The Dirty Picture (2011)

At the end of it, I felt that The Dirty Picture belongs in the trash.

And if you haven’t seen the film and are looking forward to see it because it is based on the life and times of Silk Smitha, don’t. It is not. The movie begins with a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction.

Rumour and chatter has it that it is indeed (loosely?) based on the life and times of Silk Smitha. In an interview on TV, the writer says, that Ekta Kapoor wanted to make a movie about the underbelly of the film industry in the 80s.

To my mind it is a cheap, crowd-pulling, movie jammed with “sexy” scenes. A few scenes to that effect, would have given the audience an idea of the lead character’s profession, but no – the “sexy” scenes had to continue right to a few moments before the end of the film. The camerawork reinforces this with repeated close-up cleavage shots. Perhaps, close-ups of the actress’ face, would have helped us see some emotion? It is also not a movie about the underbelly of the film industry in the 80s. If it was supposed to be the ‘exposure’ of the underbelly, then for sure, the movie has lost its focus. If it was indeed about the underbelly, the lead character, definitely was the primary stomach content. Ekta Kapoor had an in-house subject matter expert, who worked in enough films in the south. Apparently, they did not consult him. It is not about the lead character, because we never get an insight into that character. Most dialogues are frivolous and misplaced. If you had to glean personality from the dialogues, all you could be sure was that she is a wordsmith. The dialogues are clever, in some instances, but that is all they are. What little insight you are provided is via Emraan Hashmi’s bad diction voiceover.

The performances are slightly above average, at best. Vidya Balan plays her strength: good diction, clarity, and delivery – the dialogues were in her favour. The rest of the film, however, doesn’t provide her a good support. She still does well. Naseer-saab probably underplayed – but it worked against him. The sharp Hindi dialogues did not work with the distinct south-Indian context of the movie – at all. For anyone. It feels dubbed, at most places. Anju Mahendru, for some reason reminded me of the Neeta’s Natter “logo” from Stardust. Small role, but good job. I’ll save your time and not talk about the performances by the others.

The music is a big disappointment – music in the movies of the 80s, whatever their character and content, was memorable. Think Himmatwala (1983)

The art direction was a bit mixed up, I feel. The costumes seemed to be in a moral dilemma to belong to the current decade, while being representative of the eighties. If I am not mistaken, there’s a fleeting shot of a packet of KS condoms – which were definitely not around in the 80s. But then, in all fairness, if they had shown Nirodh, the younger generation would not have understood the context of that scene. And, I believe, it was free then.

The worst part of it all is how Balaji Films has, unofficially, used Silk Smitha’s name to promote the film.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism; Muhammad Yunus, Karl Weber

Without doubt, this is an inspiring book.

I did not have a specific expectation of the book, when I started it – having known about the Grameen initiative and its activities. I started reading this book as a part of a course that I am doing (required reading). In reading the book, however, many ideas, thoughts and guiding philosophies came to the fore. It is quite revealing about how the idea of micro-credit has worked, their systems, processes, and importantly – the role of the “human” factor in a business (whether social or profit-oriented).

It is a simple read, employs simple language. It is also a smooth read – something that you do not encounter quite often, these days. There may be a good reason for this. Dr. Yunus knows exactly what he believes; perhaps that’s the reason for his articulation. He works with such a broad spectrum of people; perhaps that’s the reason for the simplicity of presentation. It is, really a story book: a story of the Grameen initiative, the genesis, the growth and the future. There are a few compelling and innovative ideas and thoughts for businesses of all sorts – the focus, undoubtedly on social businesses. Not all of them are laid out on a platter for you in a bulleted list or in a grid like a standard management help book. But without explicit mention or presentation, they come to the fore.

As I neared the end of the book, however, I felt a sense of obstinate and inflexible stand on the constitution of a social business, and the ideas for the future of social business and the new world order became slightly vague, and romantic even. For someone who invented the concept of a social business, I found this stand — of strictly separating financial and social profit — suffocating. No doubt, he provides good reason for this strict separation; to my mind, however, it is the basis of confining a mind to think further. When the description of an innovative idea (the Grameen initiative) disallows further innovation (that has a chance of making it popular and bringing more people to the idea), it seems counter-productive.

It is still a good book and it still worth reading

The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing; Philippe L. Gross, S. I. Shapiro

I chose this book because of a post I read, while surfing for something about psychology and photography. (Don’t ask me why, I now, don’t remember). But I am glad, I did. It is good book, and probably deserves more than the three stars I have given it.

