to participate in the show. Nathan Clutter was also supposed to be suffering from depression and was in fact thought to be bi-polar. In some cases life circumstances at the time of participating may make the contestant vulnerable. For example, 17 year old Carina Stephenson was going through a very vulnerable phase in her life, having just revealed to her family that she was a lesbian.

Being a reality show contestant can be tough even for really tough people!
What viewers and wannabe contestants don’t always realise is how difficult it can be to be a participant in a reality show. It’s certainly no fun and games. They might think they can handle the negative publicity and public humiliation that might come with it, but they are not always the best judge of that. Participation in a reality show is a stressful life-event, and only someone who has gone through such a situation in real life (where they have been publicly humiliated) will understand what it involves. In a reality show it can be worse as people who don’t know you can recognize you! You could be taunted in school and college and called a loser. Not everyone can take it with a pinch of salt and a large dose of humour. It takes a lot of mental strength and courage to get through a reality show where one suffers loss and humiliation. Keeping one’s equilibrium is not easy even for normal people. It’s one thing to put up a show of being alright, another to really be so. Remember Jane Goody, the woman who humiliated Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother? The tables turned on her and this person, whom we all think of a real toughie broke down at the negative publicity she recieved and actually considered suicide! If strong people like that can get affected, what can happen to normal people? After all, one doesn’t know what awaits one at a reality show.

Are there any rules at all for selection of candidates?
Reality show organisers in developed countries do have certain rules they follow. For example, all Big Brother all contestants have to go through “a psychological assessment by an independent chartered psychologist with post graduate degrees in clinical psychology and psychotherapy.” Also, their medical history, recent prescriptions and illnesses are taken into account.

I really doubt whether such a procedure is followed by all shows, whether in India or abroad. In India, where this concept is still new I don’t think people even realise that one has to be careful about whom they select. It’s not just mentally ill people who are not recommended for TV reality shows. But also those who intensely need social acceptance and those who suffer from anxiety or even slight depression. The truth is that one never knows what can happen in a reality show and what the contestant might have to face for no fault of his/her own.

It is unfortunate, but reality show producers are actually quite happy if emotionally vulnerable people participate as it can mean more entertainment for the viewers. Drama, tears, emotion - that’s the stuff that viewers are looking for. So the producers may deliberately pick such candidates while going through the motions of being careful and just hope that nothing extreme happens. At times picking a candidate who is ruthless and mean can have an adverse effect on other contestants and this is also a strategy employed.

It’s the contestants who need to be prepared. All that craving for fame and name might just backfire. In western countries one gets the feeling that young people make these choices themselves, while in India parents tend to pressurize….either way I think only those with high emotional intelligence should be allowed to participate in these shows. Time to re-think that participation.

(Photo is copyrighted to me)

Related Reading: The greatest peril of modern society - Celebrity Culture
Suicide rates of the world and why people kill themselves
Rejecting others and isolating them seems to be a human trait (about the suicide of a young student)
Humans like forming ghettos
The Shilpa Shetty episode at Big Brother

Three Tags in One!

Vishesh tagged me twice. The first tag is simple - Write 6 words. Yeah, that’s all. And there they are:

LOVE, PASSION, LIFE, SUCCESS, NATURE, HAPPY.

The other tag, an earlier one, requires me to tell you ten things people here do not know about me but I really don’t know whether people know these things about me or not!

1) I am an optimist
2) I am talkative
3) I am a health freak
5) I don’t wear make-up
6) I don’t like jewellery
7) I had pimples when I was a teenager
9) My favorite colour is brick red
10) I hate watching movies on DVD and I don’t like watching television!

Arvind has asked me, or rather tagged me to write about 5 types of people whom I love to hate or who irritate me the most. Well, I don’t hate anyone, though I do hate these qualities! At times some people have a quality I hate but other such great qualities that I tend to even like them despite it Here are the qualities:-

• Vindictiveness - This is a quality I really hate the most. Hitting or lashing out at others due to a real or imagined grievance (often way out of proportion to the hurt they have suffered) is a quality that to me shows the worst of human character.
• Meanness and pettiness - Jealousy is often the cause for such behavior. People who have this quality can get pleasure out of doing really cheap things.
• Hypocrisy - The quality that some people have of saying one thing and doing another.
• Gossiping - I don’t like it when things are said about others (mean things) without a shred of evidence.
• Rudeness - I don’t like rudeness because I find it difficult to be rude myself. It’s not that I can’t be rude, but I don’t like myself when I am. Therefore I avoid rude people because often I am forced to be rude to them just to keep them at bay !

