Demi-Gods - Being God is addictive

Years back when I had asked my Dad - How much money do these politicians want, to stop corruption and start working for the country? - he said that there is no end. It is an addiction and they stop believing that they are corrupt. They take it as their way of life.

From the day I read in the papers about Tendulkar's knee-jerk reaction against Greg Chappel, I was puzzled and curious about what is happening to the great Sachin Tendulkar. He was so mature as a 17 year old and now he is a 34 year old kid!. My Dad's wisdom ultimately came to my rescue, gave me some relief and some food for thought.

Sachin Tendulkar is addicted to being considered a Demi-God. It is partly our fault that we Indians love Idol worship in every form. We made him the Demi-God and now he is suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Otherwise he would have realised it by himself that he is not contributing to the game; that he is not contributing to the country's aspiration from cricket; that he might be considered a burden in the coming future. He would have understood the meaning of a graceful exit.

Otherwise he would not have the short-sightedness of ignoring what some of the best cricketing minds are expressing about him. He would not have acted a complete deaf to his long time friend and one time guide - Sanjay Manjrekar? Sanjay Manjrekar has very clearly expressed that Tendulkar is no longer the same Tendulkar. He has known the real Tendulkar from close quarters and being a sensitive cricketer he is observing a change, which he expressed.

Greg Chappel is known to be frank and straight-forward in his approach and thinking. It does not seem to me that he is an enemy of Sachin Tendulkar. He had also expressed his opinion about Sachin Tendulkar, that he should not open, that he does not have the right attitude. Even Ian Chappel has been very vocal about Sachin being a poor shadow of himself for the past two years.

Sachin Tendulkar instead of listening to these views, blew the top. He got emotional and reacted as if someone has desecrated the God.

It is really a sad predicament that Sachin Tendulkar is refusing to believe that he is losing his flare for the game. Like the politician who refuses to believe that he is corrupt; Sachin refuses to realise that he is not the best cricketer anymore.

Adding fuel to fire are those friends of his, who blindly keeps him blinded from reality. In fact, they are his real enemy. Vinod Kambli, in one of his statement says, "Tendulkar should play the next world cup also" I am sure he is acting a good friend.

Its high time that Sachin understands reality and either try to improve his cricket like our 'DADA' Saurav Ganguly or call it quits.

Sachin has been compared to Michael Schumacher. He needs to act like Michael Schumacher. He could resist the temptation of fame, money and endorsements. It was indeed a God-like deed to retire at the prime of his career.

Coming to Cricket, Lara also has managed an (almost) graceful exit.

We should all collectively think and advise Sachin that he can stay God-like if he wants to. But not by holding on to his cricket. But by behaving maturely, by keeping his feet on the ground and by moving with times. Everybody understands that age catches up with everyone and we all surrender to time.

Honeymoon travels - How to not make a movie?

By the time, I write this. You must have seen this movie.

Every ardent movie follower has some good-will and respect for Farhan Akhtar and his association with this movie must have taken you to the movie. I also went with that excuse.

Damn, Why did I ?

Reema Kagti does not know how to make a good movie. She however knows how to make a movie under the shadow of a great banner like Farhan Akhtar.

Some things that irritated me ...

• How does one take care of 6-7 couples in one movie of little over 2 hours? Perhaps a Maniratnam can
• How does one have comic and real characters in the same film? Reema has tried to have one couple with serious shades of real life character and the other couple who are super-humans like Superman. Ya, superman and super-woman who can fly!!!!
• A collage only looks good in a painting and is irritating when the medium is audio-visual

Some one told me, she is from Assam.. I am embarassed.

Salaam-E-Ishq in Traffic Signal

Watched Traffic Signal. A great movie. I recommend this movie to everyone who appreciates the art of making movies in difficult situation, who appreciates the difficulties that the director and his cast goes through in order to portray reality, who appreciates films with raw emotion and fallacies of modern day living...

It is a very similar narration like Madhur's first movie PAGE 3. PAGE 3 was a narration about the creamy layer of the society and Traffic Signal was a narration about the bottom layer of the society. It is collection of real life nuances that is brought out beautifully on the screen.

One of the nuances was about Rani falling in love with Silsila. It reminded me of what Nikhil Advani lacked in Salaam-E-Ishq. He should see this movie and understand how to salaam ishq, how to portray love and its tight emotions, its expectations, its manifestations.

The small things like Rani (played by Neetu Chandra) gifting kediyu (Gujarati shirt) to her boy silsila (played by Kunal Khemu) and Silsila wearing it the next day without really thinking if the kediyu would look good on him was an instance of Salaam-E-Ishq.

Overall an excellent movie for someone who does not go to movie halls only to see glamour.

Oh, one more thing.... dialogues are awesome... very nicely written and thought.

A Guru's work of Art - Not Guru like.

YUVA was so much better. Dont ask me about box office. But all my friends with an aptitude for good movies loved the movie. Yuva was a big big hit at the box office of my friends. Guru failed.

Mr. Maniratnam is one of my favourite directors and I cant and wouldnt hear a bad word about him. So, I cant criticise Guru but I can say that I didnt like the movie.

I didnt like the movie as it didnt leave a taste or a feeling in my mind and heart. It was cold. Scenes after scenes, some very captivating (thanks to Abhisekh's acting talent), were rolled out, but with no effect. I can only think of some good scenes and shots when I think back about the movie; and not the movie in totality. I couldnt relate to the movie and grow with the movie as a thinker about movies.

I would like to just express two things that I have learnt from his movie.

• One should never make a movie based on a well known personality narrating about his/her deeds that are known to the common man. If you make, those deeds should be awe-inspiring and secondly name the movie as such.



• One should never try to cover the whole life of the well known personality. Capture a phase of his life and go in depth. Go into the finer details. Or make a serial of 100 episodes.

Let bygone be bygone...... cant wait for the next Maniratnam project.