The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing is a book that may get easily misinterpreted as a book about photography technique. It does talk of camera work, method, and techniques. But it is not a book that teaches you photography. At all; if you ask me. The book provides a context to being a photographer in a Taoistic framework, if you will. The book is replete with references and quotes from famous photographers who have found the zen-like state as they took their photographs.

It is essentially a philosophy book, in the context of photography. And an important one, I would think, as more and more of photographic work becomes slave to micro and meta definition. While understanding the science and the technology of photograph is important (and the book makes a small case for it), photographers have an urgent need to get out of the rut of classification and belonging – as more and more photographs start looking the same, there are few that pierce your heart and ooze out emotion, the way they should. Of course, with so many photographs being clicked in the world – finding such photos has become very difficult indeed. But if you do understand this philosophy and are able to import it in your ‘act of photography’, you may find your self discovering things about your art – especially, if you feel stagnated in your work.

The book itself has a very interesting and varying showcase of work from some of the greats, which makes it an interesting read as visual context to the words is woven well. Some of the sections are repetitive – and I have now resigned to this form of writing by most contemporary writers of the non-fiction genre. It seems that constant reminders of the theme of the book is the new template and technique of the modern non-fiction.

If you would like to understand the mind and state of a good photographer, this is a very good book. If you expect tips and techniques to take good photographs, this is not a very good book. If you are willing to keep an open mind and be with the book and yourself, you might discover some interesting secrets about the art you love so much.

Educational philosophies of Swami Vivekananda and John Dewey; D. Vijaya Bharathy

While the subject matter of the book is quite interesting, the presentation and the format of the philosophies, leave much to be desired. For one, the book has apparently not been copy-edited. Spelling mistakes and bad sentence construction abound. Most sections are toxic repetitions, for no apparent purpose.

Since this is a comparative study, you would expect some level of academic and analytical exposition of various attributes of the the philosophies of these two great thinkers of education. The last section, where the comparison is done, is done at a very objective, almost binary level. To someone, who may have an objective-type question paper to answer, this may serve as a good textbook, but for someone trying to understand, internalise and look for a critique of these two thinkers, there’s nothing in the book.

It is doubly unfortunate that while there is a significant body of content that can come from Indian academia –  it is lacking, and; that whatever literature we may find in these subjects is way below quality in content as well as presentation. I do not recommend this book to any serious reader — you are better off reading their biographies and philosophies separately and comparing them yourselves.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable; Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A fine book. It took three failed starts before I finally got in the groove and completed the book. This, for me was a classical case of “you don’t go the books, the books come to you” and similar esotericism.

One problem, about this book, and I wonder how NN Taleb agreed, was its classification as a book on economics. The range of the domains that this book wanders through are many: sociology, history, philosophy, epistemology, science, mathematics, psychology and of course, economics.

The initial pages are a bit daunting for the casual reader, and unless you tune in to the ideas and become more accepting of the author’s arrogance and his personal brand of humour, you may find it difficult to move ahead. And speaking of arrogance, while this book is all about the uncertainty around us, I cannot but think of a quote from Richard Bach’s The Bridge Across Forever: “…but arrogance came from certainty.“

But as you go through the book, it becomes obvious that this book does not have a “universal appeal”, like some of the other books in the here’s-something-you-never-thought-of genre. It’s not ‘pop’, so to speak. If you read the full book, you may even understand why. I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone. It requires a certain temperament to get past the first thirty pages and then maintain that sensitivity throughout the time that you read it. In short, you should be willing to allow most of the things that you know, to be broken down (even, if later, you don’t agree with the author).

It might even be the case, that all that you quietly held as true, finds expressive form, after you read the book.

You never know.

1857: The Real Story Of The Great Uprising; (Translated) Mrinal Pande

Almost two years ago, when I reviewed The Ranee of Jhansi, D. V. Tahmankar, I had expressed a strong desire to lay my hands on Vishnu Bhatt Godse’s Majha Pravas (My Travels), published in 1907, by Chitrashala Press, Pune. While I was quite determined to get my hand on the book – I’ll admit, I wondered if I’d be able to ever get to read that book – it was in Marathi.

I was happily surprised when I saw 1857: The Real Story Of The Great Uprising at Crosswords in Pune – the English translation of Vishnu Bhatt Godse’s Majha Pravas (My Travels). Since I do not take the effort of reading Marathi books, I had to make do with the translation. Some of you may know my thoughts on translations. Having read this book now, I feel the need to go back the beautiful book by DV Tamhankar.