For this last tag (to write about 5 types of people whom you love to hate or who irritate you the most) these are the people I tag: Raj, Poonam, Ruhi, Sakhi, Reema, Amit, Xylene, Prerna, and Usha. If anyone else wants to do this tag, welcome!

Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic - Movie Review

The most important thing to know about Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic (A little Love, a Little Magic) is that it is a children’s film. It’s got four child characters, and like many children’s films, there is magic and fantasy. There is even a lecture about patriotism, civic sense and world peace!

It’s Amisha Patel’s character which doesn’t fit. Her role is more suited to an adult movie. That dance number of hers is likely to put many a cabaret girl to shame. I wonder what the director (Kunal Kohli) was thinking of…the dance has no class, and is crass and vulgar. Why should any director make a kiddie film with this kind of scene?

In an interview to Rediff, Kohli actually compares TPTM to Mr. India! But not only was Mr. India is a far superior film, it was a superhero film which could be enjoyed equally by adults and children. TPRM isn’t like that. Adults will not find it as entertaining as the kids. But where the kids are concerned, I think Amisha Patel’s vulgar dance number could make them uncomfortable. Kohli also denies that the movie is based on Mary Poppins and to be fair to Kohli, the story-line is different. But the theme, of a magical nanny who charms children, is like Mary Poppins. So while TPTM may not be a copy, nothing in it seems original. In fact it reminded me of so many movies (both English and Hindi) that it was too tiresome to list them all here.

The story (no spoilers)
This two and a half hour movie is about a rich guy, Ranveer Talwar (Saif Ali Khan) and a lonely one at that. And well fate throws him into the company of four children – all orphans. A feather–headed girl-friend Malaika (Amisha Patel) hangs around him – mainly to titillate audiences. She is supposed to be funny too…because she acts like a dimwit. I wasn’t comfortable with this stereotype and didn’t find it funny. I did wonder however why a rich and bright industrialist should have a stupid (steady!) girl-friend who flaunts her body at every opportunity. if she was part of a playboy’s entourage it would have been believable but Ranveer isn’t portrayed like that. He is serious, smart, a loner and something of a nerd. It would have been far more believable for him to have a girlfriend who was smart, cunning and a gold-digger. Oh but I forgot. Such a girl wouldn’t dance to the director’s sexy number. And titillating audiences is a must isn’t it! What a sad compromise to play to the gallery.

The other character is the demurely clad Geeta (Rani Mukherjee) who cycles into their life much like an angel from heaven. She is a do-gooder brought to bring light and cheer into the sad life of the characters. Completely covered up in long sleeves and long gown not even her ankle showing, she has a loving heart, a bright mind and loves children. The proverbial Hindi film heroine.

The children’s characterisation was unconvincing. They are shown swinging from extreme nastiness to loving, forgiving and cute…but as I said it’s a children’s fantasy movie so it’s alright.

There is actually a butler in this film (!) presumably for comedy. But he is straight out of an English movie! He was quoting Shakespeare and generally looked as if he had come on the set of TPTM by mistake.

Overall the mood of the film is light and cheerful and remains so till the end. The end is predictably a happy one.

The actors
Saif looked good and so did Rani and Amisha. The film didn’t really call for much acting. Saif is supposed to play a brooding loner and he sports a grim look almost throughout. Rani is supposed to be a happy bubbling sort and well she is that almost throughout the film. Amisha is the sexy dimwit who pouts once in a while…all she has to do is shake her assets and that she does that well enough.

If I have to advise someone whether to see the film or not, I would say see it with your kids if you don’t mind that one song in the pool with Amisha and Saif. In fact the movie hall was packed with families. Usually one sees young adults too…but there weren’t any here.