1857: The Real Story Of The Great Uprising is a well-translated book. Given that I haven’t read the original Marathi book, this statement is open to conjecture. Yet, I have heard about this book and its content from family and friends who have read the original – that’s the first premise. The fact that the original was actually written in the Modi Script and translated into Marathi, with some liberties and that Mrinal Pande alludes to using the original, is the second premise. Finally, my own understanding from reading of the book and the uneven granularity of the book, makes me believe that the English translation has not taken (m)any liberties.

Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar (the original author of the book) doesn’t come across as a very good writer (at least not in the English version, the original may some fantastic idioms and nuances that cannot be captured in English), however he has done a great service to history by this book. The book follows his travels for the most part – and therefore the accounts in the book may be treated as authentic. At times however, he seems to rely on hearsay, and it may be worth noting that these are the parts which actually provide the necessary links to the story of the mutiny – and causes the bumpy texture of the presentation.

Having said all the above, it is a great read – especially if you are interested in history beyond a story (though this one is written more like a story; a travelogue). The text creates stunning visual imagery, which, in my opinion is very necessary when writing historical accounts. Facts and dates may be gleaned from Wikipedia, but a visual presentation is key for non-fictional historical presentations.

That – this book achieves with great aplomb.

Visual Cuture; Richard Howells

I don’t remember the last time, a “text book” was this interesting. I just finished reading Visual Culture and it more than made for interesting reading. It is a thickish book – and I’ll admit – it seemed daunting when I picked it up.

There is however an ease to the presentation that Howells achieves which slips you in comfortably into the intricacies and complexities of Visual Culture. You are better off reading this book with an Internet connection handy, since not all references are available in the text – for reasons explained in the book: to keep the cost of the textbook down for the benefit of the students.

The book is divided in two parts – the first deals with the theory of visual culture – almost like defining the elements of grammar that we would learn for language and the second part takes up various media that allows us to practice this grammar on them.

In the theory section, Howells covers iconology, form, art history, ideology, semiotics and hermeneutics as the tools of the trade. As soon as we use the word theory – it bring up all possible guards for most of us. However as Howells says:

Do not be afraid of the word ‘theory’. Yes, it can sound dauntingly abstract at times, and in the hands of some writers can appear to have precious little to do with the actual, visual world around us. Good theory however, is an awesome thing. [...] But unless we actually use it, it borders on the metaphysical and might as well not be used at all.

Howells lives up to this premise all through the book. The tools in the first part are well-employed in the second part – media – where he covers fine art, photography, film, television and new media. There is ample historical reference to all media – and the understanding of the media from the point of visual culture is well-contextualised.

One of the most important aspects of the book, however, is that Howells goes through the motions of introducing us to the theories and their sub-theories; he convinces us about the potency of the theory, and as we are about to be convinced of it, he flips it – and asks us to look at the opposite side of it – with equal conviction. He forces us to consider a theory in its own right – and demands that we draw our own conclusion and the application of a theory to a media form.

If you are new to visual culture and are intrigued by it, this is definitely a good start. Remember to have an Internet-enabled device handy. The references are many and useful.

Right to Education: The Way Forward; Vinay Rai and Narendra Kumar

One of the many reasons you pick a book is because of the author’s credentials. Right to Education: The Way Forward by Vinay Rai and Narendra Kumar (ISBN: 978-81-910833-1-6) was one such book.

Given my interest in education and generally the paradox that the Right to Education Act is all about, this seemed to be a good book to pick up. Being shrink-wrapped, when I saw it in the book store, I was left to judge the book only by its cover – and the author bios on the back cover.

I am terribly disappointed by this book.

For one, it seems that this was supposed to be primarily to be just a paper and few thoughts that have been converted to a book. There is significant repetition of nay, not just paragraphs, but pages altogether. Many sentences find their way back into the text matter shamelessly, with unfailing regularity. The editor has done a shoddy job, (“short of human capital by 17 millions”), and Indian words like “melas” are not marked out in any way. Paragraph subtitles are like:

The Road To Implementation Of
Act Is- Potholed

As far as the core content of the book, it does not provide any fresh perspective on the Act – the challenges and the solutions mentioned in the book have been argued ad nauseam. The research material from which certain assumptions are derived are very limited, and are repeatedly referred in the book. There is a vast amount of literature out there from organisations like NEUPA and UNESCO and the MHRD site, which does not find any mention in the book.

At the end of the book, I felt that this book was not written by the authors; they have just lent their name to it. Further, for such a low-quality publication to come out of and be endorsed by ASSOCHAM’s President, Dr. Swati Piramal, was equally disappointing.

Finally, since this book did not show up in the GoodReads library, I had to add it to the library. As I filled in the details, I was very surprised to note that the blurb on jacket flaps was taken from an article by India Today.

A serious case of plagiarism, if you ask me. And a serious case of dismay.

PS: for an opposing view, please read this review

Inception (2010)

I think there is only one reason why Inception failed to impress me. It had nothing to do with the film – it had all to do with the brouhaha that surrounded the film when it was released. There may be potential spoilers ahead, but who cares – everyone has seen the movie – everyone has seemingly forgotten it.

In short, I was slightly unimpressed, to put it lightly.

If this film was released earlier, I would have squarely blamed it on Leonardo DiCaprio. But after watching Blood Diamond and The Departed, I’d refrain from blaming him solely for the failure of a film.

Inception, in spite of why you all liked it – created multiple levels of complexity without taking the time (footage) to create an experience. Think, The Matrix. We are talking dreams, aren’t we? We are talking of concepts here – which brings me back to a movie called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or Flubber. Inception is The Matrix meets The Butterfly Effect meets hyper-layered story-telling

Concepts in these films were simple, they were easily cleared in about three minutes, and the rest of the experience of the movie was based on the automatic acceptance of the audience of that experience. The Matrix (not the trilogy), is an exception, of sorts. It took longer than three minutes to state the premise, before it started building on it. Inception missed that. Each stage of acceptance required some sort of a gating experience, before we could relate to the incident. Such conceptual films require a compelling statement of suspension of belief. That, is where, I think, the movie failed.

Pete Postlethwaite, who I admire to no end and Michael Caine have been terribly wasted in this film – I’ll not be a judge of why they took up these roles. If you need an actor who is wrapped up in tubes and lays on a bed all through the film, with just one dialogue, if at all, you are better off, saving money for the producers by taking someone less expensive.

I must say, I am surprised at a certain few folks I know, who have been raving about the film. It is perhaps that they have to pay respects to Mr. Nolan, for what he has achieved before Inception. They have been enamoured more by the artist than the art itself. It is a pleasure to watch the film for what it is. Be sure to have all your senses and few more, wide awake when you watch this film. It is good craftsmanship. But to say it is anywhere close to a paradigm shift (or any other elite adjectival phrases that you’d like to attribute to the film), is pushing it. Ellen page is extremely unconvincing as a 13-year old (maybe, a bit older) who understands the intricacies of extraction and inception. Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy give some credence to the performances. DiCaprio is hesitant and out of character. Nowhere close to what he is capable of.

Dabangg (2010)

This review is a bit difficult to write. The paradigm to watch this movie has already been set. And nearly everyone I know has endorsed this paradigm. Watch it in a single screen theatre, whistle, dance, and enjoy the mindless entertainment. I do insist on folks not telling me the story or the context of a movie before I see it. There is a good reason; it affects the objectivity with which you watch a movie.

Nevertheless, that’s what the movie is all about. There’s the review.

People have said things like this movie is now setting the standard; I am not sure how. Violating laws of physics and the limit of enduring pain have been a common feature in Bollywood films, though less common than it has been used in the South. This device has been prominent for a while now. From Amitabh Bachchan to Mithun Chakraborty to Govinda to Salman Khan. Dabangg (2010) has not necessarily used this device for the first time. The larger-than-life image of the protagonist has been the most successful for Indian movies, so I fail to see anything spectacularly different that Dabangg has done, in the use of this device. What it has done, if at all, is that it has revived this device after a considerable gap. To my mind, however, there is perhaps another reason why this has appealed to the otherwise intellectual movie-goers – the ones who like movies in the genre of The Transporter (any of the three) or Shoot ‘Em Up (2007).

It’s the quality of production and the manner of presentation.

These Hollywood films are equally mindless and use the same device. With some application of the Coleridgian concept of “willful suspension of disbelief,” the use of this device is quite entertaining. Earlier Indian movies, with their lack of quality of production, made the intellectual movie-goer drop this suspension and deride the fantasy. With Dabangg, you are able to sustain the suspension of your disbelief.

And this quality is apparent throughout the craft – cinematography, the editing, the music. The flagship song is reason enough to pull you to the theatre. Performance doesn’t count heavy in such a film – so I’ll not make a note of that.

This movie is all about presentation. See it, for that.