(Photo is from rediff.com)

Related Reading: Aamir Movie Review
De Taali Movie Review
Sarkar Raj Movie Review
Other Movie Reviews (English and Hindi movies)

Summary post of the past week

These are the five posts I wrote the previous week:

A packaging trick by Johnson and Johnson! Recently I purchased a prickly heat powder by Johnson & Johnson and like most people did not read the quantity mentioned on the pack - 300 gms (10.25 oz). I was attracted to the large bottle and assumed it would be at least three quarters full…but it was half empty. Here is the photograph…

Women have feelings just like men do!! How a woman or girl should behave with her in-laws or after marriage is a subject discussed in bedrooms and drawing rooms and “experts” dole out sexist advise in national media. A professional counselor and psychologist, Uttam Dave, tells girls that “In the Indian context, the onus for overall adjustment in life always lies largely with the woman” and well it’s implied that women have to grin and bear it as Indian men will not adjust…

Academic Intelligence is related to Emotional Intelligence Everyone wants to know what it takes to reach the top of their profession. Academic honors? Drive? An x factor? The general consensus now is that while academic success gives you a leg up in life, it does not make the man or woman…however researchers have been able to find a connection between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Intelligence…

Those who dump construction debris should be jailed Some years ago we lived in a building surrounded by bungalows with large gardens. One day the bungalow next door started some refurbishing work. Loads of construction debris emerged out of the house and was dumped outside on the streets, not in the large empty space inside the compound of that house. Worse, the debris wasn’t dumped on the road in front of their bungalow, but right in front of our building! It was an eyesore, not to mention the inconvinience it caused. So did we complain to the rich neighbours? Well, I went…

The outsourcing of cheating In India we complain about our students cheating, but cheating is a world-wide phenomena. The only difference is that there school and college managements are more alert, and if caught students can face stringent punishment…Cheaters who get away will do it again, and the next time they do it could be in real life. With the advent of the internet, cheating has got easier and more difficult to catch. This is what the following post is about (contributed by Sarah Scafford) - the outsourcing of school assignments to India. The involvement of students from Britain has come to light…

A packaging trick by Johnson and Johnson!

Recently I purchased a prickly heat powder by Johnson & Johnson and like most people did not read the quantity mentioned on the pack - 300 gms (10.25 oz). I was attracted to the large bottle and assumed it would be at least three quarters full. I was aware that manfacturers pack mostly air in some product packs (potato chips have more air than chips) but I was a little surprised to see that a bottle of powder was also packed in a similar manner. Here is the photograph. The level of the powder is a little more than half. I paid Rs 89/- MRP ($2.25) for the bottle.

This is a sealed pack as you can see:

I have bought other brands of talcom and prickly heat powder in in the past but have never come across this kind of trick. After all, the packaging material is also expensive. Why is the company wasting so much plastic just to fool consumers? I wanted to see if J&J did this in their home market in the United States and from their site I downloaded these pack pictures:

It is difficult to make out the level of the powder but for a 225 gms pack (or 8 oz. ) one has to pay a price of about $2.89, which comes to approximately $1.28 per 100 gms.

The price of Shower to Shower sold in India works out to be about 75 cents or less than a dollar for 100 gms, much cheaper than the American one.

Let’s see if one can make out anything from the ingredients, which may not be the right comparison as the kinds of powder are different. Well, I assume that the powder sold as “prickly heat powder” in India is at least a little similar to their “sport” sub-brand.

These are the ingredients of the “Sport” sub-brand of Shower to Shower and taken from their site:

Zea Mays (corn) starch, Talc, Sodium Bicarbonate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Fragrance, Maltodextrin

The Active ingredients in the Indian version are:-

Salycyclic Acid IP
Boric Acid IP
Zinc Oxide IP

Different huh. Well, I have no idea what the difference means, whether it translates into cheaper ingredients. I think this must be the case otherwise the company wouldn’t sell the powder at less than a dollar for 100 gms. No company is here to do charity.

However what I would like to know is whether J&J leaves its plastic packs almost half-empty in the United States, like they do in India.

Related Reading: Poisons in our food packaging
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Vegetable and Dal noodles are not healthy
What’s in your biscuit?

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